Home Sellers - Sell High & Sell Quickly - The home sales market rises and falls.  In any market, selling a home for the highest possible price within a reasonable timeframe means finding the one buyer who loves the house.  In addition, a listing agent must work with buyers' agents with professionalism and integrity to conclude transactions succssfully. Home sellers must know their agent has the personnel, experience and tools to minimize delays and get the job done on time.

Home Buyers - Locate the Ideal Purchase, Negotiate the Price, and Avoid Pitfalls - With so much money on the line, home buyers want and need to avoid any mistakes.  They need to find the home that meets their specific needs so they are happy and do not have to move.  They need to negotiate the right price to minimize loss if the market falls.  They need to make sure that they know what they are buying and are well-represented so they are not surprised once they move in.  Home buyers must know that their agent has the knowledge and experience to be their advisor and advocate.

Successful real estate teams proactively find ways to sell homes at higher prices for sellers and to locate and negotiate ideal purchases for buyers.  Agents who passively watch the market without strengthening their internal resources fall behind.  The key is a comprehensive approach that weaves skills, technologies, and resources to respond to an evolving sales market. As one of the strongest real estate teams in San Diego County, the Surf The Turf Team continually positions itself to meet the needs of today's and tomorrow's home sellers and buyers.  Our array of core competencies and breadth of professional services are among the most comprehensive in the United States.

A good example of how we provide exceptional value to our clients are our brochures.  Typically, we print 5,000 brochures for every listing that we take.  Some people ask, "What in the world do you do with 5,000 brochures?"  The answer is simple: Get them into the community!  Selling a home is about maximum exposure of the property to as many potential buyers as possible.

Click here to see some other samples.

Our Experts We have built our team around area expertise, and that is why we do not let just any agent join our ranks. Just as law firms have partners who are experts in corporate, tax, or family law, we have experts who specialize by location and each of us represents both sellers and buyers. Thus, you work with an agent who knows your area of interest. Because we are a team, you get the expertise needed even when selling in one area and buying in another.

People have asked about our DVDs and video technologies. We have been producing DVD home tours of our listings for years, and our innovation in this area has shown us that DVDs are instrumental in many ways:

More Previews
Since the DVD is placed on every brochure, each person who drives by may preview the home in the comfort of his or her living room.

Easier Access
Accessibility of the home is important, and DVD video makes a difference when a home is less accessible due to pets, sickness or other reasons.

Compelling Stories
Because the story told through the video is entirely under our control, we can present a home in the most compelling way. This can even involve the filming of local features, like parks and community pools, or interviewing of neighbors.

Involving Others
DVD video allows a potential buyer to share the home with others whose opinions matter (e.g., parents, friends, etc.) and allows the buyer to revisit the home again and again.  This helps buyers share and maintain their excitement for a home.

My husband and I had a lot of fear about picking a realtor out of the blue in a market like Southern California. When you are so far away, you have a lot less control during the process of buying a house. In a market like this one, you can't afford to sit around and waste time on someone who isn't really serving you well. And you definitely don't want to be pressured into buying something you don't want because houses are selling so fast.  Margaret really listened to our needs; she always responded immediately to emails and phone calls.  When we came out for a marathon house-hunting visit, Margaret gave us her full attention the entire time.  She did not pressure us in any way, and she was willing to put in as much time as we needed, and during negociations, she was our advocate and stood up for our interests.
Rosanne

Returning to live in San Diego County after 15 yrs absence required some readjustment. We located EncinitasCarlsbad.com through the Web and found it an invaluable tool for optimizing our SD home search from the LA Area.  We were able to select homes which fit our criteria, to explore the areas we were interested in, and to make best use our visits to San Diego. Margaret & Barbara provided great service in all aspects of the home search, negociations and purchase (not to mention recommendations on local restaurants & other amenities) and John provided excellent service as well as a more-than-competitive loan.  I cannot imagine a more effective way for folks outside of the area to locate and purchase a San Diego home.
Gene

A long distance purchase from the other side of the globe? No problem for Margaret Hokkanen.  We were originally drawn to Margaret through her comprehensive web site.  She responded immediately to our emails, which was a good indicator of the responsive service we would subsequently experience from ten time zones away.  We visited Encinitas during our home leave from US Government service posted to Egypt, where Margaret and her partner Barbara spent the day giving us a flavor of the area. Once back in Egypt, Margaret made good use of technology:  responses to our emails were fast, lots of digital pictures arrived for houses of interest, and documents were exchanged as email attachments, pdf files and scans, and, when necessary, old fashioned FAX.  Margaret quickly got a feel for what we wanted, and within a hour of hitting the MLS we had data sheets on houses of interest.  Margaret provided comprehensive answers to our questions, carefully explaining the unique features of the California real estate market and her approach and negotiating strategy.  She provided resource information about the 1031 exchange process and linked us with a 1031 facilitator.  Margaret knows the neighborhoods well and could easily point out plusses and minuses of a property, including the tone of the neighborhood.  She understood the challenges that a ten hour time difference introduced and ensured that the sellers also appreciated this.
Robert

We shopped around for different agents, and I can say that until we met Margaret and heard about Margaret and heard about the kind of marketing that she does that we were generally quite disappointed [in agents]. So, when we heard what she did and we saw the marketing material, we decided that was a good approach...Everything from the preparation of the house to the preparation of the marketing, the open houses all worked out extremely well.  Margaret made herself available at any time, she answers the
phone, and we had open houses whenever we felt that it was appropriate. And so I would recommend her and her services and the services of her team members to anyone who wants to sell a house[.]”
Thomas

The result of using [the SurfTheTurf team] was an infinite amount more of exposure on the market due to the DVD house tour that they made for us....The pictures on the brochure were superb.  It was not just the one little picture to show what the house
looked like.  It was a big splashy thing that made it look like one of the very expensive million and a half dollar houses being sold somewhere. Just the feedback and continual contact with them as a team.  It was regular and we were never left wondering what was going on....What we realized as we went through [the selling] process was that the support that they gave us and the help they gave us they made things very easy for us....They let us know what to expect along the way and they delivered on all of that.  For us, it was very easy. The best part for us is that they sold our house very quickly.  Maybe we paid a little bit more over a discount broker but we got the result that we wanted.  We're very happy.

Jo & Richard