Dawna Davies and her assistant Jodi Blanchard did an exceptional job in helping us sell our home in San Luis Obispo. Dawna’s intelligence and knowledge of the business made the whole complex process easy for us to understand and navigate. What seemed like counter-intuitive advice at the start—that we should be extremely thorough in discovering any possible problems with the forty year old house and present them in advance—turned out to streamline the final transaction by building trust in potential buyers and removing the possibility of unpleasant surprises and uncertainty for us. Her contacts with a wide range of local business people who carried out many preparatory operations quickly and economically offered another unique benefit. Her tact and amiability made our numerous interactions pleasant rather than wary. And Jodi’s work in converting the box full of documents from our files into a coherent house-maintenance-history binder meticulous and creative. From start to finish our involvement with Davies Company was personally as well as financially rewarding.
1. Evaluate your desire/need to own this property 1, 5, and 10 years from now. If there are more benefits to keeping the property (income, tax benefits, etc.), do not plan to sell. Perhaps there are changes to make to rents/repairs/tenants that will make it work for you for longer.
2. Talk to knowledgeable real estate broker about market value, closing costs, possible net proceeds from sale, and market timing. More planning will make for better decisions and less drastic decisions.
3. Talk to your CPA and/or tax advisor about the tax consequences of a sale. Estimate about 8% for transaction costs as a seller. You will need a rough estimate of possible sale price, your purchase price, and depreciation amount, if any.
4. Look up your property value on websites: Zillow, Trulia, etc. Look for both value estimates and rent estimates. Note how much information is available online publically about your property. Be aware that these valuations can vary as much as 20% either way from actual market value. This will help you see what information buyers are seeing about your property.
5. Pay attention to how you feel when you drive by your property. If you would rather not be responsible for it, consider selling.