My parents had picked me to be trustee of their estate, a responsibility I did not know anything about and had never sold a home before. Fran Donohue is the life savior that helped me through the process of getting a five bedroom house in the Hayward hills remodeled, brought to code, staging the house, and guiding me through the sale negotiations, and paperwork process. Being a trustee of my parent's estate I had many legal and financial responsibilities to my siblings - a time consuming responsibility especially if you have a job and a life of your own.
Selling a house is a team effort. At the beginning, for several months, I had interviewed five real estate agents and a dozen contractors. The real estate agents hounded me to list the house with them but were not going to take part in helping to get the house ready for sale....they just wanted to sell the house. The contactors that worked for them either never showed up for appointments or would not provide an estimate of what they would do, a schedule, or a budget.
Fran, with her experience and connections comes as the complete package. Her experienced contractors for house remodeling, hardwood floor repair, staging, made the process go smoothly for a 60 year old house that had a lot of dry rot and remodeling needs. Fran put together a list of things to be done, prepared a budget after speaking with the contractors and getting their buy-in, and a schedule. I, initially, thought I needed to babysit the contractors but Fran took over this role and stayed on top of the workers if they made a mistake or missed a task. She went shopping for light fixtures for the entire house, towel holders, bathroom vanities, faucets, toilets, with countertops to match the wall and ceiling colors we had selected. She took part with the many required inspections where a seller has to provide inspection reports to make sure that the house is to code. While the house was being remodeled, we met once week to go over the punch list to make sure we stayed on schedule.
Fran's people skills and experience put me at ease and I knew that I was working with someone I could trust. During the remodeling stage, Fran took me to homes that were on the market in the area so we would gage the competition, what to remodel, as well as help arrive at a selling price. She also got to personally know the neighbors who would drop by to say hello. Once the house was staged by a staging company she works with, the house was put on the market. It sold above asking price the week it was put on the market with multiple offers. As a matter of fact, no house had ever sold for our selling price in that area.
I highly recommend Fran Donohue, she is a rare gem. In the end, she will be the new friend you did not have before and not someone you do business with and move on with your life.
Thank You, Fran
Paul I. read more