What could improve the market?
More well-priced product for sale, and more transparency:
Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group
Broker-Associate, Compass
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
- 682 S. Coast Hwy 101, Suite #110
Encinitas, CA 92024 - (858) 997-3801 call or text
- klingerealty@gmail.com
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
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New post (Zillow Offers Follow-Up) has been published on http://bubbleinfo.com - https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2021/12/03/zillow-offers-follow-up/
This case is entirely built upon quotes from a mortgage counselor - why won't reporters talk to successful agents on the street? Slow day for news, apparently..... Thousands could soon lose – or sell – their homes as Covid mortgage bailouts expire https://cnb.cx/3Ipd10C
EXCELLENT Based on 10 reviews.
gary t moyer
2021-03-01
Jim the Realtor is legit - I interviewed three brokers; he said list price should be $100,000 higher than the other two brokers; listed it with him and had all cash (no financing) offer in two days, five day contingency period, closing in two weeks - and it closed at his recommended list price. I could not recommend anyone more than I recommend Jim the Realtor.
drp2drp
2020-12-30
When we moved to San Diego in 2005 we rented a big house on Mt. Soledad (La Jolla) with 180 degree ocean views for the same payment as a mortgage on a dump in Chula Vista. Clearly something was wrong. Yet, the media was full of the usual happy-talk nonsense, so I was glad to find Jim's blog. I've followed his honest assessments and data since.
We decided to sell and move to AZ at Thanksgiving. Dec. 1st we met with Jim to sell our home. We closed today (29 days later). Jim orchestrated a feeding frenzy -- we had 25 showings in 2-1/2 days, multiple offers, and sold for well over asking price. I'd say he earned his commission! We have owned and sold homes in 5 different States always using experienced, productive, full-time realtors. Jim outshines them all.
You don't decide to sell and close 29 days later over Christmas (with COVID lockdown) without some miracles. Donna was amazing at performing lots of those miracles and ensuring that everything was done right and on time. They are a terrific team with a very responsive and professional network.
AmberleePiercy
2020-10-21
Where do we begin..2020 has been a year for everyone. When COVID hit and shut down both my husband and my businesses, we were left with a mortgage and very little income coming in. We were stressed, scared and felt stuck. We made the hard decision to sell our home and move out of state. We contacted the Klinges' and spent a good hour going over what we hoped we could accomplish. Jim and Donna came over with comps in hand and suggestions on improvements to get our house ready for the market. It was overwhelming to think about, but Donna was there and one step ahead in every scenario. Basically we just approved what they suggested and Donna handled literally everything. We placed our house on the market and within the first day we had multiple offers well above asking price! We couldn't believe it. We were overjoyed! Jim countered the offers to weed through them, and everyone came back with way more. It was amazing, and we are ?? sure it was because of the staging and repairs the Klinges suggested we do.
Due to unforeseen dishonesty from the buyers lender, we hit a big hurdle when trying to close. We had already moved out of state and were shocked when three days before closing the lender dropped a bombshell on the buyers and us. However, Jim and Donna handled it like veterans, not afraid to play hard ball and represent their clients. After a few phone calls with us, and several between Donna and the lender, they had a plan B-Z to make sure we were taken care of. In the end we closed with even more money than we ever thought possible and with very little work from us. The Klinges handled this entire "2020" worthy event with the utmost professionalism and did everything in their power to not only make this as smooth as possible for us, but we also walked away with more money from the sale of the house than we ever hoped for. After working with Jim and Donna, you don't ever use anyone else. They are hands down the best team to represent you in any scenario.
Cecilia Acevedo
2020-10-01
Working with Klinge Realty Group was a great experience! They are very responsive, professional and knowledgable about the real estate market! I would definitely recommend Klinge Realty Group.
WAH08
2020-10-01
Jim and Donna Klinge made the sale of our condo extraordinarily easy. They know the market and gave us sound advice backed by details and very considerable experience, reflected both in the initial pricing and subsequent negotiations. They work together as a team and are always available to talk. We had a few challenges with our property and they were able to coordinate the resolution to everything, including items that I would not think would ordinarily be their responsibility to handle. They made the whole process effortless on our part. They are folks with high integrity and we cannot recommend them highly enough.
bethamunce
2019-09-26
Review for Member: Donna Klinge
I cannot believe there are no reviews of Donna yet, ugh!! She is the secret sauce of the Jim Klinge/Donna Klinge combo! I will touch on Jim here, but Donna is why I'm so totally loyal to these two (no offense to Jim :)).
I consider myself a rather savvy buyer/seller. I've bought/sold 7 times in about 15 years. On the buy side, Jim is the PERFECT combo of: completely digitally savvy (he will pull data all day long until you feel comfortable with your chosen house, area, school district, anticipated appreciation rate...anything!), he's super well respected and known in the area by other agents, an amazingly cool but strategic negotiator, is totally devoid of desperation for a sale/commission, and more.
Then once you get into contract phase, Donna literally handles every last and final detail in a concierge-like manner -- totally shielding you from the daily back and forth, noodling and annoyances of the buyer's requests. She solves it ALL; it's miraculous what that woman accomplishes over and above what is even expected in a buy/sell transaction.
On the sell side, Jim and Donna do the same, but even moreso. Donna in particular truly takes everything off your plate: she'll manage getting the house painted, the carpets replaced, she'll go on site (as she Jim both did for me when selling our rental properties) to work with the renters and make sure the house is ready to show -- freeing me to have to take time off of work to do so. They work with A+ integrity, too, so you know you are serving all parties fairly and lawfully throughout.
A home purchase/sale is the most considered you'll ever make. HIRE A SAVVY AGENT, not a friend!, and get what you need out of the transaction. Jim and Donna are our agents for life.
Ann Romanello
2019-04-06
Jim and Donna Klinge are by far the most professional, personable and responsive realtors I have ever worked with. They provide VIP concierge level service in every area of the process of selling your home. My home was marketed so successfully that we received an offer the day after our first and only open house. Thanks to Jim's pricing and negotiating, our house is now the highest sold in our community. Jim's vast experience means he has worked with several realtors and knows the market all over north county. Donna is AMAZING in processing everything in the transaction. She scheduled trades people to work on the house in preparation for the sale as well as the repairs needed before closing. She communicated clearly every step of the way about what would be happening. She took the weight off my shoulders for the whole process. I will always use Jim and Donna for my future real estate needs and I whole heartedly recommend them to anyone buying or selling a home.
zuser20160915180743456
2018-07-03
Jim and the team at Klinge Reality are without a doubt the best in the business! Not only was Jim helpful and extremely knowledgeable, he was patient and determined to help me find my first home. Jim and his team have been in the business for many years, and it shows. Jim is a wealth of knowledge and was my biggest proponent despite the temperature of the competitive market. I ended up getting the perfect property in my dream neighborhood all thanks to Jim. From the day my offer was accepted, Donna was a real lifesaver. She was extremely helpful, responsive, and knowledgeable when it came to every minute detail, and held my hand through the process. As a first time home buyer I had no idea what the process would entail, but Donna curtailed every concern I came across and made the escrow process feel seamless. Jim and Donna provided me the best home buying experience, and I am very grateful for all they did for me. It was truly a pleasure to work with Jim and Donna and I am already looking forward to the next time we work together!
melanielogue
2018-04-30
Review for Member: Richard Morgan
Richard is an amazing realtor! He has high integrity and genuinely cares about his clients and their needs. Richard paid close attention to what I was seeking in a home and was very patient in our search to find it. I would highly recommend Richard and will use him for future transactions. Truly a different kind of realtor experience!
shaunccornell
2018-03-28
Could not be happier with my experience with Jim and his team. He helped me sell a very unique and challenging property. Throughout the entire process he was always available, honest, transparent, trustworthy, and always put my interests as a seller first. A (rare) true professional! During close of escrow Jim went above and beyond to complete the deal. It would not have been possible without his experience, fantastic team, and pure dedication. Highly recommended!
Thanks Jim and Donna Klinge!
I’m sure the dinosaurs thought they would never go extinct too.
Hi Jim,
What incentives do listing agents have to sandbag their own listings by not including good photos? I see it all the time, but I thought it was just laziness or incompetence.
I like all the suggestions. What amazes me is the continued reluctance of the RE industry to modernization. Just like the record companies thought, they seem to think if they drag their feet long enough this whole internet/video/real time information thingy will go away.
And we all know how that turned out for the record companies. Right now, control of distribution is the only way industries are holding on outdated business models. The titans of RE can keep trying to hang on to their distribution of information lock, but they will lose in the long run because the demand on the customer end (aka buyers) will force solutions in the marketplace and the existing dinosaurs aren’t going to like the solutions. Just like the record companies didn’t like their solutions either.
If you don’t get out in front of technology, technology will run your ass over.
Matt, the incentive might be that they have a buyer already on the line so they can collect on both sides of the deal. They are just putting up pictures because they have to.
You either want to sell something or you don’t. If you want to sell it, you get out there are show it off in the best light possible to get it moving.
Could be incompetence as well, there seems to be a lot of that going around.
Jim,
You are so far ahead of your fellow realtors and the real estate business in general. If today, all real estate agents had to have your qualifications, 99% of today’s agents would be gone.
Years ago, the first house my wife and I bought was sold to us by an agent like Jim. His name was Randy. We thought Randy was the norm (we were young and naive). Our careers took off and after several moves around the country, we quickly found out that Jim and Randy are endangered species in the real estate business.
As I’ve said before, a nightmare real estate agent in Northern California is what brought my lawyer and I out there to rescue my daughter from her clutches.
And what is about trying to steer a client to properties not meeting their criteria? You say you want a large lot and they take you to a development where the houses are just stacked up on one another. Waste of my time and thiers.
Anyone heard WellsFargo start to implement new Fannie Mae LTV Requirement: now best rate can be obtained only with 25% down payment. Those with 20% will incur 0.25pt cost or 0.125% hike in rate?
I’m sure the dinosaurs thought they would never go extinct too.
I can live with realtors going extinct – I’d like to expedite!
I want to be the only one left.
I am going to start my own real estate auction TV show, and live-stream it on the internet.
The houses will be open to the public for viewing the two weekends before the show. The sellers will pay for a house inspection, and copies will be available to all, and if you want to conduct your own inspection, feel free – they’ll be open 9-5.
We’ll have one of my video tours of the houses playing during the two weeks for the out-of-towners. I have already sold a couple of homes to buyers sight-unseen, thanks to the videos.
To bid, a $5,000 deposit is required that is non-refundable if you are the winning bidder.
During the live intro to the property, I’ll cover the important facts about the house and area, and take questions from the crowd.
No reserve prices. If you like the house, you can buy it that night if you’re the highest bidder.
Shows will be once a week, and work up to nightly, and include houses statewide eventually. If it catches on, it could go nationwide.
What are the keys?
1. The auctioneer (me) is a credible source, can talk intelligently about the house, the market, field questions effectively, and generally make buyers feel comfortable with the process. Hopefully I can develop a personality before it starts.
2. Full transparency – what you see is what you get. Properties sold as-is, have your bid reflect the current value to you. The competing bids will be on screen, so you know what you’re up against.
3. The no-reserve pricing is the key that’ll bring the buyers. Occasionally homes will be given away, other times they’ll sell for retail or retail-plus. It’ll have a game-show feel to it. I will watch reruns of the Gong Show for tips.
4. Being able to weed out shills. If a shill wins and backs out, they lose the deposit and the property is black-listed from the show. Shills can run up the price in any selling format, so the risk will always be present. Just set the price you’re willing to pay in your mind and don’t go above it.
5. No buyer premium tacked on to the winning bid. Seller and buyers pay their customary closing costs for title, escrow and lender fees, and seller pays my fee.
6. If the buyer wants representation, then they can pay their agent a fee that they negotiate in advance. It would force agents to provide valuable assistance, or go home.
If I can get some banks and servicers on board, look out.
Did you know that REDC paid $1.7 million for auction.com?
They are making a run, but the reserve prices are a turn off, especially if they don’t sell many properties in the next 1-2 months. I am watching them very closely though, their SD auction at the end of the month will be very telling.
Gotta have reserve prices or sellers will fear that bidders will collude and keep prices artificially low. Or if not collusion then force. Seen it in westerns a million times! I’d never allow my place to sell that way and I’m a free markets guy!
JTR, are you doing any business in Fallbrook?
http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-100059594-3969_Keri_Way_Fallbrook_CA_92028
This house in Brook Hills seemed like a give away. There is some nice stuff up in Fallbrook and Bonsall going cheap these days.
Seen it in westerns a million times!
OK, OK, I’ll take all the risk and guarantee you X price.
I get everything above X, right?
JTR, good to see you consider shills but IMO $5K is not much of a deterrent. I would consider %10. And how would a shill back out?
Uh,sorry … actually I was equating Dinosaurs with local regional MLS boards and realtor’s organizations, not the real estate agent. There is always place for an agent relationship (the price, I think will change, but it should stay intact for such an expensive, complex product)
I know a number of bloggers who constantly predict doom for realtors, but they’re conflating their disdain of paying 6% with the actions of an agent. There is value there, just not 6% of each and every transaction (especially in the place of tract housing which is common in Cali)
Chuck
@ positive: I’m a loan officer for a community bank in Portland, and the loan-level pricing adjustments (“bumps” to the fees for FICOs/LTV) have been around for the last several years. 2011 did indeed bring a .25 pt. bump to the fees, even with the highest FICOs, for a 75.01-80% LTV. FNMA is charging it, so that’s filtering down to the lenders offering FNMA loans.
Lou,
I agree, and maybe $10,000 to $25,000 depending on the property?
Shill or otherwise, there will be times that the winning bidder doesn’t close and they should pay damages, because the second time through the auction the fever won’t be nearly as hot.
Nobody has commented on me getting the extra dough above the guaranteed price.
In effect it would be a net listing, which is legit and can be done today.
I promise you X net price and I pay closing costs and keep whatever is leftover for my commission. But I’ve never found anyone willing to try it.
JtR… Sure, I’d be open to that. After all, if I like that price, shouldn’t I be happy with that? Of course, if you are lowballing then boo. And you’d be under a lot of scrutiny with likely accusations of “stealing” homes from the unknowing. I could see a split scheme being optimal. Something like a given minimum + 50% of the upside to the owner. You should still love that. The risks of messing with the fixed min are the same, just lessened because of the upside. I tried to get my agent in NorCal to base her commish on something like this but she laughed. Coward!
There are other risks as well if non-auction. You could tank a listing and scoop it for the min. Then sell later. Or you could use super-risky negotiating methods that pay off huge once in awhile but blow up and hurt the seller most of the time. All that is fixed if you have a high enough min price to pay so it hurts if you eff it up.
Seller should be able to buy insurance that pays the difference between 90% of the estimated value and the sales price. That way the seller is protected from downside with the opportunity for upside while the insurance company can average losses with wins.
Buyers are happy without reserves and sellers are limiting their risk.
Yes, there has to be a way to make sellers happy – maybe a few options with varying risks/rewards for the sellers to choose from?
so it hurts if you eff it up
This is why your agent would laugh at the thought – they are so used to screwing up that they have no confidence in their own abilities.
But they don’t fully recognize that it’s their screw up, they think it just the “unpredictable” market doing it to them.
I don’t have that concern myself.
SD’s MLS system and rules are a joke. The current TEMPO (5) is the worst. The old version 3 was at least enjoyable. LA and OC have far superior systems and UIs that are at least useable. Hopefully with CARETS this becomes less of an issue. And the requirement that one has to use IE is pure laziness and a complete lack of foresight from the programers to the designers. At least there are virtual machine’s for Mac people. Overall, there is no excuse for such incompetence.
For me and my clients, we use Redfin about 95% of the time. Their site and phone apps are great. If there was a way to get to the public record, private remarks, and/or past listings, we could do away with all MLS’s. Their hold are strong but slowly it will change…
Jim keep up the good work. Among the 1% of good agents out there, you shine bright.
RE auctions are the norm in Australia and in South Africa there are no buyers agents, just sellers agents (caveat emptor or vootstoots in roman diutch law). Though there is almost always an advertised floor or reserve price in Australia.
Perhaps your role in the US RE business is that of advisor (buyers agent) who because he sees hundreds of houses a year knows all the pitfalls and traps that can spring up as well as all the types of structurall and market gotchas that can fool someone who maybe buys only 4 houses in a lifetime. A bit like why when I buy a used car there is ALWAYS 100 000 miles left in it but other people buy lemons (I see a LOT of cars and fix my own). I own 6 residences, fix them myself and know what to look for, from reading your blog you seem to be the type of chap who knows what to look for in a house so your advice to the smarter prospective buyer should be valuable to a client if he is not a builder or RE expert.