To tour all for sale homes, you now need a pre-approval letter

It wasn't this extreme before the pandemic, but I am seeing about 40% of all homes on the market now require a buyers loan pre-approval letter just to get in to see the property.

With the Coronavirus still playing a roll in all of our lives, more and more sellers only want to grant access to serious buyers.

I anticipate this percentage to only go up from here.

The days of casually looking at homes on the market are over.

If you want to see ALL the homes on the market, have your pre-approval letter ready!

Do I need to hire a professional cleaning company before moving out?

Was your home professionally cleaned just hours before you officially accepted a buyers offer on your home?

If so, make sure to get your home professionally cleaned right before you deliver your sold home to that new buyer.

Was your home in need of a deep clean at the time the buyer’s offer was accepted? Good!

No need to get a professional cleaning company to come out and clean the home.

The point here is to deliver the home to the buyer in substantially the same condition that it was in when you accepted the buyer’s offer to purchase your home.

Keep your home in the same condition throughout escrow

When selling your home, the purchase contract says that throughout the escrow process, the home has to be "maintained in substantially the same condition as on the date of acceptance.”

That means whatever condition the home was in at the time the buyer’s offer was accepted, good or bad, is how the home should stay throughout escrow and is how the property should be delivered to the buyer.

There is no need to go above and beyond when it comes to cleaning the home before moving out.

Although getting the home professionally cleaned before vacating is a nice gesture to the buyer, simply keeping it in the same condition that it was in when the home went into escrow is good enough

Which month is better to put a home up for sale: Jan. or Feb.

This home buyer pattern happens every single year.

Buyers stop their home search in December and pick it back up again in January.

To get top dollar for your home, take advantage of this rough data and choose to list your home for sale in January instead of February.

More buyers on the market lead to more competition.

If your home is priced right, that will lead to multiple offers for your property.

I want to be your friend's real estate agent. What do I have to do to make that happen?

Your friend told you they were thinking of selling their home.

What do I have to do for you to refer me to that friend?

Text me at 818-445-7953.

Thank you!

How do I send my deposit money to the escrow company?

I just saw on the news that a home buyer was scammed out of her entire deposit amount.

She received fake wiring instructions and had thought the instructions came directly from the escrow company.

She wired her deposit money over to the account on the fake instructions.

The thieves took the money and were never heard from again.

The buyer is now out the money she wired over and no longer has enough money to purchase a home.

She has to wait and save up more cash.

This is a terrible story and I am warning you now to always confirm that the wiring instructions are real.

This is very easy to do!

Once you get the wiring instructions emailed to you, call the escrow company and confirm over the phone that the account number that you are wiring to is in fact their real account.

Once confirmed, then you are safe to send the money.

Your 3% home purchase deposit is due in 3 days

When you buy a home, you have to put down a deposit.

Typically that deposit amount is 3% of the purchase price of the home.

Keep in mind that this 3% amount is not set in stone, but it is customary.

You can put any amount you want, however the seller will not think you are a serious buyer and probably won't accept your offer unless you put at least 3% for your deposit amount.

You have to send your deposit over to the escrow company to hold within 3 days of getting your offer accepted.