The Everything Guide to Listing Your Home
Finding the right REALTOR® for you
Working with the right agent to sell your home is crucial. At Dudum Real Estate Group, you have a partner who will work diligently and effortlessly with you to ensure your best interests always come first. Collectively, our agents have hundreds of years of real estate experience and have successfully closed thousands of transactions. The uniqueness of our agents uniting and working together simply gives our clients a better experience, and has set a peerless standard of practice not often seen in the real estate industry. In the spirit of reciprocity, our agents love to share their knowledge, skills, and talents with each other, all with the paramount goal of providing the highest level of professional service. We take pride in the way we handle a transaction from start to finish, including our skilled and service oriented staff, who are attentive to the details and treat clients with exceptional care.
Our agents are geographically situated throughout the communities they serve. They utilize their networks, modern real estate tools, and resources to guarantee maximum marketing and exposure of a property, as well as ensuring that their clients gain reliable access to property information throughout the greater East Bay.
Once you’ve found the right agent for you, the presale activities begin
Discuss and create pricing and marketing strategies unique to your property
Order pre-sale home warranty with seller’s coverage
Schedule consultation with home stager
Schedule pre-sale inspections
Prepare pre-sale disclosure packages
Initial consultation to determine client
needs, priorities, and timeline
Research and determine market value
Review estimated net sheet to determine
possible proceeds
Prepare initial timeline calendar for important presale activities
Preparing your home to go on the market
Add Value to Your Home
By fronting the cost of structural repairs and cosmetic upgrades, our no-stress RE | CONCIERGE program improves your home while adding value.
Design consultation services
Bath improvements
Roofs, electrical, and plumbing
Pre-sale home inspections
Moving
Packing
Cleaning
Relocation services
Elderly services
Services Provided:
Painting
Flooring
Landscaping
New countertops
Kitchen improvements
Window treatments
Power washing
Professional staging
Decluttering
Staging
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, staged homes sell 80% quicker and for up to 11% more money than non-staged properties. At Dudum Real Estate Group, we believe buyers tend to gravitate toward a home based on curb appeal and its first impression. That’s why we’ll work closely with professional stagers to ensure that your home is best prepared and ready for sale before potential buyers see it. From creating an appealing walkway to the removal of furniture, or even renovating a room, staging will help transform your home, as needed, in order to give you the best advantage for a quick sale at the highest possible price.
Professional Photography:
More than 90% of today’s home buyers use the Internet to search for properties, making professional photographs more important than ever.
At Dudum Real Estate Group, we know that great photography can draw in a buyer. A talented photographer always shows a property at its very best. Working with distinguished photographers throughout the East Bay, we create a look that showcases your home to ensure it comes across as beautiful online and in print as it is in real life.
Additional Considerations
Consider your curb appeal: Buyers tend to judge a book by its cover, for better or worse. You want to make sure your home is putting its best foot forward. This can be done with a relatively small investment like planting colorful flowers and repainting your front door. The outside of your house can beckon prospective buyers to come on in. If you're not sure how to improve your home's curb appeal, ask your real estate agent for advice on how others in your area have improved the exterior before selling their houses.
Declutter living areas: Clear off counters, windowsills, tables, and all other visible areas, and then tackle behind closed doors: closets, drawers, and cupboards—virtually nothing is off-limits for curious buyers. If the house is overflowing with stuff, buyers might worry that the house won’t have ample space for their own belongings.
Depersonalize your space: sellers should remove personal items and family photos, as well as bold artwork and furniture that might make the home less appealing to the general public. The goal is to create a blank canvas on which buyers can project their own visions of living there, and loving it.
Repaint walls to neutral tones: It's the seller's job to help buyers picture themselves in the house. If they don't feel at home, they'll probably look at other options. You might love that orange accent wall, but if it’s your potential buyer’s least favorite color, that could be a turnoff.
Touch up any scuff marks: Even if you’re not doing a full-on repainting project, pay special attention to scrubbing and then touching up baseboards, walls, and doors to make the house sparkle and look cared-for.
Clean, clean, clean: Your agent is going to recommend your home is professionally cleaned, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to clean it every day. Remember to wipe out sinks, put away dishes, and keep the beds made.
Hide valuables: From art to jewelry, keep your treasures are out of sight, either locked up or stored off-site. Even with potential buyers being chaperoned by their agent, it is best to remove temptation from your home.
Pricing Your Home
It is important that we price your home properly from the start, while buyer interest is at its highest.
Pricing your home is a complex task that requires the expertise of an experienced real estate professional. Consider the following:
If the listing price is set outside of the proper parameters, potential buyers may be deterred from considering your home
Arriving at the optimal price requires evaluation and understanding of current marketing conditions, the marketable features of your home, and recent trends in the real estate market
The closer your home is priced to fair market value when it first comes on the market, the more likely it will sell quickly at the highest price
The higher your home is priced above market value, the smaller the number of available buyers
Overpricing your home will attract fewer potential buyers and may cause it to sit on the market for longer than desired. To the buyer, too much time on the market indicates an overpriced property and often is perceived as an opportunity to negotiate a lower price than the market might typically bear.
Pricing your home competitively at the start will create more activity among brokers and buyers, decrease the time it takes to sell, and ultimately yield the highest possible price.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s extremely important not to miss the mark from the get-go. Once the gates open, all systems and marketing should be accurate and ready to go.”
— Julie Del Santo, Broker/Owner
Closing costs: Who pays what?
THE SELLER CUSTOMARILY PAYS:
Real estate commission
Document preparation for deed
Documentary transfer tax
Payoff of all loans against property
Interest accrued on loans being paid off, reconveyance fees, and pre-payment penalties
Home warranty (if specified in contract)
Any judgment or tax liens against seller
Property tax proration
Prorated HOA dues (if applicable)
HOA fee for providing all updated homeowner’s documents (if applicable)
Bonds or assessments
Delinquent taxes
Notary and recording fees
Third party Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement & California Tax Disclosure Report
Pre-sale inspection fees
Negotiated credits / repairs to buyer, if any
THE BUYER CUSTOMARILY PAYS:
Title insurance premiums
Escrow fee
Document preparation (if applicable)
Notary fees
Recording charges for all documents in buyers’ names
Tax proration (from date of acquisition)
All new loan charges (except those required by lender for seller to pay)
Appraisal fee
Interest on new loan from date of funding to 30 days prior to first payment date
Assumption / change of records fees
Beneficiary statement fee
Prorated HOA dues (if applicable)
Inspection fees (roof, pool, property inspection, pest, geological, etc.)
Home warranty (according to contract)
City transfer tax (according to contract)
Fire insurance premium for first year