I tell sellers to price their listing aggressively to elicit offers from all the hungry buyers looking for a deal, and start a bidding war. Instead, almost all prefer the old-fashioned way and list with a higher price, expecting to come down later once the listing becomes stale and the buyers have forgotten all about you. Here’s another example of how beautifully the former works.
There were seven all-cash offers submitted on the roach, and there could have been another 4-5 but I was telling agents how high they’d have to come in to win. Bank of America requested the highest-and-best offer from each, which sent the bidding even higher.
Congraulations to Gav, the closest guesser! Hopefully the Padres make the playoffs!
Here’s a link to the list of guesses, and the previous youtube that shows the interior:
The mainstream media, hungry to proliferate the most negative news possible, is struggling to see an actual housing double dip. So cnbc.com has decided to just go ahead and call the ”double dip“.
Here are excerpts:
Sellers on the market today have cut $29 billion off their collective home equity. (they didn’t lose equity, their list prices were too high!)
They say today’s buyers are only looking for great deals, so if you price the home at its actual value, nobody’s interested. You have to go below. (huh?)
Some of you responding on the blog yesterdaysaid that your markets are just fine, even seeing competition in offers again; I’m sure this is true in many local areas. The trouble is that those areas are in the vast minority. Unless we see a marked, widespread increase in home sales over the next several months, prices will go from flat to down once again.
The last sentence is old-school, and today’s market environment is going to continue to baffle those who can’t shake off the past.
1. To begin with, we don’t have an accurate way to measure pricing when some houses/areas sell for more, and some sell for less. The Case-Shiller is too general and vague for me. But that’s not stopping Diana from talking her book, insisting that prices will be going down.
2. Regarding her last line, in today’s world we CAN have sales can go down and not affect pricing. Why? Because no one HAS to move. If you are in distress, you can stop making your mortgage payment and stay for a year or two. Back in the day when banks would foreclose on you, it was different – we had regular market clearing. Not now.
3. If the housing market got worse, the government will create a new basket of cheese.
Considering Dataquick’s report yesterday on the August sales, our market is looking pretty good. When all we’ve been hearing about is the lack of demand, in San Diego County it seems there were plenty of sellers who were able to get their price right:
The housing double dip, and for that matter, ALL real estate market conditions should be discussed on a case-by-case basis. It’s local!
Lately, homebuyers have been taking a more conservative, less-flashy approach with regards to their housing choices. Part of that choice has to do with expenses; who wants to heat, cool, maintain, and furnish more than they really need?
We saw the 10,000 sf launch pad yesterday that has been listed for around $5 million, but not selling, and some viewers may have wondered about my $1.9 number. It was partly due to the unconventional look, but it was also because you can buy 5,000sf around the Del Mar Mesa area for less than $1,900,000 - I’ve sold two myself.
Are there a lot of buyers today who really need more than 5,000 sf in today’s environment?
Are they willing to pay for more than they need?
Buyers are willing to take the extra room, if they can get it for free, or for a discounted rate. We’ll see what happens on the SpaceStation, but for an idea of how recent buyers have spent that type of money, take a look at the youtube video below. The second house in the video will be the primary comp used to price the SpaceStation, and as a result, my guess is that they’ll list it for around $2,995,000 – and it’ll sell because the buyer will feel like he got the extra square footage for free:
P.S. You’ll hear how I don’t always film these in order!
Hat tip to the reader who sent in this official warning notice from the Commissioner of the DRE regarding buyers being forced to pay the listing agent’s short-sale negotiator.
An excerpt:
Unfortunately, Short Sale fraud is growing, and it too often seems that licensees and those counseling licensees may wrongly conclude that unlawful or questionable practices “cannot be bad” because “everyone is doing it.” Licensees must understand that fraudulent and unlawful practices will invite disciplinary action by the DRE an possible civil and criminal liability.
This DRE Short Sales update is written on the growing, questionable, and sometimes unlawful practice of short sale negotiators (“SSN”) requiring Buyers to pay the SSN’s fee.
It also mentions that a SS negotiator must be a licensed broker, which many are not. Click below:
Notice of default filings in California rose for the fourth-straight month in August climbing another 16.6%, according to ForeclosureRadar, which also began issuing data on foreclosure rates in four more states and unveiled new search functions on its web site.
In California, foreclosures are down 16.3% from a year earlier, and fewer homeowners found foreclosure relief as cancellations fell 11.2% and 15.6% more homes were lost in foreclosure sales, the firm said.
“Real estate markets are local, not national, and like other real estate trends foreclosure trends vary a great deal by location” said Sean O’Toole, ForeclosureRadar founder and chief executive.
A Raleigh, N.C., real estate speculator pleaded guilty to conspiring to rig bids at real estate foreclosure auctions in eastern North Carolina. The charge and subsequent guilty plea is the first in an ongoing federal investigation into fraud and bidding irregularities at auctions in several North Carolina counties.
The bid rigging was designed to suppress and eliminate competitive bidding on foreclosed properties and buy real estate via public auctions at noncompetitive prices, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Christopher Deans pleaded guilty Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Greenville, N.C., for conspiracy to rig bids during foreclosure auctions in eastern North Carolina from at least as early as April 2003 until at least April 2005, according to the DOJ. Deans, an owner of Raleigh-based real estate investment companies, and his co-conspirators paid each other not to bid against each other on particular properties during the foreclosure auctions, according to the charge.
As a result of the rigging, lien holders and certain homeowners received a lower price for properties sold through the auctions, the department said.
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