FAQ
Just about the same with other industries, real estate can’t get away with being affected by ‘shelter in place’ and the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some FAQ:
However, there are other factors that might or might not affect your transaction from being able to close. Here’s a few snapshots we catched over the past few days: Snapshot #1 / Off Market Listing Sold All Cash in 1 Day We were getting ready to list our Client A’s gorgeous executive home just before ‘shelter in place’ hit us. Last weekend, seeing the COVID-19 situations, clients decided to list their house off-market. We started promoting actively through agent networks, social media, emails, calls, etc. And within ONE day, we accepted an All Cash offer that matches the client's expected price. We quickly went in contract and are looking to close in time. Snapshot #2 / Expected Delay Closing due to ‘Shelter in Place’ and Refinancing ‘Traffic Jam’ We listed our client B’s beautiful modern condo in downtown SF and got sold off-market in just a few days! However, the transaction was not as smooth and easy. The appraisal was scheduled on Monday. Just before it was going to happen, SF announced ‘shelter in place’ and the appraiser decided to suspend their works. Buyer’s loan approval process isn’t able to continue without an appraisal. On the other hand, since the mortgage interest rates are reaching record-low and FED cuts interest rates again, refinancing demand spikes and creating a huge line at the lenders. Most likely, this transaction is expecting a postponed closing. What is the impact on our clients? They’re facing higher due mortgage because of the delay, which was mostly resulted from the pandemic. That is not what we want to see! However, we were thrilled seeing the news about banks offering to help customers affected by the pandemic. We quickly forwarded the information to our clients and helped them connect with their lenders. We were told today that the lender is granting extension and waiving late fees. Yay! We are so happy to see the relief from clients. Snapshot #3 / Another Expected Delay Closing, as Buyers on this one The pandemic is affecting everyone’s work, life and finances. We had another group of clients C who are buying their home. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic and ‘shelter in place’, the loan process was slower than usual. Two days before closing, we got informed by the lender that we aren’t able to close in time. We called up the listing agent to explain the situation, and the seller understands a necessary delay at this very crazy time. We were able to negotiate a postpone on this case. Everyone’s relieved. We’re so happy to see the support during this time. We just closed it today, hurray! Snapshot #4 / Offer on contingency of Coronavirus situation The California Association of Realtors had released a ‘Coronavirus Addendum/Amendment’ on March 17, opening a window for buyers and sellers to negotiate over postponing and canceling contracts due to the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic’s unprecedented impact on the purchase. We were helping a buyer to write an offer, as it was one on one negotiation, we were able to have the addendum in the offer packet to guarantee our buyer’s interest. What are We Doing Yes we are all staying at home at this point, but we are still working actively from home. Let’s see what we’ve been working on over the last few days!
We also believe it is important to show our kindness at special times. We sent our text messages to our clients and friends to ask if they’re doing well. We helped our elderly neighbor to get groceries. We do not over hoard. We are always happy to give a hand to those vulnerable and in need. Nothing is more important than our health and safety now, so let’s stay home safely for ourselves, our family and the community. While it is a pandemic time, we actually get to find a different angle to appreciate life, to cherish our health, our family, our home. Let us know what we can do to help. We’re on this together, and meanwhile we will keep you updated on the Bay Area real estate market! Best Regards, Wen Guo RE Group Wen Guo Real Estate Group proudly presented our Remodeling and Design Workshop on Feb 22, 2020 in Millbrae Library! As an Architect and Designer team, we are so happy to share how we helped our sellers to upgrade the home prior to selling and received great return!
Started with our guest Ken Truong (Flipper) sharing his stories and experience of flipping homes. Next, our team lead Wen Guo - rockstar seller specialist who has an architect background presented sale records of the team and remodeling “before & after” cases, showing how amazing outcomes were brought to the sales by doing minor remodeling or cosmetic touches! Looking to meet our listing manager on the team as well? - Ecem Polat continued the case study and shared the current trendy home styles, key elements & materials, colors and more! Followed by Alson Zhou (General Contractor), Issac Lopez (Handyman) and Wen’s round table talk, sharing pitfalls to avoid when doing remodeling, such as not checking credentials, choosing the lowest price, no written contracts, paying too much upfront, etc. - Great advice to take from the experts! Thank you for joining us, our clients, friends, vendors and Millbrae neighbors! Your attendance means a lot to us. Call us if you’re looking to sell, let us help you to create a good product professionally as a one stop shop! Text “event” to 650.817.5000, you will be invited to our next event. Can’t wait to share more value added information with you! Amazing team efforts this week! 10 properties in escrow and many up coming listings! So proud that - Our agent 🔥Jennifer Zhang🔥 has one escrow per week! - Agent Lina Yang just joined for 30 days and got her first listing🎉! - Agent Klaus Borho also got a long term buyer into a dream home!🏡 - And we love to thank our admin Ecem Polat in the super support to make everything happen! 💪 Do you know, Wen was #3 top producer in Northern California and Hawaii region in KW as individual in March 2019, and quickly hit #1 in April 2019; and as a team, Wen Guo Real Estate Group, we just hit #1 in June 2019! We are probably one fastest growing team in the Bay Area, striving for the best service to sellers and buyers, as well as offering Agent Support as a team. Do you know anyone that would like to join a real estate team? We are hiring buyer agent and customer care assistant, please let us know if you know a rockstar to be! Call us 650.817.5000 or email welcome@homesbywen.com if you are interested to join, or if you know anyone! Our Mission: dominate market, make millionaires, give back millions. I take care of your house (either you are here or not)When my Millbrae seller gave me the key and said, it’s all yours, we are out - they literally meant they are flying to across of the country to start a new life, and not coming back at anytime soon at all, at least not during the sale. Even better! So we scheduled all the venders and had the house prep process started. Other than the regular cleaning, inspection, photoshoot, it’s always thing unexpected. The house functions/sells better when 2 lights swapped? Done! The curtains were still there? Gone! Leaves and flowers falling everywhere before photos? Cleaned, and I was sweeping it in my suit :) Still some garbage in garage prior to closing? Hauled - they went in the trunk in my Mercedes! With all the extra efforts, other than our usual unusual marketing and sale strategy, another record high in the street was produced - listed at $1.39M and sold at $1.6M! “Wen, you have an unattainable standard for our future real estate agents” commented from seller from across from the country. They even sent my extra bonus gifts 🙏 Very very fortunate to meet great seller and very happy to provide what they need, so glad it turned out to be amazing 😉
#3 Top Producer in Northern California and Hawaii Region in KW
Bringing more value for Real Estate SaleEvery realtor comes from different background. While I was architect and designer before, I always try to improve Real Estate Sale through design efforts - from helping seller with design and construction prior to sell, to coming up with infographic about the listings, and annotating the hidden features... There's only but one goal - offering the best service to get the top dollars for sellers!
 Every night, after all meetings are done and then kids falling asleep, I finally got to shower and meditate, recap and think about my goal and business.
While the water is running tonight, I came to a conclusion that, it was not only a number's game in this business, it was the quality and how much focus I had with each client that got me this far in a short time. Yes we need to cold call and door knock to generate a certain amount of leads, but without thoroughly understand each single case, and help out to provide more value than just buying and selling, numbers won't convert. Ray and her two houses in a month Ray is a flight attendant that doesn't get to check out open house due to her busy flight schedule. For 2 years, she has been working with numerous realtors and still hasn't find a home. While she got priced out from 2 bedroom to 1 bedroom, when she met me, her $500k budget was good for a studio. Poor thing! I felt a regular process of show and buy would not work for her, as she has been very specific about her requirement and budget, so specific that there's almost no inventory on the market; and once if any shows up, it would be gone by the time she flew back to check them out. So instead of waiting and missing deals, I started digging into off market listings, expired listings, cold calling, mailing out flyers, door knock her specific neighborhood just for her. Finally, I found an owner that was willing to sell through off market over a couple months, connected the deal at $480k. Same unit closed on $555k the same week, Ray just made 16% on day one! Ray was so happy, that she came back to me to purchase another property with her boyfriend, the same day she got the key for her studio. I got busy again, I am that kind of agent that never stop at just selling, I started helping her to source contractor and handyman to update the condos, listing her property on Zillow to look for tenants, showing her how to do rental open house, etc. Thank you for the opportunity, and I am glad that my efforts converted twice in a month! SqFt increase There was this seller, no matter what happened, he would only extend listing agreement with me and never gave out the listings to any other agents. Because either he's ready to sell or not, I already help him to make $200k before even selling. Hong is the owner, he has this house in the city as rental. As a friend, he invited me to check out his house. After a tour, I realized there's some discrepancy on the county square footage. Who would drive up all the way to the San Francisco and wait for hours in the building department in the middle of a week to check out the permit for not even a client yet? I would! And my architect instinct was right - the house was missing 500+ sqft when drawing was submitted 20 years ago! I called through multiple agencies - planning, building, tax accessor etc., finally I got this 1300 sqft house increased into 1900 sqft. Listing agreement signed right away! This is not the only one though, I also got another couple listing signed as I helped out with their inlaw legalization process, or I helped increasing bedroom count in county record for sellers. No pain, no gain. The more we offer, the more we receive. The extra miles are always so worth working on, for you, and for us. |
TelephoneWen Guo +1 (650) 817-5000
Jennifer Zhang +1 (650) 867-1128 Lina Yang +1 (650) 206-8881 Patrick Smith +1 (415) 509-3350 Ecem Polat +1 (650) 556-4992 Mon Cochrane +1 (510) 934-9674 Team Office +1 (650) 880-1881 |