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...
Decorum prevents me from graphically describing the indecent probings that were required for my recent refinance. At one point they demanded a 1040a worksheet. A worksheet! I said no. Strict underwriting? don’t get me started.
I don’t think we will see a repeat of the situation in 2008-12 in our life times.
There will probably be a history channel presentation showing your Video’s in 15 – 209 years LOL!
I think we’re going to see 2006 all over again and here’s why…
Banks are getting the money to lend out for almost nothing from the federal reserve. They need to get a return on it to make money. This means lending to people in any which way possible.
Paying off your mortgage and living off the money you earn doesn’t make the bank anything. Enabling easy credit creates a housing merry go round where buyers never end up owning anything.
If you inflate house prices so high that nobody realistically can buy them everyone becomes a “renter” paying the bank interest every month. This is what banks want. Over time giving banks cheap money and the power to create inflation will allow them to control the entire market.
Think about it, they already don’t have to foreclose if they don’t want to. This used to be called collusion or predatory behavior. Unfortunately banking interests control gov now so it no longer applies to them.
Great observation, shadash.
In 2003 I bought a condo in LA and basically all they cared about was if I could fog a mirror. My wife and I just bought a foreclosure here in Vegas and they wanted serious amounts of docs, verification, and took nothing for granted. The market here is recovering but still way off 2007 highs.
We were living in San Jose and moved to Vegas so we could afford a house again. Our mortgage for this house is less than half of what our rent was for a San Jose condo. The market there has now weakened. The condo owner tried to sell it for $575,000 after we moved (and could have gotten that price in May, probably), and ended up getting $528,000 this month.