Thinking about selling your home in the Bay Area and have questions about the process? You’re not alone! Selling a property can feel overwhelming, but with the right guidance, it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re selling in the competitive Silicon Valley market or looking for a quick home sale elsewhere in the Bay Area, I’ve got the answers to help you every step of the way. Below, I’ve compiled answers to some of the most common questions sellers ask—from determining your home’s market value to navigating offers and closing the deal. Let’s make your home-selling experience smooth and successful.
Table of Contents
- Why should I hire you to sell my Bay Area home?
- What will you provide during a listing presentation?
- How will you determine the fair market value of my home?
- How will I decide what to set as my listing price?
- Why am I being asked to sign an Exclusive Right to Sell?
- What is the standard commission rate?
- Do I need to offer compensation to Buyer’s Agents?
- What is the impact of the NAR Commission case settlement?Why am I being asked to sign an Agency Disclosure?
- Should I list my property as a Compass Private Exclusive?
- What do I need to disclose to the buyer about my property?
- How should I prepare my home for sale?
- What if I need money to help prepare my home for sale?
- What if I want to sell my home as-is?
- How do I keep tabs on competing homes for sale?
- How do I know when to accept an offer?
- What happens after I accept an offer to purchase my property?
- Do I need to hire a real estate attorney?
- What if the Buyer’s lender does an appraisal and it comes back lower than our agreed upon price?
Q: Why should I hire you to sell my Bay Area home?
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Simply put, the reason you should hire me is because I will help you net tens of thousands – in some cases, hundreds of thousands – dollars more than you can get selling any other way, or with any other agent. I will help you do it quickly and easily, with an absolute minimum of hassle on your part, while making sure that all your interests are totally protected. If you’re looking for the biggest possible cash-out at closing paired with a relaxed, no-fuss, done-for-you experience, we should talk. I have a long and impeccable record and provide a top-notch home selling experience and am happy to provide many references and testimonials.
Q: What will you provide during a listing presentation?
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When we meet for a listing presentation, my primary purpose will be to learn about your particular situation, to understand how I may be best able to help you. The truth of the matter is, I won’t be the best agent for every home seller, so if I feel I can’t help you meet your objectives, I’ll let you know right away. Once I understand your situation and goals for the sale, and if I feel I am best suited to help you meet those objectives, I will explain how I will be able to provide the best experience for your sale, while also netting you the best price and terms of sale.
Q: How will you determine the fair market value of my home?
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There is only one true way to determine fair market value for a home: to put it up for sale on the open market and see how much you are able to sell it for. Fair market value is not the Zillow Zestimate, or any the pricing given by an online portal site – and it’s not even what an appraiser tells you it’s worth or what a REALTOR may claim is the value in a comparative market analysis (CMA).
Before you list (and sell) your home, all anyone can do is estimate (or predict, or guess) what fair market value is. I will give you what I consider to be a reasonable estimate of fair market value, that you can use to make plans around. I will not try to sell you on a “best case scenario” or a “pie in the sky” estimate in an attempt to “buy the listing” (tell you I can sell it for a higher price than is warranted by the data).
I have performed literally thousands of price estimates for homes over the 20+ years I have been in business, and I have personally sold hundreds and hundreds of homes. I have an excellent understanding of what drives prices for homes in the Bay Area. I will carefully prepare a market analysis for your home, making well-supported adjustments to the most-comparable sales data arrive at a valuation which is realistically achievable within the time frame you say you want your property to be sold by. Besides the numbers (i.e. bed/bath, square footage, lot size, etc.), I also look at qualitative factors like location, views, amenities, schools, and condition of the property relative to the comparable homes.
Time to talk to a REALTOR?
Q: How will I decide what to set as my listing price?
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One of my most important jobs as a REALTOR is to help a seller set a maximally advantageous list price for their home. Many sellers shoot themselves in the foot by thinking they must arrive at the exact right price for their home. This is usually a huge mistake. Rather than focusing on one specific price, I encourage my clients to think about a pricing strategy that will get their home sold quickly, with multiple offers, at the highest price the market will bear, and with absolutely amazing terms.
It is important that sellers understand that homes which sell quickly almost always sell for more – substantially more – than homes which take a long time to sell, and that overpricing your home is one of the biggest destroyers of value. Your best chance to get the maximum price generally occurs within the first week after being listed, when there is peak attention for your property. As buyer activity drops and your home stays on the market, the perceived value of your home drops as well, which may then necessitate lowering the price to get buyers looking at it again.
Having said all that, it’s your house. You set the price, and my job is to get the home sold for the highest price possible, given the pricing that you, the owner, choose to set.
Q: Why am I being asked to sign an Exclusive Right to Sell?
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This is the standard agreement that our brokerage uses to outline the terms of our agreement to sell your home during a period of time such as listing price, right to advertise, and my compensation, and perhaps an offer of compensation to a buyer’s agent. The listing is exclusive because it spells out my commitment to you, and your commitment to me. I will be investing significant amounts of money, time, and energy into selling your home, and an exclusive agreement guarantees you that I will hold nothing back in my effort to get you the best price and terms for the sale of your property.
Q: What is the standard commission rate?
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There is no standard commission rate. I will work for whatever you and I agree can agree to. In most cases, the buyer for your home will have their own agent, and the buyer will typically ask that the seller pay for the buyer’s broker as well. Having said that, most sellers in the Bay Area end up paying a total of 4-6% of the sale price for agent compensation. However, if the property fails to sell for any reason – including if you do not get a price acceptable to you – you pay nothing. I always tell my clients to evaluate the net proceeds of any offer, not just the offer price, to determine if that price and terms meet their needs.
Q: Do I need to offer compensation to Buyer’s Agents?
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You do not need to offer compensation to a buyer’s agent. However, you will find that almost all buyers will ask for you to pay their agent out of the proceeds of the sale. It may be that some buyers do not need representation – perhaps they themselves hold a real estate license, or they are an attorney, or they have a family member or close friend who is one or the other. Those “professional” buyers have rarely ever sought compensation from the seller, even when sellers made as a “blanket offer” under the prior rules of the Multiple Listing Service. These “professional” buyers would often negotiate a lower sale price in exchange for waiving of the buyer’s agent compensation. These same buyers will today likely not request the seller pay any buyer broker compensation, however most buyers continue to ask the seller to pay their agent’s commission.
Q: What is the impact of the NAR Commission case settlement?
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The biggest impact has been the removal of any blanket offer of compensation to a buyer’s agent by the seller, and it is no longer permitted to transmit any offer of compensation to buyer’s agents through the MLS. However, as explained above, most sellers continue to pay the buyer’s agent’s compensation, although the process is now much more transparent. Buyers must sign a buyer broker agreement that specifies how much their agent will be paid. While buyers are free to ask the seller to pay this, the buyer broker cannot be paid more than is specified in the buyer broker agreement (even if the seller is offering to pay more).
Q: Why am I being asked to sign an Agency Disclosure?
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This is not a contract, but a mandatory disclosure so you understand the nature of an “agency relationship” between an agent/broker and buyer or seller. The Agency Disclosure is largely a recitation of California Civil Code Section 2079.16. In short, an agent is required to be fair and honest with all parties, but has a fiduciary responsibility to their principal. Your agent will put your interests first, above that of any other person including the agent himself.
For Best Results
Q: Should I list my property as a Compass Private Exclusive?
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The compass.com site has an exclusive inventory of listings that are only available on that site, which are not listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Many homebuyers with Compass agents in Silicon Valley have been getting access to these “off market” listings. By listing your home as Compass Private Exclusive, you can take advantage of this huge pool of motivated buyers to market your home quietly, which many sellers find preferable to a very public sale on the open market.
In addition to greatly enhanced privacy, listing your home as a Compass Private Exclusive allows you to test the market without accruing “days on market” or exposing any price changes to the public. Even if you do not find a buyer while listed as a Private Exclusive, you can gain valuable feedback and make changes to the marketing or improvements to the property as may be warranted based on the feedback you receive during this time – before you hit the MLS.
Q: What do I need to disclose to the buyer about my property?
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A seller needs to disclose all material facts that they are aware of to the buyer. A “material fact” is anything that would affect the value of the property. I will provide you with some forms to fill out that will prompt you to make sure you’re making a complete, accurate, and honest disclosure. I do recommend that the seller do pre-sale inspections – at least a home inspection and termite inspection, and perhaps a roof inspection, septic inspection, well inspection, or others as may be warranted. Doing these inspections up-front, instead of leaving them to the buyer, reduces friction, increases the likelihood you will get a totally non-contingent offer, and greatly reduces the chances that you will have the deal fall apart over condition issues.
Q: How should I prepare my home for sale?
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You only get one chance for your home to make a great first impression so you want to make sure that your home presents itself in the best possible light while it is listed for sale. This includes eliminating clutter and odors, and perhaps making some repairs and/or cosmetic changes like new paint or carpeting. In some cases, staging a home with furniture or even a partial renovation may be advisable, depending on market conditions, your home, and your neighborhood. However, in most cases, the cost/benefit analysis of preparation will show that the simple things – the “low hanging fruit” like cleaning, decluttering, and landscaping – are the least expensive and most cost-effective pre-sale work you will want to.
Q: What if I need money to help prepare my home for sale?
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Compass offers a unique program called Compass Concierge where Compass will advance you some of the equity in your property so you can prepare your home for sale, including decluttering, deep-cleaning, painting, staging, landscaping, repairs, moving and storage. The Compass Concierge program does have certain terms and conditions and not every seller or home will qualify – but most do, and it’s a terrific resource used by thousands of our clients each year.
Q: What if I want to sell my home as-is?
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Most sellers prefer to sell their home as-is; they don’t want to spend time and money getting their homes ready for sale. Even if they can get the money advanced to them from Compass Concierge or another program, it’s a hassle and it’s time-consuming. The good news is, demand for homes in the Bay Area is so strong that you can absolutely sell your home 100% as-is. Yes, you may get less money for it than if you spent a lot of time and money polishing it for sale – but in many cases, you will actually net more selling it as-is versus guessing what enhancements will add more value than they cost.
Q: How do I keep tabs on competing homes for sale?
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Once your home is listed, I will set up a “Neighborhood Watch” using the Compass Collections tool so we can monitor the “competition” in real time during the duration of your home sale. Together, we can keep tabs on homes similar to yours in the wider market area, in order to make strategic decisions based on price and status update notifications that we’ll both get instantly. I will also be able to provide “inside information” on any listings that may improve your understanding of the market, while you will also be able to ask questions about any listing that arises.
Q: How do I know when to accept an offer?
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As my client, I have a fiduciary duty to advise you during the negotiation process and I’ll be prepared to make recommendations about accepting an offer, especially in a multiple offer scenario. Price is only one aspect of an offer that needs to be considered – the terms of purchase (such as closing date, rent back, contingency on purchase on the sale of the buyer’s current property, closing costs credits, etc.) can often make or break a deal. And of course, there are other considerations, like the amount of activity you are receiving in terms of private showings and open house attendance, new competing listings hitting the market, price reductions, days on market, newly closed sale prices, and many other factors. There’s a lot to consider before accepting any offer, and I will be there to give you my best advice.
Q: What happens after I accept an offer to purchase my property?
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One important thing to understand is that when you accept a buyer’s offer to purchase your home, you cannot cancel the sale…unless the buyer fails to perform. So long as the buyer is meeting their obligations under the agreement (e.g., makes their earnest money deposit on time, releases contingencies on time, brings in their closing funds, signs loan documents, etc.) the seller cannot cancel the sale. It is my job as the listing agent to make sure that the buyer is in fact holding up their end of the deal, to make sure that those timelines are met to keep everything moving right along, and to keep you informed of the progress and any hiccups along the way.
The seller typically does not have much to do once the offer is accepted. The seller does need to maintain the home (and landscaping) in the same condition as it was on the day the buyer made the offer, but other than that, the biggest thing for the seller to do is finish packing, assuming the have not yet moved out of the house. The seller will have to sign closing documents (the grant deed, signing over the property to the buyer) which usually happens about 5 days prior to closing.
Q: Do I need to hire a real estate attorney?
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In California, real estate attorneys are not typically used in non-contentious transactions. The paperwork we use are all standard forms. generally prepared by the attorneys at the California Association of REALTORS (C.A.R.) or different brokerage forms (also prepared by attorneys). If you have specific legal questions, I will be able to call the C.A.R. Legal Hotline to speak with an Association attorney for some guidance, or I can refer an excellent local attorney to you.
Q: What if the Buyer’s lender does an appraisal and it comes back lower than our agreed upon price?
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I have been selling real estate for over 20 years, having personally sold well in excess of four hundred homes. In all that time, I think I’ve only had about ten instances where the appraisal came in below contract price. It’s something that rarely happens, and when it does, it usually doesn’t end up being a problem or cost the seller any money (although it can). I wrote an article about that and I encourage you to read it here.
The Secret Sauce for Selling
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