There are 4 main steps to receive the most when you sell your home.
While living in your home you have come to appreciate certain things about it. You are an excellent source of ideas. You probably also don't even think about many aspects of your home. They are just part of your life.
Real estate agents, who work with home buyers, are constantly asking their clients what they like and don't like about each home their client sees. The top buyer agents* are the experts at knowing what buyers are looking for. These real estate agents are asking questions and getting answers from earnest home buyers, thousands of times each year.
The Juliana Lee Team includes the most effective and successful buyer agents in Silicon Valley. My passion for real estate sales enabled me to be a "one agent that could do it all" when I began my career but it was obvious that a team of specialists can be more effective. I carefully created a team of buyer agents whose sole goal is to effectively get the best home for each buyer. My buyer specialists don't have to create advertisements, they don't have to hire assistants, they don't have to run an office, nor many other things that have to be done when being a one agent does it all. They have a single goal which they are extremely good at. They help buyers find and buy the best home they can. They ask earnest home buyers thousands of questions each year and get sincere answers.
The Juliana Lee Team buyer agents are not independent agents like the agents in large brokerages. The Juliana Lee Team buyer agents are specialists working with both myself and other team members. Knowledge is constantly exchanged everyday between team members to complete all steps and aspects of our goal of buying and selling homes for our clients.
Every buyer is different. The Juliana Lee Team doesn't force buyers to follow one path. The Juliana Lee Team encompasses as many preferences as possible. Every home we list for sale has numerous high resolution pictures posted on multiple websites. We have and maintain over 1,200 custom websites, each with multiple homes. These are not single property websites that disappear after the home is sold. A buyer who has a specific interest will have his interest met. A buyer we represented had actually downloaded a picture of the kitchen of a home we had listed for sale and was using it as his screen saver. He could quickly view high resolution pictures of kitchens in every home we have for sale.
We post both a branded and an unbranded virtual tour of every home we list for sale. The branded virtual tour makes it easy for a viewer to get more information about your home from JulianaLee.com. Thousands of real estate agents and real estate brokerages email property alerts to their clients. Most property alerts will include a virtual tour if one is available. However a minority of brokerages will only include an unbranded virtual tour. Our technology lets us efficiently create both tours, getting the most buyers possible to see a virtual tour of your home.
Some buyers say they have a hard time visualizing the overall feel or the floor plan of a home from individual pictures even when they are shown in a carefully created slide show. We post both cinematic virtual tours and 3D virtual tours of almost all homes we list for sale. A cinematic virtual tour is in essence a movie taken of a home while carefully walking through it. A limitation of a cinematic virtual tour is that a viewer can not easily view specific things that are of high interest such as a kitchen. The viewer has to wait for it to be shown.
A 3D virtual tour is basically a collection of pictures which a viewer can see by clicking on doorways and other spots to view pictures from that location. The 3D virtual tour requires a lot of interaction from the viewer but may help build an overall feel for the home.
We post a neighborhood map of every home we list for sale. A home buyer can quickly see that there are numerous attractions near your home. We post information about public schools for every home we list for sale.
An informed buyer makes a stronger purchase offer.
Companies and trade organizations whose business is to remodel homes, publish information about the return on remodeling. Almost all projects return less than 100% of the money spent. You probably have both the desire and willingness to make your home more appealing to potential buyers. It is too easy for wishful thinking, or claims about how much better your home will look, to lead you to spend money on a project which increases the sales price of your home but doesn't increase the price by as much as you spend. Spend only when you will get more than 100% back.
If there are problems with the condition of you your home which would make it difficult for a buyer to get a loan to purchase your home, those problems should almost always be corrected. There are also local safety and conservation requirements that may require you to make a few relatively minor changes.
A recent report published by Hanley Media posted at https://costvsvalue.com lists "manufactured stone veneer" and "garage door replacement" as the only two projects with a resale value greater than 100% for either San Jose or the Pacific Region. A bathroom remodel has a resale value of about 67% while a minor kitchen remodel has a resale value of about 90%. Copyright laws prevent me from posting the report but it is easy to find.
As a real estate listing agent I would love for you to spend as much money as you are willing, to make your home more attractive. However as YOUR real estate agent I want and guide you to only spend money which will return more than 100%.
Zillow is expected to post a nearly $600M loss for 2021 caused by buying houses, fixing them up, and then selling them, even though house prices were rising.
Although many buyers use Zillow and visit open houses, the buyer that purchases your home is almost certainly working with a real estate agent. The purchase of a home is probably the most expensive purchase the buyer makes. Home buyers nearly always invest significant effort and time in their choice. Working with a top real estate agent gives home buyers access to view homes they wouldn't otherwise have and dramatically increases the odds that they will make an effective and efficient purchase offer. Your home needs to be promoted to both buyers and to real estate agents.
Home buyers spend more time online than reading newspapers. Digital promotion of your home is very important. Few real estate agents can afford nor do they obtain anything other than effortless "canned" services. The digital world is marvelous for independent passionate real estate agents. The Juliana Lee team creates and publishes over 20,000 files twice a month covering local real estate trends. The Juliana Lee team created and maintains over 700 custom websites.
The Juliana Lee team has over 30,000 contacts in our database and sends a monthly newsletter emailed to roughly 25,000 subscribers. Our extensive digital background began before the internet. We used a database to target post card recipients. Of course we also use the many 3rd party digital real estate portals such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and others. Many agents count the hundreds of websites which HubSpot automatically feeds listing data to as websites which they promote your property on. Of course our homes for sale are also published in the same way but we go much further.
Often not mentioned is the importance of relations with other real estate agents. If the agent you are considering to hire to sell your home advertises that he will give a special discount to buyers who use them, that agent is discouraging other real estate agents from bringing buyers to your home. JLee Realty strongly believes in the importance of agents from other brokerages. JLee Realty has a 0% listing commission plan. JLee Realty does not make more commission by selling a property to one of our own buyer agents vs. to an agent from another brokerage. We do not have a financial incentive to give preference to our own buyers over the buyers of other agents. All buyer agents receive the same commission when buying one of our listings whether they are part of our team or work for another brokerage. We believe real estate agents representing buyers are very important for you to receive the best offers.
The most effective negotiation is finding solutions to issues. Experience is the best source of information. An agent who is negotiating well over a hundred purchase offers every year is more informed than one who negotiates less than a half dozen. Roughly 75% of all active Silicon Valley real estate agents sell fewer than 5 homes per year. The unique team structure of the Juliana Lee Team brings the experience from both buying and selling homes to work for you. Juliana herself is in the top 0.2% of Silicon Valley real estate agents and has successfully negotiated well over a thousand sales through all sorts of economic climates and changes in the real estate industry.
Unfortunately not all accepted purchase offers result in a completed sale. "Approved loans" may fail to be given. New property conditions may be discovered. A buyer may find a "much better deal" before escrow closes. Many, perhaps most, buyers worry that they paid more than they had to.
Knowledge and strong connections can rescue many failing escrows. Perhaps simply recommending a lender to the buyer who has helped similar buyers, will solve the problem. Sometimes having a good connection with a vendor such as a carpet installer will turn a big problem into a little problem. Experience and connections within the real estate industry solves many problems.
When we list a property for sale we are completely committed to our sellers best interests. We only recommend improvements which will return more than 100% of the money you spend. JLee Realty encourages all 10,000+ local agents to bring their own buyers to purchase your home.
Almost every profession has working members who either want to reach the top, or who just want to earn a good living, or who only want to work part time. Almost every professional becomes a top expert through both work experience and learning from colleagues. The top buyer agents at JLee Realty want to be at the top and want to be recognized as a top real estate agent. They learn from personally working with Juliana Lee, from working with our team, and from working with their clients. Because our team members are first and foremost team members, it is much easier for them to share successful ideas with each other than it is for independent agents at a large brokerage to share with other competing agents at their brokerage. Our top buyer agents want to be recognized and rewarded for what they achieve.
Unlike tech product developments, representing a home buyer is not dependent on a large team. It depends on the efforts of one or two agents, one or two admin team members, the tools they are given, and the training and support they are given. JLee Realty buyer agents have the passion to learn faster, to overcome challenges, and to judge their own success by the success they achieve for their clients. A home buyer can "fire" their agent in the blink of an eye if their agent doesn't deliver results. The number of sales each JLee Realty buyer agent achieves puts them in the top 2% of all Silicon Valley real estate agents because they deliver top results to their clients.
A top buyer agent's efforts are easily seen, recognized, and rewarded. Our top buyer agents are paid by a commission on their sales, the most sincere and direct recognition of their efforts. They are highly skilled at bringing the right buyers to your home.