Selling a home in San Francisco is an important and deeply personal process. Here’s the story of how we helped a recent seller client.
When the daughter of two senior San Francisco homeowners reached out to us, the situation was straightforward but emotionally layered. Her parents had moved into an assisted living facility and needed to access the equity from their Miraloma Park home to cover the cost of their care. The house had a reverse mortgage on it, and the family needed a San Francisco real estate team that could navigate the complexity of that financial picture while still maximizing the sale price.
She found Danielle Lazier online and liked what she saw. Strong reviews, a transparent approach, and personal experience guiding sellers through complex situations such as a reverse mortgage sale.
The home was a single-family house in Miraloma Park with 3 bedrooms, an office, and 2 full bathrooms. The layout was great, and the views across San Francisco Bay and out to San Bruno Mountain were genuinely impressive. The home still had appealing original details like hardwood floors, wood paneling, and a working brick fireplace.
However, it was also a house that had been lived in for a long time. It was outdated in spots, had windows that likely needed repair or replacement, and was full of decades’ worth of belongings and furnishings that would all need to be dealt with before any buyer could see the home’s potential.
The daughter was hoping for a sale price somewhere in the range of $1.4 to $1.5 million. That estimate was based on online home valuations and the assumption that some repairs would push the price higher. Her biggest concern was making sure her parents walked away with meaningfully more than what they owed on the reverse mortgage, so they'd have enough to fund their transition into long-term care.
In our initial conversation, she mentioned wanting the following from her San Francisco real estate agent:
In short, the family needed one of the best Realtors to sell a home in San Francisco to handle a sale that had both financial and personal stakes.
When the situation allows, we generally recommend professional staging for a seller’s property. A vacant, staged listing tends to get the best possible results. But everyone’s situation is different, and we tailor our strategy to the client, not the other way around. You can read more about how we approach each seller's unique needs and also Danielle’s philosophy on professional staging.
In this case, Danielle presented the clients with two options: a full prep-and-stage approach or a simpler route focused on hauling away belongings and cleaning the home. The family chose the simpler path, and we took it from there.
Our team coordinated with contractors and local partners to clear out the home, carefully navigating what needed to be saved, stored, donated, or discarded. We even facilitated the rehoming of a grand piano in the living room. Throughout the process, we kept the sellers informed and involved at every step.
Once the work was done, the result was a clean, tidy home that showcased its best features. The bones of the house, the views, and the original character were all on display for prospective buyers, and the home was ready for the next owners to invest their own personal touch and customizations to whatever extent they chose.
As you’ll notice in the photos, professional photography goes a long way when selling a house in San Francisco. We take “before” photos as a working reference for our team when planning the cleaning, removal, and any prep work. Those photos aren’t staged to make the property look as rough as possible for dramatic before-and-after impact (we promise). But the difference between hastily taken phone photos and what a talented professional photographer can achieve is striking.
As top SF Realtors since 2002, we have an invaluable network of trusted local professionals. We work with many of the best real estate photography and videography teams, as well as professional stagers and designers, to present each property at its absolute best. That means not only making a listing look appealing but preparing and positioning it to connect with the widest possible range of likely buyers given current market trends.
With the property prepared and ready to show off, we hit the market. Smart pricing and marketing did the rest. A combination of digital marketing, our website, social media, and Just Listed postcards promoted the property to both buyers and agents across the San Francisco market.
Within 11 days, our sellers accepted an offer. Within less than 30 days of hitting the market, their sale closed.
The best part, the sellers received a final sale price of $1,505,000. That number landed above the sellers’ most optimistic price expectations, who had been hoping for $1.4 to $1.5 million if everything went ideally.
Danielle’s recent listings have sold for 5% higher price-per-square-foot and spent 63% less time on market than the MLS average. Those results reflect our commitment to strategic pricing, professional presentation, and skilled negotiation on every San Francisco home sale we handle.
If you are curious about what it looks like to work with our team, browse our client case studies to see more real stories from clients buying a home and selling a home in San Francisco.
You can also sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on the SF real estate market, local news, and other updates we think you'll enjoy. We value your privacy, no spam or games.
Whether you are in a complex family situation, managing a reverse mortgage, or simply ready for your next chapter, we would love to help. Our team brings the local market knowledge, the trusted professional network, and the hands-on project management to guide you from start to close with confidence.
Contact us today to tell us more about your situation and goals for selling your home in San Francisco. We look forward to hearing from you.
