When selling a home, please bear in mind the following:

Best Practices for Selling

• Make sure your home is clean and in top condition.
• Display fresh flowers to add warmth to the environment.
• Allow your agent to schedule showings at the time of day when your property looks best.
• Remove valuable personal belongings and arrange to be elsewhere when your home is being shown.
• Obtain a home and pest inspection before listing your home to see if there are any issues that need to be addressed.
• You will need to select an experienced real estate agent to represent you.

Bidding and Negotiating

This is how the bidding process typically works:

• The bid or offer from a buyer is made orally or in writing through your real estate agent or co-broker, along with the presentation of the buyer’s qualifications.
• You may accept or counter the offer as part of a price negotiation.
• In the case of multiple bids, you and your agent will execute a strategy to obtain the best price and terms from the most qualified buyer. Frequently, the strategy will involve sealed bids or a deadline for highest and best offers from various bidders.
• You will work closely with your agent to identify the offer that best satisfies your needs.
• The conclusion of the process will result in agreement upon the price, terms and closing date.
• You and the buyer will need to engage capable and experienced San Francisco East Bay Area based real estate attorneys to prepare and review a contract of sale.

Going to Contract

Once you have accepted an offer, you will enter the contract stage.

While your listing agent prepares disclosures, the buyer’s agent will exercise “due diligence” by asking for certain key papers from you or your listing agent. These typically include:

• Preliminary report
• All disclosures related to the subject property
• Home or any other inspection report

After you have accepted the offer the buyer agent has 3 days to deposit the earnest money check into escrow. Typically the deposit is 1% to 3% of sale price.

• The contract and deposit are forwarded to escrow/title company.
• The buyer’s deposit is usually held in escrow/title company until the closing date.

Closing

Ordinarily, the buyer and buyer’s agent will ask to perform a final inspection of the property immediately prior to the closing. Barring any terms in the contract to the contrary, all fixtures and appliances that are scheduled to convey should be in good working order at this inspection. The closing usually occurs in the escrow/title company. The exact date should be flexible to accommodate everyone (you, the buyer, the banks, and the buyer and selling agent). It is best to allow for a potential delay of up to 30 days from the closing date specified in the contract.

Items that are paid at Closing Costs for Single family residence, Condominium & Townhouse Sellers:

• Broker: Typically 6%
• City and county transfer Tax
• Natural Hazard Disclosure
• Escrow/Title Fees
• HOA Certificate or transfer fees

These figures are presented as a general guideline only. Actual closings costs will vary for every transaction. Before signing any contract, sellers should have all closing costs explained to them by their agent.