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Paul McCartney

A fantastic video of Paul taking a tour of Liverpool with James – H/T daytrip:

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 22, 2018 in Jim's Take on the Market, Wednesday Rock Blogging | 0 comments

Dana Point Oceanfront

This is the standard for high-quality real estate films these days – just enough to make you want to see more, without over-doing it. List price is $12,495,000:

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 21, 2018 in Jim's Take on the Market, View | 0 comments

Listing Agent’s Fiduciary Duty

In hopes of finding some legal clarity on the listing agents who practice the Coming Soons and Sold Before Processings, I came across this example at the DRE website – we see these happen regularly:

The requirements of law governing the relationship between agent and principal is to the effect that the agent cannot be allowed to profit at the expense of the agent’s principal, no matter whether the result is reached by misrepresentation, concealment or other fraudulent device.

In the case of Rempel v. Kells the court held that an agent obtaining profits by fraudulent conduct and concealment from the principal is not even entitled to recover expenses incurred by the agent in connection with the transaction. The duty of a real estate broker to disclose material facts known by him to the seller employing him was again confirmed in the appellate court case, Jorgensen v. Beach ‘n’ Bay Realty, Inc., (1981) (125 Cal. App. 3d 155)

In Jorgensen, the listing broker presented an offer to his seller that was only about 7 percent less than the listing price. The broker presented the offer on behalf of a speculator for whom the broker hoped to act in future transactions. When the broker presented the offer, he informed the seller that he was also acting on behalf of the offeror and was therefore a dual agent in the transaction.

The seller wished to counter offer on the price, but the broker recommended that the seller not do so. The seller followed this recommendation. The sale was consummated. Shortly thereafter the purchaser resold the property through the broker at a 13.5 percent profit.

In reversing a nonsuit for the broker, the appellate court held that the broker did not fully discharge his fiduciary obligation to the seller by simply disclosing that he was acting as a dual agent in the transaction.

It was the broker’s duty to disclose all material facts known to him which might have affected the seller’s decision to accept the offer. The court suggested that the facts known to the broker which might have affected the seller’s decision included (l) the fact that the buyer was acquiring the property for investment purposes and (2) the fact that the broker had a substantial personal stake in negotiating a bargain purchase for the buyer. (Field v. Century 21 Klowden-Forness Realty (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 18).

Link to DRE (pages 182-183)

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 21, 2018 in Ethics, Jim's Take on the Market, Listing Agent Practices | 3 comments

Boomers Moving Out

This story is about the same as Carlsbad folks moving to San Jacinto, where you can buy brand-new houses in the $300,000s. But boomers want to stay within range of their kids and grandkids, so any boomer-flight could be muted.

Link to Full Article

If you’re touring a model home this weekend in Sacramento, chances are the other couple over there, the ones checking out the quartz counters and sizing up the master closet, are not locals.

Emigres from the San Francisco Bay Area will comprise one-third of house hunters in the capital region this summer, real estate analysts predict.

Call it the coastal wave. It started a year ago, and it may be about to peak.

Bay Area residents are inundating Sacramento home developer websites, clicking through floor plans, watching promotional videos and signing up for email blasts, according to Kevin Carson of the New Home Company. His firm is building in El Dorado Hills, downtown Sacramento and Davis.

“I believe this summer, when the kids get out of school, we are going to see a real increase in Bay Area sales,” he said. “We haven’t really seen the wave hit yet.”

Michael Strech, head of the North State Building Industry Association, said he’s checked with other builders and guesses the one-third figure may be conservative at some new subdivisions.

The reasons are obvious: The median price of a Bay Area home hit $850,000 in April, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data company. That’s a $100,000 increase in one year.

In San Francisco, the median price hit $1.3 million. That often buys no more than a 1,600-square-foot house.

In contrast, the April median sales price for a resale home in Sacramento County was $357,000. And the median for a new home was $433,000.

In an eye-opening Bay Area Council survey this month, 46 percent of Bay Area residents said they want to move out of the region within the next few years. They cite the high cost of living, high housing costs, traffic congestion and homelessness.

By comparison, Sacramento’s sparkling new hillside subdivisions and moderately priced midtown condos are hot properties.

Retiree Marie Diaz, 59, of San Jose is among the emigres. She and her former spouse are selling their home for $2 million after a divorce.

Diaz said she found she can’t afford another Bay Area house with her portion of the proceeds.

“Prices here are outrageous,” she said. “I can’t afford to live in this area. I’d be in an apartment.”

She bought a home under construction in El Dorado Hills for $525,000. It has the same square footage as her old home, with an outdoor “California room” and a nearby community clubhouse where she will play bingo and bunco and do yoga.

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 21, 2018 in Boomer Liquidations, Boomers, Jim's Take on the Market, Market Conditions | 3 comments

Led Zeppelin 1969

The Beatles were wrapping up, and rock and roll was looking for direction. In steps a long-haired dude wearing sandals, a guitar god who plays with a violin bow, and a maniac on drums:

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 20, 2018 in Jim's Take on the Market, Wednesday Rock Blogging | 2 comments

Market Observations

“If the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate increases to 5%, which most economists agree is likely by the end of 2018 or early 2019, the impact on the market potential would be a modest decline to 6.10 million existing-home sales, according to the model,” wrote Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial Corporation, the provider of title insurance and settlement services for the real estate market.

He noted that mortgage rates are rising because of positive economic conditions, which means household incomes are also rising, which should offset any increases in borrowing costs. “The housing market is flexible and can adjust to moderately higher mortgage rates without significant impact. The likely rise in mortgage rates is not the worry for first-time home buyers, but whether they can find something to buy in today’s supply-constrained market,” said Fleming.

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Ivy Zelman on mortgage rates: ‘If rates rise, that eats into affordability’, and 5.5% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage would really start to concern her.

Ivy on home builders: Slightly slower spring season than normal. She says that 59% of builders are seeing price resistance from buyers.

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An agent who has been in the business for three years is sitting on a listing in original condition priced over a million dollars for more than 100 days. He told me he didn’t know what to do to get it sold.

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Another agent who has been in the business for seven years told me that she had a $1,000,000 listing sell right away, but can’t get anyone to show her two listings in the $500,000s. She has been averaging two sales per month, but has never seen these market conditions and didn’t know what to do. She is contemplating a new job outside of real estate.

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Kayla makes a cash offer that is a little under the bottom of the list-price range on a house that’s been on the market since March. The sellers counter-offer full price (the high-end of the range), 30-day escrow after we already told the agent that we needed 40 days, sellers to rent back for 30 days for a monthly rental rate that is $500 under market, five days to remove contingencies, and washer/dryer not included but might be negotiable. The listing agent noted that she had a comp.

Buyer passed on it.

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 20, 2018 in Jim's Take on the Market, Market Conditions | 6 comments

Stinky Divorce

Divorces can be messy – you could say this one is gross! Thanks daytrip!

The bitter divorce battle between billionaire bond king Bill Gross and his ex-wife is beginning to stink — like vomit, flatulence and dead fish.

The California moneyman, who lost his beloved 13,819- square-foot Laguna Beach home to his ex-wife in the break-up, used foul-smelling sprays to leave the place a stinking mess — and placed dead fish in the air vents, a “disgusted” Sue Gross claimed in court papers last week.

Sue Gross, who won a temporary restraining order against Bill last week, has the evidence of his foul play — empty spray bottles in the trash cans, court papers allege.

Bill Gross left the home, worth as much as $36 million, “in a state of utter chaos and disrepair,” court papers filed in a Los Angeles state court claim.

Bill’s reign of terror included not just his malodorous moves but his use of an “army of spies” to conduct “non-stop monitoring” of Sue and her family members, it is alleged.

Sue sought to clear the air about the olfactory offensive.

“The houseplants smelled foul and need to be replaced,” she added, noting that a “substantial amount of time and money” was needed to rehabilitate the property.

Included in the court filing are photos showing the alleged spray bottles behind the putrid smells — as were photos that claimed to show water damage throughout the 6-bedroom, 8-bath house. There were also photos of the severed cord to a treadmill and an art installation of cats with their facial features scratched out.

Link to Full Article

Posted by Jim the Realtor on Jun 20, 2018 in Jim's Take on the Market | 1 comment