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Under current tax laws most taxpayers who sell their principal residence can avoid federal capital gains
taxes on their profit. Up to $500,000 of capital gains can be excluded if you are married filing jointly or
$250,000 if single or married filing separately. This can be done every two years but the capital gain exemption
is based on all of the gains realized since the first house that was sold under this law. If the above limits are
exceeded then capital gains taxes will be due on the excess. Contact your financial advisor for assistance on
this subject
If you plan on selling your house be sure to pick a Realtor who can give your listing wide coverage.
The key to getting top dollar for your home is maximizing its exposure to the pool of buyers. Here is my 10
point marketing plan to ensure your house gets the best possible coverage.
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List in the Victor Valley MLS.
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List in the Inland Valley MLS.
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Optionally list in other MLSes in the LA basin.
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Featured listing on four top rated local web sites.
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Give your home its own web site.
example.
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For Sale sign in front yard giving web site for more info.
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Full color brochures available on yard sign.
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Dual lockboxes so that both local agents and out of town agents can show the house.
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Lots of pictures in the MLS listing.
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Provide a virtual tour for Internet buyers to view your home.
You can get a free, no obligation estimate of the value of your home.
If you have land to sell click here for a free, comparable market analysis.
Be sure to price your house appropriately for current market conditions. While you may enjoy
researching house prices yourself the information you use may be stale or inappropriate. The chances are you
will do much better using a Realtor who has access to the latest information and knows how to apply it to your
house. Everyone wants the highest possible price but a buyer will not pay more for your home just because you
feel you need it. Your best chance of selling is during the first two weeks on the market. Don't miss out on prime
time by pricing too high to start off with. "We can always come down later" can really hurt you because then
your audience is mostly the new buyers coming into the market and you missed out on all the buyers that were
already in the market. People will not buy a house when other similar houses are priced lower, this is known as
the principle of substitution. I will show you comparable sales for your area so that you will
know what price people are willing to pay.
Preparing your house for sale is essential to creating the most favourable impression on a prospect.
Check out these staging tips and get your house ready to sell. Remember first
impressions are very important, buyers often make up their mind about a house in the first few seconds.
Be very flexible when it comes to showing your house. If an agent calls wanting to show at 12:00 don't
say "no can you come at 2:00". Most likely the agent is showing other houses as well so a visit to your house
has to fit in with a route to all of them. If they cannot get in to see your house then that is a missed opportunity
to sell.
When showing your house don't apologize for its condition and don't follow the buyers around, leave it
up to their agent. Turn off the television or radio and no loud music.
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