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An Insider's Guide to North San Diego County's Coastal Real Estate
Jim Klinge, broker-associate
858-997-3801
klingerealty@gmail.com
Compass
617 Saxony Place, Suite 101
Encinitas, CA 92024
Klinge Realty
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Jim Klinge
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Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home? Contact Jim the Realtor!

Jim Klinge
Cell/Text: (858) 997-3801
klingerealty@gmail.com
701 Palomar Airport Road, Suite 300
Carlsbad, CA 92011


Most recent articles

Zillow ‘Moonshot’

Bloomberg has this article on Spence stepping down at Zillow yesterday:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/zillow-ceo-rascoff-steps-down-so-barton-can-lead-moonshot-effort

Zillow must believe that flipping homes is their future:

On average, a customer asks Zillow for an offer on their home every five minutes, said Barton, signaling there’s ample consumer demand for a simplified home-selling process.

“It’s like advertising free beer at a college party,” he said.

They’re finding out that flipping isn’t as easy as it looks though.  In addition, realtors aren’t spending like they used to:

In August, the company said that it was taking longer than anticipated to sell the homes it acquires. Three months later, it reported that some advertising customers were pulling their business because they disliked changes to the platform. Shares in the company, which peaked at $65.21 in June, plummeted to a low of $27 in November.

Agents may have told Zillow that they were pulling their business because of changes in the platform, but that won’t be the end of it.  As the number of home sales decline nationally, realtors will slow or stop spending money – starting with the very expensive Zillow ads.

Zillow still says they love realtors, but we’ll see about that.  Once their advertising income declines, and the homes they bought start piling up, it is inevitable that they will think they don’t need agents any more.

The next few years are going to be exciting!

Posted by on Feb 22, 2019 in Jim's Take on the Market, The Future, Zillow | 3 comments

NRT Rips Compass

Today, Ryan Gorman, the CEO of NRT which owns Realogy (Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Corcoran, etc.) took a major shot at Compass.

He released this two-page ‘questionnaire’ for his agents to use when interviewing with Compass, but he sure comes off as desperate and paranoid:

Help-Agents-Avoid-Being-Thrown-Off-Course-by-a-Spinning-Compass-CB-NRT

Our CEO, Robert Reffkin, shrugged it off, which is fine and what he should do:

“What you talk about is a representation of what you are focused on,” Reffkin said. “We don’t tear down competitors, we don’t pay attention to the noise, what we focus on is empowering agents.”

But as a Compass guy, I’m going to address some of Ryan’s specific concerns for those consumers and agents who might be curious and want to know the truth:

1. Robert Reffkin told us that because we’re in the Top 20 markets, the company was going to concentrate on supporting and growing those already in play – which sounds great to us agents.  I don’t know how you rate the Top 20, but here’s where we are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Orange County, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington D.C., plus nine other smaller cities – which makes 24 markets.  Close enough.

2. Compass agents grow their business quickly after joining Compass? I don’t remember that claim specifically, but every agent knows your business usually takes a hit when you change companies.  Ryan said York at MoxiWorks contradicted the claim, but that’s not true. York said that the Compass market share was lower than claimed, but he checked the Compass production only, when Compass said it was the agents’ cumulative total for the year.  Agents count their annual sales volume, regardless of their brokerage, so the Compass and MoxiWorks measurements were apples and oranges – for Ryan to misconstrue what happened is disingenuous.

3. Ryan says Cigna isn’t our insurance company, but looks like they are to me:

We saved $4,000+ per year and have a lower deductible.

4. Ryan claims Compass is losing money and wants to know about the turn-around plan?  There’s $1 billion in the bank, and Compass will likely do an IPO in the next 24 months.  But agents are focused on selling homes – if we make any money on stocks or stock options, it will be icing on the cake.

5. Ryan said that Compass ‘strongly encourages’ agents to use the in-house tools. Nobody has ever asked or told me to use the Compass tools.  Furthermore, the Compass agents I know are all seasoned professionals who used their own tools long before working at Compass.

After his release went public, Ryan said this:

“I believe competition raises the level of play, and I welcome it,” Gorman said. “But when a competitor fails to uphold the basic ethics and integrity that this industry has together worked so hard to build, and puts the people I care about in jeopardy, I cannot sit on my hands.”

“The ‘talk’ coming from Compass behind closed doors is disturbing, and yet even in public forums, such as this publication, the inconsistencies, exaggerations and flip-flops by Compass executives are deeply concerning.”

The NRT sales volume is around 5x what we sell at Compass, and this guy goes ballistic over half-truths and innuendo, most of which is wrong or inconsequential?  Why?

Posted by on Feb 21, 2019 in About the author, Compass, Jim's Take on the Market, Realtor, Realtor Training, Realtors Talking Shop | 0 comments

NSDCC 2019 Sales

Yesterday, the C.A.R. released the statewide January results, with more speculation from our so-called leaders:

 California home sales fall to lowest level in more than 10 years

– Existing, single-family home sales totaled 357,730 in January on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down 3.9 percent from December and down 12.6 percent from January 2018.

– January’s statewide median home price was $538,690, down 3.4 percent from December and up 2.1 percent from January 2018.

– Statewide active listings rose for the 10th straight month, increasing 27 percent from the previous year.

– The statewide Unsold Inventory Index was 4.6 months in January, up from 3.5 months in December.

“California continued to move toward a more balanced market as we see buyers having greater negotiating power and sellers making concessions to get their homes sold as inventory grows,” said C.A.R. President Jared Martin. “While interest rates have dropped down to the lowest point in 10 months, potential buyers are putting their homeownership plans on hold as they wait out further price adjustments.”

The statewide median home price declined to $538,690 in January. The January statewide median price was down 3.4 percent from $557,600 in December and up 2.1 percent from a revised $527,780 in January 2018.

“While we expected the federal government shutdown during most of January to temporarily interrupt closings because of a delay in loan approvals and income verifications, the impact on January’s home sales was minimal,” said C.A.R. Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “The decline in sales was more indicative of demand side issues and was broad and across all price categories and regions of the state. Moreover, growing inventory over the past few months has not translated into more sales.”

Link to press release  

Obviously, they haven’t done a survey of the North San Diego County’s coastal region!  Between La Jolla and Carlsbad, we had about the same number of January sales last month as we did in January, 2018, so we’re faring much better than the -12.6% statewide.  We are further into February so let’s pick up the sales from the first half, and break it down by price category too:

NSDCC Detached-Home Closed Sales, Jan 1 to Feb. 15th

Price Range
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
PEND
ACT
Under $1M
129
96
107
93
71
65
76
64
$1M to $1.5M
62
71
82
88
77
91
87
163
$1.5 to $2.0M
29
33
24
41
36
34
50
126
Over $2.0M
46
50
43
41
51
52
60
453
Totals
266
250
256
263
235
242
273
806

The only two signs of trouble:

  1. The Under-$1M market is disappearing.
  2. If you want to buy a house priced over $2,000,000, you sure have plenty to consider!  Those sellers are happy to wait it out too, so no rush.

Other than those, we have remarkable balance, and it doesn’t look like ‘potential buyers are putting their homeownership plans on hold’ around here!

Posted by on Feb 21, 2019 in Jim's Take on the Market, North County Coastal, NSDCC Pendings, Sales and Price Check | 3 comments

Embezzlement Reimbursements

Hat tip to Mark for sending in this conclusion to a previous story seen here:

CARLSBAD, Calif. (KGTV) – More than two and a half years after Team 10 first reported about a North County property management company accused of stealing money from clients, the victims are finally getting their money back.

Kelley Zaun owned Carousel Properties, a Carlsbad property management company. Victims first told Team 10 in 2016, they hired her to pay fees associated with their rentals. They said she did not pay those fees. She was accused of taking roughly $200,000 from victims, according to investigators.

In 2018, Zaun faced 29 felonies for embezzlement, according to Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn. Zaun entered into a plea deal and agreed to a year in custody. With the help of the DA’s office, Zaun’s former clients were able to get their money back through the Department of Real Estate’s Consumer Recovery Account.

Stephen Lerner, the Assistant Commissioner for Legal Affairs for the department, said so far, 23 victims have been reimbursed through the account. Other victims’ payments are still processing. They have been able to reimburse $172,084.68 thus far.

The Consumer Recover Account is an option for fraud victims when trying to recoup money from the person who took it from them. In order to utilize the fund, Lerner said there must be a criminal or civil court order for the defendant to pay back money he or she took. If victims cannot get refunded from the person who stole it, they can apply through the Department of Real Estate.

Winn said she volunteered to be the victims’ liaison with the DRE, as the process for reimbursement is lengthy and many of the victims were elderly. One of Zaun’s victims told Team 10 he is “extremely grateful” for the DA’s office work on this case.

Victims started receiving reimbursements within the past couple of weeks.

Money for the account comes from license fees. Lerner told Team 10 there are approximately 421,000 people with a license under their department, which includes broker and salesperson’s licenses. 12 percent of the license fee paid goes to the account.

Since 1964, the DRE has paid more than $61 million to victims. Approximately 54 percent of all applications are approved.

Link to Article

Posted by on Feb 21, 2019 in Jim's Take on the Market, Real Estate Investing, Realtor | 0 comments

Beer Drinkers

It’s probably obvious that the practice is undergoing changes, and Donna is participating more with the sales team. She thinks the Wednesday Rock Blogging should catch up with the times, to which I said, “Sure, I’m hip – what do you want to hear?”

She said, “Post Malone and J Cole”.

Yeah….no. Can we warm up to that honey? A very special ZZ moment:

Posted by on Feb 20, 2019 in Wednesday Rock Blogging | 1 comment

Millennials in Parents’ Basements

Can we expect young adults to be tomorrow’s home buyers?

A report from the Urban Institute:

The share of young adults ages 25 to 34 living with their parents increased from 11.9 percent in 2000 to 22.0 percent in 2017. This translates to more than 5.6 million additional young adults under their parents’ roofs between the two years. This trend matches the decline in young adults’ marital rate (from 55.3 percent to 40.0 percent) during this period.

Increases in rents and student debt plays an important role in young adults’ decisions to stay with their parents. Metropolitan statistical areas with higher unemployment rates experienced a greater increase in the share of young adults living under their parents’ roofs.

This early life choice could have long-term consequences. Young adults who stayed with their parents between ages 25 and 34 were less likely to form independent households and become homeowners 10 years later than those who made an earlier departure. Even if they did ultimately buy a home, young adults who stayed with their parents longer did not buy more expensive homes or have lower mortgage debts than did young adults who moved out earlier, suggesting that living with parents does not better position young adults for homeownership, a critical source of future wealth, and may have negative long-term consequences for independent household formation.

Link to 39-page report

Posted by on Feb 19, 2019 in Boomer Liquidations, Boomers, Jim's Take on the Market, Market Buzz | 4 comments