Heavy Demand, 2022

To demonstrate the imbalance between the supply and demand, look at the view counts of our new listing on the two search portals in the first 33 hours on the open market:

Views: 3,051

Saves/Favorites: 171

I received three phone calls from agents letting me know that they have interested buyers and will be attending the open house today – part of the rapport-building process that some have included in their repertoire of buyer-positioning tactics. One agent implored me to do a James Bond video, and even though Mitch has his Aston-Martin available, I had trouble getting into my black suit!

There were THREE other agents who requested an earlier showing time, so I’m getting started at 11:30am today to accommodate. On a Friday morning!

How pent-up is the demand coming into 2022?

Sacramento isn’t the same as us, but consider:

If there are multiple offers, what else can buyers do to compete, besides price?

  1. Butter up the listing agent. It doesn’t work with me, but most listing agents want to select somebody who they like to be the winner. They justify it with it being a ‘good match for the neighborhood’ or some other garbage, but it is pure discrimination – though completely unconscious.
  2. Bring the kids, for the same reason above. If you don’t have kids, grab an infant on your way over.
  3. Figure out if there is any predetermined process for selecting the winner. When I ask a listing agent this question, at least 90% of the time the answer is “I don’t know, I let the seller decide”.
  4. Big down payments, and big deposits. Though the chance of the buyers cancelling is the same, the naïve listing agents think those mean something.
  5. Ask for seller disclosures, and if there is anything unusual, then waive that contingency.
  6. Spend a lot of time at the house. It makes you look like you’re serious.
  7. Be one of the first visitors, and the first offer. It impresses most listing agents, and mentally they have designated you as the probable winner.
  8. At an open house last year, an agent brought me a sandwich. He still lost, but I’ll never forget it!

I heard an agent say, “If my buyers like the house, I tell them to offer $100,000 over list. If they love it, I tell them to offer $200,000 over list”.  A great example of how dumbed down the business is!

Besides, buyers are doing better than that:

 

New Furniture Ideas

Looking for ideas for furnishing your new digs?  How about the form-follows-function sofa.

From the designer:

A three dimensional model of the sofa is created with a computer program. The model consists of three curved faces which can be virtually unfolded. Next, these faces are manufactured from steel plates with a laser cutting process. The plates are bent and welded together to obtain the final shape of the sofa. All functionalities of the sofa are created from one continuous line.

For the full compliment, click here:

http://www.contemporist.com/2010/12/12/form-follows-function-sofa-by-daan-mulder/

International Intrigue in Carlsbad

From www.carlsbadistan.com:

San Diego City Beat has uncovered a rather interesting Wikileak story regarding a wedding thrown by Dagestani ambassador to Moscow Gadzhi Makhachev. The reason it is interesting is that the cable also mentions that Makhachev had homes in San Diego and sent Dagestani youth (including his sons) to “a military type high school near San Diego.”

City Beat says Makhachev denied in published reports that he has homes in San Diego, however, they found that he actually owns four homes in Carlsbad, all of which we know well (one is located next door to Senior Grubby’s see below) and that he has sent 15 boys through Carlsbad’s Army & Navy Academy.

Makhachev HomesThe more interesting news is that, aside from donating $100,000 to the Army & Navy Academy, Makhachev reportedly had connections with a local machinery exporter and Carlsbad developer Bernard Goldstein, a man who was “indicted by a federal grand jury in November for allegedly hiding millions of dollars in overseas bank accounts.”

City Beat says that Goldstein has since “fled the country.”

How’s that for some local intrigue? Click the link for all the details in a well researched piece of investigative journalism from City Beat senior writer Dave Maass.

[Link: San Diego City Beat]

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