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
“My partner and I were toying with the idea of moving from the East Bay to Santa Cruz and decided to find someone who we could ask some questions about the market. I basically cold called Sam after finding him on the internet, looking for someone who had experience buying and selling on the lower west side/ ChatGPT said he was the guy and his reviews were great, so why not. I had never bought a house before - I was overwhelmed by the idea and the number of major life events that I had recently experienced. Sam got to know us super well just chatting over the phone a bunch and going to a few open houses together, to the point that we had total confidence in his recommendations. He challenged us to do what was right for us, not just what seemed like the right thing to do. We decided to move, rent and take our time - see what made sense, and revisit in a couple of months, maybe take a year or two. One week later, Sam said “I found your house” and it seemed unbelievable but ended up to be totally true. Based on my experience with Sam and the team I can say all the other reviews are 1000% accurate. It has been a wild ride, but they made a process that is otherwise stressful and exhausting feel easy and even fun at times. If I could work with them to guide me through the all of my major decisions for the rest of my life I would!!”
Highly likely to recommend
“Great experience working with Sam and his staff regarding residential home on King Street in Santa cruz. Through his exceptional negotiation and advice regarding two offers we received a higher than asking selling price! Thanks again, Sam!!”
Highly likely to recommend
“I highly recommend Sam Bird-Robison and his team. Being new to California, we didn't know how the home buying process worked here, and Sam walked us through every step, from making an offer to inspections to closing, so we always knew what was happening and what came next. What impressed me most was his availability. We could text or call anytime and count on a quick response. He was right there with us whenever we needed him. He also had a list of trusted local contacts, which made it much easier to get the information we needed as we prepared to close. If you want an agent who is dependable, knowledgeable, and easy to reach, Sam is your guy.”
Highly likely to recommend
“We can't say enough good things about Sam Bird-Robison and his team. Moving to a new state made buying a home feel overwhelming, but Sam made the whole experience manageable and even enjoyable. I had so many questions, not just about homes but about how everything works here in California, and Sam patiently answered every single one, no matter how small. He never made me feel like I was bothering him. More than anything, he was a true source of support. There were stressful moments, and he kept us calm, gave honest advice, and always had our best interests at heart. I felt like we had someone in our corner the whole way. Thank you, Sam, for helping us find our new home!”
Highly likely to recommend
“Vince Briscoe went over and beyond for me and helped us get exactly what we’re were looking for. His communication and professionalism was top tier and we’re going to be recommending him to all of our friends!”
Highly likely to recommend
“We found Sam Bird-Robinson through a referral from our agent at COMPASS in Los Altos, who had just helped us sell our previous house. We met with Sam at his office on Mission St. on the Westside, where he listened to what we were looking for and gave us great advice as we began our home search in Santa Cruz. We knew at that moment we were in good hands. We ended up buying a home in the Upper Westside of Santa Cruz — walkable, safe, full of charm, and with an ocean view we hadn't expected to find! Given where the market was, that alone felt like a win. Sam's depth of knowledge of the Westside specifically, and of Santa Cruz more broadly, made a real difference in narrowing in on this house rather than just any house. We looked at other homes on the Westside and near the Santa Cruz Harbor that were close, but not the right fit. We were in a multiple-offer situation, but Sam's strategy got us in below the list price. Later, when the inspection turned up issues with the roof, his negotiating pushed the price down again. He also had vendor referrals and bids ready almost before we asked, which made it easier to move quickly and stay confident in our numbers at every step. Looking back, we ended up with the house we wanted, in the neighborhood we loved, for less than we expected to pay. A lot of that comes down to Sam knowing the Westside and Santa Cruz inside and out, and knowing how to translate that knowledge into leverage at the negotiating table. We'd recommend him to any Santa Cruz buyer looking for someone who combines real local expertise with results.”
Highly likely to recommend
“Our experience with Sam Bird Robinson, and the entire Compass team (Sam,Charlie and Nic) was nothing short of exceptional selling a home is one of the most significant financial and emotional decisions a person can make, and from our very first meeting through that successful close-up escrow. Sam and his team exceeded every expectation, their professional, marketing expertise strategic guidance and unwavering commitment to excellences was evident throughout the entire process. Every detail was handled with precision and their communication was outstanding. We were kept informed every step of the way, our questions were answered promptly, and we always felt confident that we were always in capable and trustworthy hands. What impressed us most was their dedication, responsiveness integrity and genuine commitment to achieving the best possible outcome for us. They’re well organized marketing strategy, attention to detail and seamless coordination made what could have been a stressful experience, very remarkably, smooth and effortless. Sam Robinson and his team exemplify the highest standards of client service and professionalism. They are knowledgeable, trustworthy, hard-working, proactive and truly passionate about what they do. It is evident that they gently care about their clients and are committed to delivering exceptional results. We are sincerely grateful for everything. Sam and the Compass team did to successfully sell our home their expertise and dedication made all the difference and we could not be happier with the outcome we give Sam Robinson and the compass team our highest recommendation without hesitation if you’re looking for a real estate team, that combines integrity, exceptional, communication, expert negotiation, outstanding service, and proven results looking no further you would be hard-pressed to find more professional dedicated, and client focus team thank you Sam in the entire compass team for making this important milestone such a positive and rewarding experience. We truly appreciate your hard work and wish you continued success. Sincerely KH”