Category: Selling Your Home

Case Study: 3-Bedroom / 2-Bathroom North Oakland Home Are you considering selling your home in Oakland or the greater San Francisco Bay Area? Whenever you’re selling a home, there are lots of things to think about, including: Timing – How quickly do you need to sell your home? Do you need to sell this home in order to buy a new one? Market – How’s the overall market doing? Is now a good time to sell? Pricing – What are comparable homes priced at? What’s the best price to list your home at? Getting your home ready for the market

O man. Zillow’s Zestimate and other Automated Valuation Models (AVM) lead to some challenging conversations with homeowners in Oakland, Berkeley, and much of the East Bay. The conversation usually goes like this: Me: “After looking at comparable sales in the area, your property’s condition, and other market factors, I believe your home will sell for roughly $800,000 if properly priced, prepared, and marketed.” Homeowner: “Zillow says my home is worth $850,000. ”. Me: “I can respect that. I’ve looked beyond what an automated valuation can provide to get you a realistic valuation.’ Homeowner: “Realtor.com says $847,000, Redfin says $925,000. Are

In California, the answer is probably yes. Each state has its own disclosure requirements, and it turns out there’s still one out there–Alabama, I’m looking at you–that has little to no seller duty to disclose. I know from personal experience; Ask me for an educational story about investing out-of-state. When I’m listing a property in California, if a seller asks me if they need to disclose something, usually the best advice I can give is: if you have to ask, yes you should probably disclose. We live in a litigious environment, and experts like Broker Resource Law Group believe the

It depends on your motivation! In our current market as of this writing, we’re in a very strong sellers’ market. That means we have very low supply and high demand. And that means houses in Oakland, Berkeley, and the East Bay are selling like hotcakes. In my conversation with potential sellers, this question always comes up: How long will it take to sell my house. For most houses in our market, the answer is that a well-prepared, well-priced, and well-marketed property will sell in two weeks or less. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to have a house sell before being formally

In all of our years in the Oakland real estate industry, here’s a truth we’ve learned: it’s the proactive homeowner who ends up having the smoothest home sale and, typically, makes the most money. If you start now, you’ll have plenty of time to prepare your home (and yourself) for the spring market and be among those success stories. Will you be buying a home when this one sells? Let’s get a market analysis done now so that we have at least a rough idea of your home’s current market value. Yes, it’s a bit early, but we just need

One of life’s most challenging aspects is watching our parents age. Then comes the day when you, and they, realize they’ve lost their physical independence. Whether they are downsizing into a smaller, less maintenance-intensive home or are moving in with you or to a care home, giving up a long-loved home is wrenching. Thankfully, they have you and you have us and we have tips to help your parent or parents — and you — through this tough time. Get Legal Advice You may be required to use the proceeds of the sale to pay for your parents’ care if