Takeover of a Failed Listing in Saratoga with Spectacular Results

This case study explores how I helped sell a home in Saratoga, at 18326 Mill Ct. The owners had lived in the property for twenty years, which is about the average time of home ownership in Silicon Valley. Over the years, their children grew up and moved out, leaving them with a spacious two-story house they no longer needed. Ready for a new chapter, they decided to sell their home and move closer to the coast. This article will show how it was possible to get this home sold in Saratoga for 5.4% over list price with multiple offers – when a prior agent failed to garner any offers at all, even listed at the same price!

A Little Background on the House

When people think of Saratoga real estate, most envision wide, quiet streets of gracious, upscale single-family homes on good-sized parcels.  While that does correctly describe most of Saratoga, that doesn’t describe this home, which was quite a bit different than that. 18326 Mill Court is a detached single-family home in a Planned Unit Development, on the edge of Saratoga, close to Cupertino.

As it is in a PUD, it really lives more like a townhouse than what most people think of as a single-family residence.  The setback between neighbors is very small, as is the back yard, which barely had room for a barbecue, bistro table and a small orange tree.  What’s more, parking in the complex is extremely limited – with absolutely no off-street parking for the home itself, as it did not have a driveway.  Parking at the home itself was limited to the two-car attached garage.  There were a few guest spots in the complex, however they were a considerable distance from the home and were often full.

Another challenge with the property is that to access the complex, you needed to literally drive through a strip mall on Saratoga Sunnyvale Road – not exactly the grand entrance that most people want for their multi-million dollar home.  And directly behind the house – filling most of the view from the primary bedroom suite upstairs – was a public storage facility.  Not exactly the kind of view you’d pick if you had the choice.  There was a single track freight line located a few blocks away, which could occasionally be heard.

To top it off, the interior of the home was mostly original from the 1990s – it had received virtually no upgrades since it was built.  Prior to choosing a REALTOR, the seller had replaced the flooring with inexpensive luxury vinyl plank, and painted the wood bannisters with white paint.  Other than that, the home looked identical to how it was was the day it was built – just a little worse for the wear.

Choosing the Wrong REALTOR®

Initially, the homeowners interviewed several REALTORs, including myself. During our meeting, I had an engaging conversation with the husband—the wife was out of town for business. Although we had what felt like good rapport, the husband ultimately chose another agent who agreed to a lower level of compensation than I was offered.  I am not an agent that competes on price – I compete on value, and it’s up to me to properly communicate that value to clients. Some people, however, just won’t see the value, as all they see is price, as that is in fact very black and white. However, I respected their decision, wished them well, and moved on to other projects.

But imagine my surprise when, a few weeks later, I received a call from the husband. Despite the blazing hot Saratoga market at the time, their home had not sold with the agent they had hired. This underlines a crucial point that some sellers only appreciate the hard way: the commission rate is irrelevant if the home does not sell. The seller asked if I was still interested in listing their property, and I immediately replied that I was…still somewhat in surprised that even in one of the hottest markets ever in history, they were unable to sell the home!

How could another agent be that bad?  For starters, it’s a red flag when an agent agrees to charge a notably lower fee than other agents.  There is hardly a clearer way to show that the agent lacks the ability to strongly negotiate financial terms.  It also shows that the agent would not be paying any opportunity cost – they are not missing out on any other sales, so they might as well agree to work at a lower rate. That’s a sign the agent’s services are not much in demand – and there’ll be a reason for that (typically because the agent just isn’t very good).

Starting Over with the Right Silicon Valley REALTOR®

The decision was made to cancel the listing with that agent, and I stepped in to help. The first job was to assess the current condition and presentation of the property After visiting the house, I identified dozens of overlooked details that were affecting its appeal. The property had not been power washed, the trim needed painting, and old Christmas lights were still up. I provided the homeowners with a comprehensive checklist of over 30 tasks to improve the home’s presentation. The sellers willingly agreed to make the improvements in presentation I identified.

For the most part, the work was simple, and it took only a very few days to accomplish. This is usually the case however.  The truth is, it’s the low-hanging fruit – those quick and easy fixes – that always pay the biggest rewards when it comes to decreasing time on market and increasing the cash to the seller at closing.  Here is an outline of the work that was done after I took over the listing:

Exterior Work

• Remove holiday lights
• Paint garage door trim
• Pressure wash exterior
• Clean dirt and dust from front door
• Repaint front door trim
• Add mulch along walkway to front door

Interior Work

• Put away bric-a-brac around the house
• Replace chirping smoke detector battery
• Declutter closets
• Clean shower door glass
• Further clean interior of the property
• Clean fireplace
• Improve staging presentation
• Touch up damaged finish on appliances
• Repair torn window screens
• Remove refrigerator magnets

A Successful Marketing Strategy

After making numerous tweaks to the presentation of the home, I rebooted the marketing with fresh photos and video. I was not content to simply improve the presentation and improve the visuals and marketing copy, I felt something more was needed. I also employed an innovative marketing strategy. Recognizing that many potential buyers in Saratoga are high-paying renters, I purchased a targeted list of renters paying $4,000–$7,000 per month in the area. I mailed them postcards featuring the property and uploaded the list to Facebook, creating a custom audience for targeted digital ads. I expanded this with a lookalike audience to reach similar potential buyers.

In my marketing for this home, I leaned heavily into selling the location – because that’s what you’re really buying when you purchase a home in Silicon Valley.  Even though the home was accessed through a strip mall and adjacent to a public storage facility, it was still in Saratoga.  My marketing included many photos and talked up the many benefits of living in Saratoga so close to Saratoga Village. But one of the key benefits of the location was that this home actually fell within the Monta Vista High School attendance zone, one of the most prized in all of Silicon Valley.

When it came to discussing showings and open houses, the sellers had some concerns. The sellers had been out of town while the prior agent was marketing the property, but they were able to view the property through cameras in the home.  They’d watched the open houses held by the former agent, and didn’t like what they saw.  This time around, the homeowners requested private showings only, and I coordinated each one to ensure only qualified buyers came through.

Negotiating a Great Deal for the Seller

Even though we held no ope houses, within seven days of re-listing, we received three competitive offers. That’s even though the home had been on the market for 17 days previously with no offers whatsoever, and there was only about a week between cancellation of the prior listing and relaunching the home as my listing. It’s also worth noting that for the last seven of those 17 days it had been on the market, the home was listed at the exact same price I listed it at. By leveraging strategic marketing, improved presentation, and savvy negotation, I was able to create competition among buyers. We secured a final sale at 5.4% over list price, with a non-contingent, as-is offer and a 30-day free rent-back period for the sellers.

Timeline

• September 25 – Listed with lower-fee Redfin @ $2,248,000
• October 5 – Reduced Price to $2,088,888
• October 11 – Owner Calls me Back
• October 12 – Canceled on MLS after 18 Days on Market
• October 13 – Site visit to assess current condition of property, staging
• October 14- New Listing Agreement Signed (Day 0)
• October 16 – Prep Work Commences
• October 19 – Prep Work Completes
• October 20 – Photos & Video taken
• October 22 – Listing re-launched on MLS
• October 23 – first offer received ($1,900,00 ~ 9% under ask)
• October 29 – second offer received ($2,088,000 – 100% of list price)
• October 30 – third offer received ($2,170,000 – 3.9% above ask)
• October 31 – offer accepted
• December 3 -Escrow Closes, Seller receives proceeds of sale
• January 4 – Seller Vacated Premises

Conclusion

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