The seller’s guide
Selling a home in the Valley
Pricing, preparation and the offer — what moves the number and what does not.
Sellers consistently say the same three things matter to them: how the home is marketed, whether it is priced correctly, and whether it sells inside the timeframe they need. Everything below is in service of those three, in the order they arrive.
What actually sets the price?
What comparable homes nearby have recently closed at — not what they are asking.
Asking prices tell you what other sellers hope for. Closed sales tell you what buyers agreed to. A pricing conversation that leans on active listings rather than recent closings is a conversation about optimism. Ask to see the specific comparables behind any number you are given, and ask why each one is comparable.
Does overpricing cost me anything if I can just reduce later?
Yes. The first two weeks draw the most attention a listing will ever get, and an overpriced home spends them being passed over.
By the time the price is corrected, the audience that would have competed for it has moved on, and the accumulated days on market become their own argument for a lower offer. Homes priced correctly at launch tend to sell nearer to asking than homes reduced into the same number later.
What preparation is worth the money?
Paint, light, decluttering and anything that photographs badly — in roughly that order.
Buyers see photographs before they see the house, and a home that photographs poorly loses buyers who never book a viewing. Large renovations rarely return their cost at sale; the small, visible things usually do. Repairs that will surface in an inspection are worth handling before listing, because a defect found by a buyer’s inspector becomes a negotiation, while the same defect fixed beforehand is simply gone.
What do I have to disclose?
In California, everything you know that materially affects the property’s value or desirability.
This is the Transfer Disclosure Statement, and the instinct to say as little as possible is the wrong one. Non-disclosure is the most common route from a completed sale to a lawsuit afterwards, and it is entirely avoidable. Disclose it, price it in, and it stops being a risk.
How is the buyer’s agent paid now?
It is negotiated rather than published, and since August 2024 you decide whether to offer anything toward it.
Offering to cover some of the buyer’s agent fee can widen your buyer pool, particularly among buyers stretching to afford the deposit. Declining is also legitimate. It is now a term you set deliberately, and it should be decided as part of your pricing strategy rather than assumed.
What should I look at in an offer besides the price?
The financing, the contingencies and the closing date — a lower offer with fewer conditions is often the stronger one.
A high offer contingent on the buyer selling their own home, with a long loan contingency and an appraisal that has to come in, carries real risk of not closing. Ask what happens to your position if it falls through six weeks in, because that is the scenario the price alone does not tell you about.
This guide describes the ordinary shape of a residential transaction in California and is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change and every property is different — ask a licensed professional about your own situation.
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