Sell Your California Home For Top Dollar

HOW TO SELL YOUR HOME FOR TOP DOLLAR

1. Make your home look like a model - even if it isn't. Hire a Realtor that offers the services of a professional decorator who will assist you in preparing your home for sale - using the existing items in your home.

2. Keep the thermostat set so that buyer's are comfortable. Imagine buyer's looking at several homes on a hot summer day, even if your home is perfect, when the buyer's are uncomfortable when viewing your home, they will not like it.

3. Lots of light. When you know your home is being shown, turn every light on, even on a sunny day. Open curtains (unless the view is unpleasant). When leaving for work, at a minimum, leave on the lights in the entry and the first several rooms that a buyer will naturally be drawn too. Have your windows professionally cleaned.

4. Open houses. Talk to your agent about the frequency and advisability of having open houses to the public.

5. Constant exposure. Your home won't sell unless buyers and their agents know about it. In order to sell for top dollar, your Realtor must repeatedly and regularly draw attention to your home. Depending on your customized marketing plan, this may include: open houses, broker's open houses, internet, email and a customized print campaign.

6. Aggressive Target Marketing. Who is the likely buyer of your home and where are they now? Your Realtor's customized marketing plan should include a plan on how to find this buyer.

7. Create Urgency. When a buyer feels the asking price is fair, and has a sufficient sense of urgency, he will often pay full price and in a heated seller's market it is common for homes to sell in a multiple counter offer situation, resulting in a selling price even higher than the asking. There are a variety of ways to create urgency and in some instances the "right marketing plan" can and will result in a full price (or higher) sale.

Phyllis Harb, a California native is a Realtor/Marketing Specialist at RE/Max Tri City in La Canada, California. RE/MAX Tri-City offers additional offices in La Crescenta, Glendale, Los Feliz and Pasadena. Harb has been assisting Los Angeles County home sellers and buyers since 1989 and additionally offers over 10 years experience in real estate lending. Harb has an award winning web site @ http://www.RealtorHarb.com & may also be contacted at 818 790-7325.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.