What to expect when selling a home in Los Angeles?

For the sale of one your biggest assets, you want to work with someone you trust.

Step 1: First Meeting

We will sit down and chat about your home. What makes your home special? What do you love about the house? I’ll also need to know more about what’s next for you and your timeline. Once your home is listed, things tend to move very fast in this market so we need to look at a calendar together from the jump.

I’ll present you sales data in the area and discuss price strategies.

If the home is in need of any pre-listing touch ups, I’ll present you current buyer feedback I’m seeing day-to-day. Paint, staging, refinishing floors. All cost effective ways to highlight the special character of your home.

Need another reason to work with an established Compass agent like myself?

Let me introduce you to Compass Concierge — you will be fronted for the cost of home improvement services with zero interest. This is a hassle-free way to sell your home faster and for a higher price with services like staging, flooring, painting and more.

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Compass Concierge

Once a the home is ready, I’ll bring in a fantastic photographer to take eye catching photo and video. Today, it is very important for a home to pop on camera since listings are so shareable online. You want agents and clients to see a house on their phones and be excited to see it in person.

Step 2: Just Listed

The full marketing campaign will be firing and showings requests will start to roll in. Showings will be dictated by your schedule. Life is busy and I’m here to make this transition less stressful and more fruitful.

Saturday and Sunday open houses are great. Get as many people in there to fall in love. Plus it makes it easy for you, because we bypass a huge quantity of weekday showings. You will want to accommodate some. People typically spend 10 minutes in a home before they offer their life savings to buy it. Let them come a second time. It will make them feel good about the purchase.

Step 3: Offers

Good news: you are getting some offers. We will discuss the price and terms of each; I’m a fan of a spreadsheet to keep track.

You have a few options when responding to offers:

  1. decline / ignore offer. Not recommended— you never know what someone might come up to?

  2. counteroffer. Quite common here in Los Angeles. Two types:

    1. single party counter offer- congrats you received an offer! But the price might be a little low or the terms are off. This is great— time to negotiate and see if there is some common ground.

    2. multiple counter offer - best case scenario. Multiple people want to buy your house and will likely now pay a premium for it. You can send a counteroffer to everyone and ask for their highest and best terms/price.

  3. Accept offer— the buyer is speaking your language. The terms and price are ideal and you can’t refuse. Let’s open escrow!

Then we will review responses. Pick the best one and get started!

Step 4: Escrow

First few days of escrow will be lots of emails. You will finalize your sellers disclosures and begin signing escrow docs.

Your home will be inspected. I always do my best to contain this to one day. The buyer can elect to do dozens of different inspections but the main five are:

  • General

  • Sewer line

  • Roof

  • Chimney

  • Termite

An appraisal will be ordered by the loan company in the first week of escrow. The appraiser walks thru a home and decides it’s market value based on the homes specific features and recently sold comparable properties. As a seller, you will be notified of the appraised value.

Based on the terms you and the buyer agreed to, at some point in the escrow, contingencies will be removed. This really solidifies the sale and lets you know that the buyer has done all their due diligence and is committed to closing the escrow as agreed.

The last week of escrow, you will be focused on packing up and and moving out of your home. An exciting time of transition with lots of moving pieces. I’ll be there to help navigate any roadblocks and ensure stress is kept to a minimum.

Escrow will arrange for you to sign the closing paperwork, either at the escrow office or via mobile notary.

The day before escrow closes, you will be notified of the buyers loan funding and the closing funds wired into escrow.

Step 5: Close & Celebrate

On closing day, escrow will record the sale at the County’ Recorder office. Once recorded, the sale is complete. I will arrange the key pick up for the buyers and you will should receive your funds within 24 hours. I’ll bring over a bottle of champagne to celebrate!

*A note on what is expected on closing. You will want to make sure you deliver a broom swept clean home to your buyer. Also, I advise my clients to write out a little homeowners guide to make the transition smooth for the next owner. It promotes goodwill and is always met with extreme gratitude. Things to consider — when is trash pickup? When was the last time you cleaned the gutters? Is there a gardener you used for periodic upkeep? Favorite restaurant in the area