What steps does Lottie Kendall take to sell your Silicon Valley home?

When you list your Silicon Valley home for sale, Lottie Kendall, Realtor® with Today Sotheby's International Realty in San Carlos California, takes many steps to make your experience rewarding and as stress free as possible. Every transaction is different, and not every step is taken in the same exact sequence, but here's what you can expect from Lottie:

Bringing the home to the market:

1. Agree on preliminary listing price, terms and financing. Sign listing agreement, excluding home from the multiple listing service until home is ready to be marketed in its best possible condition.
2. Determine which fixtures (chandeliers, large mirrors, large planter boxes, etc.,) if any, will not stay with the house.
3. Open escrow; order preliminary title report, environmental, geologic and tax reports. Review and discuss reports with sellers.
4. Give seller an approximate net proceeds sheet
   
5. Hire and meet vendor to draw up floor plan of house - FREE to you
   
6. Assist seller in completing various disclosure and other forms. 
7. Agent to schedule pest inspection, home inspection, and any additional inspections as might be advisable, including initial meeting with staging firm, if any. Attend inspections, or have team member attend.
   
8. Schedule any necessary and agreed upon repairs and updating. Begin blog posts focusing on various aspects of the property.
9. Announce the upcoming listing to office and other real estate agent contacts. Begin a “coming soon” phone and e-mail campaign to colleagues and other contacts - FREE to you.
10. Hire professional photographer to take exterior and interior shots of the property- FREE to you.
    
11. Begin ad copy, photo flyers, etc., and review such with seller-FREE to you.
12. Arrange advertising. Send mailings to neighborhood, clients, colleagues and other business contacts. FREE to you.
    
13. Set up web site unique to this property, with its own web address. FREE to you.
14. Prepare electronic marketing pieces. FREE to you.
15. Submit listing to Multiple Listing Service. Install sign and keysafe. Schedule and host brokers’ tour and open houses. FREE to you.
16. Upload all listing reports and disclosures to site available to interested parties. FREE to you.
    
17. Listing, photos, and virtual tour appear on numerous real estate web sites and blog sites. FREE to you.
18. Follow up on open house interest and leads; call all agents who have shown the property; plan second weekend of open houses.
19. Communicate with you in predetermined manner, giving you status reports of all activity
20. Review pricing and create new marketing plan based on a 21-day cycle plan.

Negotiating the sale:

1. Keep all agents with interested buyers informed of activity level as appropriate. Request they download all transaction documents for review and acknowledgment by potential buyers prior to submitting an offer.
2. Present all offers to seller in our predetermined manner.
3. Contact potential buyers' lenders to help determine financial strength of buyers and verify lender can meet terms presented in offer.
   
4. In multiple offer situations, summarize offers for sellers' review; discuss pros and cons of each with seller, responding to buyers' agent as appropriate. (Accept one? Counter one or more? Put a second offer in back up position?)
   
5. When a single offer is received, review with sellers and answer the offer as appropriate: accept the offer or make a counter offer.

Once in contract:

1. Get fully executed purchase offer to escrow officer and buyer's mortgage broker if appropriate.
   
2. Change status in the multiple listing service and other web sites as necessary.
3. Add rider to sign showing status change.
   
4. Create list of important dates - earnest money due in escrow, contingency removals, additional documentation due dates, close of escrow, etc.
5. Monitor progress, communicating clearly and often with buyers' agent, lender, appraiser, etc.
   
6. Make property available to appraiser.
7. Obtain copies of any property reports the buyer has chosen to get; review same and share with seller.
8. Negotiate any significant variances between initial and subsequent reports.
9. Communicate clearly and often with all parties, keeping the sale moving forward.
   
10. When all contingencies have been removed, set date for seller sign off, usually held at the escrow company. Attend sign off with sellers.
11. Remove keysafe from property, making a key available for buyers' agent.
    
12. Coordinate removal of staging, if used.
13. Check to be certain any unpaid seller fees have been sent to escrow, to be paid at closing, if that is sellers' wish.
    
14. Ask escrow officer to get a payoff demand from lender if seller has a mortgage on the property.
15. Request escrow officer prepare an updated estimated sellers' proceeds sheet, using actual transaction figures.
16. Advise seller to contact utility companies requesting service out of their names as of close of escrow date.
    
17. Follow up with other agent, lender, escrow officer to be certain funds are arriving in time to close escrow.
18. Call sellers with the good news that their sale has concluded
19. Arrange for removal of sign from property.

After the sale records:

1. Change status in the multiple listing service.
2. Contact sellers to be certain wire proceeds of sale transferred correctly
   
3. Burn a disc with all reports, documents, disclosures pertaining to the sale, signed by all necessary parties. Deliver or mail to sellers.
4. Answer any questions they might have, or direct them to the proper person.
5. Stay in touch afterward, being helpful in every way possible.
   

A lot goes on when selling your Silicon Valley and San Carlos property, and with Lottie paying attention to these details, both large and small, chances are high that you will have a smooth sale and a trouble-free experience.