Selling Your San Diego Home “As-Is” Can Be Risky

Question: “I plan to sell my house As Is. I don’t want to fix anything. If the buyer insists on repairs, they can buy another house…” Answer: I understand where you’re coming from. Ultimately, you’re looking for the best possible outcome from your home sale. With that in mind… When I represent a client selling
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An Alternative to Selling Your San Diego Home

Question: “Hi Gary. Our kids have finally moved out on their own. We love our four bedroom home, but we only need two bedrooms plus a den. Do you know of homes for sale like that in our neighborhood?” Answer: Shut the door of your fourth bedroom and fuhgeddaboudit (if you don’t speak DeNiro, that’s
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How Much Does Your San Diego Home Need Remodeling?

Question: “Hi Gary. I recently read that when you sell your home, you only recoup 79.4% of the cost of a kitchen remodel. But my kitchen was really busted up and I’ve got to think I’ll get more than that back. What do you think?” Answer: You’ve hit upon a big beef I have with
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Do Banks Do Short Sales on Reverse Mortgages?

Question: “My mother moved to a senior home and we need to sell. She has a reverse mortgage and is upside down. Do banks do short sales on reverse mortgages?” Answer: Yes! Short sales on reverse mortgages are as fast and easy as they get. In fact, we just did one and got the bank’s
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Hard to Find Your San Diego Home Value Online

Question: “Which website do you recommend to find out a home’s value?” Answer: Two types of websites purport to tell you your home value online: 1) automated; 2) agent/referral. Automated sites use complex but flawed software to calculate values. However the values they tell you are typically far from correct. This is due to incomplete/inaccurate
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What Should You Expect to Pay for Rentback?

Question: “Hi Gary. My wife and I have an offer and are closing quickly this year for tax reasons. We want to rent the house back for 30 days. What rent should we expect to pay?” Answer: Because rentbacks are usually requested by the seller, the typical practice is for the seller to pay the
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Your Bank May Lie to You About Your Short Sale

Question: “We’re behind on our mortgage and want to do a short sale, and our bank says we have to be current in order for them to approve it. That doesn’t sound right. What’s your take on this?” Answer: They’re lying to you! You’re talking with a department whose job it is to get you
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How the 3.8% Obamacare Tax Impacts Your Sale

Question: “How does the new 3.8% Obamacare tax work if/when I sell my home?” Answer: This (very long!) answer is from the National Association of Realtors: Top 10 Things You Need to Know About the 3.8% Tax 1. When you add up all of your income from every possible source, and that total is less
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Should You Get Your San Diego Home Staged?

Question: “Do you recommend getting a home staged before you sell?” Answer: I recently had a home for sale that was getting no action. But when the seller agreed to a small price adjustment and staged the home, we sold it immediately for full price. And I’ve had other clients sell their homes shortly after
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Don’t Fall Prey to the “Above Average” Fallacy

Question: “We’re planning to sell our home in Carlsbad this June. Homes in our neighborhood are going in the 700s, but ours is much better than average, so we expect to at least get in the 800s. Do you think the low 900s would be pushing it?” Answer: Before I answer your question, please answer
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