If you are considering selling your Benicia Home or Condo in today’s market, we recommend you follow our “Home Selling Steps” as detailed below.

There is a wealth of selling your home information and tips on the internet – preparing your home for sale, Open Houses, marketing, lists of things to do before selling your home, list of things to after you sell your home, curb appeal, repairs, resources, disclosures, and a host of other topics. Zillow, REALTOR.com and other searchable real estate websites all provide sections of advice on selling your home.

The Moore-Bechelli Team has done over $140 million in real estate transactions. We’ve outlined just a few of the more important items to consider when thinking about selling your home. If you are thinking of selling your home give us a call and we can answer any of your questions about the process. We look forward to earning your business.

Making the decision to sell your Benicia Home or Condo

The decision to sell your home or condo usually starts several months before it is listed. You should look at your home through the eyes of a potential buyer and decide what needs to be cleaned, painted, repaired or decluttered. The goal is make your home look great and maximizes the space. Spend time over the next few months de-cluttering your home. Remember photos of your home will be used to attract buyers and create demand for your home. There are many reasons for selling a home – relocation, down sizing or down sizing – and why you are selling your home may impact the process. What ever your reasons for selling know that the goal of our team is to help you sell your home for the highest amount, in the shortest time and with the least amount of difficulty.

When to sell your Benicia Home?

The Benicia marketplace tends to be more active in the Spring and Summer as parents want to get their children enrolled at the beginning of the school year. When there are many homes on the market it tends to be a buyers market. When few homes are on the market it tends to be a sellers market and multiple offers. Days on Market in Benicia from Jan 2016 to Mar 2017 is between 50 and 60 days according to TrendGraphix. This is the time from the home first listed on market to the date the property closes. The Moore-Bechelli team has great resources at our disposal to provide you with historical data based on your homes location, beds/baths, sqft and other attributes to help you understand the market as it pertains to your home’s sale.

We can also assist you with contingency plans – where you have to sell your home but also find a replacement home either in Benicia or out of the area. If replacing your home here in Benicia, we can list your home contingent on you finding a replacement home. If moving out of the area we can work with your agent finding you a home to purchase (or recommend an agent in our network) contingent on selling your home and try to time the close of your home here with the home you are purchasing elsewhere – to cause the least amount of disruption and moving hassles.

Listing Consultation

So you’ve decided to sell your home here in Benicia. What next? You will probably do some research on some REALTORS or get some recommendations from neighbors and friends. You may also look to the internet and search “Best REALTORS in Benicia” or some other keyword phrase. When you’ve located a few agents you will want to set up a listing presentation with those agents and interview them to see who best matches your needs to help you sell your home or condo for the highest price with the least amount of hassles. In the listing presentation with you, agents will probably prepare a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to show you what similar homes to yours have sold for in the past 6 months and present their marketing plan to get your home exposed to consumers. You will then make a decision on what agent or agent team and their brokerage will represent you in the sale of your home. We would suggest to search out reviews on the different agents, and check out their marketing links and photographs of homes that are currently on the market or homes they have represented and sold.

Like this:

Try a Google Search Moore-Bechelli Realtor Team or Jennifer Moore Benicia REALTOR or Valerie Bechelli

Click through all the results pages and see all the instances of the REALTOR’s marketing. Click images, video and such and see what the do to promote your Benicia home or condo for sale. All our marketing is done in house and can be seen here. We also offer a very comprehensive Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)

Preparing the home for sale

Now that you’ve decided to sell, you want your home to show well. Our team can work with you on preparing your home for photos and showings. We can recommend service providers – plumbers, electricians, painters, gardeners and such if any repairs or cosmetic preparation needs to be done. If your home is vacant we can recommend a stager or we can provide some color and minimal staging items for the kitchen and bathrooms. Once the home is ready to go we will set up a time to take photos and get the marketing started.

Launch Property Marketing

We launch all the marketing when the property goes live in the MLS. The large real estate searchable websites like Zillow, Trulia and REALTOR.com syndicate photos and other information right from our MLS. Usually these real estate website will pick up the listing feed within an hour or so and consumers searching on these website will see your home for sale. At the same time the MLS is syndicating out to the national real estate websites, we unleash our local marketing materials which include a YouTube Video, Virtual Tour – branded and unbranded for the MLS, a Craigslist Ad, Property website that is promoted and boosted on Facebook and Google PPC, social media advertising, and other consumer touch points.

Broker/Office Tour, Open Houses and Showings

On Friday after the MLS launch, at our office meeting we announce the listing. The entire office goes on what we call office tour, where our entire office caravans to the home for a look-see. We also publish the office tour to other brokers in the area so on Friday mornings many agents will see your home for sale. Our team will also conduct Open House times to the public. These are usually done on Saturdays and/or Sundays when consumers are out looking at Benicia homes or Condos to purchase. We will also coordinate with you a game plan so agents can show their clients with access to your home in non-open house times. Usually home owner/sellers want a couple hours notice before an agent shows up with a client. Agents use a special electronic key that opens a strong security lock-box that hangs on the front door knob or is attached to a pipe on the side of the home. This lock-box can only be opened by a real estate agent and the box logs the agents name and time of entry. We can also make special arrangements regarding showings as well.

Post Listing Feedback

We will update you our clients on a daily basis with regards to feedback and changing market conditions that might affect the sale of your home. Our goal is to expose the home to many potential buyers through very broad compliment of marketing.

Offers

Many times more than 1 offer is possible. This is called a Multiple Offer situation. With one or many offers, we will work with you going over all aspects of the offer – price, conditions, buyers loan type (or all cash), qualification and proof of funds to evaluate the strength of the offer (or offers) and consult with you and counter offers or back up offer considerations if a multiple offer situation.

Negotiations

There are many points that can be negotiated in a real estate transaction. Most contracts are set to close in 30 days from acceptance. There are many forms and disclosures that pass back and forth from Sellers to Buyers and Buyers to Sellers. There are also timelines for both buyers and sellers to be mindful of. The Moore-Bechelli Team has managed over 300 transactions and we have the experience to keep all parties within timelines and march to close of escrow. Seller Fees, Buyers Fees, Home Warranty, Closing Date, Rent Back, Recording Date, Inspections and Disclosure Reports, Appraisal, Preliminary Title Report, Natural Hazard Disclosures Report, are just some of the details that are worked out during the purchase process.

Home Close and Funding

This is the meeting at the title where the sale transaction is finalized. One of our Moore-Bechell Team will guide you through all the closing procedures where money is properly exchanged, all paperwork is accurate, the agreements are signed, and the title of property is transferred. This is the last step before you can call the property your home. Usually the home records either same day or next day and the new home owners take possession.

If we’ve helped you sell your home successfully and impressed with how we work, be sure to recommend your agent/team to friends and family and write a review on Zillow, Yelp, Facebook and/or Google+!