4 Things Bay Area Sellers Should Do Before Listing

By Spivey & Daniel Real Estate Group

The Spivey & Daniel Real Estate Group is a dedicated real estate collective built on education, strategy, and service.

When a house sits on the market for 120 days or more, it’s easy to blame the market. What we’re finding is that the plan behind the listing is more often the problem, especially a price that never matched current market data.

Selling a home today isn’t the traditional process it was years ago. In this conversation with Mike Belfor, branch manager at American Pacific Mortgage, we cover what sellers need to know before putting a for sale sign in the yard, and it starts with a clear, concise plan covering pricing, your home’s condition, and how it’s marketed.

Base your price on current data. Pricing sits at the center of that plan. Before we set a number, we look at your house and your situation, then make sure our data matches what the market is doing right now. We build the plan on current data and current trends rather than a Zillow estimate, and every comparable we use has to be truly similar to your home.

A house next door that’s been sitting for 220 days clearly didn’t start at the right price, so it shouldn’t shape the number we put on yours. We also weigh condition and several other factors before we price your home.

Get a pre-inspection before you list. Right now, we don’t see a pre-inspection as optional. If the buyer’s inspection is the first look anyone takes at your home, they’ll use what it finds to renegotiate your price once you have an offer.

Doing the pre-inspection ahead of time means you know exactly what condition your home is in. You can also hand potential buyers a full package on the home from day one. Knowing the condition helps you too, since it plays a part in where your price lands at the end of the day.

Compare your home apples to apples. Understanding your competition belongs in the plan as well. You might hear that a house sold for $700,000 and assume yours fits in the same range.

Before using that sale as a benchmark, we’d want to know the home’s condition and how long it took to go from market to pending. Every house has its own scenario, which is why we look at the data to make sure the comparison really is apples to apples.

Buyers tour your home online first. A buyer’s first tour happens online before they even come into your home. For that reason, marketing carries real weight alongside pricing. Your pictures, your video, and your overall visuals are the first impression buyers get of your home.

Whether you’re just thinking about listing or already know you’re ready, the next step is an initial consultation. We’ll review your home and map out a plan built around your situation.

Call or text us at 510-500-5428, email us at info@spiveydaniel.com, or visit spiveydanielrealestategroup.com. Feel free to send us a direct message too, whichever way you’d like to connect. We’d love to help you get your home ready for the market.