Everything you need to know before you sell, start to finish.

Proximity first, then similarity. A house two streets over in the same school attendance area and the same tract is a better comp than a larger, nicer home a mile away. Beyond that, we're matching square footage within roughly 10–15%, similar bed and bath count, similar lot, and comparable condition and era.

Adjustments are where the actual work is. A comp that sold with a renovated kitchen and yours is original gets adjusted down toward you. A comp on a busy street when you're on a quiet cul-de-sac gets adjusted up. The point of showing you the adjustments rather than just the final number is that you can argue with them, and sometimes you know something about a specific property that we don't.

We'll also tell you when the comps are thin. In some pockets there simply haven't been enough recent sales of similar homes, and the honest answer is a wider range with more uncertainty rather than false precision.

Buyers search in round numbers. Someone whose ceiling is $1,000,000 sets their filter at $1,000,000. If your home is listed at $1,010,000, that buyer never sees it, not "sees it and passes," but never sees it at all.

That $10,000 of optimism can cost you an entire tier of buyers. Pricing just under a common filter cap, at $999,000, puts you in front of everyone searching up to a million and everyone searching from a million up. It's one of the few places in this process where a small decision has an outsized, entirely predictable effect.

A slightly under-market price works like bait. It pulls traffic through the door in the first two weeks, when the listing is new and attention is at its peak. More people see the home in person instead of scrolling past it, and a buyer who has walked the rooms, opened the closets, and started deciding where the couch goes writes a very different offer than one clicking through photos.

That is the real mechanism. Traffic creates attachment, attachment creates offers, and several attached buyers arriving at once are effectively bidding against each other. That is where the number ends up above where a confident list price would have landed it, not because anyone was talked into anything, but because more than one person wanted it.

The one thing this depends on is exposure. A competitive price only turns into a strong sale if enough of the right buyers actually see the home during that first window, which is the entire reason we finish the marketing before going live rather than after.

This is our read of the San Gabriel Valley, where buyer depth has been consistent and the risk of a low price simply producing a low sale is genuinely small. It is not a universal law of real estate. In a market with very few active buyers the maths changes, and if we ever think that is where we are, we will tell you before you list.

Fix it when the issue blocks financing (many lenders won't fund a home with an active roof leak or missing water heater), when it's cheap relative to the discount buyers would demand, when it's a safety issue, or when it's the first thing a buyer sees and colors their view of the entire house.

Price it in when the repair is expensive and the buyer would likely redo your work to their own taste anyway, when it's cosmetic and personal like dated tile, or when you don't have the cash or the time and would be rushing the work. A dated kitchen that's honestly priced attracts buyers who want to renovate. A dated kitchen with a cheap partial update satisfies nobody.

The middle option is a credit at closing: the buyer handles the work on their own terms, you don't front the cash, and it comes out of proceeds. That's often the cleanest resolution when an inspection turns something up mid-escrow.

Broker's opens earn their keep on distinctive properties, unusual layouts, notable upgrades, or anything where an agent needs to see it to know whether it fits their buyer. They're less useful on a straightforward tract home where the photos tell the whole story.

Public open houses are most valuable in the first two weekends, while the listing is new and attention is highest. They're also worth doing in neighborhoods with high foot traffic and a lot of local interest, where neighbors talk and sometimes know a buyer. After the first few weekends, if traffic has dropped off, continuing to hold them week after week signals a stale listing more than it generates buyers.

Time off market helps, enough that the listing reads as new rather than recycled, and days-on-market resets. But time alone isn't a strategy.

A genuine relaunch usually means new photography (especially if the first set was weak or the seasons have visibly changed), a revised price grounded in what's happened in the market since, and whatever condition work the feedback pointed at. Sometimes a different lead photo and a rewritten description are enough on their own, if the original presentation undersold the house.

We'll also be straight with you about whether relisting soon is wise at all. Occasionally the honest answer is that the market for your specific property is thin right now and waiting is the better financial decision. We'd rather tell you that than take a listing we don't believe will sell.

Financing type. Cash closes fastest with no appraisal or lender conditions. Conventional financing is the common case. FHA and VA loans carry stricter property-condition requirements, and if your home has deferred maintenance, those requirements can force repairs you didn't plan on.

Down payment size. A larger down payment means a smaller loan relative to value, which makes appraisal problems less likely to break the deal and signals a buyer with reserves.

Contingencies. Every contingency is an exit the buyer can use to leave with their deposit. Fewer contingencies and shorter periods mean more certainty for you, though a buyer waiving inspection entirely occasionally means one who'll try to renegotiate later anyway.

Close date. Genuinely valuable if you're coordinating a purchase. A buyer who'll work around your timeline, or grant a rent-back, may be worth more than a few thousand dollars in price.

Appraisal gap coverage. A buyer who agrees in writing to cover a shortfall up to a stated amount has removed most of your appraisal risk. This is one of the most meaningful terms in a competitive offer and it's easy to overlook next to the headline price.

A pre-qualification is essentially the buyer telling a lender their numbers and the lender doing quick math. Nothing is verified. It's close to meaningless as evidence.

A pre-approval involves documentation, pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements, a credit pull. Considerably stronger.

What we look at: how recent it is, whether it's from a lender with a real local track record or an unfamiliar online shop, whether the approved amount comfortably exceeds the offer, and whether the loan type matches what's in the contract. We'll also call the lender directly on a serious offer. A five-minute conversation reveals a great deal that the letter doesn't.

1. The buyer covers the gap in cash. Cleanest outcome. Requires the buyer to have the funds and the motivation, likeliest when they love the home or already agreed to gap coverage in writing.
2. You reduce to the appraised value. Simplest, and sometimes correct, particularly if the appraisal is well-supported and a re-list would likely produce the same result with months lost.
3. Split the difference. The common middle ground. Both sides give a little and the deal survives.
4. Dispute the appraisal. We submit additional comparable sales and argue for reconsideration. Success rates are modest and it takes time, but it's genuinely worth attempting when the appraiser used poor comps or missed relevant recent sales.
5. The deal cancels under the buyer's appraisal contingency, and you go back on market. Sometimes right, especially if you have other interested buyers and reason to believe the appraisal was an outlier.

Which one makes sense depends on how strong the rest of the market is, how motivated each side is, and whether the appraisal looks defensible. We'll walk you through it with the actual comps in front of you.

Inspection / investigation contingency, commonly around 17 days in California, though negotiable. The buyer inspects and can request repairs, request a credit, or cancel. This is where most renegotiation happens.

Appraisal contingency, tied to the lender's valuation. If the appraisal is low, this is the buyer's exit.

Loan contingency, the buyer's protection if financing falls through. Usually the last to be removed, and the one most affected by anything that changes in the buyer's finances during escrow.

Your risk profile improves as each is removed. Before removal, the buyer has an exit. After, they have real money at stake. Tracking these dates precisely is the single most important thing anyone does during escrow, and it's why we manage the calendar rather than assuming everyone remembers.