Mission Beach
Want to enjoy the beach this weekend, but don’t want to hassle with the crowds? Take a video tour of this home that sold for $6,150,000 in October:
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home? Contact Jim the Realtor!
Carlsbad
(760) 434-5000
Carmel Valley
(858) 560-7700
jim@jimklinge.com
Category Archive: ‘Jim’s Take on the Market’
Do We Need A List Price?
There was quite a bit of hubbub this week about the Zillow Instant Offers program being tested in two cities. Seller inquiries are sent to as many as 15 investors plus a Premier Agent, who gets to make their own pitch for the business – and one realtor reported that she has already received 48 inquiries!
If that is behind the paywall, the article can be summed up by saying that the agent has submitted proposals to the seller leads, but none have responded. She will knock on some doors to see if she can drum up some business, and she is willing to shepherd the sellers through an investor deal for $1,500.
But why restrict the offers to just 15 investors and one agent?
Let’s let everyone have a shot at it!
Everyone could make an offer if Zillow had a ‘Submit Your Offer Here’ button.
They have the Make Me Move feature already, but that’s where the seller states the price they want. If their was no list price, like some of the commercial brokers do (see image at top), sellers could conduct their own price discovery. Who knows, maybe they would receive an appealing deal or two?
Our list price gives potential buyers some guidance. But do they need guidance? And if there was no list price, might they be willing to pay more than the sellers expected?
The result would be a slow-moving auction, with agents having plenty of opportunities to plug in and provide value to buyers and sellers.
Millennials Low on Dough
Will the boomers be exiting at or about the same time?
Millennials aren’t buying homes in the same numbers as previous and older generations, but it’s not because they don’t want to. The vast majority of millennials do indeed aim to buy someday, or would even like to now if they could. Unfortunately, the numbers don’t look good.
New data from Apartment List shows that, although 80 percent of millennials would like to purchase real estate, very few are in a good position to buy, largely because they have nothing saved. According to the report, “68 percent of millennials said they have saved less than $1,000 for a down payment. Almost half, or 44 percent, of millennials said they have not saved anything for a down payment.”
Depending on where they are looking to buy, given their current savings rate, millennials are 10 years or more away from home ownership. Young residents of pricey San Jose, Calif., will have to be exceptionally patient: Odds are they won’t be in a good position to buy an apartment there for “almost 24 years,” or “until the year 2041.”
Apartment List reports that millennials in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Austin and other major metro areas each “face a wait of at least 19 years”.
Fumigation Burglar
A homeowner told police his house was tented for termites, and part of the tenting process included placing cameras inside the house to detect an intruder.
The camera system later alerted the homeowner to the intruder’s presence, and within minutes the Carlsbad P.D. had this house surrounded, but apparently the culprit escaped – though he was caught a few hours later:
New Listing – Waters End
When it comes to finding newer homes west of the freeway and walking distance to the beach, it doesn’t get much better than Waters End in SW Carlsbad. Our new listing might be the best location within the neighborhood too, with no neighbor on the south side which allows for maximum light!
Open house cancelled – Pending!
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6965-Waters-End-Dr-Carlsbad-CA-92011/59877623_zpid/
Fantastic bonus room upstairs:
Chris Cornell
We lost another all-time great last week – thoughts from Chris’ final night:
Keedick was clear that he didn’t believe Cornell seemed depressed during the show, and that he was in “good spirits” when he did sound check.
Keedick’s account seems to coincide with the statements provided by both Cornell’s wife, Vicky Karayiannis, and the family lawyer after his death was ruled a suicide, where they insisted that he would not intentionally take his life and leave his family behind, and that they believed that his confession he had taken an “extra Ativan or two,” may have influenced his decision to take his own life.
“When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different. When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they check on him,” Karayiannis said in a statement. “What happened is inexplicable and I am hopeful that further medical reports will provide additional details. I know that he loved our children and he would not hurt them intentionally by taking his own life.”
Despite the initial autopsy confirming that Cornell committed suicide by hanging himself from the top of his hotel bathroom door, his family has maintained that his taking his own life was a decision he made while suffering from the adverse effects of Ativan, which he took for anxiety, or potentially other substances.
Ativan is a drug that is primarily prescribed for treatment of seizure disorders like epilepsy, though it can be prescribed for anxiety as well. Side effects however can include drowsiness, confusion, and depression, self-harm and suicidal thoughts. It is also known to cause dependency in individuals with histories of alcoholism or drug abuse.
He has several videos with views in the 8 and 9-figures!
SD Median Price Hits New Record
Glad to see the U-T relying on Rich for an explanation!
The San Diego County median home price hit $525,000 in April, passing the region’s previous peak reached in 2005, real estate tracker CoreLogic reported Tuesday.
High demand and tight supply appear to have pushed the price beyond previous milestones. There were 3,618 homes sold in April — the lowest for that month since 2012.
Supply is dwindling, too. In April, there were 4,763 active home listings in San Diego County, said the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors. That is down from 5,754 listings the same time last year and the 6,386 in 2015.
When adjusted for inflation, the nominal November 2005 peak of $517,500 would be roughly $644,500 in 2016 dollars. Still, the San Diego median price is noteworthy for increasing 7.4 percent in a year and outpacing most of Southern California.
Housing bubble fears are likely with the new median but home prices would have to rise 40 percent (assuming no income or rent growth) to be as overvalued as much as they were during the last peak, said Rich Toscano, who predicted the last housing crash on his blog Professor Piggington’s Econo-Almanac.
“Homes are definitely expensive when you compare purchase prices to rents and incomes,” he said. “They are the most expensive they’ve been outside the bubble. But, it still doesn’t compare to the expensiveness of the bubble.”
Toscano said low interest rates are keeping the monthly mortgage rates somewhat affordable and home valuations high.
“In theory, for as long as low rates persist, they could keep supporting the prices,” he said. “The big question is if that will continue to happen and the smartest people in the world disagree on that.”
There were 2,306 resale homes sold in April, bringing the median home price to $575,000, a new peak surpassing the previous record of $574,000 set in May 2006. The resale condo price was $385,000 with 1,108 sales — still $15,000 away from the peak set in April 2005.
Kayla’s Trendy Tuesday
Hello blog readers!
This is Kayla, Jim’s daughter, attempting my first blog post!
What are my interests? I absolutely LOVE interior design and learning about the upcoming trends for homes. Today, I’m going to share the new/current trends when it comes to redesigning a kitchen.
The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where parents make their kids a brown paper bag lunch for school. It’s also where you prepare your Thanksgiving meal. Who wouldn’t want their kitchen to look the part?! Below I included a link to our Pinterest page that gives you ideas for your new look!
Trend #1 – Matte black.
From appliances to faucets, matte black is very timeless and chic. “An object with a matte finish seems to strip away all other distractions such as surface sheen, forcing the form of the object to speak for itself,” says Bobby Berk.
Trend #2 – Cerused Wood.
What the heck is cerused? It means to treat wood with a white pigment to make the grain more noticeable. This actually goes back to the 1600s during Queen Elizabeth I when it was used as a cosmetic – but don’t use it for your skin now, it is extremely toxic! This look was very popular in high-end homes, but now it has become more universal.
Trend #3 – Subway Tiles.
Now, Jim isn’t particularly a fan of subway tiles but I LOVE them! It definitely gives you that “farmhouse” look. It is very affordable, which is probably the main reason why people use this as a backsplash rather than a whole slab of granite or quartz. There are different ways you could use the tiles – horizontal, herringbone, etc! I saw a home in Carlsbad that had subway tiles with dark grout, which is less likely to show dirt aka less cleaning!
Trend #4 – Quartz Counters.
The price of granite slabs and other natural stone have come down enough that going with quartz counters doesn’t save you a ton, but it does give you a high-grade look and is virtually indestructible. The extending of the counter down the side of a cabinet – know as a waterfall – completes the upscale appearance at a reasonable cost!
Here is a link to examples of each:
https://www.pinterest.com/klingerealty/2017-kitchen-trends/
I’ve also heard from a reliable source that the monochromatic white/gray look will be on its way out over the next couple of years. Guess what will be coming back? Earth tones!
Hope to see you back next week for #trendytuesday!
Home Sales, Y-T-D
N.A.R. home-sales forecasts are a moving target. In October they guessed 6 million sales for 2017, and in December they said 5.5 million:
Single-family existing home sales are set to see their best year since 2006, driven by robust job gains and improving household confidence, according to the forecast from the National Association of Realtors.
While existing home sales are increasing, low levels of supply and rising affordability concerns are creating headwinds for sales and threatening the low homeownership rate.
The first quarter came in with the best sales pace for existing homes in a decade; NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun expects that pace to continue, finishing off 2017 with 5.62 million sales, the best pace since 2006. This would represent an increase of 3.5% from 2016.
And home sales aren’t the only thing predicted to rise. NAR also forecasts an increase of 5% in existing home prices in 2017.
However, starter home shortage continue to plague the housing market and discourage would-be first time homebuyers.
“We have been under the 50-year average of single-family housing starts for 10 years now,” Yun said. “Limited lots, labor shortages, tight construction lending and higher lumber costs are impeding the building industry’s ability to produce more single-family homes.”
“There’s little doubt first-time buyer participation would improve and the homeownership rate would rise if there was simply more inventory,” he said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The N.A.R. only talks about the annualized sales pace, which is murky. Let’s look at how the actual year-to-date sales compare with previous years:
Detached-home Sales Between Jan 1st and May 15th:
| Year | ||||
| 2013 | ||||
| 2014 | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| 2016 | ||||
| 2017 |
The 2017 NSDCC sales are tracking 1.6% ahead of last year, and if mortgage rates can hold around the current 4%, we should carry on. It feels like we have a maturing market though, and a general malaise could drift into the equation towards the end of the summer season.
Zillow Instant Offers
If there was anyone left who still had doubt whether Zillow has the killer instinct, let this be the final piece of evidence to convince you.
Today they launched ‘Instant Offers’ which allows homeowners to submit a request for 15 investors to bid on their house.
https://www.zillow.com/instant-offers/
Zillow thinks that if they encourage sellers to hire an agent, it will be enough to appease their big-money-spending Premier Agents, because sellers will also have the option to engage with an agent regarding their home’s value.
But there is recent evidence to know how effective that program will be.
Zillow rolled out their big Seller Leads program at the last Premier Agent conference that we attended in Las Vegas last year. We signed up for the 6-month program, figuring if it does catch fire, we’d want to be involved!
During our paid six months, we got one listing in Spring Valley.
Our advertising with them has been so ineffective that we quit all Zillow advertising this month. Our listings will still be prominently displayed, but you won’t see me being part of the three-headed monster on the right-side of the listings in Encinitas and Carlsbad.
They have a good shtick, but in reality, the Zillow advertising being sold to agents works most effectively in the lower-end areas, where buyers and sellers aren’t connected to several agents already.
The Instant Offers program is likely to find a similar fate.
Zillow is attempting to capitalize the Open Door model, which has 200 employees operating in the Phoenix and Dallas markets, and has raised $320 million in venture capital. Zillow probably feels the pressure, and figured they have to do something to compete with Open Door.
As we saw with Tom, not every homeowner is greedy. There are those who would rather cash out quick than navigate the path to a retail sale – heirs to the estate, long-time landlords, etc., who just want to get their money!
Things that are likely to happen with Zillow’s Instant Offers:
- The investors will hire great salespeople.
- Agents will attempt to game the system.
- Higher-end sellers will hesitate.
If the investors have great salespeople who convince sellers that their discount is worth the fast money, the program might work – whether the buyer is Open Door, Zillow, or Tom T!
https://www.inman.com/2017/05/22/11-burning-questions-about-zillow-instant-offers/
Contact Jim
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home? Contact Jim the Realtor!
Cell/Text: (858) 997-3801
jim@jimklinge.com
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