Michelle Spataro-Russell

The first step is to put your team in place. Find a realtor you are comfortable with and have them guide you to a lender. Not all lender's are equal. With the help of your realtor they can send you to a lender they can trust and have used in the past. Always pick a lender you can sit down with. Going on line for lenders is not usually the best idea when trying to purchase a home. This first step is so important as you will need this pre-qualification from a lender to make an offer. You would not want to find the perfect home and not be ready and watch it fall through your fingers. Homes are getting multiple offers right now and having a strong team behind you can be the difference between being the Winning Offer and not getting the home of your dreams. I can not emphasize enough how important this is.

As a seller you are most defiantly in the drivers seat right now !! The market is very competitive and buyers are pulling out all of the stops to get their offers accepted. The most important thing I can not stress enough is to bring your "A" game when you hit the market in order to get your home sold quickly and for the most money possible. Some things that must be done to accomplish this is to work with your agent on preparing the home, getting professional photo's and video to highlight it's best features as many buyers due to COVID are searching on line first. We have 30 seconds to capture a buyers attention and we must present an A+ product to the world wide web. The second and probably one of the most important things I recommend to all of my seller's is to get a Home and Termite Inspection before going on the market. This help eliminate the buyers coming back to you wanting to re- negotiate the purchase price after we are in escrow. This one small step can save you thousand of dollars in the end and is money well spent, not to mention it helps remove a level of stress during the selling process.

I work with all kinds of clients, Seller's, Buyers, Investors, second home buyers. I also have a great knowledge of 1031 exchange rules and regulations if you are looking to sell and investment property and roll it into something else. I have participated with many of my investors in flipping homes. as well.

I must say I do love first time home buyers. It is so rewarding to help someone get into their first home. I also love working with sellers. One of my most recent seller's was out of the country retired and living in Columbia. Our time difference and lack of phone access was a challenge but we figure it out through FaceTime and facebook chat. I loved working with him, I gave him my recommendations of Painting the interior, getting a deep cleaning and staging the place. I also recommended that we get our Home and Termite Inspections upfront. I must say he was not really sure that in a seller's market that was all necessary. Once I explained to him my reasoning on why this would net him more money in the end, he trusted me and took my advice. Well we got it all together put the place on the market at top dollar and received an all cash offer No contingencies ( Because the buyer had the reports upfront there was nothing to re- negotiate.) The seller was beyond ecstatic and realized all the upfront work that he agreed to did pay off. We had a smooth transaction until he realized he needed to go to an American Embassy to get his deed notarized. With COVID he had to travel by plane to another part of his country to get this done. He did it and we were well on our way to closing. Well guess what the package was lost in the US by DHL....... But we were able to locate the package just in time for closing thank goodness and we closed right on time. The seller was ever so grateful for the recommendations and thrilled to have an easy, quick and full price offer.

I have been in the real estate industry for over 30 years. My father was a Real Estate Broker so I guess you can say I grew up with Real Estate. I have worked any many aspects of the business from Escrow to Property Management. I absolute adore Real Estate and all of the wonderful people I have met along the journey.