Crafting tailored strategies for sellers, understanding your potential buyers and highlighting the unique features of your home.
Designed to deliver an astounding 1.2 billion media impressions, our media plan includes a variety of global partners that reinforce the Better Homes and Garden brand’s industry-leading position. Through exclusive branding and strategic content integration, our partnerships with The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and others showcase our listings to a broad audience of qualified consumers. Regionally, we will deliver more than ever through targeted print and online advertising including banner ads, our social media presence, search engine marketing, and prominent real estate portals like Trulia, REALTOR®, and Zillow. Our public relations initiative will generate still more exposure for the properties we represent. Through unique partnerships with iconic media brands, a commitment to attaining maximum exposure, and unsurpassed global reach, our brand is well-positioned to achieve great heights. preparing your home for sale.
The first step in getting ready to sell any home is to consider who your most likely client will be. A family? A retired couple looking to downsize? A corporate executive looking to relocate quickly? By determining your most likely buyers you can start to evaluate your home and think about which features will be especially attractive to them. Once you have a good idea of the positives (office space? pool? large bonus room?) and negatives (no parking? lack of privacy?) you can begin to prepare your home by emphasizing the good while providing solutions for less-than-ideal aspects of your property.
One of the most important steps to preparing your home is assessing normal wear and tear. Unless your buyer is a contractor looking to flip the home there are a few key areas you should look into renovating. Kitchens? Still, using the original kitchen fixtures? One of the easiest ways to boost the value of your house is replacing them with modern-looking appliances. Paint? Old chipped paint can make your house look run down and it’s an easy fix to apply a new coat. Make sure to pick a neutral color - the idea is to appeal to the largest group of buyers possible. Floors? If your carpeting is outdated/worn think about installing new carpeting. Scratched wood floors? Consider buffing them down with a drum sander and giving them a new finish.
There are countless options for improving your home but focusing on the core essentials will give you the best return for your investment. Sure, most people like a newly remodeled office or brand new windows but it’s unlikely you’ll make your money back when it’s time to sell. The next step in selling your home is removing clutter. The key idea of staging your home is that you want your potential buyers to envision themselves living there. While you might love your huge L-shaped couch and entertainment center, it’s more important to have minimal furniture that makes each room look large and inviting.
Once you’ve removed clutter you are ready to stage your house. Whether you decide on having a professional staging company bring in their own furniture or a do-it-yourself approach there are a few things to consider. Make sure your house is spotless. Wash your windows. Wipe down all fixtures and appliances. Hideaway any clutter. If it’s been years since you’ve done a true deep cleaning you might want to consider bringing in a professional maid service to look over every inch of your house.
Freshen up your house. Even if you don’t smoke cigarettes, houses tend to take on certain smells related to the previous owners. Open up all of your windows, turn on your fans, and use mild air fresheners in each room to make sure your property has a neutral smell. Lighting matters! One of the easiest things you can do to make your house look larger and more inviting is to make sure it’s well-lit.
Think about buying high-wattage bulbs for all of your lighting fixtures to improve your lighting. Most importantly, don’t get overwhelmed! If you decide to choose me as your real estate agent, I can help guide you and suggest local contractors that fit within your budget. Selling your house is a major decision and having a trusted guide will help eliminate stress and make the process go smoothly from start to finish.
The location of your property is the key element to a buyer, and something that we cannot change. I often begin my marketing strategy before I have even visited your property by carefully analyzing the location in relation to amenities: parks, schools, commuting lines, and shopping sites. When I meet with you, we carefully analyze what type of buyer would be attracted to your location and build in ways to attract that potential buyer’s attention, this decision must be made carefully
My knowledge of the peninsula and my work with buyers is helpful in determining what attributes a buyer would be looking for in location.
The properties recently sold become a benchmark for a buyer in determining fair market value. The properties available at the same time your home is on the market become our competition. I prepare thorough and detailed reports for you as the seller to review. Oftentimes it is not merely the size and location of a home that will cause it to compete with your home. My analysis always includes all homes within close proximity to yours and within a price range similar to yours. In order to position your home at its best advantage, it is important to look at the market through the eyes of the buyer.
The best time to sell a property is when you need to sell it. I appreciate that we sometimes have no control over life circumstances that trigger the need to sell. Together I work with my clients to evaluate the current market and how to best position the property to sell for the highest possible price within the time period allowed.
A careful walk through the property to evaluate the condition, whether it be soiled carpet, scuffed paint, overgrown landscaping, or cluttered closets can prove invaluable to the final selling price and length of time on the market. I work with a full team of specialists who help me prepare a property for the market. I offer my project management skills to oversee all work and materials. Our aim is to complete everything on time and within budget, only attending to those items that will net the largest financial benefit to my seller.
Oftentimes there are small concessions that can be offered and promoted to a buyer. As a result of my experience with buyers and sellers, I have found that the offer of an extended close of escrow, perhaps, or the affirmative response to the request for the patio furniture can make the difference between a positive outcome and an offer falling out of contract. Additionally, the offer to purchase a couple of months of HOA dues, for example, can put a new buyer purchasing the first condo at ease. It is important to work with an agent who is willing to keep an open line of communication with the buyer’s agent and has the ability to take a creative approach to finding resolutions.
Similar to the detailed evaluation of the competition, a detailed market analysis is critical to success. The real estate market is in a constant state of flux. It is important to work with an agent who is on top of the market and understands trends, and the current mortgage environment which affects a buyer's buying power. Eighty percent of a successful marketing campaign to sell a property is the pricing.
Knowing how to position your property to reach potential buyers is critical. Given that important first decisions are made when your property is first introduced, it is imperative that it be professionally photographed, described with well-written copy, and exposed to as many online sites as possible. Further, your property must be made visible to all Real Estate Agent who may potentially have a client.
Within minutes of the release of your property to the market, it is featured on more than 35 national and international sites, and an HTML electronic flyer is delivered to the personal e-mail boxes of Bay Area Real Estate Agents in Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Alameda counties. Additionally, new listings are released to social networking sites and local print newspapers.
Luis is a fresh, dynamic, and forward-thinking agent who puts 100% into every endeavor. His prior sales experience, combined with his excitement for real estate, equal a recipe for success when it comes to buying or selling your home!