Highland Realty Services
We are a full service real estate firm and offer professional services to home buyers and home sellers in the San Diego real estate market. Review the links below to learn more about our services and how we approach helping our clients:
Home Buyer Services
As a home buyer (especially if new to this area), do you feel overwhelmed and uncertain? You may have asked yourself more than once "Will I ever have enough knowledge to choose a neighborhood and home with confidence?".
You are not alone.
Our professionals help dozens of people every year - just like you - as a "guide" to learning enough about our communities, school systems, real estate trends, home construction variances, and more to make well informed decisions with confidence. In short, we are experts at helping people productively assimilate information about living in the San Diego area.
Relax. Researching all of the important facets of a move does not happen "overnight". You are involved in a "process" that takes time and energy. By breaking this process into a few key stages, we make this process productive and enjoyable for you.
For most people, the process involves the stages below. The time to move through the stages can be from several weeks for some to a few years for others. We help people in every stage with responsive, professional service; we recognize and respect your personal timetable and will never "rush" or "sell" you on moving any faster than you are comfortable.
- San Diego - Is It Right For You?
- Comparing and Choosing Local Cities
- Previewing and Selecting Neighborhood Candidates
- Previewing and Identifying Home Candidates
- Negotiating and Completing a Home Purchase
You have already started this process by spending some time on our web site. With the help of the Internet, you can do a great deal of research online and we hope to be a big help in this area. Eventually, however, there is no substitute for visiting areas and seeing things first hand. When you are local, we can help you with good local maps, detailed community information, and personalized city/neighborhood/home tours.
Once you have found the ideal property, we will provide you with recent comparable home sales, negotiate the best price and terms for you, and manage the closing process by coordinating important details such as coordinating home inspections, working with your lender and escrow company, ensuring your new home has a clear title, and many other steps to ensure a smooth transaction.
Oh by the way, our services are free to you as a home buyer. When you purchase a home, the seller pays our brokerage commission. This is true for "resales" and "new homes".
Home Seller Services
Depending on San Diego real estate trends and market conditions, selling a home can be a significant undertaking. Most home sellers are looking for maximum net proceeds "in the pocket" in the "shortest time". This page has information that will help you understand key aspects to selling a home and best using our services.
Real Estate and the Internet
If it's been several years since the last time you sold a home, things have changed! As a prospective home seller, you should carefully read the following data which was compiled by the California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) in 2006.
In 2006, 70% of people said that they used the Internet as an important part of their home-buying and selection process. In 2000, only 28% said they did.
In 2006, 86% of home buyers started using the Internet as part of their process BEFORE they started looking for a specific home; the other 14% did after they started looking, but before contacting any real estate agents. This means that 100% of home buyers surveyed started looking at homes on the Internet before even contacting a real estate agent.
In 2006, "Internet" home buyers previewed an average of only 6.7 homes with their agent before selecting a home because they had already eliminated the ones they did not want to see from their Internet research.
In 2006, The average approximate distance between previous residence and new residence for an Internet home buyer was 242 miles.
In 2005, 24% of home buyers first found the home they eventually purchased on the Internet; up from 2% in 1997. Contrast this with the fact that in 2005, only 5% of home buyers first found their home in a print ad (newspaper, magazine, etc.); down from 8% in 1997.
Net Result: For maximum success selling your home today, you need to ensure your home will get MAXIMUM EXPOSURE on the Internet. In addition, your home must "show well" online with a well written description and multiple compelling color photographs (inside, outside, views, adjacent parks, etc.).
Why Us?
We deliver outstanding service in the basic areas (this you should expect from any local agent who is a dedicated, full time professional) such as:
- Pricing - Reviewing recent comparable home sales to help you set a supportable price.
- Staging - Recommending staging professionals to assist you with preparing your home.
- Home Protection - Enrolling your home into a "Home Warranty Protection Plan" to give you the same coverage (while your home is listed) that a home buyer will recieve after the purchase.
- Marketing Materials - Preparing color flyers () with multiple photos and compelling marketing copy.
- Multiple Listing Service (MLS) - Entering your home with multiple color photos into the MLS for all local agents to search.
- Local Agent Exposure - Showing your home to local agents on Broker/MLS Tours, preparing and distributing announcements to over 500 local real estate professionals for "JUST LISTED" and any other key status changes.
- Local Home Buyer Exposure - Placing a yard sign at your home, running local advertising, and sending out "JUST LISTED" post cards () to your 200 closest neighbors and friends.
- Communication - Keeping you informed with periodic status updates on showing activity and feedback during the listing period.
- Contract Negotiation - Helping you to maximize your objectives through careful contract and pricing reviews and effectively preparing counter offers.
- Escrow Coordination - Working you through the process of inspections, repairs, and coordinating the lenders, escrow, and home warranty professionals to a smooth closing.
Our Unique Internet Marketing Benefits
One Click from Google, MSN, Yahoo! - As a featured listing on SanDiegoRealEstateHQ.com, you will be one click away from people who are using Google to find real estate in San Diego communities. Yes - SanDiegoRealEstateHQ.com gets top rankings (page 1) for the most popular local real estate search terms.
Featured Listing on SanDiegoRealEstateHQ.com - Every day, over 2,000 active buyers who look at local real estate listings on our site. Your home will get maximum exposure as a "featured listing" (over the other 15,000 homes that are listed) to all of these potential buyers.
Local San Diego Real Estate Sites - We will ensure that your home is available with multiple color photos on all San Diego real estate web sites that display MLS listings - this includes all offices (and agents) from RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Prudential Realty, and more!
REALTOR.com - We will place your home on the most highly visited real estate web site in the world.
Yahoo! and MSN - We will ensure your home is entered onto Yahoo! Real Estate and MSN Real Estate.
If you would like to take advantage of the services and benefits discussed above, please call or complete the form below to start the process. We'll be happy to help!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We are here to help. Thank you for visiting!