I always think real estate is a local’s game, and that’s what I told my clients too. However, this time, I worked out of my area and went down to South Bay Santa Clara.
Client was my first boss in US from years ago. I was working in my dorm in UC Berkeley, helping them on marketing and graphic design, and thank god my boss enjoyed my work! Now that she had a condo she would like to sell, she approached me.
I was excited and nervous. I did a great job in my neighborhood, am I going to make it all the way 45 mins away? Challenge accepted!
Replacing the flooring? Done! Paint over the property? Done! Replacing appliances? Done! I studied all the property sold in the complex, walk around the area and learned all the information from neighbors; I called up school district to verify school information one by one and nailed down the Cupertino School features; I did my homework, put up a projector to display video, set up a bulletin board to show comparables, lay out multiple display stands to highlight the upgrades… and of course, multiple rounds of buyer education and final negotiations too!
During the open house, buyers came in, neighbors visited, brokers joined. I set up a raffle box and had everyone to guess the final sold price, the closest will win $50 gift card. 22 people participated the game.
Finally, after a nice 2 week, we closed at $130k over asking! Out of 22 people, only 1 got a price that was higher than what we actually sold for!!! Even the neighbor were caught by surprise – “I heard the market was softer now, not really for you isn’t it?!”
So very happy for my boss client, glad that all our hard work got paid off.
If you are also thinking about selling your property for top dollars, call me – 650.817.5000. I am absolutely obsessed with working on listing and hitting historical high sale price for you!