We have known Jim & Donna Klinge for over a dozen years, having met them in Carlsbad where our children went to the same school. As long time North County residents, it was a no- brainer for us to have the Klinges be our eyes and ears for San Diego real estate in general and North County in particular. As my military career caused our family to move all over the country and overseas to Asia, Europe and the Pacific, we trusted Jim and Donna to help keep our house in Carlsbad rented with reliable and respectful tenants for over 10 years.
Naturally, when the time came to sell our beloved Carlsbad home to pursue a rural lifestyle in retirement out of California, we could think of no better team to represent us than Jim and Donna. They immediately went to work to update our house built in 2004 to current-day standards and trends — in 2 short months they transformed it into a literal modern-day masterpiece. We trusted their judgement implicitly and followed 100% of their recommended changes. When our house finally came on the market, there was a blizzard of serious interest, we had multiple offers by the third day and it sold in just 5 days after a frenzied bidding war for 20% above our asking price! The investment we made in upgrades recommended by Jim and Donna yielded a 4-fold return, in the process setting a new high water mark for a house sold in our community.
In our view, there are no better real estate professionals in all of San Diego than Jim and Donna Klinge. Buying or selling, you must run and beg Jim and Donna Klinge to represent you! Our family will never forget Jim, Donna, and their whole team at Compass — we are forever grateful to them.
Maybe Frank Lloyd Wrong!
Know whose house that new REO in RSF was?
JtR,
Can you write a little bit on how you actually make an offer more attractive to a bank / broker when you caught in a multiple offer scenario?
I know, offer more money…but that aside, most of us aren’t going to be able to offer 100% cash or even 50% cash, so having a larger downpayment (20%+) becomes interesting to a seller at what point – 30%? 40%?
Also offering a short escrow makes sense to a point but how short would you go (keeping your head on your shoulders that is)
Thanks
JK,
Great questions. Would love to hear answers on that, too.
Jim,
Why do you think Lago will go back on the market?
That’s a bad brick trip. Watch out for the brown brick.
The house is definitely on the eccentric side. A bit TOO eccentric to be worth 1.6 mil though.
Even if you tear it down, you pay the same amount for the land, and then you pay more to tear down the old house and build a new one.
Nope. Not worth it.
Nice! Walls, window coverings and maintenance are for sissies apparently. This place is an amazing display of awkward creativity gone awry.
I think I had my 6th grade camp at that lodge…
Do you think RSF is the kind of place Heinlein was writing about?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22%E2%80%94And_He_Built_a_Crooked_House%E2%80%94%22
That is some bad academically inspired 60s architecture right there.
I don’t see the Thunder Mountain connection. What it reminds me of are some of the original dorms at UCSD.
JK’s questions at #3:
Offering on a bank deal usually means trying to deal with a listing agent with tons of business, and many ducklings around to handle the sales duties on their behalf.
Get in tight with the assistants. They will determine your fate in a close race, and highest offers don’t always win.
Half of the competition will eliminate themselves due to shoddy realtor work, all you have to do is beat the other half of the field.
A short escrow isn’t that great of an idea to the banks, they’d have to move faster than usual. It’s 45 days on financed offers at B of A, with a per diem penalty of 1/10th of 1% of purchase price, but not less than $50 per day for being late.
30 days for cash deals, and the best I’ve seen is about $5,000 benefit for cash vs financed offers. If a financed offer is $10,000 or more higher than a cash offer, it’ll win – none of the servicers need the deal bad enough that there is any huge discounts being given for cash offers.
P.S. Want to choose your own title and escrow company? No problem at B of A, as long as you don’t mind paying both the buyer and seller shares (extra $1,500 to $3,000). You can bet that there will be buyer agents that don’t read the document, and insist on their favorite title and escrow ‘friends’ to do the work, and inadvertently stick their own clients with the higher bill.
I think I had my 6th grade camp at that lodge…
LOL
Blissful,
I need to implement the “stink-o-meter” for the camera – the house had the same smell as Big Thunder Mountain, plus the big wooden beams twisting every which way.
Such a shame. That house has promise from the outside, but the layout/configuration is so bad that you’re almost forced to tear it down. And why do some builders/architects insist on putting stairs everywhere when it’s completely unnecessary?
Lots of privacy in that bathroom !
Thank you, Jim.
The roof clearly needs/will shortly need extensive work, and the brick/adobe interior and tile flooring is very off-putting.
However, having grown up in Marin County surrounded by Eichlers and one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s crown jewels, I rather like the layout and general aesthetic.
Huh. I liked it, especially the windows in the kitchen, but it’s, um, a little out of reach. When you said “tear down” I nearly spewed my coffee.
We saw the house on Tuesday. We actually liked the style but not sure about living there for 10-20 years. Also, the highest price we’d entertain paying was $1.1M. There really isn’t enough room to modify the structure to our liking. Also, having the Master Bedroom off of the dining room is kind of weird.
You guys really like all the goofy angles that eat up half the space in each bedroom? And the indoor/outdoor bathroom? And all the farking stairs?