Los Angeles Listing Agent

Start by picking one priority: top price, speed, or certainty of closing. Those three pull against each other and you rarely get all of them. From there the sequence is pricing off live comps, pre-listing prep and disclosures, photography and launch, offer review, then escrow, inspections and appraisal. Los Angeles sellers also need a LADBS 9A Residential Property Report and compliance with the city rules on smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms and a seismic gas shut-off valve before the sale can close.

Budget for commission, escrow and title fees, county and city transfer taxes, and any repairs you agree to during negotiation. The City of Los Angeles documentary transfer tax runs $2.25 per $500 of value, roughly 0.45 percent. Sales above the Measure ULA thresholds carry an additional transfer tax charged on the entire sale price. Confirm the current rates and thresholds before you set a list price, because they are adjusted annually.

Most Los Angeles sales run 30 to 60 days from list to close when the home is priced correctly, with roughly a week of that in pre-listing prep and the balance in escrow. Homes priced above the comparable sales sit longer and usually close for less than they would have with an accurate price at launch.

Not always. Fix what a buyer's inspector will flag as a safety or habitability problem, and fix what photographs badly. Skip renovations you cannot recover at sale. California requires you to disclose known material defects on the Transfer Disclosure Statement whether or not you repair them, so repairing is a pricing and marketing decision, never a way to avoid disclosure.

Measure ULA is a City of Los Angeles transfer tax on higher value property sales, charged on the entire sale price rather than only the amount above the threshold. It applies to property inside City of Los Angeles limits, not to all of Los Angeles County, so a home in an unincorporated area or a separate city may be exempt. Thresholds are adjusted annually, so confirm current figures with the City before pricing.

A listing agent earns the fee by pricing against live comps, controlling the disclosure package, and negotiating repairs and appraisal gaps. Those are the three places Los Angeles sellers most often lose money. If you sell on your own, budget time for the LADBS 9A report, the state and city disclosure set, and buyer agent negotiation, and price conservatively since you will not see competing offer data.