Every answer here is dated, sourced, and written for one question. Nothing is a newsletter and nothing expires — when something changes, the page changes.
The one everybody asks first
2.5%, all in — covering preparation management, staging, photography, advertising and the events. Published, with the twenty-six things it includes and the third-party costs it does not, in the same size type.
What’s included → When to sell → What preparation costs → As-is or fix it up? →
Start with the situation
A main road, the freeway, the train line, a house nobody has touched since 1952. These are the houses Maggie is handed, and they are where preparation is worth the most. What 2,292 recorded Palo Alto sales actually say about each of them — and what to do about yours.
Two in three Palo Alto homes that come off the market unsold go on to sell. What the record says about why a house fails to sell here, how long to wait, what has to change before it goes back on — and what happened on three houses that had already been listed before Maggie got them.
What an adult child needs to understand about the family home — the deed, Proposition 19, the basis step-up, the timing, and how to divide it. Written for the years before a sale, not the week after a funeral.
What to spend on before a sale and what to leave alone — and why the same budget produces very different results on two houses on the same block.
How an asking price is set here, why the first two weeks decide the result, and what an offer deadline is actually for.
Or find the question
Nothing matched that. Try fewer words, or ask Maggie directly — she answers these herself.
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Her list, on request
Every trade here is one I have used on my own listings and would use again. It is the same list I give my own sellers. Tick whatever you need and I will send names and numbers — whether or not you ever list with me.
These are people I have either used on my own listings or who came highly recommended to me. It is the same list I give my sellers, there is no charge, and you would be hiring them directly.
On its way. I’ll send the names today, usually within the hour. — Maggie
Dated, and kept
The pages above do not expire. These ones do, on purpose — each is a record of one month or one year, kept as it was published so the figures can be checked against the date they were true.
The list I actually give people.
A short, specific guide — the improvements that reliably return more than they cost in this market, and the ones that almost never do.
On its way. — Maggie
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