Selling Your Home

Start with what it's worth

Every seller conversation starts in the same place, and online estimates are not it. Automated valuations work from public records and recent nearby sales; they cannot see that your kitchen was redone last year, that the lot backs onto a slope, or that the three "comparable" sales down the street were all in a tract with a different tax assessment.

A real valuation means someone looking at your actual property and the actual comparables. We will tell you what we think it will sell for and why - including when that is less than you were hoping, because a number you cannot get is worth nothing.

Request a valuation

What selling actually costs

Sellers are routinely surprised at closing, almost always by the same categories. Nothing here is exotic - it is just rarely laid out before someone signs a listing agreement:

Brokerage commission - negotiable, and worth actually negotiating rather than assuming a standard.
Escrow and title fees - split by local custom, which differs between San Diego and Riverside counties.
County transfer tax, and city transfer tax where the city levies one.
Repairs negotiated after inspection - usually the largest genuinely variable line.
Natural hazard disclosure, HOA document fees, and any outstanding assessments - including Mello-Roos, which has to be settled through escrow.
Pre-listing work you choose to do.

We will put real numbers against every one of these for your specific property before you list, not at signing.

What actually adds value before listing

Most pre-listing spending does not return itself. The things that reliably do are unglamorous: paint, flooring where it is visibly worn, deep cleaning, decluttering, and fixing anything that will show up on an inspection anyway and become a negotiating lever against you.

Full kitchen and bathroom remodels done specifically to sell rarely return their cost. If a renovation is being considered, that is a conversation worth having before the money is spent - and our answer is sometimes that you should not bother.

How long it takes

Preparation is the part you control and the part that varies most - it can be a weekend or it can be two months, depending on what needs doing. Once listed, the timeline is largely driven by the buyer's financing: an all-cash purchase closes far faster than a loan that has to clear underwriting and appraisal.

Because Juliet is a licensed mortgage broker as well as a real estate broker (NMLS ID 316166), we can read a buyer's pre-approval properly and tell you whether their financing is solid or fragile. On a competing-offers decision that judgement is often worth more than the difference in price.

What we do

Pricing, preparation advice, photography and listing, showings, offer negotiation, and managing the escrow through to close. Three licensed brokers, one family business - whoever knows your market handles it, and you are dealing with the person whose name is on the license.