[00:00:05] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield ReMax team presents real Estate and More. Bay Area real estate is different than all of America and why? What's up with home buyers? What's on sellers minds? How is the market? And much, much more. Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield. Well, welcome to the Real Estate and More show. Whether you are a first time seller or an experienced, listing your home for sale can be overwhelming. In today's episode, we'll discuss subjects from understanding agency relationships, the listing agreement, to evaluating your home's value with a comparative market analysis. We'll also discuss preparing your home for market, the importance of disclosures in creating a timeline and strategy with your agent. Plus, we'll explore the oh so important current market conditions, the benefits of home inspections and managing offers. Stay tuned as my partner Nancy and I guide you through this process. Hi, Nancy.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: Hi, Michael. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Yeah. The first section we have here is one that has to deal with the counseling and the activities in the process. The first part is discuss the listing agreement and the associated documents. The, the first one is the agency disclosure. That's saying basically that the broker and the agent are representing you as the seller. Kind of looks like this.
It's just an associated document to the listing agreement. The residential listing agreement is somewhat seven pages and it looks like this. It's constantly evolving and changing. There's a lot to know about it. It has associated documents, disclos, and a lot of decisions that go into completing this particular document. So there's a lot to know about it. So it's always a good idea to have an experienced agent to help you through that. So let's, let's continue on. We've talked about agency and what it means. The buyer will have his own agent and he will also have completed the agency disclosure form, as we saw initially a few moments ago. So now we need to talk when we sit down with a seller about the working relationships like communication, state law requirements, the Realtor code of ethics, and the broker's business policies. Nance, talk about communications and how important that is.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Well, depends on if you know the folks that you're going to meet with to begin with. Sometimes people you've just met and they've called you up, others are friends. It just depends where they are in your sphere of influence. And so sometimes it's getting to know each other and, and just getting familiar. Right. And, and all of that. And then some folks just want to get down to the, you know, get to the point and let's get this done. And usually that kind of Meeting takes a few hours, right? It could take several, depending. But the communication is just getting to the point where you know what. So many decisions to be made, paperwork to fill out, and all kinds of things such as that.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: So, after all, you know, selling your home is a big financial decision. It's fraught with all kinds of pitfalls and places that you can get stuck in if you're not really looking in the right areas. A lot of people today, when they see the news they see online, they go on there and they say, oh, well. Well, it's definitely this way, because I read it where it may not be that way at all. So it's important that you sit down and that you learn to have a relationship with the agent that you have chosen to represent you. So whether or not you're going to do, you know, interview two or three agents or whatever, you should already have a pretty good idea who they are.
Not because they've sold the most, but because there's somebody that you feel that you can work well with that's. That's much more important, in my view.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: And you want to feel like you can trust them and that you can relate to them and that they can get your objectives met. Another thing is the business policies of the brokers. Depending on what broker you work for, they'll have their set of requirements that you need to carry out when you're in a listing appointment and working, beginning to work with a seller. So all of that factors in as well.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: And then also we need to know when we're in a listing appointment, we need to know what the seller really wants to do. Is it simply maximizing the amount of proceeds from the sale? We're going to adjust. Assume that. But there may be other factors involved, like maybe I want to sell my house and move to Guatemala, and I need to do that within a specific period of time because I'm building a house in that country. What do you say? What are some other factors that the seller may need to relate to us? Nance.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Right. They may be going into assistance a living. They may be moving in with one of their children. They may be downsizing. I mean, there's so many possibilities. And the seller sometimes has a time frame that is. Has got to be met. So that is really essential to your conversation with seller. And a listing appointment, which. A listing appointment. Right. Is when you decide to sign a contract with an agent and to do the work for them in getting their home. Soldiers.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Mm. Very important. Now, there's. We see notices of notes of having a Budget. What does that mean? It means that when we walk in as agents, don't feel offended if we walk through your house in three minutes flat. It doesn't take long for us to see what we need to see in order to best advise you. We'll walk through a house, we'll see if it's been recently painted, how updated are the bathrooms, what are the actual kitchen? What does it look like? How about the countertops? What about the landscaping? Are there things that can be done that will yield the maximum amount of money that the seller will receive from the sale? We have to always keep that in mind. In fact, that's our number one priority at our, at our brokerage.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Right. I mean, you might see a home that flooring would make an immense difference in prospect of buyers coming in and looking at it. A decking might be falling apart, so people could not even stand on it, for instance. So those things are really important. Talking about possible staging in this day and age and in particular locales, staging is essential that it is done. It makes quite a difference in, you know, having prospective buyers look at a home and then Re Max, for instance, even has financing options available to help people to get out of their homes, to prepare it for market. So there's all different kinds of programs that we are in tune with that we can offer up to various sellers.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: So what you're saying is that when we go through, to represent a. A seller, we're going to go through the house and say, oh, gonna have to paint this in order to get that money back. And then some should probably change the countertops, maybe the flooring, say the carpet has been there for 35 years.
Sometimes it happens, you know, in fact, oftentimes it does. There's always something that could be better. And we work together to make the home the best appearing possible to yield the maximum amount of income to the seller or proceeds to the seller when the home is sold. That's what we really work hard on. And it's. It's very important. So that's where the need for a budget comes in.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: ReMax.
[00:08:20] Speaker C: The Real Estate Minute with RE MAX expert Michael Hatfield. Bay Area housing markets are always changing. What should we think of that, Michael?
[00:08:28] Speaker D: You know, Mark Twain said, I seldom saw an opportunity until it ceased to be one. We live in the greatest housing market in the nation. But careful thought should be given each time one buys or sells a home. A good agent can help you grasp a great opportunity.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Tell us about discount agents.
[00:08:45] Speaker D: Michael Discount agents can list your home, but without telling my secrets, they're unlikely to do all we do for clients clients. It's an unnecessary risk to save a few thousand by hiring a junior agent and lose tens of thousands through a poorly done transaction. You don't know what you don't know. It's wise to hire someone who does.
[00:09:03] Speaker C: If you or someone you know is interested in buying or selling a home, call the Michael Hatfield ReMax team at 925-322-7775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com when your real estate needs are beyond the standard and you demand more than the status quo, look no further than the Michael Hatfield Mac's, a court team with offices in Danville and nine more Bay Area locations. Here's Michael Hatfield to tell us more.
[00:09:30] Speaker D: Do you have a housing problem such as you live in a three bedroom home with three children and need one more bedroom. You want better schools or your kids grown up, moved out and your home is just too large? Our team is a five star agent who serves our clients housing needs as our number one priority. Call us for a free buyer consultation to start working on your housing problem. Now. Let us help you to solve your housing issue, whatever your need may be.
[00:09:54] Speaker C: Call 925-322-7775 to partner buyer or seller needs with the Michael Hatfield Re Max Accord team. That's 9253-2277-7592-5322-7775. Come discover a new level of excellence in real estate with the Michael Hatfield.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: Now back to our show.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: And that budget will also connect in with the timeline of when we're trying to get this home on the market.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: I mean, absolutely. It makes me think about the one home that we sold in the Bay Area and it needed a toilet, for instance. So there's all different things that come together to get a house sold that was a fixer upper. And you know, it's just very interesting and every situation is a little bit different. But sometimes I've noticed that buyers, they have like key things that matter to them like that kitchen has to be updated or it's a no go or I have to have a large yard in the back because and it needs to be flat because I'm going to have the dog, the kids and parties or whatever. So it's just very interesting what's important, you know, to people and their priorities.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yes. And a lot of it actually will be directly related to what the property will be worth in the existing Market. Now, I really want to think aloud about the fact that the markets in the United states, there's probably 50,000 real estate markets in the Bay Area. There's several, all different price points in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are months of the year that homes are much more active on the market than they are in other months. So you want a time, if you possibly can, placing the home on the market, at which time there will be the most amount of potential buyers for that home. There's something else that's important, that once we've established the value for the home, then we've got to make sure that we do not overprice it, because if we do, that can be devastating. You want to talk about that for a second?
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Well, I was just thinking about a home and its value, Michael. About seasons, of course, world events we've seen that happen and have a great impact on interest rates. Those are all big factors that can affect value at a certain point in time. So that's kind of fascinating.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, one other thing before you talk about the pyramid, I know that's where you're going, but just recently since the election, the new home gains in housing starts and existing home housing starts jumped 16% in the month of December after the election. So external forces, external things tend to affect each and every market that we look at. So we have to take a home that's in this particular neighborhood, we have to break it down and say, wow, what about this house? Is this the time to sell it? Or shall we wait until the end of the year when the tech industry is paying its bonuses? You know, there's all kinds of ways to look at it. And we have to be able, in order to get you, the valued seller, the maximum amount of money for your home. We have to actually pay a lot of attention to that.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Right, right. So if you're looking to buy or sell a home, call the Michael Hatfield ReMax team today at 925-322-7775. We're here to help you make your real estate dreams a reality.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: Ah, that sounds right.
During the steps of the meeting with the seller, you know, you with the seller, to begin filling out the seller's checklist of to do items. And during that process, there are very important seller disclosures. And seller disclosures are not just on one particular document that they have to complete, they're on several. And any questions that the seller needs to provide a buyer.
Sometimes if they don't know the answer, they say they don't know the answer. But Things like, are there any underground fuel tanks within a quarter mile? Have armaments been buried somewhere? How close are you to a fire zone? Things like that. That comes from a report that we tend to get, not 10, but we do get called the Natural Hazard disclosure Report. If a dam were to break, we need to know the possibility of that. And as a seller, you must disclose these item. And so we put all of that together. We work with you to fill out your seller disclosures that you are obligated for the buyer to complete. And there's a lot of those forms during the process that have to be done. Right. Because if you don't fill out everything in authenticity and in earnest and you omit things or you don't say things that you know what happens?
[00:15:09] Speaker B: It's not good. It's simply not good. And lawsuits can ensue later, which you want to avoid at all costs. So you really do want to disclose as much as you can to a prospective buyer because they need to know as well what they're spending all their money on, Right?
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: And we do a timeline as well during that period. Right. When we're working with sellers.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. We had the famous trial attorney, a litigator, Michael Cardoza, on the show a week or two back and he was saying, why wouldn't you? You disclose it, you disclose everything.
Because when people look at these disclosures as being potential buyers, it's very important that you have it out there at that point in time. So what we do as part of your listing agents is we actually publish those disclosures so buyers agents can acquire these documents and then turn around and give them to the buyers. And the buyers can look at them and say, okay, I understand that retaining walls probably needs to be rebuilt. So they met, then they come up and they manufacture their offer accordingly. Other thing that to think about is inspections. Who does and pays for inspections?
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Who does? Well, it could be the buyer or the seller. And it just depends. If somebody had a home that they knew there was a lot of work, say woodwork to be done on the outside of the home, they may pause and say, I'm not going to do inspections, I'm going to let the buyer do those inspections and they can decide what they think once they get a report and go from there.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah, but the offset is that they know the condition of the property from third party professional inspectors. They're likely to pay more money for that property. And especially if there's multiple offers that come in on the property, they're likely to pay more for that position of being a potential buyer.
That's how I see it anyway.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Provide a comparative market analysis. Listing agents do these all the time. What is a comparative market analysis, Nance?
[00:17:20] Speaker B: So it's a review that the agent for working for you would do in a certain locale closest to your home and it and they would look at properties to say what's coming parable and what did they sell for in the past so many days? What might be pending in your locale and what might be active and new on the market. So it's an assessment, it's a point in time and it gives you an indicator of what you might want to list your home at.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: When you put it on the market. What list price?
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Yes. And it's not all that easy. We like to go over the comparative market analysis once it's been completed with the, with the actual seller. And the reason is there's so many differences between one home and another and you have to back out the comparables attributes or detributes to best match the home which is the quote subject property. So if you were at a brand new development of three bedroom or four bedroom homes, pretty much two models and there were 50 of them and it's all began in the same year, then every one of those homes is going to be pretty darn close in value giving or take the the effects of the actual market and the condition of the home. But if it's new that's a different thing altogether. So if you do not have a new development now, you're going to have to come up with a few homes to derive a value, market value. We will caught, we will say and then what happens once we've got that market value, once we do, do we put the house on the market at that price?
[00:19:06] Speaker B: We could, we could. But one of the things that we use is this pyramid and this pyramid helps us when we are trying to price a property, help a seller list their property and come up with the price. And and so if you have a market value the percentage of prospective buyers may only be 60%. So sometimes it's it smart or it's a strategy to price a house a little bit under and hoping to get more than possibly the market value or the market value. It just, it depends. So that's a tool that's used.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: It definitely is. So what this is saying, and this came from ReMax International and ReMax, believe me, to support and be behind us. They're the largest in the world. There are 155 offices worldwide. There's something like 125,000 agents all over the world. They're very, very large company. But this comes from Re Max and it virtually says that if you come in and let's say the home is actually expected to yield a million dollars in the market at that given point in time, you put it on the, on the market at a million dollars and you're only going to see 60% of the buyers come out to see it. But if you were to put it in and let's just say at 950, not only are your Internet criteria points less, but you're going to, at that point in time, you're going to see as many as 75% of the prospective buyers because of it. So it's very important how you price a home.
[00:20:49] Speaker B: Right. And that comparative market analysis is a big deal, getting that done. And then sometimes we've had clients who also received a formal appraisal by an appraiser. Right, A certified appraiser. And that helped them figure out where their house stood in the marketplace at that particular time. So that just depends. It depends on every situation.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: So not only do we derive a schedule to bring the home to the market, we have a to do list for the actual sellers to accomplish to get them the most amount of money for their home.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: We're going to take a short break. Break. We'll be right back.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: The Real Estate minute with Re Max expert Michael Hatfield. What does an agent do to get a home sold?
[00:21:35] Speaker D: Typically, an agent will prepare a comparative market analysis so he knows the home's value, then creates a marketing plan tailored just for your home. With these plans, he promotes the home globally and locally in social media, publications, open houses, all for the purpose of getting your home front and center with prospective buyers.
[00:21:54] Speaker C: As an agent, how do you get it sold? Michael?
[00:21:56] Speaker D: We do each and every item in the plan, negotiate vigorously on the client's behalf on inspection, repairs, staging, and importantly, the deal itself. We do everything we can to get the deal done and closed.
[00:22:09] Speaker C: Call 925-322-7775. Now to schedule an appointment or complimentary home analysis. For excellence in real estate, call the Michael Hatfield ReMax team at 925-3227 7775 or go to michaelhatfieldhomes.com now back to our show.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: And we also help them acquire services and products that they may need in order to prepare the home for the best possible presentation to the market. And we try to time it to where it's going to be on a Market in, let's just say a really great month, say April, May. That's a very good time to put a home on a market in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: And sometimes, depending, we've had homes on the market in the month of December. And that has been a good time for. If you're a buyer, obviously it might be a good time to get a home, but yeah, for even a seller, it might turn out to be very good time.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we're going to match. We're going to match the seller needs with a schedule and the seller's to do list. And that's a bit of work and it takes a little bit of thinking. Now, as part of the system, most people don't really realize this unless they've been in a recent buy or sell situation. But there is a person that we use as part of our team called a transaction coordinator. And it seems like something else again, but it is like your law clerk, if you were a lawyer, it's somebody that keeps all your documents just the way that you want them to comply with all of the state laws, all of the broker policies and so forth to where you have a complete transaction. Transaction coordinators are very inexpensive for all of the work that they do. Would you not say Nance?
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Yes, and I actually think of that person like a person with angel wings on.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I understand. You know, it's. It's important that you get all of this stuff put together and that the seller understands what is being done on their behalf when I say what is being done on their behalf. What about the marketing plan? The marketing strategy? That is the list of things that we do as your listing agent to bring your home to the market. Get in front and center of the potential buyers, the most potential buyers. So not only do we help you present in front of all of the buyers, but we, you know, work up the advertising. If there's inspections that we decide that we're going to do is the seller's side of things, we schedule all of those and attend those, make sure that those are done. If there's not enough clarification on the price that we want to come on the market or the value of the home, we may bring in an appraiser to assist us to make sure that we're on the right path to do the best we can for the actual sellers.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: If you had a very unique home, for instance, that might be helpful. It just depends on the situation. But those are the things that we know about, we discuss with our sellers.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And then there's compensation. This is one that that realtors, they don't know what to say about this. But generally speaking, in the past, the sellers and the price of the home have paid both the listing broker's compensation as well as the buyer's broker and buyer's agent compensation. It's been this way forever. A recent lawsuit had changed that. Now a buyer has to be more active with his agent or broker and fill out and complete and sign BR California state law, what they call a broker compensation agreement. And that agreement would allow the compensation to be paid by the seller as part of the selling price or he could pay it out of his pocket if he she wished to do it. It's more paperwork. It's more that the than the normal people that are going to buy or sell a home would know. But your experience agent will guide you on that one. Do you agree?
[00:26:29] Speaker B: I do.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: Okay. Who pays what and how is it paid? Is very important.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: It is important.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Yes. You've been listening to the Real estate and more show. If you're ready to take that next step in your home journey, reach out to the Michael Hatfield ReMax team. Call us at 925-322-7775 and let's get you started.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: So do you want to talk about seller disclosures a little bit more?
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: So what's important and maybe what are some of them? I mean, that we help our sellers do?
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we're going way over in our time, but let's touch these right at the moment. So seller disclosures. There is the seller property questionnaire. It's a three, four page, I think it's three pages right now of questions that are you aware of or do you know and that you have to complete as a seller to your best ability and not leaving anything out. There's the other one, which is the.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Real estate transfer disclosure, which is very similar, very similar.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: Just a couple pages on that one. But very poignant questions, very important questions that need to be reviewed and endorsed with a signature once you've completed them. Your agents are not supposed to touch those forms as far as, you know, marking boxes or anything like that. You will, as the seller do that, but we can sit there and advise you throughout that process. There's also a couple more that have to be provided to buyers that may be interested in your property. The first one, the biggest one, is the natural hazard disclosure report on that report. What's on that report, Nance?
[00:28:15] Speaker B: All kinds of information that you as a homeowner probably would not know are.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Around your home yeah, like fire. Is it in a fire area? Is it an extreme high fire area? Is it in a flood area? What about those fuel tanks that have been empty on the corner for from a previous gas station for a long time? What about those goes on and on and on about that. So anyway, we're going to have to come back to finish these questions. There's just way too much to do here. You've been listening to the Real Estate and More show. My partner, Nancy, thank you for being on the show today.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: Thanks, Michael.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Be back next week with another interesting guest and we'll have to come back and work some more on getting these how to list your home questions answered for you. Thank you. We'll be back checking in with you once again. Have a blessed week.
[00:29:04] Speaker D: Please remember to go to our new YouTube handle my real Talk Show. That's my real talk
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