Steps To Selling

This is the first and most important step in the process! Hiring the right realtor sets the stage for how the rest of the transaction will proceed. There are over 300,000 real estate professionals in California. How do you choose the right one?

We would love to be the Brokers to help you achieve your real estate goals with maximum satisfaction!

If you have ever gone through the process of purchasing or selling a home, you already know that the real estate transaction process requires a LOT of paperwork. The Collmer & Wilson Group absolutely loves the process of walking our clients through the many pages of legal jargon and contractual paragraphs. We don’t want you to feel overwhelmed with the myriad forms that will require your signature, so we patiently go through all of them with you so you understand every single piece of paper that your signature adorns.

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Conducting pre-market inspections is, in almost every circumstance, worth the cost of those inspections. The main reason we recommend that our clients perform pre-market inspections is that it compromises the buyer’s negotiating power. Additionally, in hot markets, where buyers are sometimes submitting offers with no contingencies, performing a pre-market inspection will facilitate more “non-contingent” offers, which is very beneficial for our clients. Inspection costs vary based on the property type, its size, and sometimes its location. A third reason is for that “disinterested” third party report on your property.

This inspection can confirm what you already know about your home.  It can also alert you to conditions unknown, which gives you a chance to respond to their discovery before it is uncovered by a buyer’s inspection. We can discuss solutions and costs with you based on your property’s characteristics.

The Collmer & Wilson group specializes in advising our clients on which type of updating or repairs will bring the highest offers. With regard to updates and repairs, we want you to have the highest ROI possible, and we have extensive knowledge in home renovations, investments, and the appraisal and valuation process. We know what buyers look for in houses and how that varies from neighborhood to neighborhood and different price ranges.

Preparing your house for the market can seem like a daunting task. The Collmer & Wilson Group works with vendors in ANY area of expertise to help you along in this process. Whether you need a professional organizer, a junk hauler, or a stager, or any other vendor, we can point you in the right direction.

JK Rowling once said “A good first impression can work wonders.” Staging and cleaning the property can do so much in a buyer’s eyes. If a buyer walks into a home they expect to see clean, and something is off or out of place, that sticks in their minds and may cause them to make an offer on a competing property. The psychology of the home purchase process from the buyer’s perspective is very intriguing and cannot be taken lightly. We will walk through the property with you after the staging to make sure there aren’t any potential issues that could cause the buyers to hesitate.

Once the property is ready to list, the last step before going on the market is the photography. We have relationships with photographers to make this step as easy for you as possible. We arrange and pay for the photography, so you only have to let us know a time…we take care of the rest! Good photographs can really make your home shine on the internet.

Pricing: Using our extensive knowledge of the real estate market (and the various micro-markets of the Bay Area), the Collmer & Wilson Group will work with you to decide on the most strategic listing price. Our goal is to list at a price that will bring multiple offers.  We want to price the property at a value where the most possible qualified buyers see your home.

Your home is now prepped and ready to go on the MLS! Congratulations! By listing your home on the MLS every single agent (and their buyers) will have access to all the information they need to make a smart decision on the purchase of your home. Not only will your property be listed on the MLS, but it will be shared with Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Realtor.com, and MANY other websites so people all over the world will know your house is for sale. The more eyes on your home, the higher and more quickly it sells.

This may be the most difficult part of the transaction process for some clients. Having others come into your home…your personal space…can be very stressful. We work with other agents to make sure you and your home are respected and any special requests are met with regard to cleanliness (wearing booties, gloves, masks), security (keeping valuables inaccessible to visitors), and timing of showings (we can limit the hours in the day that your home can be shown, however, the more access buyers have to view your home, the more offers will be received).

We work with all of our sellers to make sure that all of their desires are met with regard to these showings. We follow up with every agent who shows your property to get feedback from them and their clients.  This feedback is valuable because it tells us what our buyers are thinking.

We have had a fantastic pool of qualified buyers visit your property, so let’s start receiving offers!  Receiving multiple offers quickly is incredibly beneficial to you, as a seller. It increases your negotiating power, as well as sets you up to have buyers compete against each other for the privilege of being the next owner of your home. When multiple offers are received on a listing, it almost invariably means that our seller will receive an offer over the asking price. This is the ideal situation.

Every once in a while, for various reasons, buyers may not be inclined to submit offers as quickly as we desire. Depending on the circumstances, a price adjustment may be warranted. We do our very best to ensure that your property does not remain on the market and become “stale”.

After offers are received, we have some decisions to make! Which, if any, offers require counter offers to clarify terms? Which offers can be rejected? Once we decide on the best offer and have negotiated the best terms for you, we will accept the offer and be in contract!

After we get a fully ratified contract, our “contingency timeframes” begin. When a buyer purchases a home, they are entitled to do their due diligence to make sure, 1) that the property does not have any previously unknown issues that affect its value, 2) that the property will appraise at value, and 3) that the loan process will be approved and completed. 

Buyers have options when it comes to where they obtain money for the purchase of the real estate. All “cash” (no loan), conventional financing, FHA or VA loans, or private loans all can have an effect on how this step proceeds. Usually, in any option other than an “all cash” offer, an appraisal is warranted. The appraiser comes out to the property (in most cases) and does an assessment of the condition of the home and any factors that could affect the value either positively or negatively.

Of all the steps in the escrow process of a real estate transaction, the loan process takes the longest and is often the limiting factor when it comes to how quickly a transaction can go from offer acceptance to a closed sale. We keep constant contact with the buyer’s agent and the loan officer involved to make sure this process goes smoothly and as expected.

Once all contingencies have been removed, we can start planning the final steps for the transfer! This is the time to begin the packing and moving process (if it hasn’t been done already prior to listing). The Collmer & Wilson Group has great relationships with local moving companies, if a mover is necessary.

After contingencies are removed, we advise contacting your local utility companies as well as your insurance company to set up the closing or transferring of accounts. This will ensure a smooth transition to the next owner.

One of the kindest things you can do for the buyer is to make the house nice and clean for them when they arrive.  When it comes to real estate transactions the buyer should expect the house, at a minimum, to be “swept clean”. While it isn’t required that the house be fully, deep-cleaned, it is nice to have it all ready to go for the new owner.

Within 5 days of the closing date, the buyer is expected to have their “final walkthrough”. This walkthrough is completed to verify that the property is in similar condition as when the buyer made the offer and confirm any agreed repairs have been completed. They want to make sure no damage was done to the property during the move-out process and make sure that everything they expected to go with the house has remained.

Congratulations! The close of escrow date is here! You have received the monies from the Escrow company and are incredibly happy with the service your agent has provided. At the Collmer & Wilson Group, our goal is to have made this process go as smoothly as possible. Our detailed process for walking our clients through the twists and turns of any real estate transaction is what sets the Collmer & Wilson Group above any other agent or team.

We are thrilled that you chose us as your agents. The reason why we make every effort to give the highest quality service is that we want happy clients. Happy clients make us happy. We would love for our clients to submit a review for us, so others can get a small taste of what it is like to sell their home with The Collmer & Wilson Group. We follow up with links to our favorite review sites to facilitate this. We really appreciate your referrals.