Robert asked about houses selling without being on the MLS.

Last month there were 79 sales of SFRs in Carlsbad:

New tract houses: 11

MLS resales: 63    (some SFR sales are in the attached category in MLS)

Non-MLS sales: 5

Total: 79

All of the new-home tracts were advertised in the MLS. 

What about the five sales off the MLS grid? 

• One house that sold had a realtor sign out front, so it must have been an exclusive,
• One was a short sale that was about $100,000 under a model-match November sale nearby,
• One was a recently expired listing that closed just under the former LP, and
• Two closed at big discounts, so they were either intra-family or somebody got a great deal. 

I checked out both; the first was 3995 Syme Drive, a 3 br/2.5 ba, 2,246sf remodeled house built in 1984 with nice ocean view that closed for $477,000:

^[1]

The other was 4734 Gateshead, a 5 br/3.5 ba, 2,953sf house that sold for $300,000.  The buyer told me that it had extensive water/mold damage, and he planned to spend $250,000 on repairs and improvements:

^[2]

What about financing on the 70 that had data?

VA = 3%,  (2, both over $900,000!)

FHA = 16%,  with 9 of 11 funding sales over $600,000 (not possible today)

At least 20% down payment = 57%   (40)

Less than 20% down payment = 11%   (8)

Cash = 13%   (9)

Interesting to note that that 70% of the buyers have a substantial cash investment!

How much discount, based on original list price?

Sold over list price = 11%

Sold at list price = 3%

Sold 1-5% under list = 24%

Sold 6-10% under list = 15%

Sold 11-15% under list = 27%

Sold 16-20% under list = 10%

Sold 21-25% under list = 5%

Sold 26-30% under list = 3%

Sold 31% + under list = 1%

You could say that all the sales were purchased at market value – all this shows is that nearly half (46%) of the sellers had to reduce their price by more than 10% before they found a buyer.   Later I’ll do a chart that matches the amount of discount to days on market.