The Good
The Klinge Realty Group operates like a finely tuned machine, with a very personal touch. We contacted them on a Sunday and they were talking to us about our family and our needs on our living room couch the following day. They carefully listened to us and worked with us to identify the best and quickest path to listing within 2 weeks to take advantage of the low inventory conditions in our South Carlsbad neighborhood. They knew our tract specifically and had many previous sales there over the years - they came prepared with a thorough analysis of comparative sales and recommended a pricing strategy that they felt confident would yield offers the first weekend on the market.
The Great
Over the next two weeks Donna coordinated a range of vendors who she knew from experience could get the preparation to list work we needed done on time and with high quality. Our light tune-up involved excellent experiences with their stagers, landscapers, contractors, electricians, and plumbers. Throughout this period Donna's daily communication was clear, concise, and responsive. Any time we had questions Donna picked up the phone or texted immediately - but almost always, she answered our questions before we even knew we had them.
The Outstanding
We had a tricky situation with a shared fence that could have delayed our escrow. Donna used superb mediation skills to negotiate the terms of replacement and was personally on site with the fence contractor to make sure everything went smoothly. The fence looks great and escrow closed on time.
The Truly Exceptional
Our house came on the market on a Wednesday and between then and Monday morning Jim was personally at all three open houses. He was in constant communication explaining potential buyer reaction and strength. As he predicted offers began to come in on Saturday and each one was incrementally higher than the last. At the end we had 5 offers, 4 of which were over list, and the final accepted offer was $100,000 over list. In addition to being over list it included rent back terms that met our needs.
The Recommendation
For all of these reasons we would strongly recommend The Klinge Team to anyone wanting to sell in North County Coastal San Diego. I had been reading Jim's blog for 15 years and knew when the time came to sell that he would be our first call. Jim Klinge is not your standard realtor. He is keenly aware of market conditions and sales strategies. And, works his tail off - though not as hard as Donna . At this point he's gone from realtor to friend and I plan to have him over to grill and chill at our new place to talk real estate, but also just about life and raising kids in San Diego. He's more interested in relationships than his sales numbers - and that's why his sales numbers are so high. We have already recommended the Klinge's to some close friends and another successful sale is on deck right around the corner...
$895k for this worn out old place! I must be missing something here. What could you do with it to make it a house you’d want to live in?
It’s always surprising to me how people don’t upgrade their houses. You can go into a house for sale and see this sixties-style wallpaper or seventies-style shag carpeting.
This house probably belonged to folks that ended up in La Jolla when it was a reasonably priced place to live. Thanks to Prop 13, they did not get squeezed out. They probably could not afford to turn the house into a McMansion, and my guess is they were content with what they had.
Props 58, 60 and 90 are powerful tools to keep property in the family. Older folks can move and take their factored base year values with them and then pass them along to the kids. I’m surprised if there are kids here they did not hold on to the place, unless no one child could afford to buy the others out.
This sale has trouble written all over it.
It’s bad enough that they want cash buyers only, but putting it on this range is a mistake.
$895,000 – $1,049,000.
You know what that means – like all sellers in higher-end areas, they automatically think their house is worth a million dollars. Especially the heirs of an estate, who have probably been banking on this payday for years.
Now they have their hopes set at a million-something, and a cash buyer is going to look at the $895,000 and go down from there.
This house is a teardown – they will want to drop a ways from the $895,000, and the heirs will scoff….for months.
Worth IMHO land value only at $600-700K.
Lower net worth heirs a major pain.