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My 10-Point Custom Marketing Strategy!

For most families, the sale of your home is one of the biggest financial decisions you will ever make. The process can be daunting, with many important questions that need to be answered. Choosing the best professional to market and sell your home makes all the difference, turning an otherwise difficult, stressful process into a comfortable, informed experience that you are in control of. As a top producing Silicon Valley real estate agent with years of experience and a proven track record, it is my job to guide you through this complicated process, from beginning to end – working to get you the best price for your home, in the least amount of time. Remember, buyers have their own timelines, which most likely is not yours! I make sure they don’t waste your time by qualifying buyers as to their level of interest and real ability to buy your home. Before anything else, it is a wise idea to take time to clarify your motivations and to draw up a timeframe for the selling process. Here are the 4 key questions you should ask yourself in this regard:

Why Am I Selling?

Why do you want to sell your home? Are you simply seeking a larger property, or do you want or need to move to another neighborhood, school district, city or state? You may think your reasons are obvious, but you will do well to consider the implications of each option on your lifestyle, opportunities, and finances. Clarity about your intentions for selling make it easier for me to determine the appropriate course of action needed to achieve your real estate goals.

When Should I Sell?

Your first priority should be to define your time frame for selling. If you need to sell quickly, I can speed up the process by giving you a market analysis and action plan that addresses all of your goals. If there is no need to sell immediately, we can take time to thoroughly review current market conditions and identify the most favorable time to sell.

What Is The Market Like?

When you work with me, you can be sure that my knowledge, expertise and negotiating skills will be applied to obtain the best market price and terms for your home. I will keep you up-to-date on what is happening in your direct market area, including the price, financing and terms and conditions of competing properties that are on the market or have been recently sold. With me, you will know exactly where to price and when to sell your property.

How Do I Optimize My Finances?

Deciding to sell your property demands serious consideration of your current financial situation and future possibilities. With my help, you will be able to assess the cumulative impact of these changes, estimate potential proceeds of selling your property, and plan effective tax savings strategies. I will help you take control of your sale proceeds and use them to their fullest potential.

My 10-Point Custom Marketing Strategy For Your Home

1. Market Analysis & Presale Tasks

  • Property Profile – Thoroughly inspect your home to identify all of its key features and upgrades. Determine issues buyers may have then customize my marketing plan to specifically address your home’s needs and potential.
  • Property Valuation – Determine the Fair Market Value of your property by doing a detailed market analysis.
  • Financial Projection – Provide an estimate of the anticipated selling expenses to show your net proceeds.
  • Listing Documents – Legal documents are required for you to list and market your home with the least amount of risk exposure to you. I will clearly explain what you are signing and how it impacts you. My job is to help you disclose everything that you know about your home for a successful and smooth transaction. Any questions you may have will be addressed so that the entire process goes as smoothly as possible.

2. Communication

  • Education – Keep you educated and up-to-date on listing and selling market conditions in your area. You will be connected to my auto-feed to receive applicable weekly updates about market conditions and home sales in your area.
  • Keeping You Informed – Provide updates on all activity regarding your home: agent showings, open house attendance, buyer viewing appointments, agent tours, sign queries, etc.

3. Prepare Your Home For Sale

  • Home Preparation – Suggest constructive repairs and improvements that yield the greatest return on your investment. Examples of such repairs include painting, landscaping, replacing light fixtures, replacing flooring, and cleaning – often, an investment of $5,000-$15,000 can return $20,000 to $50,000+.
  • Oversee Service Providers – Referral to trusted service providers – professionals who will provide you with the best service at the best price – and personal oversight of their work to be certain that every task assigned is done smoothly and correctly.
  • Calendar Your Tasks – Moving and getting your home ready to sell can be very stressful. My job is to make it as painless and easy as possible for you. I will keep track of the important dates for you and prepare a checklist that will show the most important tasks that need to be completed and when.
  • Inspections – Coordination of property and pest inspections for your home that will disclose possible areas of concern or improvement to a potential buyer. I will sit down with you to discuss the different options to handle issues that may arise out of the inspections. I will recommend which inspections are necessary, handle scheduling and be present at any inspection as necessary. A home inspection usually cost $500-$1000 depending on the square footage of the home. A pest inspection runs about $150-200.
  • Home Staging – Discuss in detail the costs and benefits of staging, which often helps a home to show better and to sell quicker. It may be possible to also incorporate some of your existing furniture to the staging as well. If staging is desired, I will schedule, oversee, and coordinate the process to make sure your home shows beautifully. Staging will generally cost anywhere from $2500-$7000 depending on the furniture and accessories.

4. Marketing Your Home

  • Photography – My professional photographer will capture the beauty of your home. Hi-Res images will be used in a variety of marketing materials such as full color brochures, magazine/newspaper advertisements, Internet photos, and open house invitations.
  • Graphic Design – My graphic designer will utilize your photographic images to create visually compelling and memorable custom made marketing materials for your home.
  • Custom Brochure – A distinctive 4-8 page, full color brochure will be the key sales presentation aid for your home. This marketing piece, handed out at the open houses and broker tours, will showcase the many amenities of your home.
  • Real Estate Magazine Advertising – Your home may also be presented in select Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area residential real estate magazines ads.
  • Newspaper Advertising – Though most people use the Internet to look for homes these days, newspapers are still the place many people go when researching a home to buy and to plan Open House visits. Custom designed color and black & white ads will be prepared for placement in your local community newspapers, including newspaper open house guides.

5. Promote Your Home On The Internet

  • Internet Exposure – Benefit from thousands of monthly Google, Bing and Yahoo search engine page viewings when your property profile is optimized for the Web.
  • Exposure – Listed on key real estate websites such as Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. Also on the website of John Chung, Lan Bowling and Keller Williams.
  • Custom Dedicated Web Site – Your home needs a strong Internet presence now that the Internet has become the #1 one home buying information resource. A custom website for your home at www.youraddress.com will increase it’s search engine results and give potential buyers a complete look at your beautiful home. The website will feature a written description, HI-Res images, and a slideshow. A custom website helps buyers looking online, especially out-of-towners, get a realistic feel for your home before they arrive at your doorstep.
  • Virtual Home Tour – Your home will gain extra attention through a professionally produced virtual home tour. This feature presentation gives buyers unique, high-impact personal access to your home 24 hours a day – including state-of-the-art 3D virtual tours with floor plans.

6. Promote Your Home To Real Estate Agents

  • MLS Exposure – Your home listing will be submitted for exposure to all the active agents on the Silicon Valley Multiple Listing Service.
  • Agent Tours – Your home will be included on the weekly Silicon Valley tour caravan schedule for examination by agents with motivated buyers who are specifically interested in a property in your area.
  • Top Agent Network – Benefit from premarketing and ‘coming soon’ promotion.
  • Office Meeting – Your home coming onto the market will be announced at all local Keller-Williams office meetings. This exposure is quite valuable as many of the Silicon Valley’s top agents work at Keller-W illiams.
  • E-Mail Invitations – Prior to the broker caravan tour, I will send out an email invitation to agents and brokers in all local Silicon Valley real estate offices. This e-mail will showcase photos of your home and details regarding it, as well as luring realtors with the promise of catered food and drinks as part of the broker tour.

7. Promote Your Home In Your Neighborhood

  • Personalized Letter – A friendly letter or coming soon postcard will be mailed to residents in your neighborhood to inspire their personal interest in your home, as well as that of their friends and family who may want to live nearby. This mailing will promote the features and lifestyle benefits of your home.

8. Showing Your Home

  • Custom Listing Book – A detailed custom “listing binder” will be created and placed in your home for buyers to reference all of the home features, lot, utility, and tax information, neighborhood benefits, schools, shopping, medical, and other buyer benefits.
  • Easy Access for Showings – Buyer viewings will be very convenient by placing a discreet, secured access lock box at your home if it’s vacant.
  • Open House Promotions – At your convenience, your home will be scheduled for a series of weekend public Open House presentations – generally between 1:30pm and 4:30pm.
  • Professional Signs – Exposure will be maximized through professional signage with a property information flyer box.

9. Manage Home Buyer “leads”

  • Tracking Interest – All home showing agents, as well as buyer open house sign-in sheets, will be tracked for review and for future follow up.
  • Potential Buyer Motivation – I will follow-up with all agents who have shown your home to answer questions, gage the interest level of their buyer clients and to further motivate action.

10. Manage The Transaction

  • Potential Buyer Evaluation – Ensure that offers from buyers are pre-qualified and capable of closing on the purchase.
  • Negotiations – Represent you in contract negotiations with buyers to help generate the highest selling price for your home:
    • Nearly 12 years of successful real estate transactions
    • Recently set highest sales price in a prestigious Silicon Valley neighborhood
    • Experienced in all aspects of the industry, including Short Sales, REO Bank owned homes, major renovations, brand new constructions, and simple remodel projects.
    • We have successfully negotiated for our clients in a multitude of real estate deals, ranging in price from $1 million to over $13 million dollars.
  • Manage Multiple Offers – Excellent marketing and proper pricing will, hopefully, place you in a position of power to receive multiple offers on your home. In that case, I will be able to negotiate strongly, with the likelihood of issuing multiple counter offers tailored to obtain the best possible price and terms for you.
  • Personal Escrow Guide – Coordination of the escrow process with all companies involved is a key aspect of my full service commitment. I will explain what’s going on every step of the way so that you understand the process and the timing.
  • Resolve Problems – Issues or additional questions may arise during the closing process from the buyers side, I will always be available to help deal with and resolve these issues quickly and efficiently.
  • Facilitate Important Dates with Title Company – You will always know what is going on and when action is due as I will be there to help you with the following steps of the process:
    • Contingency periods and removals, if any contingencies exist.
    • Review of all necessary closing documents.
    • Sign off of Deed and Title Transfer.
    • Receipt of your funds via wire transfer.
  • Closing Day – I will hand off keys/remotes to the buyer’s agent. Celebrate, you did it!

We Use Only The Best Proven First Class Marketing Practices To Sell Your Home

Dominate Online Marketing

92% of buyers search for homes online. We syndicate your listing to all major real estate sites, including Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Realtor.com and more.

Social Media Presence

We broadcast your listing to the largest audience with social media. Facebook ads, Pinterest boards and Instagram pictures all amplify your listing’s reach.

Professional Architectural Photography

Our top professional architectural photographers ccreate beautiful images of your home to give buyers the best first lasting impressions.

Beautiful Premium Property Brochures

Every home gets a premium 4-8 page color brochure. We usetop architectural photographers, a professional copywriter and an expert graphic designer to create a beautiful brochure to showcase your home.

Custom Property Website / Videography / 3D Virtual Walkthrough

A custom property website showcases your home with beautiful photos, a virtual tour and professional copy writing that is search engine optimized. Your home will gain extra attention through our professionally produced virtual home tours. This feature presentation gives buyers unique, high-impact personal access to your home 24 hours a day – including state-of-the-art 3D virtual walkthrough tours and 2D or 3D floor plans.

Our recent custom property website samples:

Local Newspaper/Online Advertising

Get premium placement in the local paper or real estate magazines with a full-page ad for maximum exposure. We make your home stand out from the rest.

Targeted neighborhood postcards invite your neighbors – your listing’s best referral network to come to a inviting open house served with refreshments for their friends and family.

Interior Design/Premium Staging

First impressions are everything. Our beautifully staged homes help buyers visual how to use the room to the best potential. Nicely presented homes generally attract more home buyers, sell faster and for a higher sale price. Our staging designers will be sure to bring out the best in your home and down play any challenging areas.

Inviting Broker Tours/Open Houses

The first weekend your listing is on the market, we provide nice refreshments for our the broker tours and open houses. Enjoy a latte, cappuccino, or Italian soda on us. Delicious refreshments encourage buyers to spend more time at your listing, helping them feel at home. We generate the largest crowds, creating a high level of excitement for your home, leading to more offers and the highest final price.

Negotiations/Best Risk Management Practices

Strong negotiation means we fight hard for our clients’ best interests and leave no money on the table. As top agents with over $100 million in sales last year, we know contracts inside and out, and how to win for our clients. Years of experience in risk mitigation and high-net-worth asset management work to protect out clients’ finances.

Global Reach/Local Network

Keller Williams Realty is the largest real estate franchise in the world – home to more real estate professionals than any other company. Keller William Realty is #1 in sales volume in the United States. We send email blast to all the major local real estate brokerages and agents to announce your new home listing.

Active Top Agent Network Members

What my Customers are Saying

Erik F. As first time home buyers, my wife and I were experts at attending open-houses, but that’s about it. Lan transformed a process we were both kinda dreading into something smooth, professional, and fast. Lan went so far above and beyond my expectations of a real estate agent: read more
J.W. We had our eyes on properties in Menlo Park for a while and by observing the transactions in the area for a couple of months, we found Lan and John. We noticed that in one of the recent transactions in this competitive market, the purchase price was very reasonable and Lan was the buyer agent. read more
Zack H. My wife and I have invested and sold many homes throughout the years, we also each owe business that service the real estate industry. We have working relationships with thousands of agents throughout the Bay Area. However, for selling our own home in Palo Alto, we’ve went with Lan Bowling. In our case, the whole read more
Ha K. This is the second time we came to Lan and John for their services. Since we had such a wonderful and satisfied experience with them a few years ago when we sold our first house. We have a strong trust and faith in Lan and her team, we go straight to Lan again for selling read more
Shirley Z Lan is the most professional and knowledgeable realtor I have ever worked with. With Lan’s help, my husband and I just bought our retirement house in Palo Alto. Initially, I was not sure whether she would have enough time for me as a client but finally decided to give her a try after a long read more
Soleil M. Lan is incredible. We worked with an agent for months and got nowhere other than misled about a property that on which we placed an offer. Luckily we were able to get out of the contract, and we were even luckier to meet Lan. Her extensive knowledge of Palo Alto’s market is beyond impressive and read more
Sonia L. We met Lan and John through friend’s referral and cannot be happier with the whole experience. We were looking to upgrade our townhouse to a single-family house and move to a neighborhood with great school district to raise our two girls. Throughout the experience, Lan and John has provided us with well-informed advice that came read more
Peter L Lan represented us as seller agent for our property in Palo Alto. We brought Lan on board during the middle of remodeling, and she gave us extremely valuable advice how what buyers in this segment were looking for which in the end made all of the difference. The property had some nearby road and railroad read more
Keita F. We recently bought a townhouse in Sunnyvale thanks to John. He tried to recommend properties based on our preference but without any pressure at all. He gave detailed and honest comments about each property we saw together. This is our first time to buy a house so we had tons of questions, but he always read more
Patricia D. John is responsive, diligent and level-headed. He went above and beyond to help us close our deal. We went through several rounds of negotiations and each time John did whatever he could to keep both parties moving toward a common goal. Additionally, we had some problems with our lender, which he helped us manage. He read more
Gary L. I used John for selling my old house to buying my new house. John goes above and beyond to make sure that you get what you want. He assisted with preparing my old house for sale to even helping me updates to my new home. He explained to me all the options during the sale read more
Leny T. We just sold our property in Sunnyvale with Lan and John helped. From the moment we met both of them, we felt the connection immediately. They were the one that most stand out among the other agents we interviewed. FYI, the other agents were also from among the best agents in Palo Alto, just like read more
Nelson L. John represented us in the sale of our Tasman Crossing Townhome in Sunnyvale this past October. Although the time of the season historically didn't favor sellers, John was able to close on the sale of our home 4 days after the open house at significantly above the ask. He was always available to us 24/7 read more
Samuel C. John was a great agent. He helped my wife and I purchase a house a month after we met him! We are first time home buyers so we had a lot of questions and reservations. John addressed all of them with a high level of sincerity and thoughtfulness. It was extremely helpful to have him read more
Cheryl & Elliott Sopkin Why would anyone write a review of a real estate agent? Maybe, because they are so good, so competent, so effective -- that’s probably reason enough. Lan Bowling, Sophia Xu and John Chung form the most formidable real estate team imaginable. They have a few specialties: o They listen. o They are respectful of clients read more
S.C. We worked with John to purchase our home in Los Altos. We met John at an open house 9 months ago and he started helping us understand the different areas in Palo Alto and Los Altos. At that time, we were not ready to purchase, but he would update us once in awhile about market read more
Emily X. John is very knowledgeable about this area to each street, and he follows the sold house prices to give good estimation. John is very responsible and is able to provide detailed information. Even after our house is closed, he helped us to find a gardener, ordered fumigation and offered help for other stuff to make read more
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