THE THOUGHT PROCESS
It starts small. With thoughts like, “Are we are outgrowing our house? I wonder how much our home is worth these days?
I’d love a new kitchen, bathroom, maybe a bigger room... ok, might as well make it whole new house. But then, what do we do with this one?”
History shows us, people sell their homes on average every 5-7 years. So if you’ve lived in your home for around that long, it’s not that crazy to think it could be time to upgrade, downsize, or simply get a change of scenery.
So what’s next?
PRICING YOUR HOME
Once you’ve caught the selling bug, you may find yourself searching Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, or other home sites to see what’s out there for you.
This is a great time to find out what your home is worth in our market! That’s where we come in.
vandervelde + co. offers free consultations to help determine your home’s current, estimated price point. This should help you decide if the timing is best for you— or if it’s better to wait another year or two.
NO MATTER WHAT
We’ll go over our findings with you.
If we discover a price point that supports your plans, we’ll move on to next steps.
If we just can’t seem to land on a number that lines up with your goals, then we’ll get you set up with personal market updates and personally contact you the day the market can supports the price you are looking for.
This process could take months or even years, either way, we’re by your side until you are satisfied.
READY TO LIST
Prepared with your custom market research, you’re excited about listing your property. So, let’s get to work!
We’ll sit with you and go over a custom marketing strategy that works with your timeline. Then we’ll do a walkthrough and talk about how best we can represent your home. This may include small projects to work on but more importantly, what things to leave be! We want your home to shine it’s brightest during showings.
SCHEDULING
We keep in regular contact with our clients through their listing journey, but we want these communications to fit with your schedule.
We’ll take time (2 or so weeks before List Day) and sit with you and your calendar, go through the important dates of the selling process, and schedule days for marketing prep.
It’s our team’s goal to host a really big open house the first weekend we officially hit the market, and set aside showing times that won’t conflict with your routine.
Again, this is all about you, so we want to cater to your routine the best that we can.
THE WEEK OF
Still sure you want to sell this gem? Good!
Now is the time that we have one of our professional photographers come in and capture all the hard work you’ve done to make your home dazzle.
Then we’ll get the sign in the ground and get this party started!
MEGA OPEN HOUSE
We listed earlier this week and it’s the big day!
Our team sent out invites to all your neighbors and posted on the biggest real estate sites that your house will be open for tours, and of course there will be food... People. Love. Free. Food.
Treat this day like your home’s birthday—all the attention is on it!
OFFERS
Depending on our marketing strategy (we’ll touch more on this later) we’ve got an offer or few to look at. Next, we’ll see if it makes sense to accept one!
As real estate contract nerds, we understand their intricacies and will go over the pros and cons of what’s presented. Together, we’ll decide what works for you.
THE HOME IS PENDING
Pending simply means your house is under contract, which puts us anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks away from it officially being sold.
Generally, two major things happen during this time. First, the home buyer hires a home inspector to go through and asses things. Then, we enter round two of price negotiations and discuss any repairs they may request.
If the buyer is purchasing the home with a loan from a bank, that bank will order an appraisal. Essentially it’s the bank’s way of determining the home is worth the amount we decided on.
Once those two things are done, you are set to close. Congrats!
CLOSING DAY
We sold your home! Yay! You are now ready for you next adventure.
Whether I am helping you get into a new home, or you are moving to a new state (or you’re taking the money and living in the woods) we’re positive you’ll be satisfied with our services!
Thank you so much for choosing vandervelde + co. to help you with such an important part of your life!
MARKETING OVERVIEW
Marketing is a pivotal part in successfully selling a home. Just like any product we buy: If it’s not represented well we tend think something’s wrong with it, or it’s overpriced.
I believe in gorgeous, clean, and elegant marketing for your home; no matter what price point it is. Vandervelde + co.’s marketing aims to accomplish two things. One, we get your home visible (sounds obvious, but sadly this isn’t always the case). Then we make sure that when it is seen, it’s shown in the most honest and attractive light.
Our intention is not to trick anyone into viewing your home, it’s to gain trust with the buyer.
The following are ways we will market your home to get you the best price possible!
PHOTOGRAPHY
We have the finest photographer on retainer, Nicholas Graves Photography, who makes every home look impeccable.
We want to make sure when your home is viewed online, it is done so accurately as this is the foundation in gaining the buyer’s trust.
We want your house to look inviting, bright and exactly like the buyer’s next home.
NON-LEAD CAPTURE WEBSITE
Our team will make a custom website for you to share with your friends.
We want you to be proud of your hard work and feel comfortable sharing it on your Facebook, Twitter, etc. without all of your friends getting hounded by real estate brokers!
DRONE VIDEO
For certain homes, drone video helps perspective buyers visualize the area they’re commiting to.
We have a video team design an aerial tour of the property, pointing out any attractions near their new neighborhood. People buy into lifestyles just as much as they buy into a home.
BROKERS OPEN
This is an exclusive event where we network with local brokers through a private ‘broker’s open house’.
Agents look through the home, give us feedback, and help us conduct final tweaks to ensure perfection. They will also use this time to consider your home for their buyers.
Actively engaging the broker’s attention is a great step towards getting their buyers through the doors.
MEGA OPEN HOUSE
We are going to throw your home a party! The first weekend after it’s listed, we are going to host what we’ve labeled as a ‘mega open house’. It’s kind of like a standard open house but, like, WAY better.
We send out invites to your neighbors, provide pleanty of delicious food and drinks, contact different agents to give their clients tours, actively market the event on social media, and personally contact any of our buyers that could love the home.
Our goal is to make sure your house is seen by as many people as possible.
PREMIER VISIBILITY
Kyle is a Premier Agent with Zillow.
To successfully sell your home, it needs to be visible. Being a premier agent means that our listings get top priority, and land higher in the search queries and new listing tabs, getting your home in front of more people.
ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA
We are incredibly active on social media and use those platforms to inform our followers of any & all new listings! This includes yours.
We all know that more often than not, people start their home search through links on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. We use cross-platform marketing strategies to make sure that your home is actually seen.
MATTERPORT
We have the camera of all cameras: The Matterport. It takes numerous photos of your home and generates a 360° virtual tour it allowing people to drag-and-click their way through each room, even if they’re 2000 miles away. In todays day and age, why not have make no-contact tours a little easier?
REFLECTIVE SIGNAGE
As funny as this seems to add here, we invest in these amazing reflective ‘for sale’ signs so that your home attracts attention no matter what time it is.
Living in the PNW means a winter that can get dark as early as 4 in the afternoon. We don’t stop working at 4 p.m. and neither should your marketing.
CUSTOM MARKETING PLAN
At vandervelde + co., we’re all about customization.
We know that one size cannot fit all, so we design marketing strategies alongside you and make sure that each choice made makes the most sense for your journey. Sometimes plans call for a quick close, so we market more aggressively to try and get multiple offers, fast. If we have more breathing room, we might test the market and see what price we can get if we’re patient. We will go over all of this more in-depth before listing.
