by Jim the Realtor | Apr 3, 2014 | Bubbleinfo TV, Contests, Encinitas, Jim's Take on the Market |
The Contest for 4 Padres tickets!
The closest guesser to the sales price of my new listing at 1620 Splitrail, Encinitas, will receive four field-level tickets to a Padres game.
Here is the Zillow listing – Zestimate is $701,924, and we’re listed for $699,000:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1620-Splitrail-Dr-Encinitas-CA-92024/52509718_zpid/
Here is the video tour:
A few photos:
We’ve seen some comps recently which may give some guidance, but all are a fair distance away.
1. This is still showing as an active listing on the MLS:
https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2014/03/31/pre-contest/
2. The $815,000 fixer that received two offers and went pending within 3 days:
https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2014/03/24/dear-frustrated-buyer/
3. The Elmview listing that didn’t make it onto the blog yet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKaq6ms_I6Q
We’ll be having open house this weekend, 12-3 pm, so come by for a look!
Leave your guess of the eventual sales price in the comment section, and the closest will four tickets near the visitors dugout.
I don’t have season tickets, but a great friend helped me out. The contest winner will be able to choose one game with either the Marlins, Cubs, Reds, Cardinals, Rockies, or Giants. If one of those is your favorite team, you’d enjoy these seats overlooking the visitor’s dugout, plus the visiting-team’s owner seats are right in front of you.
This is from Opening Night, taken from the seats – Stan Kastens, president of the Dodgers, is the bald guy at the bottom-right with the rest of Dodger ownership:
Submit your guess of the sales price in the comment section to win!!
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 3, 2014 | Bubbleinfo TV, Builders, Leucadia |
For those million-dollar buyers who prefer to purchase a new home, there is another big grand opening this weekend. Pick out your new home in Leucadia up to 5,180 sf!
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 3, 2014 | About the author, Jim's Take on the Market, Listing Agent Practices, Market Buzz, Tips, Advice & Links
From 10 Things Before Opening Bell yesterday:
Below is a Q&A with Jim Klinge, the head of San Diego-based Klinge Realty and the creator of BubbleInfo.com, a realty blog.
***
BUSINESS INSIDER: What is the most underreported story in housing?
JIM KLINGE: The health of the real estate market. We’re back to peak pricing – and higher – around coastal San Diego during the toughest mortgage underwriting in the history of the world.
BI: What is the biggest change you’ve seen since the bust in terms of the typical buyers’ profile?
JK: No change – almost all are owner-occupants. Surprisingly, having direct access to recent sales via the internet hasn’t made buyers more critical about price. Over the last 12 months, it’s been the opposite – people are paying prices that are 5% to 10% higher than recent sales. Because they are so familiar with the values, you’d think they would be more discerning, but the fear of loss supersedes all – they just want to buy a house, and are tired of losing.
BI: What is the biggest mistake buyers are making these days?
JK: Not researching realtors. They think we are all the same, so they just grab one.
BI: What is the biggest mistake sellers are making these days?
JK: Not researching realtors. Many just grab the one who mails them the most propaganda.
BI: How much higher can the Sun Belt markets climb?
JK: The prime markets could easily rise another 10% to 20%, price-wise, in the next 2-3 years. But it will be on very thin trading, which makes you question how legit it is, and whether it will sustain.
http://e.businessinsider.com/public/2537853
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How/where do you research realtors?
Sellers:
-
Check the agent’s online presence – specifically, how do they present their other listings? Are there vivid photos and actual video tours?
-
Search under ‘Find A Pro’ on Zillow, and check their number of sales, and client testimonials.
-
See if they are a Zillow Premier Agent – if they aren’t, then Zillow will advertise other agents on your house’s listing.
-
Does the agent use open houses to maximize the exposure?
-
If they have sold a few listings this year, then they have had multiple offers. What are their specific bidding-war strategies to ensure top dollar?
-
Does your office expose and sell listings at the office meetings? (trick question here because most will answer yes, when ethically the answer should be no).
- Who answers the phone? Excellent phone service is still preferred.
One question to ask: Can you tell me about your last bidding-war experience?
Buyers:
-
How many buyers have they represented in the last 12 months? Getting buyers to the finish line in this hotly-competitive environment takes real skill, and the number of buyer sales demonstrates their ability.
-
Are there other agents involved – do you get passed around? If they answer yes, it isn’t a bad thing – you’d just like to know who the others are and what their skill set is.
-
Are they available 7 days a week? The market is cooking 24/7.
- How do they position their buyers to win a bidding war?
One question to ask: “Based on my wants and needs, do you know of a couple of listings that would match?” Not imperative, but if they can talk about actual homes for sale off the top of their head, you know you are dealing with somebody who is very active in your marketplace.
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 2, 2014 | Bubbleinfo TV, Carmel Valley
When every seller pushes for a higher price, eventually something has to give. Today there are 109 houses for sale in the 92130 (median LP is $1,349,000), and buyers are getting fussier:
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 2, 2014 | Wednesday Rock Blogging
Another Englishman who was popular during the early 1980s:
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 2, 2014 | Frenzy, Market Buzz, Market Conditions |
MANHATTAN BEACH (CBSLA.com) — According to real-estate website Trulia’s first-quarter “Bubble Watch,” the top two overvalued housing markets in the country are Orange and L.A. counties.
Climbing prices, combined with low inventory, is causing worry for some would-be home buyers, concerned about the possibility of another bubble.
Danielle and Robert Merrill told CBS2?s Serene Branson they have put in offers on 10 homes in the past five months, from Mar Vista to Santa Monica, but lost out on them all.
“It feels like it’s climbing at an unbelievable rate and it seems that prices have really jumped way up,” Danielle said. “It’s emotional. Every time a property comes on, and with this market you jump on the day it comes on the market.”
“It’s been a difficult process because the inventory is so low prices are just going up and up and up,” Robert said.
According to the California Association of Realtors, the median home price in L.A. County was $390,000 for February 2014 – up 15.2 percent from the same period last year.
In Orange County, the median home price last month was $677,000, up 11.6 percent.
The numbers show affordability has also dropped.
Only 30 percent of L.A. County residents can afford a median price home, down from 44 percent last year. In Orange County, it’s down to 20 percent from 34.
Real-estate agent Jeremy Shelton, of Shorewood Realtors, pointed to a three-bedroom Manhattan Beach home that sold over the asking price.
“Inventory is tragically low,” he said. “This came on a week-and-a-half ago. We had three offers right off the bat.”
Shelton said it’s a seller’s market, and he predicts modest increases before prices level off.
“Much like 2006, 2007, we have limited inventory. Prices are therefore going higher. There are a lot of qualified buyers, which is the key in the market now – unlike we had in 2007. So yeah, we are seeing a frenzy,” he said.
It’s a tough reality for buyers like the Merrills, who have been beat by so many all-cash, no contingency offers they’re taking a break before jumping back in.
“We’ve been through such an emotional ride with the market not knowing where it’s going to go from here,” Danielle said.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/04/01/socal-residents-worry-about-possible-housing-bubble-as-prices-climb-inventory-drops/
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 2, 2014 | Jim's Take on the Market, Market Conditions, North County Coastal, Sales and Price Check |
The March sales will look bleak to the casual observer.
When you compare these preliminary numbers (late-reporters might add another 5% or so) to the frenzied-up March, 2013 counts, the differences are -29% and -22%.
March Sales of Detached-Homes
| Year |
NSDCC Sales |
Avg SP/sf |
SD Co. Sales |
Avg SP/sf |
| 2010 |
216 |
$395/sf |
1,883 |
$249/sf |
| 2011 |
238 |
$371/sf |
1,883 |
$238/sf |
| 2012 |
238 |
$357/sf |
2,001 |
$228/sf |
| 2013 |
299 |
$404/sf |
2,202 |
$266/sf |
| 2014 |
211 |
$519/sf |
1,710 |
$319/sf |
You can’t blame it on the weather – it’s been spectacular here the last few months. Rates have been in the 4s and remarkably steady since July, so buyers are accustomed to them now. Mortgage underwriting might be slightly easier, though case-by-case (FICOs down to 550 for FHA at a few lenders now).
What does inventory tell us? The Under-$800,000 market around NSDCC is hot, but above that it is murky.
The number of homes for sale between $800,000 and $2.4M has risen 30% since the start of the year, and their avg LP/sf has dropped 5% to 10%:
https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2014/03/31/inventory-watch-more-steady-2/
The simple answer is that more sellers are priced wrong, but heck, this is the priced-to-see-if-we-get-lucky season. Sellers will probably wait until May before giving up hope.
You can’t blame sellers for being optimistic when the average SP-per-sf is still rising. But sellers who are priced over $1,000,000 and have been on the market for more than 30 days should start sharpening their pencil now, and get going while we know there are plenty of buyers left.
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 1, 2014 | Auctions, Bubbleinfo TV, Jim's Take on the Market |
Do you get a deal buying a house at auction? Could auctions be the future?
I taped this in January to test out whether you get a deal going this route, or end up paying retail….or more. I knocked off 20% or $100,000, which makes my prediction of retail value between $468,000 and $485,000.
I thought it might go higher:
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 1, 2014 | Auctions, Listing Agent Practices, The Future |
Someone who puts together an auction hybrid and is realtor-friendly could have a big impact on how real estate is sold. But these guys are a brokerage, so it’s them against the realtor world. From HW:
A new company is offering homeowners a new way to sell their home.
SellerNation, a Detroit-based company, combines the urgency of a real estate auction with the expertise of real estate brokers to speed up the home-selling process.
“This new brokerage is a hybrid of the best of real estate auctions and the best practices of real estate brokers – the perfect combination,” says CEO Rod Carey.
“Real estate auctions are great because everyone knows what day a property is going to sell,” says Ron Jasgur, SellerNation president. “They level the playing field and create a sense of urgency in the marketplace.”’
What makes SellerNation different is its 34-day listing agreements. The company also contributes 5% of its revenues to local non-profit organizations.
SellerNation does not take on buyers as clients. It focuses solely on sellers and provides transparency throughout the sales process, making it “ideal in cases like divorce, estate sales, and probate situations where it could be difficult to keep multiple parties on opposing sides on the same page.”
SellerNation also does not charge sellers a commission. Instead, the company adds a 5% buyer premium to an accepted bid. A common element of auctions, it’s also becoming a trend among traditional home sales. The National Association of Realtors’ 2013 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers revealed that 13% of homebuyers compensated the Realtors in whole or in part.
“Everything we do is designed to make our listings attractive to multiple buyers, because competition is what drives price,” says Jasgur. “We’re literally built to negotiate with multiple parties to get the best possible deal for the seller. We’ve seen over and over again that the first offer is rarely the best.”
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/29510-sellernation-offers-the-best-of-both-worlds-one-part-broker-one-part-auction
http://sellernation.com/
by Jim the Realtor | Apr 1, 2014 | Forecasts, Sales and Price Check
Happy April 1st – Trulia got in the April Fools’ spirit with this today:
http://www.truluvia.com/
But let’s keep it real here. C-L expects price increases to continue.
From MND:
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/04012014_corelogic_hpi.asp
Home prices continue to increase by double-digit percentages on a year-over-year basis CoreLogic said today. The company’s Home Price Index (HPI) for February, an index that includes distressed sales, was up 12.2 percent compared to February 2013. Thus February becomes the 24thconsecutive month in which there have been annual price increases.
Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were California (+19.8 percent), Nevada (+18.5 percent), Georgia (+14.2 percent), Oregon (+13.8 percent) and Michigan (+13.5 percent). There were no states with negative annual appreciation.
“February marks two straight years of year-over-year gains in national prices across the United States,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The consistent upward movement in home prices should ultimately prove to be an important stimulant for higher levels of sustained market activity and growth in the housing economy.”
CoreLogic said today’s report introduces a new forecast metric that provides advanced indication of home price trends. The current forecast is that home prices are projected to increase 0.5 percent month over month from February 2014 to March 2014 and that home prices, including distressed sales, are expected to rise 10.5 percent year over year from March 2013 to March 2014.
“As the spring home-buying season kicks off, house price appreciation continues to be strong,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Although prices should remain strong in the near term due to a short supply of homes on the market, price increases should moderate over the next year as home equity releases pent-up supply.”
