3 Pricing Strategies for Your Orange County Home

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

A price is an all-inclusive number. When you're looking at price, you want to work with a professional real estate agent who understands the local market. They need to know what the competition is, how many days it takes to sell properties in your area, what other homes are selling for among a number of other factors.

Furthermore, there are three pricing strategies you could use to sell your home. Let's say your home is in an area where the sales price runs from $950K to $1 million.

• Price your home high and leave room to negotiate. You could list your home at $1.2 million to test out the market. Keep in mind that the first three weeks the home is on the market are the most critical time to sell or get an offer. After those three weeks, activity drops significantly.
• Price your home within market value. In this case, you could price your home at $960K or $975K, anywhere in between the $950K or $1 million that people have paid in the past.
• Consider pricing your home below market value. Doing so creates a buyer frenzy, and buyers will fight each other to get their offer accepted. This helps bids drive up the sales price.

While these three strategies work for most people, talk with your real estate agent to determine the best strategy for you. If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Six Ways to Find the Right Agent in Orange County

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Finding a good real estate agent is extremely important if you want to have a smooth and successful transaction. Today we will discuss six ways to pinpoint a good real estate agent.

1. Find multiple agents for the job: Ask for referrals and find people on Zillow or other 3^rd party real estate websites. Find at least 2-4 agents that you might want to use and interview them.

 

2. Interview: You are going to be doing a lot of work with the real estate agent you choose, so you need to match their personality type and you have to be comfortable with them. It is okay to use family, as long as you interview them just like the other agents.  Don’t just hire an agent because they are family.

 

 

3. Review online testimonials: If you find an agent through Zillow, their online testimonials should be very prominent on the website. It's important to know what other people are saying about your prospective real estate agent.

4. Check out their social proof: You want to know an agent's track record prior to hiring them. Make sure that they are familiar with the area that you're buying or selling in.

 

5. Check for a detailed marketing plan: If your agent has no marketing plan other than putting a sign in the yard, then look elsewhere. Marketing is very important in today's market. The right marketing plan can ensure your home sells for top dollar and you don’t leave any money on the table.  The wrong agent can cost you up to 10%.

 

6. Work with someone that you can trust: At the end of the day, it's a business transaction and you need to be able to be frank with your agent. If you're not comfortable with this person, it's going to cause problems down the road.

If you have any questions about finding a good agent, please don't hesitate to contact me!

The Benefits of Zillow

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search
Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Today, I explain three reasons why Zillow is a great resource.

1. Zillow allows buyers to search all properties for sale. From the seller’s perspective, it gives you an idea of local listing prices. Zillow can offer homeowners an estimation of their home’s value.

However, this is not an end-all strategy! Zillow uses algorithms. It’s only the beginning before connecting with an agent.

2. Zillow compiles agent testimonials. The average consumer considers online reviews before pursuing a product or service. The same goes for a Realtor!

3. Zillow provides proof of production. The website shows an agent’s productivity in specific areas and neighborhood. You can see where agents conduct their business, especially within certain metropolitan areas.

Ultimately, Zillow offers transparency to the consumer.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please give me a call! I would love to hear from you!

Five Reasons to Sell Your Orange County Home This Holiday Season

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search
Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Many people are hesitant to list their homes during the holidays -- but why? Is there any evidence that this time of year is not a good time to sell? We don't think so; in fact, we have five reasons why selling during the holidays is a pretty good idea:

1. There is less competition. Less competitive home sellers typically take their homes off the market as soon as the holiday season arrives. Motivated sellers who stay on the market benefit from this, as they demand more attention from the pool of buyers because there is less competition.

2. Higher quality buyers. Just like sellers, less motivated buyers typically take a break from their home search during the holidays. The buyers who stay in the market are highly motivated, otherwise, they wouldn't be looking during the holiday season. In short, those looking to buy in the winter are serious about doing so!

3. Buyers have more time. During the holidays, buyers and their kids have time off work and school, giving buyers more time to look at available homes. This means there could be an uptick in activity, both online and in person, during the holiday season.

4. Timing. If the average homeowner believes it's not a good time to sell during the holidays, it is likely that we'll see a huge influx of inventory at the beginning of next year, as those sellers who waited will be listing their homes at that time. Selling now will spare you the hassle of competing with a huge pool of homeowners.

5. Taxes. Many buyers want to buy properties to take advantage of the tax benefits and closing by the end of the year will allow them to take advantage of the benefits for that year.

If you have any questions about selling this winter, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. I would love to hear from you!

You Get What You Pay for With Discount Brokers

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

It’s important to understand that not every agent is created equal. Each one is unique, so it’s important that when you are considering putting your home on the market, you interview two or three different agents to really get a feel for what they are going to do to get the word out about your home. You want to know how they are going to market your home to the most people possible so you can sell for top dollar.

This is important because as the market gets healthier and begins to thrive, we experience something called “commission compression.” This is when sellers expect Realtors to sell homes for less because the market is strong and healthy. However, here’s what happens when you pay your agent less commission.

They aren’t able to fully go through their marketing strategy because they have less money to budget for it. Orange County real estate is global, so when we talk about marketing we aren’t talking about putting a sign up in the yard and a listing on the MLS. You need someone who knows how to expose this home to the highest possible number of potential buyers. The best way to do that is with an agent who knows what they are doing when it comes to marketing. Great marketing is essential, but expensive, so agents need that commission in order to be able to do their job to the best of their ability.

The average agent who will cut their commission is looking for ways to save you money. The best agents, the ones who get the job done, are looking to make you money. To help you make money, they need you to invest a little bit of money into them, so they can put that to work for you and help get your home sold quickly and for top dollar.

If you have any questions for us, or any ideas for future videos, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to help out!