Home selling tips for Orange County California!
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ORANGE COUNTY HOME SELLING TIPS

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There are really no home selling secrets... but you must use logic to sell your home qucikly! Read our home selling tips and use them to check your agent and sell your home fast!

1 ) Offer your broker the "exclusive-authorization and right-to-sell listing agreement. This will give your broker the incentive necessary to sell your home. Ask your broker about the different types of listings and what they mean to you. 

2 ) Give your broker a listing long enough to actually sell the home. Three months in the current market is typically not long enough for exposure to actually sell a home. Six month increments should suffice. 

3 ) Make sure that you have your home on the MLS and make sure that this is part of the listing agreement. It is 100 times better to have 100 agents selling your home than just your listing broker. This is important and do not sign a listing if your broker will not place it on the MLS. Have your broker show you where on the listing form that assures you that the home will be placed on the MLS. 

4 ) Have your broker place a sign on your property the day it is listed. As big as sign that is reasonable and permitted. This assures you that your home will be noticed by lookers that come through your neighborhood. 

5 ) Have your broker prepare a CMA (comparative market analysis) for your home to determine the sales price. Better yet... have an actual appraisal performed on the home by an independent appraiser. Tell the appraiser that you are selling the residence and you would like to know what the expected market value is. You need to remember that the CMA is only as good as the agent that prepares it for you. You also need to remember that brokers are not appraisers unless they hold an appraisal license, period. Make sure your appraiser has 5 or more years of appraisal experience in your area. A home appraisal costs about $300 +/- today depending on the type of home. You can get away with a "restricted appraisal report" (for the clients use only) for less money, and the restricted report will cost you less money. There will not be as much information regarding the home in the restricted report but all you need to be concerned with is the bottom line... the estimate of market value. An appraiser has to do the same amount of background work for the restricted report and the estimate of value should be the same as a "summary report" or a "self contained complete report". 

6 ) List your home at a realistic price... say 5% above what you would actually accept after considering the estimate of what it is worth (market value). 

7 ) If you expect to get top price for your home, it must be in top condition. If there is deferred maintenance or any type of repair or replacement needed, be prepared to receive less for the home. 

8 ) Clarify how much your broker is going to advertise your home and what methods of advertisement they intend you use. If you can, get it in writing as to what exactly the broker is going to do to sell your home. How many times a month are they going to place it in the newspaper?; is it going to be on the internet?; they are going to place it on the MLS!; do they publish any home selling magazines themselves?; what other home selling magazines do they use?; when will your home be in all these types of media? Check the newspaper, check the magazines, check it all to make sure your home is being marketed like you expect it to be. 

9 ) Have your broker print you a copy of your MLS listing. They should enter your home in the MLS the day or day after they receive the listing. Make sure you get a copy of the print out and that everything is filled out correctly. Many agents and broker appear to be very lazy when it comes to the MLS. Many will put your property on there but when another broker goes to search for a particular type of home... yours won't show up in the search. Why? Because the listing broker has put something in incorrectly or left much of the information out. Make sure you review your MLS listing! There is a place in the listing for just about everything. Make sure you review the listing and if you have a pool ask where the pool data field is, if it is heated make sure that this is in there, if the home has been remodeled make sure it's in there, if you have association dues make sure the monthly figure is correct and what they include. Again, review your MLS listing... and don't take a month to do it. Do it immediately... a day or two after you list the home. If your agent has not put it in the MLS in two days... something is wrong and you may want to take a proactive approach with the agent. 

10 ) For homes in California expect to pay a 6% commission for the sale. Make sure that 3% of this commission will go to the selling broker and that 3% will go to the listing broker. If your listing broker is offering less than 3% to the selling broker... don't expect many to look at your home. Agents for the most part will not show homes if the listing broker is trying to keep a majority of the pie. 

11 ) Make your home easy to show. Do not insist that your agent be present when the home is shown. Do not let your agent tell you that they need to be present when the home is shown. Make sure that your agent does not advertise in the MLS that he/she need to be present when the home is shown. 

When someone wants to inspect a home, they want to see it then. There is no need for two agents to be present when the home is shown i.e. your agent and the buyers agent. It makes showing a home much more difficult when the buyer's agent, the buyer, and the seller's agent all have to co-ordinate time schedules just to show your home. Also, buyers like to talk freely with their agent when they are looking at a home and if your agent is there they may hesitate talking about the home if the seller's agent is present. It is far simpler for the buyer's agent to be able to show a home when the interested party indicates that they wish to see it if the process doesn't include trying to find the seller's agent and then trying to convince them to meet you at the home at that instant. Most will tell you they are busy, have an appointment, etc., just running out the door, why didn't you call earlier, etc. No doubt, real estate agents are very busy... the easier you make your home available to all agents, the faster it will sell! 

If you have valuables, take your valuables out of the residence! Small items such as jewelry and other expensive items that could be easily taken should be placed in a safety deposit box or locked up in a safe. No agent, including your agent, can protect you from theft... you need to protect yourself. Theft is very rare... but no agent can protect you from two people inspecting a home, one going one way and the other going another way. And, if an agent follows customers through the house it makes them feel very uncomfortable.... so most agents don't do this anyway. 

In essence, make your home easy to show. Don't require that your agent be there as it only creates additional problems to show the home and make the sale.

12 ) For easy access, make sure that there is a lock box on the home! Most lock boxes today are electronic. They monitor who uses it to gain entry to the home. Because of this it makes the situation secure. Most buyers today don't have a lot of time. If they indicate to their broker that they want to see a house and 1. the sellers agent does not have to be present, and 2. the house has a lock box, it makes the whole home showing process very easy for the potential buyers to view the residence. 

13 ) If you are home during the showing, don't follow the buyers around the home! Most buyers like to look through a home as if no one was there. They like to look at the closets, in the garage, etc. Buying a home is a personal thing, and most buyers want to make sure the home fits their needs. If you follow them around the home they are going to be uncomfortable and you could scare them off. 

14 ) Give your broker the time they need to sell your home. If you have done everything from steps one through ten... that is the best you can do except to lower the sales price below market or to offer selling brokers incentives such as $1,000 bonus for actual selling broker. This may help steer more prospects your way. If you do offer a bonus to the selling broker.. make sure your listing broker places this information in the MLS so that all who look at your property information can see the incentive. Check the MLS to see that the information was posted.

15 ) When you obtain an offer on your home carefully consider the offer and the terms. Did it take a long time to obtain the single offer or are many offers coming in? Don't let your agent talk you out of an offer because it is a few thousand dollars lower than what you are asking - what you are asking might be too high. Consider the time it took to obtain the offer and if you have to reject the offer ALWAYS SUBMIT A COUNTER OFFER --- DON'T DROP THE BALL!

16 ) All Cities Realty services every city in Orange County California! We would be happy to come inspect your home, provide you with recent sales comparables, and discuss the potiential sale of your property! CLICK HERE to request home selling and marketing assistance.

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