For homeowners
Selling the El Dorado Hills house you built a life in.
You may be ready to sell, or you may just be wondering whether the house still fits and what a move would actually look like. Either way, this is a good place to start.
For homeowners
You may be ready to sell, or you may just be wondering whether the house still fits and what a move would actually look like. Either way, this is a good place to start.
You have been in this house a long time. The stairs have started to feel like stairs. Maybe a neighbor sold last spring and the number surprised you, and you have been quietly doing math in your head ever since.
Almost every website in this business will now offer to tell you what your home is worth, take your email, and send you a phone call instead of a number. This page does it the other way around. The estimate below is yours whether or not you ever tell me who you are.
It is an estimate, and estimates are only as good as what you put into them. But it is real arithmetic on real California costs, and it answers the question people actually have, which is not what the house is worth. It is what you could walk away with. If the worth part is the bit you are stuck on, here is why the online number is usually wrong in El Dorado Hills.
The number that matters
Move the sliders. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored, and there is no email wall in front of the answer.
If you are not sure, the El Dorado Hills median was around $876,000 in July 2026 and Folsom around $750,000. Your house is not the median, but it is a place to start.
Mortgage balance, plus any equity line. Set it to zero if the house is paid off.
Broker compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable. There is no standard rate, so nothing is filled in here for you. Put in whatever figure you want to plan around, and we can talk through what is realistic for your house.
Paint, carpet, landscaping, the one repair you have been ignoring. Most houses need considerably less than their owners fear.
Optional, and only used to flag whether capital gains is worth a conversation. Nothing here is tax advice.
Escrow, title and recording are estimated at 1.1% of the sale price, which is typical for Northern California but varies by company and by deal. County documentary transfer tax is calculated at $1.10 per $1,000, the rate in both El Dorado and Sacramento counties. Not included: property tax and HOA proration, a home warranty, any credits you negotiate, or a second loan you may have forgotten about. This is an estimate for thinking with, not a settlement statement.
Fifteen minutes on the phone. Before real estate I ran my own appraisal practice, so a pricing conversation with me is a different conversation. Plenty of people book one a year before they are ready. That is the right time.
The part nobody explains
If you bought in the nineties or the early two thousands, your property taxes are based on a number that has almost nothing to do with what the house is worth now. That is Proposition 13, and losing it is the quiet reason a lot of people stay put. Proposition 19 changed that in 2021, and most homeowners still do not know it.
This is the question I get asked more than any other. The whole of Proposition 19 is written out here, with the El Dorado County specifics and two worked examples, or it is answered alongside the rest of them if you would rather skim.
One thing to check before you celebrate. The tax base you carry over does not cover the Mello-Roos, because that special tax belongs to the parcel rather than to you. A move that saves you thousands on Proposition 13 can quietly hand some of it back if the new address sits in a heavier district with longer to run. Give me the address you are considering and I will pull the real figure off the county roll, so you can do that sum on paper first.
This information is for general educational purposes and is not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional to understand how property tax rules apply to your individual situation.
It is also a simplified version of a rule with real edges to it. Before you count on any of it, read the state’s own explanation at the Board of Equalization, talk to the assessor in the county you are moving to, and run it past your CPA. I am happy to walk through how it applies to a specific move, and I will be the first to tell you when a question belongs with an accountant instead.
The process
Five phases, in order, written down before anything starts. You always know what happens this week, what happens next, and what is not your job to worry about. Some people start a year out, and that is a good time to start.
01
An hour at your kitchen table. What you want the next few years to look like, what the timeline really is, what is negotiable and what is not. Nothing is listed, priced, or promised in this meeting.
02
A written punch list separating what returns money from what does not. Decluttering help, trades I have used for years, and a pace set by you. Most homes need far less than sellers fear.
03
Editorial photography, a real pricing analysis built the way I built them as an appraiser, and a launch plan built around how buyers actually search this market. The number comes with the reasoning attached.
04
Selling is only half of the move. Touring neighborhoods before you need them: single story in Serrano, Heritage, Four Seasons or Regency, walkable streets in Town Center or Folsom, a 55+ community, or somewhere further out entirely. Wherever you land, I either walk that part with you or hand you to an agent I trust in that market.
05
Movers scheduled, utilities transferred, the estate sale handled, the keys where they need to be. The details don’t stop at closing. I stay involved through the move and help make sure the pieces actually come together.
The guide
Fifteen pages. All five phases in full, the self-assessment for working out whether it is actually time, the three kinds of downsizer and which one sounds like you, what Proposition 19 does to your property tax, and client stories. It opens right here and it is yours to keep.
PDF·15 pages·No cost
Why Cheri
Before I became a real estate broker, I ran my own appraisal practice. That experience still shapes the way I look at every home I sell: the comparable sales, location, condition, improvements, competition, and the details that can make one home sell very differently from another.
I’ve spent nearly twenty years helping buyers and sellers throughout El Dorado Hills, Folsom, and the foothills, and I’ve lived in this area for most of my life. I know these communities not just from selling homes here, but from living here.
When we talk about the value of your home, I’ll show you the numbers, explain the reasoning behind them, and give you my perspective on how I would position it in today’s market. Then you make the decisions. I handle everything else.
“Moving was not just a practical decision for us. It was emotional. Cheri understood that immediately. She brought clarity, calm, and genuine care into every conversation. We always felt supported, never rushed.”
Lisa C. · El Dorado Hills · More client stories
One last thing, since we are talking about what a sale costs. For every home I help sell, I make a donation to NorCal Sheltie Rescue. I have raised Shetland Sheepdogs for more than twenty eight years, and it seemed like the right thing to attach to the work. Here is how that works.
When you are ready, or before
Fifteen minutes. I will ask what you are hoping the next few years look like, tell you honestly what the market is doing, and let you decide what happens next. Nobody signs anything. Plenty of people call a year before they are ready, and that is genuinely the right time to call.
Book fifteen minutes →Free to use
Lets connect
No contract, no obligation, and no pressure to be further along than you are. Plenty of people write to me a year before they are ready, and that is genuinely the right time to write.
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