Most sellers assume the number is set by the market. It is set by the market and then adjusted, up or down, by the decisions made in the weeks before the sign goes in the ground. This guide is about those weeks.
What is in the Preparing to Sell for Top Dollar guide?
Eight pages of what we actually tell sellers in the room, with the figures sourced rather than asserted.
- Showing condition, and what the staging research genuinely supports, cited to the National Association of Realtors 2025 profile of home staging and to published curb appeal return figures.
- The trifecta: price, condition and motivation, the three levers that decide a seller’s outcome, and how they trade against one another.
- The five minute reset, which is the pre-showing routine worth doing every time, and the things that are not worth doing at all.
- Strategic pre-sale investment, including how pre-sale renovation and profit-share programs work and when paying for the work up front actually returns.
- From list to launch: the week one preparation checklist and the open house cadence behind it.
- The vendor bench. The stagers, contractors, photographers and escrow officers this firm has worked with for decades, and what each one is for.
Where the research is mixed, the guide says so rather than quoting the flattering number.
In final production
Who is this guide for?
Owners who are a few months out from listing and want to know where preparation money actually comes back. It is written for this coastline specifically, because what a Palos Verdes view lot rewards and what a Hermosa walk street rewards are not the same list.
When can I get it?
It is in final production. The rest of the library is ready today, and you can choose the ones that apply to you on the Downloadable Guides page. If you are preparing to sell before this one lands, ask Neil directly and he will walk you through the same material in person.
Have a question about this? Neil answers personally.