There has been an increasing trend in recent years where more and more sellers are willing to take a few extra weeks, or in some cases, months, to get their property ready for the market to maximize their proceeds.
The trouble is, how does a seller do this when they don’t have the bandwidth or the budget to undertake a major project, or in many cases the know-how and connections to ensure that the job can be done well? Fortunately, proactive agents have responded to the demand by expanding their tool kit to include extensive pre-marketing preparations to the many core services provided in the course of a real estate transaction.
During this process, the agent takes the role of facilitating between the various professionals who collaborate to optimize the home’s presentation, and much of our success lies in the quality of the team that we have assembled to deliver sufficiently high-quality work on a budget that needs to stay within the limits where it increases the property value by substantially more than it cost to make it more attractive.
This has evolved into what I have started calling the Main Street Makeover. It begins with a focused analysis on the property value in its current condition compared to what it could be worth fixed up, and both values are carefully considered against costs and timeline for a makeover before making specific recommendations on pricing and final pre-marketing preparations.
On some projects, the property owner is actively involved in the renovation process, providing their input and helping run materials or even doing some of the labor to keep costs down. For others, we are given free rein to select and oversee the various phases of the renovation, sending updates and photos back to the owners along the way. At the end of it all, we are often able to increase the value by $100K or more with $30K-$40K worth of preparations that can typically be made in under a month, coordinated by the listing agent with their go-to vendors who handle the full scope of the project.
And depending on the scope of the budget, on occasion our agency is also able to help front the cost as needed for qualified pre-marketing projects as part of the listing agreement, with provisions for zero interest to be paid on up to $50,000 in renovations for up to 6 months.
If you are curious to learn more, you can view current examples of our team’s handiwork at two of our current listings on the market, including a tract home in Watsonville that drew multiple offers and is already in escrow at the highest price ever for its subdivision. Or you can come see the manufactured home our makeover team just completed which is being held open today in Capitola that is also getting rave reviews.
When we get the chance to slow down and take a breath, we might post some before and after photos of these and other successful examples on our homepage, but for the moment we are busy enough with the projects we are managing that we would rather remain focused and on task.
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