Ed. Note: The following is a KHTS Feature story based on a recent radio interview with Richard Szerman of Realty One Group Solutions.

In an effort to help residents selling their homes get top dollar, a Santa Clarita realtor is offering his clients thousands of dollars to make basic updates to their house prior to the sale.

Richard Szerman of Realty One Group Solutions has been providing this service to his clients for decades, but is now formally introducing it to the community as the “Resale Renovation” program.

Richard Szerman

“We all have the same goal, the seller and the realtor– at least they should –so we know that when we put money into one of our client’s homes … it sells quicker and it sells for more money,” Szerman explained. “So that works for all of us.”

For example, Szerman recently had a client in Castaic whose home was initially worth about $330,000. After spending about $5,000 performing basic updates and maintenance around the house, it sold for approximately $390,000.

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“So for a couple thousand bucks, the seller walked off with $60,000 more than they would have otherwise,” Szerman said. “That’s pretty good.”

To those who might be wondering whether the program is too good to be true, Szerman clarified that it’s a mutually beneficial situation for both the seller and himself.

“Going back to my Castaic example, the more that house sold for, the more money I made,” he explained. “It cost me a couple thousand bucks to get that house put back together for him, and the seller didn’t have the money to do it, but they walked off with a lot more money; they tell all their friends this crazy realtor that they met was willing to put his money where his mouth is and get this done; and I also made more in commission as a result because the house sold for more money. So it works for everybody.”

Szerman and the Realty One Group Solutions team have developed several similar programs designed to make it easier to buy a house, sell a house and even save a house from foreclosure, and wants the community to take advantage of the opportunities.

“Because I spent sort of a half-lifetime in real estate, there are a number of problems I’ve sort of seen going through it over the years and a number of difficulties I see people reach on a daily basis,” he said. “We’ve created a series of programs that are meant to make it a little bit easier.”

In addition, Szerman does a high amount of public outreach and pro bono work throughout Santa Clarita, which he said he’s kept somewhat quiet up until recently.

“We’re starting to roll these programs out into the public,” he explained. “We believe that we’ve built a better ‘mousetrap,’ and now we’ve got to expose it to the world.”

KHTS Feature Story

Santa Clarita realtor Richard Szerman, of Realty One Group Solutions, has 24 years of experience as a realtor. After “quietly” conducting public outreach and pro bono work as a realtor in Santa Clarita for the last few years, Szerman is now raising awareness about the opportunities available to the community through Realty One Group Solutions. Programs like Rental Rebate, Free Loan Modification and Resale Renovation are designed to help make it easier to buy a house, sell a house and even save a house from foreclosure.

Richard Szerman

Realty One Group Solutions

25129 The Old Road, Suite #100

Santa Clarita, CA 91381

Cell: 661-714-1400

Office: 661-253-3000

[email protected]