Solana Beach suffers the same fate as many well-established high-end areas.
There aren’t many comps to begin with, and it’s ripe for off-market sales.
Three of the last four on the street were off-market sales – were they low?
I’m hanging my hat on the cheapest one, 424 Pacific. The story poles are already up, so the $2,555,000 was really just land value – and that corner is much busier than at the subject property.
But let’s also consider that Solana Beach has been remarkably under-valued for years, and we are just now starting to see what buyers are willing to pay. It wasn’t long ago that the non-oceanfront homes struggled to get more than $4,000,000.
Now look:
Three recent sales over $6,000,000, with one of them back on the market for nearly $10 million!
Chances are, you have had the thought of moving away and being surrounded with the people you love the most. These best friends are actually doing it.
While your ideal “get away from it all” escape may be an island retreat, or mountain cabin in the middle of a forest, these 8 friends had another idea: build an eco-town made out of tiny homes in good ol’ Texas.
“The cabin designed by architect Matt Garcia cost around $40,000 each and is environmental-friendly. The cabins are designed to be sustainable and make the most of the surroundings. The four couples named their settlement ‘Llano Exit Strategy’ and are looking to retire on the property,”
Even though they already lived close to each other, they didn’t see each other as often as they liked due to their busy schedules. Apart from the cabins, there is also a large communal kitchen and a guest bedroom for when other friends and family come to visit. There’s large, stainless-steel appliances, including a commercial range and clear-glass fridge.
In today’s market, sellers should consider an offer that is contingent upon the sale of the buyers’ home.
If the seller’s home has been on the market for 30+ days, the showings have probably slowed down – and a contingent offer might be the only hope of getting a sale done this year.
Above is a copy of the form we use – the Form COP. Paragraphs 1-7 are self-explanatory, and Paragraph 8 is where the fun begins.
Buyers include this form with their purchase offer, so they go first on completing #8.
If you don’t touch it, then once the offer is accepted, Paragraph 8A applies – and the seller can cancel this sale within three days if an acceptable back-up offer is received.
Paragraph 8A isn’t favorable to the buyers, so they should check Paragraph 8B and buy more time.
Once checked, the form gives the buyers a 17-day period where they can’t get cancelled, and you can also fill in the blank to dictate a longer period – OR check the last box and lock out all other offers for the duration. The sellers probably won’t go for that option though.
If buyers request a period longer than 17 days, the sellers will probably counter-offer with a shorter time period – and even the boilerplated 17 days might be too long if the listing agent is compelled to throw their weight around and show everyone who the boss is.
End result?
You can probably get a contingent offer accepted today, but it will include the threat of getting cancelled in the first 10-17 days if a non-contingent offer is received.
Key Point?
Buyers making a contingent offer need to have their house ready to sell!
You don’t want to waste the first few days of your exclusive period on house-cleaning and clutter patrol! Though it isn’t that likely that the seller will get another offer if they’ve already been languishing on the market, you don’t want to chance it.
Buyers making a contingent offer are smart to have their house ready to hit the open market right away – preferably, on the day of acceptance. Plan ahead!
Shag carpet was all the rage in the 1970s. Wallpaper borders and glass bricks were beloved in the 1980s. Along came the blonde wood in the 1990s. And now, these features are some of the first things to go when planning a home remodel.
Wondering which current home design trends are heading to join the others in extinction? We posed that question to real estate agents. Here’s what they think is becoming totally overdone:
Barn doors
They started as an interesting accent, but now barn doors are everywhere, says James McGrath, a licensed real estate broker and the co-founder of New York City real estate brokerage Yoreevo.
“Not only have they become overdone, they never really made any sense,” he says. “They are terrible at blocking sound since they just hang over the doorway.” Plus, barn doors feel mismatched in more modern or contemporary homes, McGrath says.
All gray everything
Gray floors, gray walls, gray kitchen cabinets! Treating gray as a neutral is something that’s starting to feel predictable, says Samira Tapia, a Los Angeles-based Realtor with Compass: “I specifically have buyers asking me not to send them any all-gray listings.”
All-white kitchens
Remember black stone countertops—the ones that were trendy at the turn of the century but now look dated now? The all-white kitchen could be headed in that direction, too, says New York City agent Steven Gottlieb of Warburg Realty.
“We are seeing earthier colors now, including dark wood paneling on the cabinetry and stone countertops,” he says. He doubts the all-white kitchen will pull down sales, but any trend that has a big moment eventually dates itself.
For those who didn’t see this in our newsletter, here are my guesses on market conditions:
A little better than usual for the rest of the year due to low mortgage rates.
A little worse than usual next year due to political/election distractions.
Would you like to receive our monthly newsletter? It is primarily written by Donna, so it has that going for it, and it also has Jim’s Hot Buys which is an on-going list of the best homes for sale by price and area!
Let’s also note that mortgage guidelines allow for parents to contribute the entire 20% down payment. Hat tip to SM for sending in this article on the Bank of Mom & Dad!
Buying a home is increasingly a multigenerational family affair. Four in 10 parents recently surveyed said they expect to help their children buy a home. That’s more than double the percentage of parents who themselves got help from their parents when they bought their first home.
Home prices that have been rising faster than wages, combined with burdensome levels of student debt, are fueling this trend. Moreover, helping with home ownership is a here-and-now assist that can transform a child’s financial life, rather than waiting to bequeath money down the line.
Whether you are the Bank of Mom and Dad or the adult child eager to buy, a successful intra-family deal requires careful consideration of the various options:
Can you afford it? OK, parents, it is hereby stipulated that you, of course, want to help. Now the hard question: Can you cope with the long-term ramifications?
A $10,000 gift you make at age 65 would be worth more than $26,000 at age 85 if it kept growing at a 5% annualized rate. A $50,000 housing stake today would be worth more than $130,000 at age 85. If you have any inkling you could use that extra cushion in retirement, you probably shouldn’t be gifting money today. You could consider making it a loan – more on this below – but also keep in mind that if you intend to pull the money out of a traditional 401(k) or IRA, you not only will owe taxes, but a large withdrawal could bump you into a higher tax bracket for the year.
Got a boomeranger at home? Help them save for a down payment. According to the Pew Research Center, about 15% of today’s millennials are living at home, nearly double the rate when their parents were in their 20s and 30s. Making it a financial free ride does nothing to help your child build adulting muscles. If they’re focused on paying off student loans, great. But if they have ample cash flow and want to eventually buy a home, now’s the time they should start to save. You should insist that they set up a separate savings account and have automatic monthly deposits zapped into it from their checking account. A $500 monthly contribution is a down payment fund of more than $6,000 in just one year. That can be more than enough to qualify for a low down payment mortgage in many regions of the U.S.
My new listing of a lovely old-Spanish bungalow by the sea!
Enjoy the captivating lifestyle of this well-established beach community that’s off the beaten path – yet steps to the sand. Houses in the 500 block on this side of the street have sold for $5M to $6M in the last couple of years (2015 & 2018)!
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