Moving within or out of California’s Silicon Valley? Shifting to a new neighborhood? Undoubtedly, you’ll need to consider what to do with your existing house and it can be full of options and challenging decisions.
Fortunately, you have come to the right place to help get you started if planning to sell your house in Silicon Valley (counties include Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, Alameda County, and Contra Costa County).
Know the Neighborhood
What you first need to know when selling a house in Silicon Valley is the location and neighborhood of your home, which should be fairly easy as you’ve lived there, but the eye of a Realtor or new buyer may have a different perspective.
Let’s take Sunnyvale as an example.
Sunnyvale is a city in California with a population of about 152,770 people.
This city is in Santa Clara Country and is highly desirable given the proximity to the Hwy 101 corridor and strong real estate developments. Within the boundaries exist a mix of urban and suburban areas, and given the housing shortages, Sunnyvale has a strong rental market. The city is also well known for strong school districts, mixed urban centers as well as bountiful amenities.
Sunnyvale residents are mostly young professionals with demographic age under 45, making this a youthful city. As modern as this city is, it is just as active and colorful. The vast percentage of residents have earned their Master degrees and are well educated.
Considering this information, buyers typically are very thorough but generally well qualified for financing. They can also be aggressive and try to manipulate the sales price through aggressive negotiations and buyer credits.
Given the stresses this can create, it’s important to enlist strong representation who are competent with both renovations (to increase your sale value) and the sales and negotiation process (to manage the entire process and hold sale value high). That’s where the Property Twins come in. More to come on that later.
Now further in this blog, we will discuss the ways to list and sell your home properly in Sunnyvale, California. There are two standard ways of selling a house in California, either by a real estate agent or oneself, aka for sale by owner.
Selling Your Home with a Real Estate Agent
Enlisting the support of a real estate agent can provide numerous benefits to you in exchange for a sales commission fee based on the final sale price of your house. While it may seem easy to list and sell your house on your own, it can be stressful, unchartered and even, if done poorly, can result in a failed sale, loss of sale value and even legal troubles.
A valuable tool real estate agents have access to is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is the best place to obtain local and even national exposure for your house, from which many other platforms pull and leverage data for broader coverage. Buyers agents frequently leverage this tool for their buyers to assess available homes for sale.
Your agent will act as an access door to the MLS and will be officially managing your profile. They will represent themselves to the potential buyers as your lead impetus. Once you fill the requirements for the listing, your house listing will be posted online.
As buyers and buyers agents express interest in your house, your real estate agent with help to prepare your home, host open houses, screen offers and negotiate with the buyers. Once an acceptable offer is on the table, your agent will help to secure the offer, manage the timeline and ensure all legal documents are properly executed and followed. Any error or missed deadline may result in a breach of contract and potentially lose the offer.
If everything goes well, you’ll successfully close escrow and a percentage of the closing will be wired to the real estate agent, so technically there will be no out of pocket expenses from you to your real estate agent.
Selling Your Home without a Real Estate Agent
Trying to sell your home without the help of a realtor is a bit stressful and risky, but with credible sources you can get decent results.
For Sale By Owner (FSBO) is a method used by some homeowners who prefer to avoid paying commissions to real estate agents and attempt to sell their homes by themselves.
Apart from the idea of saving money, it is a very time-consuming and stressful task for someone with no experience in the real estate business.
It is far more than printing pamphlets and putting up a ‘For Sale’ sign.
Before risking your possessions on the market, here are key points that you need to address if planning to sell your house without a realtor:
- Study the current market and its environment.
- Set the right price according to the condition and surroundings of your home.
- Make your home look presentable and repair any damages to avoid any dispute.
- Take professional photos and video.
- List your home on top rated sites like Zillow and Redfin.
- Make physical advertisements like flyers, brochures, etc.
- Be aware of your home’s selling points and make sure to present them to the buyers.
- Hire an attorney to take control of further documentation and blind spots.
- Wait for the right offer and pricing trends.
- If it takes too long to find the right buyer, try to lower the prices.
- Make sure to close the sales advertising after accepting an offer to shield against meritless advertisement costs and avoid any confusion.
Sunnyvale Market Statistics
- The sale to list price ratio is blazing with homes selling on average at 113.3% of asking price, which is red hot seller’s market!
- Properties continue to sell lightning fast in an average of only 12 days.
- Since September 2020 prices are up by more than 15% with a median price increase of 16.6% and an average of 15.4%.
Sunnyvale condos are in a calmer market than houses, following similar trends but with smaller overbids and longer days on market.
Condos have a growing inventory that’s comparable to last year, but with a much higher volume of sales year-over-year. Month-over-month the inventory has seen some ups and downs, but overall, the market remains stable with just a hint of seasonal cooling.
The sale to list price ratio slipped to a hot 103.6% and homes are selling in an average of 22 days. This is a hot seller’s market, though noticeably milder than the single-family housing market.
This was a brief analysis of Sunnyvale and the real estate market of that city.
What to Do Next?
Did you find this information helpful?
For further information and consultation regarding the real estate market, you can contact Property Twins. We will not only help you sell your old house but also assist you in buying, building, and remodeling a new one.
The Property Twins are licensed with both Realtors and also Construction licenses and can help you with the entire process from start to finish.
Contact the Property Twins today at hello@propertytwins.com!
