This letter is to provide real estate information that may be helpful now or later, whether you will be a seller, buyer, or both.

Selling tips -- If you want to get your home sold fast and at the highest price the market will bear, put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. In other words, make it attractive and easy for a buyer to buy. This is based on my experience and expertise. Suppose, for example, your home listed at $800,000 and you wanted to sell for at least $790,000. However, buyers were not making any offers for one reason or another. One common reason is many buyers are strapped for cash, even if their fico scores and earnings are high. So what should sellers do to take advantage of this situation? 1) Offer to pay for a few relatively inexpensive items that will help buyers with a limited amount of cash. Paying for part or all of the buyer's non-recurring closing costs, or the buyer's property inspection and appraisal will attract more buyers, and the more buyers the higher the offers. (By the way, I often reimburse the seller for the property inspection and appraisal costs). 2) Advertise the items you will pay by having your Realtor enter in the Agent Remarks section of the MLS property profile sheet: "Seller shall pay for buyer's non-recurring closing costs up to $4,000. And/or: "Seller shall reimburse seller for buyer's property inspection and appraisal fees." But this gets even better for the seller. Since the upfront cash helps the buyer, he/she will probably make a higher offer. Furthermore, if the timing of the market is favorable (seller's market), you could sell at even a higher price by generating multiple offers. However, generating multiple offers successfully requires explicit steps. No boasting intended, but I know exactly how to attract high offers via multiple offers, or by the standard way.

Buying tips -- Buying a home is usually quite easy for first-time buyers: get pre-approved for a loan, find a desirable home in a good location, find a good deal, make an offer, get it accepted, and close escrow. However, when homeowners want to sell and buy at the same time, it will be more complicated. Here are a few challenging situations: 1) selling contingent on closing escrow on a replacement home, 2) buying contingent on selling the existing home, 3) simultaneous escrow closings (when a seller's sold home closes escrow and the seller closes escrow on the replacement property at the same time), and 4) tax-deferred 1031 exchanges.

For more helpful information, please visit my website: www.homesbyflavia.webs.com. Scroll down the first page to read a few tips on how to sell at the highest price. Also, at the top of the page under "More" you will see a few informative pages. In case you are interested, I will provide you with a sample copy of the California Association of Realtors' (C.A.R.) new Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA-CA), along with my abbreviated explanation of all 108 paragraphs and sub-paragraphs, and a separate sheet containing the most important paragraphs, timelines, and an extensive index containing 175 entries. All real estate questions are welcome, including investment property topics, calculating the current true value of your home, and more.