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.
Woohoo! Price discovery for everyone!
Finally some good news ;] Watching a $500k down payment evaporate must be awful. Ouch.
Trustee sales don’t count as comps, do they? How about short sales?
If a flipper can get 100-200k+ more than what they payed on the open market then you can pretty much assume that the price the flipper payed is not a “comp”. As far as short sales I think it depends on how legit the sale was. Many short sales are just out and out fraud.
A sale for cash only without the protection the escrow process has isn’t a true comp for houses bought with loans. Another big problem with short sales is that the offers could have been submitted months ago. I wouldn’t consider a sale from 7-8 months ago a comp, and some short sales are in effect a sale from 7-8 months ago. However, some short sales are comps since they were on the market recently and sold in a mostly normal process.
I consider REOs comps as well, but as with all houses sold you do have to consider the condition of the house. This doesn’t just apply to REOs, any house sold could have been in poor or superior condition.
Visited Central Coast of Ca. last week.
There is a 3 unit condo, built in 2007.
One block from the ocean, great ocean view,granite, wood floor, etc. One unit for sale-
Asking price in Jan. 2009,$1,300,000.
No takers.
Asking price in Dec. 2009 $ 798,000.
Still unsold.
2010 will be a rude awakening for the high end in Calif.
$1.2 – $1.4 million?
But that’s less than no-view condos across the street from a strip mall just a half mile away!
JTR – didn’t you just do a piece on how hot everything is?
Yes, market is still hot, just a lot smarter than it used to be. If this house hits the market at $1.5 or under, it’ll get snapped up.
The subsequent post talks about the house on Poco Lago – when we were first there I said that I thought it could slip under $2.0, and it closed for $2.3+ with a $1.3 down payment.
There are plenty of high-end buyers, and they are a patient bunch. We’ll see lots of examples here this year – stay tuned!
The other day someone asked me how many houses sold over $2.5 in 2009, and I guessed it was roughly a dozen a month. There were 168, paying an average of $905/sf.