The preparation walkthrough Find out what your house specifically needs.
An hour, room by room, with the agent who will be doing the work. You leave with the list for your house, the order to do it in, and what each item should cost.
What you leave with
The list for your house
Not the five things every agent says. The specific items on your specific property that a buyer will pay for or discount, room by room.
The order to do them in
Sequence is most of it. Landscaping has to go in first because it takes longest to settle; everything has to be finished before the photographer arrives.
What each one should cost
Real ranges from real Palo Alto projects, so you can decide what is worth doing before you call anybody for a quote.
Book a walkthrough No charge. No obligation. About an hour.
Why a list is not enough
Preparation money is two budgets, not one.
There is money that adds something a buyer will pay for — the approach from the street, light in a dark room, a garden that reads established. And there is money that removes an objection before it is ever raised: the dry rot, the unclosed permit, the ceiling stain from a leak fixed nine years ago.
Most sellers spend nearly everything in the first pot, because that is the fun one. The second is usually where the better return is, and it is invisible in the photographs — which is exactly why it gets skipped. Getting the split right on a particular house is most of the work, and it cannot be done from the outside.
What it is not
- A number she arrived at by walking the house, room by room.
- Not a form that emails you a generic checklist.
- Not a listing pitch. If your house needs almost nothing, she will say so.
- Not a commitment to sell, or to sell with her.
How it goes
- You send the address and a rough timeline. Whether that is next spring or "sometime, probably" makes no difference to the visit — only to what she suggests doing first.
- She walks the house with you. Room by room, outside first. Expect her to disagree with you about at least one thing.
- You get the list. What to do, in what order, and what it should cost — including the items she would skip and why.
- Then nothing, unless you want something. No follow-up sequence, no mailing list. If you want quotes from her trades, ask and she will make the introductions.
The useful version of this conversation happens before you spend anything.
Sellers commonly do this six to eighteen months out. By the time the contractor is booked, the decisions that mattered have already been made.
Book a walkthrough Or text her directly on 650.709.5588.
Her list, on request
The people I actually use.
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