The Selling Process
Steps to Selling Your Home for the Highest Possible Price.
Initial Meeting
Step #1 Working Relationship
Let’s get together to discuss the selling process and see if we are a good fit to work together. When we meet, we will determine your key objectives, review the marketing plan, strategize how we will negotiate offers up to the highest possible price, and discuss the right pricing strategy for your home.
You may also want to meet with your tax professional and consider some of the following:
✓ What am I going to do with my money?
✓ Who is on title?
✓ Have I talked to my CPA about selling?
✓ What taxes will I owe?
✓ Capital gains?
✓ 1031 Exchange?
✓ What are my current loan commitments secured by this property?
✓ Have I paid my property taxes?
Step #2 Home Preparation
I love selling turnkey, fixer-uppers, and everything in between! But getting your home ready to sell can often be very overwhelming. I will help you prioritize what improvements, if any, will generate the highest return on your investment and my team will help coordinate and oversee the preparation process from start to finish. We will get bids, develop a timeline, track the budget, and follow up with vendors.
Order Inspections – The most common inspections performed are the home, pest, and sewer lateral inspections. If any issues are found during these inspections, you can choose to disclose and repair them or only disclose the issues. Any issues disclosed upfront cannot be negotiated later in escrow by the buying party, therefore, I find it very beneficial to perform inspections at this time. You can find a list of my trusted inspectors here.
Complete Planned Improvements – Before professional photos are taken and your home goes on the market, you’ll want to complete any planned improvements such as landscaping, cleaning, painting, or new flooring. View a list of my preferred vendors here.
Home Staging – After any improvements are completed, you may want to consider home staging or hiring a design consultant! Staging your home can be the very reason why buyers are able to visualize themselves at home in your property. Click here for a list of my staging partners. If you’re still living at the property during the sale, check out these helpful tips on how to prepare your home.
Disclosures
Step #3 Disclosures
Providing complete disclosures and reports of your home is an important strategy when selling your home and prevent the need to negotiate any unforeseen issues during escrow. Seller disclosures can be completed in person or via Glide and should include information regarding property history, improvements, and the current condition. Also included in my listing package is Disclosures.io, which is a cloud-based tool that stores all the disclosures and reports and is also accessible to home buyers and buyer’s agents. Disclosures.io easily compiles disclosure packages with drag and drop organization and allows controlled distribution with customized invitations and alerts. Knowing who is serious about buying your home with real-time data gives us a competitive advantage when negotiating multiple offers.
Step #4 Marketing Components
Once inspections and pre-listing work are complete it’s time to start the marketing portion of selling your home! As your agent, I offer an inclusive and extensive marketing package that includes:
✓ Professional Photos
✓ Virtual Tour
✓ Aerial Photography and Videography
✓ Floor Plan Rendering
✓ Descriptive Marketing Copy that Highlights your Home as Well as its Location
✓ Single Property Website with Custom URL
✓ Paid Facebook and Instagram Just Listed Ad
✓ Email Marketing to over 10,000+ agents in the Bay Area
✓ Social Media Marketing
Weekly Marketing Review
To ensure that our marketing is effective and the buyer feedback is positive, it is important that we monitor the analytics for your property. Each week, until the property is in contract, I will follow up with agents who have shown the property for buyer feedback and compile listing analytics from the property website, Disclosures.io, broadcasted listing websites, and private showings.
Step #5 Offers & Negotiations
After showings, I will follow up with the buying agents to gauge their client’s interest in making an offer and to gather their feedback on the property. Whether we receive one or multiple offers there is always room for negotiation to ensure you are getting the highest possible price. Some examples of terms that can be negotiated in a counteroffer include escrow length, price, who pays for the home warranty, seller in possession, and rent backs just to name a few.
If we are countering more than one offer, we will counter it with a Seller Multiple Counter Offer. This form notifies the buying party that you are countering multiple offers, though the terms in the counteroffer can be different for each party.
Once one party accepts the offer or counteroffer you are officially in escrow and the countdown to close begins.
Step #6 Escrow
Once you have accepted an offer, we will enter into the escrow period. During the escrow period, my team will:
✓ Create an escrow calendar for important dates
✓ Ensure the buyer and buyer’s agent have received all the disclosures and reports.
✓ Review and negotiate any backup offers.
✓ Review documents and confirm that they are properly signed and acknowledged.
✓ Follow up on the progress of the buyer’s loan application, appraisal, and time frame.
✓ Ensure contingency removal dates are met, review, and negotiate any request for repairs (if applicable).
✓ Schedule a final walk-through for the buyer.
Sign Off and Closing
Step #7 Closing
You’ve made it through the preparation, listing, and escrow stages and now it’s time to close! In the last week before closing escrow, you will:
✓ Review the closing statement from the title company
✓ Schedule and confirm the sign-off date
✓ Sign-off at the title company
Once the loan is funded, the buyer’s name is recorded at the County and escrow will close. I will exchange keys with the buyer’s agent and you will receive a copy of all the disclosures and reports electronically. That’s it, you did it!
If you are selling an investment property, I can help you facilitate a Tax-Deferred 1031 Exchange. I invite you to get in touch with my preferred Wealth Manager and CPA with any other questions about selling.
Reviews
Highly likely to recommend
“I first contacted Sam after seeing a house on the Westside that had really caught my eye. After our initial phone call I realized how knowledgeable he was and how quickly he was able to answer all my questions. After our first viewing of the house I knew I wanted to put in an offer. Sam gave me amazing advice and I felt confident in the offer we put together. We were fortunate to close with all items on our offer accepted and we did not have to go back and forth at all. He continues to check on us after we moved in to make sure we are happy with our home. We are so happy with our decision to use Sam and could not recommend him more to any future buyers or sellers. Thanks again for everything!”
Highly likely to recommend
“Sam helped us buy a duplex in the Seabright neighborhood that we wouldn't have known about unless he had brought it to us. We were in a multiple offer situation against two other buyers and almost lost the deal, but he negotiated to make sure we got it! We never thought it would be possible to get a property like this, but he made it happen for us. I was also very impressed with how quickly his support team worked and communicated! If it wasn't for him, we would still be paying rent!”
Highly likely to recommend
“I highly recommend Sam Bird- Robinson for anyone buying or selling a home. The Sam App is a great tool that keeps everyone updated throughout the process. The whole team was a pleasure to work with, and they made things easy, especially since I wasn't familiar with the details of the property. A few years ago, Sam also referred me to a great contractor who rebuilt my rental property's deck. I'm a very happy customer, and Sam and his team went above and beyond my expectations!”
Highly likely to recommend
“Charles and Sam were absolutely incredible to work with! They made the entire home buying process organized and far less stressful than my first experience. Their attention to detail, responsiveness, deep knowledge of the area and genuine care for us as clients truly set them apart. They went above and beyond to ensure everything was handled seamlessly. I can’t recommend them enough—if you're looking for supportive realtors, look no further than this dynamic duo!”
Highly likely to recommend
“Our experience working with Sam B-R and team to purchase our condo in downtown Santa Cruz was phenomenal from start to finish. We felt informed and cared for throughout the entire transaction, and communication was always prompt, informative, and action-oriented. Sam helped us think through our priorities, anticipated our needs, and gave us useful frameworks to evaluate and feel confident in our decisions at each juncture. The team at COMPASS kept things moving along at a rapid pace without making us feel rushed or pressured, and got us to a successful closing within roughly a month of the initial offer. We absolutely recommend Sam B-R for any and all real estate endeavors and would definitely work with him again in the future.”
Highly likely to recommend
“Addendum to review below: I wrote below review when I initially purchased the same condo with Sam's help. Two years later, I needed to sell it quickly and to a buyer who could meet my price point. Of course, I reached out to Sam again and of course Sam delivered again. Not only did he find a buyer who could meet my price point but he also did it quite quickly in a market where it is very hard to find such buyers and he made the whole process quite painless and smooth. I could not be at the location all the time and he worked with my proxy to do the showing and get the inspections and do the closing without much delay. He was available as and when needed along with his assistants. Needless to say, if there was an Oscar like award for top notch agents, Sam could have gotten it many times over. He is like the Clint Eastwood of real estate agents. He can make any one's day. It's been fantastic knowing Sam. Sam is the ultimate real estate agent in my opinion. He has the connections and finesse to get the deals done. I just purchased a condo in Santa Cruz, CA with his help and it was no easy feat as I had been looking for a year and I had to beat out all cash offers to get this condo. He had the insight to offer the right price and enough of clout with Seller's agent to convince the seller to go with our offer instead of all cash offers. I of course had to have proper loan also set up and ready to close fast and he even helped me coordinate that with my lender. His team also ensured I got all the documentation on time. Thanks to Sam and his team, everything went very smoothly without any glitches and now I am a happy owner of a condo in great location near UCSC campus. Thanks Sam for working with me throughout the year. You the Man when it comes to real estate purchases or sales. Next time I am in market to buy or sell a real estate property, I hope to leverage your services again to close the deal.”
Highly likely to recommend
“Sam and his team are great, with excellent communication and follow through. I never felt pressured and always felt listened to through the entire home purchase, making it as stress-free as possible. They even helped with setting up utilities and the movers! Sam goes the extra mile with a laid back, easy to work with attitude. I highly recommend Sam and his team at Compass, especially in this housing market; they are honest and work tirelessly to get the best deal possible.”