Selling in Silicon Valley - Want to come along for the wild ride?

[2017SoFarSoGood]

I'm prepping my house for sale in Silicon Valley, California - just south of San Francisco. The property market is completely insane. It is astonishing who can actually pay these prices - especially when you realize that most purchases are cash. That's right, cash. With no contingencies and no chain.

Will be chronicling the madness of this sale here. I will then be purchasing a smaller (cheaper we hope) property nearer to SF. They say 'good luck with that. Feel free to join in, or simply ignore. Should be very interesting.

Checking in with interest from a rainy miserable scotland. The posting of some sun and warmth across the atlantic would be much appreciated

Love this thread! Am watching with interest. Any pics OP?

I am very pleased to say that this is NOT my house - but 1.3 miles away. Gives me such hope :)

www.zillow.com/homedetails/345-Devonshire-Blvd-San-Carlos-CA-94070/15554609_zpid/

Can I hitch a lift on your thread? Nothing to contribute except an interest in California.

Just come back from holiday there (not SV though and fascinated).

How much is yours on for?

Jumping on board as I love looking at other people's houses

We are not yet on (officially up on 9/11), and will decide final price right before (any sales closed right before will determine the actual asking price) but we're thinking 1.7 for now. Ish. I know, I type that and my eyes almost spin out of my head. It is ridiculous. We have a small 3 bed 2 bath. Nice house and nice view, but still.

That listed one looks, um, rustic. Thanks for the entertaining safe thread 2017 and I wonder will you get more than $100,000 over your expected price so that will cancel out the agents fees. Here's hoping.

By the way, is there any sort of superstition against doing things on 9/11? Sorry if this is a delicate subject.

Looking forward to the pics of your house. its interesting to see how the house sales work in another country! Thanks for including us all in this. Hopefully some local (to you) house buyers will see this and their interest will peak!

Following OP as I was a huge fan of the safe thread

Toldmy - that house looks like a relic from a ghost town. Not at all reflective of the norm in my town.

The realtor gets 5% of whatever the final price is, so the more we get the more she gets. Then the taxman gets his bit (yes, sexist, but he IS Uncle Sam here and clearly a greedy man!) which is a whole other story I shall share at some point down the road. Capital gains is, I'm sure, very different here so will be fun to compare.

For anyone new: In this case the realtor is paying for staging, gardener, handyman, cleaning inside and out including gutters and windwos, and pictures/drone/video. For Broker's Open (the kick off day for realtors to come without their clients) she brings her (chef) DH who makes crepes to order, and serves mimosas. Sounds like quite a party. We are not invited, on pain of death.

Be sure to tell me how this process differs from what you're used to. If we make enough money - haha - we may end up buying a small place in Scotland to ease the constant visiting burden on my family.

Something I found really odd in California (LA) was that nobody seemed to walk anywhere! Even the 7/11s had parking space outside so that everyone rocked up in a car. Weird. The only nutcase person walking about was me getting my 10000 steps in.

2017 if you dont mind a week long summer scotland is the place to be. We have deep fried mars bars and irn bru whats not to love?

Oh it's Kyle & the safe lady, hello OP, I'll follow you again!

If you stage the house it should sell super fast in Silicon valley.
We were in the foothills painted and prepped and then staged the house and sold in a day in 2013. We were shocked. Had to ask for a 45 day escrow as we weren't ready to move. Lovely lady even gave us a further 7 days rent free to get all our stuff shipped to UK and catch flights. We threw in the washer dryer, fridge freezer and our bedroom suite in exchange. We were going to donate it all locally but she didn't know that.

great story Troels - from your lips (or finger tips) as they say. Expectation is 10 days from brokers open to closing a deal. EEK!

The staging is a pain, since of course we love our furniture and knick knacks, but do know they are big, and the whole point is to show off space, so little itty bitty (miniature) furntiture is coming in I fear. I'll try to take before and after pics of the rooms that remain intact for now - we've already removed quite a lot.

10 days! Where will you live?
From my failing memory, you sell your primary home, theres only real estate fees to pay, ours was 5% Usually 6% where we were if you are buying another home theres no capital gains. I'll have to dig out our pics, it was nothing fancy in comparison to where you are, more a case of right person, right time.

Watching this thread with interest. Fascinated by all things USA. Good luck.
Glad your safe wasn't totally empty!

@2017 wow the real actor does a lot more than estate agents here (uk). It would seem strange to have someone selling my house and I wouldn't be there especially if they were serving crepes and mimosas lol

The new normal is that the buyer gives the seller 30 to 45 days free rent back after closing, which is up to 20 days after contract agreed. A total of 60 to 75 days to find, offer and buy a new place. Scary stuff.

Walkway flowers in and front door revarnished. Guess they are taking this from first view up. Handyman here next four days doing touch-up, changing light bulbs, etc. All the little things you don't notice until you look with the eyes of a buyer.

Love this thread!

This is so cool...wish I had all those people helping me prep my last sale...it was just me trying to minimise toddler debris!!

Nice front door.

Following from the safend thread cos I love nosing at people's homes. We have a lot of family in the states (utah and wisconsin) and they've said it's so much different buying property over there but I never thought to ask all the ins and outs. I'm finding this so interesting. Does everyone have a realtor there or do people sometimes sell themselves like we do here? Do you have a realtor as a buyer?

That house you linked to is crazy money!

At 1000 USD per square foot the house you linked to is not so pricey and I don't think that square footage includes the little guest studio! Also decent sized plot! Certainly cheaper than you would find in my neck of the woods (SW London)