The key to getting the most value out of your home when selling it is in making sure your house stands out from the competition. With Bay Area homes and their top tiered pricing, this point becomes even more essential. Homes have to be Instagram beautiful to sell to the new genration of buyers.
You have limited time on market as a new listing when everyone in your price point is interested in seeing the newest and the best inventory. Once you have been on market a few weeks, your listing is deemed to be stale. Then - whether it is deserved or not - the perception after a few weeks is that the property is not selling because it is not desirable or something is wrong with it. Other buyers are not interested, so I am not interested either.....
This is exactly why we spend a lot of time up front to make the selling process much easier on the back end. Invest lots of time and effort now, so that the house can sell quickly while the property is still deemed hot and new. You don't have to agree or disagree, it is simply how the real estate market moves in the Bay Area.
So you have a choice to make. Do you want to maximize the chances that your house will sell with the most favorable conditions (especially if there is no up front costs or hassles) or do you take your chances and put the house up without bringing it up to market ready conditions, hoping buyers will find your house to be extra special.
We, in the Bay Area, are in a unique place where money is not the problem. Everyone who is in the market to buy has money. What the typical buyer here wants to avoid is, buy something now and work on sweat equity to improve it. They would rather pay more now and let you deal with the hassles and headaches of dealing with contractors and delays and who knows what else..... They are trading money for headaches and hassles. They want Turn-Key Homes.
Sounds crazy, but you know it is true. Why else are the prices rising so quickly here? You can still find homes here that buyers are not competing for. But those are the ones that new buyers are not willing to trade for extra money to avoid headaches.
Even in this HOT MARKET, there are many homes you can buy for less than list price....... The problem is, only contractors who are willing to trade money for hassles are interested in those properties. They have the advantage because they can control labor costs.
As a seller, you have to decide which market you want to enter.
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