bids — Silicon Valley Real Estate: Home Buying, Home Selling & Getting Your House Ready to Sell

Sunnyvale house in Birdland area gets pre-housing market makeover

July 29, 2010 By Kelsey Lane 3 Comments

AFTER: Nuthatch Sunnyvale house- Front Exterior

This Sunnyvale house, a Lindsay-built home in Birdland is a perfect example of a good, solid house that needed to re-invent itself before going on the housing market. Getting your house ready to sell is completely different from actually living in a home. So, there’s usually tweaking to be done – our Silicon Valley realtor team puts together a list of recommended changes and then our clients authorize how much they want to spend for the home selling process. We take it from there and manage the budget, the project, and the construction contractors. In this case, we did oversee the painting, new tile entry, new granite in the kitchen, new lighting, and a gorgeous tiled shower enclosure in the master bath. We got bids and then stayed on top of the construction contractors throughout the process. Plus, we also coordinated the cleaning, inspections, powerwashing, window-washing, and carpet cleaning. Check back in a few weeks and we’ll have the full before-after story of the house. For now, take a peek at the “end product” and let your friends and family know this Sunnyvale house is for sale! It’s $839,000 and has Laurelwood Elementary and Peterson Middle School.

Related Links:
MLS Property Report for 1540 Nuthatch Lane, Sunnyvale CA

——-

Getting ready to buy a house? Use our Santa Clara County property search tool to create & save your search.

Price, Condition, Location & the Local Housing Market

July 1, 2010 By Kelsey Lane 2 Comments

Have you heard the real estate formula of “Price, Condition, Location”? It’s an antiquated formula that still sticks. And when you think about it, location can’t be changed right? You can spin it & market it but you can’t alter it. So our Silicon Valley realtor team helps by focusing on price and condition in order to help you sell your house for the highest price we can. First off, “price” you do not really have control over. You can set whatever price you want, but the price it will sell for is what a buyer in the housing market is willing to pay, ultimately. So the housing market sets the price. Your initial list price is a “guess” at what the housing market value is. The risk factor is that when you’re selling a house, if you price to high, you’ll shoot yourself in the foot and, in the end, wind up selling it for much less than if you approached it a different way. The reason for this is that overpriced homes sit on the housing market while their competition gets attention & sell like hotcakes. We recommend those selling a house drive around to see competing homes in the local housing market—what do they look like and what are they priced at – are they selling? Those buying a house will be making comparisons and then offering accordingly. You always, always want to price at housing market value or slightly below. It is counter-intuitive, but that is what will help you keep the most money in your pocket when selling a house. However secondly, you have a lot of control over the condition of your home. That’s why The Look Team (Silicon Valley realtor professionals) focuses on that part of the transaction as what makes us unique. For the same price as what everybody else charges, we include helping you by getting your house ready to sell. We want to make sure you are in line or even better than the competing homes in the housing market when it is time to go “live”. Once you authorize what you are willing to spend on getting your house ready to sell, we give your place “The Look” which is very upscale, on a budget! You don’t have to spend a lot on getting your house ready to sell to make a big impact. And we get bids, help pick a contractor, choose materials, manage a budget spreadsheet & much, much more so you can spend time at your job or whatever else you love to do.

——-

Home selling? Find out your home value & start the consulting process for getting your house ready to sell by clicking My Home Value in the top navigation. Or, if you are interested in a complimentary 30-Minute Consult on getting your home ready to sell, call Kelsey Lane today to set a time: 408-316-0660, kelsey@kelseylane.com.

Getting ready to buy a house? Use our Santa Clara County property search tool to create & save your search.

A to Z Construction Contractors and Service Providers: C: Adan Caballero, General Contractor

March 27, 2010 By Kelsey Lane Leave a Comment

The Cityscape kitchen after Adan worked on it.

One of our absolute favorite general construction contractors right now is Adan Caballero. One of our clients buying a house actually helped us find him! Our client was moving into a fixer upper reo (bank owned property) and we coordinated the pre-move in remodel for them. We got 4 bids for the work and Adan Caballero’s bids were among the two lowest among the construction contractors. We found out he does a lot of work for Taco Bell and has a professional team that works with him. They swooped in, got the work done on time (including granite countertops in the bathroom & kitchen, new lighting, tilework, door hardware & a bunch of handyman-type tasks)…and there was no drama! What a refreshing process, to be working with him and his team of stellar construction contractors. Adan’s number is 408-394-0023. Make sure, as always, to tell them that the Kelsey Lane from the Listing Look (Silicon Valley real estate blog) sent you.

The Cityscape kitchen before Adan worked on it.

(Update 7/29/10…We have continued to do several projects–like a home selling project in Sunnyvale CA– with Adan and his team & they are truly amazing. Can’t say enough good things!)

Need to find a contractor for a remodeling construction project? Get a contractor list of recommendations from The Listing Look (Silicon Valley realtor professionals) by clicking “Find a Contractor” in the top navigation.