Virtual Realty

by | May 29, 2015 | The Future | 3 comments

This gimmick has some whiz-bang feel to it – hat tip to swm:

SEATTLE – Kyle Chabot-Maltz “walked” on a tour through one of Seattle’s newest high-rise condos Thursday. He checked out the tower’s decks, the kitchens and bathrooms. The thing is, the tower, Luma, isn’t even off the ground yet. Construction just recently started and the 23-story complex should be finished next spring.

How did Kyle’s tour happen? Virtual reality.

“If something’s not built-out in this case, it’s a lot better way to view it or envision it,” he said.

An Oculus Virtual Reality headset and a hand control helps him walk through the project. Luma’s sales center saw the technology as a chance to give potential buyers a better chance to experience something that’s not there yet.

“It’s very important for the buyers to understand how they will live in their space,” said Suzi Morris, regional head for Lowe Enterprises, the company in charge of the project. “In the past we would have full-scale models of the building and you could kind of point and say, this is where your unit will be.”

An iPad app also lets users change the colors of condo finishings and see what views are like from different floors.

Developers estimate the technology, programming and development, view photography and interior/exterior/amenity renderings that comprise the Luma Oculus experience and iPad application cost around $100,000.

“But when you think about that traditional sales center model where you’re leasing out, say 1,200 square feet, which we have, you’re leasing out 2,000 to 3,000 feet in order to build out a full model unit you could walk through,” Morris said. “The cost of the technology and the hardware that goes along with it is substantially less expensive and more impactful.”

Read full article here:

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/seattle/2015/05/28/virtual-reality-playing-a-role-in-seattle-real-estate/28123917/

Home Water Recycling

by | May 27, 2015 | Local Flavor, The Future, Thinking of Building?, Thinking of Buying? | 3 comments

Thanks daytrip!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102691480

Imagine a home that could recycle two-thirds of the water it uses. No need to imagine. New technology to do just that was recently approved for use in drought-parched California, and the company behind it claims it could be looking at a $15 billion business ahead.

“In five years time, every new home will have a water recycler in it,” said Ralph Petroff, chairman of Nexus eWater, the Australia-based company behind the technology.

The system, which lives under two manhole-like covers on the side of the home, pulls in soapy water from the house—that is shower, dishwasher, laundry and sink water, not toilet water—and then sends it into a cleaning system. What comes out, so-called “gray water,” is water that can be used for irrigation and for flushing toilets. The water cannot be used for washing or drinking.

California-based KB Home bought into the technology and just announced that it will be standard in over 50 homes in a new San Diego development. It is also demonstrating the system in model homes in Sacramento and Lancaster.

The cost is just under $10,000 per home to install, but Petroff said that price should go down as more builders buy in and the technology becomes more common. He sees it as having even more potential than solar panels.

“There is no alternative to water. That’s what Californians are discovering every day,” said Petroff.

$500,000,000

by | May 27, 2015 | Interesting Houses | 1 comment

500M

One of the biggest homes in U.S. history is rising on a Los Angeles hilltop, and the developer hopes to sell it for a record $500 million.

Nile Niami, a film producer and speculative residential developer, is pouring concrete in L.A.’s Bel Air neighborhood for a compound with a 74,000-square-foot (6,900-square-meter) main residence and three smaller homes, according to city records. The project, which will take at least 20 more months to complete, will exceed 100,000 square feet, including a 5,000-square-foot master bedroom, a 30-car garage and a “Monaco-style casino,” Niami said.

Estates with views of the Los Angeles basin are the California counterpart to Manhattan’s penthouses or London’s Mayfair manors, drawing a global cast of financiers, technology tycoons and celebrities who collect trophy homes like works of art. Around the world, five properties sold for $100 million or more last year, and at least 20 others have nine-figure asking prices, Christie’s International Real Estate reported last month.

The priciest home ever sold was a $221 million London penthouse purchased in 2011, according to Christie’s. The most expensive properties on the market include a $425 million estate in France’s Cote d’Azur, a $400 million penthouse in Monaco and a $365 million London manor.

Whether Niami can get more than double the previous record for his mansion remains to be seen.

“I’m skeptical,” said Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and a Bloomberg View contributor. “My first reaction is laughter. But we’re in this perpetual state of surprise as new thresholds are broken.”

500MM

Read full article here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-26/california-dreaming-record-500-million-tag-on-l-a-home

Actives-to-Pendings Ratio

by | May 26, 2015 | Actives/Pendings, Jim's Take on the Market, North County Coastal, Sales and Price Check

We’ve used the ratio of active-listings-to-pending-listings as a measure of the overall ‘health’ of the market, with a 2:1 ratio being about right.  This is how it looked earlier this year, on February 23, 2015:

https://www.bubbleinfo.com/2015/02/23/north-sd-activespendings/

The overall Actives-to-Pendings ratio in February was 1.69 to 1.

It is the same 1.69:1 today!

Here are the current stats – areas with more pendings than actives are in bold:

Area
Zip Code
ACT
PEND
#2015 Solds
Median SP
Avg $/sf
Cardiff
92007
16
11
31
$1,250,000
$644/sf
Carlsbad NW
92008
51
29
67
$755,000
$527/sf
Carlsbad SE
92009
121
93
189
$825,000
$323/sf
Carlsbad NE
92010
18
26
54
$642,500
$320/sf
Carlsbad SW
92011
39
38
77
$875,000
$364/sf
Del Mar
92014
58
23
64
$1,582,000
$740/sf
Encinitas
92024
91
68
180
$1,087,000
$458/sf
La Jolla
92037
185
44
150
$1,817,500
$790/sf
RSF
67+91
237
41
95
$2,550,000
$528/sf
Solana Bch
92075
15
11
39
$1,539,000
$682/sf
W. RB
92127
161
90
211
$855,000
$326/sf
E. RB
92128
62
85
200
$615,000
$326/sf
Rancho Pena
92129
54
59
151
$673,500
$318/sf
Carmel Vly
92130
116
80
154
$1,168,750
$400/sf
Scripps Rch
92131
51
56
119
$778,500
$333/sf
All Above
All
1,273
754
1,781
$887,500
$472/sf

Those with smaller sample sizes can vary wildly, yet most of these look fairly consistent.  As usual, Carmel Valley is really rocking – the 80 pendings have an average list price of $1,265,778!  Encinitas deserves recognition too for having 180 solds already this year with a median sales price of $1,087,000!

Battle of the Portals

by | May 26, 2015 | Jim's Take on the Market | 1 comment

big 2

The headlines have died down, but there is still a lot of commotion behind the scenes on who and how listings will be distributed to the public.

The Big Three became the Big Two when Zillow merged with Trulia, and Realtor.com was sold to News Corp.  Recently the revamped Realtor.com is being advertised heavily in the Wall Street Journal, a sister company, and they embarked on an advertising campaign that points out that Zillow doesn’t have all the listings (BTW, Zillow has more – they have FSBOs).

Meanwhile, a group of brokers started building their own nationwide MLS, and NAR threw them $12 million to develop further:

http://www.inman.com/2015/05/16/nar-approves-up-to-12m-in-funding-for-rpr-upstream-project/

Zillow isn’t one to stand around, and last week they rolled out their new campaign to assist the Premier Agents with lead follow-up.  They call it Zillow Concierge – here is the first half of the email they sent:

We will begin calling your contacts, saving you time and money, starting TODAY, May 19th 2015

You’ve been selected to participate in a pilot where a team at Zillow will not only call your leads immediately (within about 10 minutes) but follow up diligently afterward (by phone, email and text message) for the first 30 days (or until we reach them).

The goal of this pilot is to increase your conversion from initial contact to appointment.  In your busy day, little time is left for the ongoing follow up required to maximize your return on your Zillow investment.  We’ll be using a rigorous follow up schedule to engage each of your contacts up to 20 times in the first 30 days by email, text and, of course, phone.

I wonder where this is going.  Zillow already imposes their own phone numbers and email addresses on my Zillow page so they can control the flow. How long will it be before they start directing the incoming leads to the highest bidder?

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