Nobody can tell you from the street or a website. An automated estimate reads square footage and recent sales. At this level value sits in things a model can’t weigh — the view corridor, the lot’s orientation, whether finishes are current or dated, what sold privately nearby and never reached the MLS.
What we do instead is a comparative market analysis: recent comparable sales, what’s competing with you now, and what failed to sell and why. That last group is usually the most informative. It takes a walk-through and a few days.
It varies by market and by price band within a market. A well-priced home in a liquid market can be under contract in weeks. A distinctive property at the top of its range can take a year, because the buyer pool might be a few dozen people worldwide.
The honest version is that pricing at launch determines most of it. The first three weeks bring the most qualified attention a listing will ever get. Price above the market to leave negotiating room and you spend that window teaching buyers to wait.
Usually less than people expect. Full kitchen and bath renovations rarely return their cost at sale, and you’re guessing at the taste of a buyer you haven’t met. What does pay: paint, landscaping, lighting, deep cleaning, decluttering, and fixing anything an inspector will flag regardless.
The exception is work that would otherwise exclude the property from financing or insurance — a roof at end of life, unpermitted additions, deferred structural issues. Those aren’t upgrades. They’re removing obstacles.
Yes, and for some sellers it’s the right call — a public figure, a divorce, an estate, or an owner who simply doesn’t want the sale discussed. We can market privately within our network.
You should understand the trade-off. Private marketing reaches fewer buyers, and fewer buyers usually means less competitive tension and a lower final number. Discretion has a price. Sometimes it’s worth paying and sometimes it isn’t — that’s a conversation, not a policy.
We reassess rather than reducing and waiting. Showing volume, feedback, competing inventory and what is actually selling all get reviewed. Sometimes the answer is price. Sometimes it’s presentation, photography, or that the property launched into the wrong season.
Withdrawing and relaunching later is a legitimate strategy, and better than letting days on market accumulate while a listing goes stale.
The listing agent works for the seller. They owe the seller loyalty and confidentiality, and they cannot advise you on what to offer. Use them and either you’re unrepresented, or you’re in dual agency where neither side gets advice on price.
A buyer’s agent owes those duties to you. On the largest purchase most people make, that distinction is the entire point.
Cash wins on certainty, not on money. Sellers take it because it can’t fall apart at underwriting. You close that gap by removing the same uncertainty:
A bridge loan can also let you buy before selling, which turns a contingent offer into a clean one.
We’d advise against it, and we’ll say so even when it costs us the deal. At this price point a structural or systems problem runs to six figures, and waiving means you absorb it with no recourse.
There’s a middle path that works nearly as well. Inspect before offering, or shorten the contingency to a few days rather than removing it. You keep most of the competitive benefit and all of the protection that matters.
With time on the ground before you commit. Neighbourhoods that look identical online differ enormously in traffic, noise, light, school catchment and commute. A weekend spent in the areas you’re considering is worth more than months of browsing.
Because we operate across multiple markets, we can usually pair you with someone who works your destination daily while another of our agents handles the sale you’re leaving behind. Explore our markets.
Several things that surprise out-of-state buyers. Property tax is reassessed at purchase price under Proposition 13, so your bill may be far higher than the current owner’s. Mello-Roos districts add a special tax on top. Natural hazard disclosures increasingly determine whether a property is insurable, which in turn determines whether it’s financeable.
Anything in the coastal zone may need Coastal Commission approval for work you’d assume was routine. Our glossary covers these in more detail.
Two things. The first is reach — a network spanning markets across the country, which matters when you’re selling in one place and buying in another, or when the buyer for your home lives three time zones away.
The second is who we hire. We recruit from the top of each market rather than staffing offices for volume. Fewer agents, each of whom knows their territory street by street.
As discreet as you need. We work regularly with clients for whom a sale cannot become public knowledge. That can mean private marketing, NDAs before showings, proof of funds before an address is shared, and appointment-only viewings with no signage and no open houses.
Tell us what level you need at the outset and we’ll build the campaign around it, rather than retrofitting it later.
A listing agreement has a term, usually a few months to a year depending on the property and market. It’s a real contract and worth reading before signing.
That said, a relationship that isn’t working serves nobody. If you’re unhappy, raise it with us directly. We’d rather fix the problem or release you than spend six months in a listing neither side believes in.
Our giving programme, funded from the business rather than a separate marketing budget. Every transaction contributes, so it scales with the work our clients trust us with instead of being an annual gesture.
What it supports is set out on the Our Impact page.
Commission is negotiable and always has been. What’s charged depends on the property, the market, the marketing required and the scope of work.
Following the 2024 industry settlement, buyer agent compensation is negotiated separately rather than advertised through the MLS. We’ll set out exactly what’s payable, and by whom, in writing, before you commit to anything.
Typically escrow and title fees, county and sometimes city transfer tax, negotiated repairs or credits, prorated property tax, and payoff of existing loans. Some cities apply a substantially higher transfer tax above a price threshold, which can be a large number at this level.
We prepare a net proceeds estimate before you list, so you know what actually reaches you rather than the headline price.
We do, on the listings we take. Photography, video, floor plans and staging where the property calls for it are part of the engagement rather than billed back to you.
Where a property needs work beyond presentation — repairs, landscaping, specialist restoration — that’s the seller’s cost, and we’ll be clear about it before anything is commissioned.
Start with the market rather than the person. Our agents are organised by the areas they actually work, and the difference between someone who covers a region and someone who lives in it shows up in pricing and in access to off-market inventory.
Browse by state and market, or call the Newport Beach office and we’ll make the introduction.
Not legally, if the two are in different states — licensing is state by state. But that’s exactly what the network is for. One agent handles the sale, another handles the purchase, and they coordinate timing between them.
You get local expertise at both ends without managing two unrelated firms who’ve never spoken.
Yes. The reputation is built at the top of the market, but our agents work across their whole territory. A first purchase today is often the relationship that matters most over twenty years.
If your situation would be better served elsewhere, we’ll say so and point you somewhere useful rather than taking the listing anyway.
We recruit selectively and by conversation rather than through job postings. If you’re producing at the top of your market and the model interests you, contact the Newport Beach office and ask for leadership.
Background on how the firm is run is on the Our Leadership page.