Nailing the Sale in San Jose - a Client Massive Success Story - Seb Frey, Silicon Valley + Bay Area REALTOR

I wanted to share a story with you which I think you might find interesting. It’s about a home in Los Paseos, which sold in December of last year: 7159 Via Corona. A nice home: 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and about 1,750 square feet with a two-car attached garage.

It’s a home the owners had purchased in 2019 for $910,000, but in late 2021, after only a bit more than two years as owners, they felt it was time for them to make a move.

While exploring the idea of a sale, the owners considered several real estate agents, me among them. One of the agents was even a family member. After several months of going back and forth on the decision to sell, and which agent to work with, they hired me for the job in early October 2021.

They chose me, they said, because they felt like I was someone who would really take care of them, hold their hand, and show them the way to absolutely crush it with the sale of their home. That’s a lot of responsibility, and I was honored and quite honestly thrilled to take it on.

With the holiday season fast approaching, we had to work quickly – and on a budget. They’d made a lot of improvements to the house since they bought it in 2019, but it needed a little polish. I brought in a stager and a team of contractors to make targeted improvements to the home over the course of 3 weeks. The sellers invested less than $10,000 to get the home ready for market, and as the staging was only an occupied home “partial staging” with just a few pieces brought in, that cost was minimal.

We listed the house on the MLS as a “coming soon” on October 30th, and held a “sneak peek” neighbors-only open house on October 31st – Halloween evening! I like to use a “sneak peek” to help gauge buyer perception before going “public” with a listing, while also building marketing momentum.

Feedback was great; folks loved the home at the list price of $1,195,000. We flipped the home to “Active” on the MLS on November 2, and began showing the home that week. We had two back-to-back open houses the following weekend, with 20-30 parties through the home each day.

On Monday November 8th, the offers came flooding in. We received five offers, and negotiated a deal that shattered any expectation we’d had for sale price: $1,360,000 – far above what was indicated by “comparable” sales data. The offer was without any contingencies and closed without any drama on December 8th. The sellers enjoyed a free 30-day “rent back” after the sale, and moved on to the next chapter of their lives after the holidays.

The sellers are thrilled with the result they achieved, and simply cannot believe how much money they walked away with at closing. If you’re thinking of selling your home, and you’re looking for an agent who really cares about and specializes in maximizing your cash-out at closing, we should talk.

Timeline

October 11 (Day 0): Listing Agreement Signed
October 14 (Day 3): Prep Work Commences
October 19 (Day 8): Coming Soon on MLS
October 25 (Day 14): Home + Termite Inspections
October 29 (Day 18): Photo + Video Shoot
October 30 (Day 19): Neighbors “Sneak Peak” Open House
November 2 (Day 22): Active on the MLS
November 6 (Day 26): First Open House
November 7 (Day 27): Second Open House
November 7 (Day 27): First of 5 Offers Received
November 8 (Day 28): Offers Negotiated + Buyer Selected
December 8 (Day 58): Close of Escrow, sellers received proceeds of sale
January 8: Clients Move out of House

Prep Work

We spent about two weeks getting the home ready for sale. It wasn’t a constant three weeks however – the family had young children and we had to work around their school time, nap time, family time, and all the regular rhythms of daily life as the family was living in the home every day of the preparation phase and while it was on the market.