They paid $410,000 and are listing for $425,000? Are they expecting a bidding war? By the way, OpenDoor has 300 listings in Phoenix already!
Hat tip to daytrip for sending this in – an excerpt:
Noel Levine, a freelance IT consultant and self-described geek, said he looked into other online services like OfferPad and OpenDoor, which the new Zillow program competes against. He was thinking about listing the house with a broker when he saw an article about the Zillow Instant Offers expansion in the local newspaper. Zillow was able to accommodate the quick turnaround. The deal started with a request for an offer on May 3 and closed 15 days later, at a purchase price of $410,000.
“So in two weeks I went from having a house to put on the market to being out of the house with money in the bank,” Levine wrote in a thank you note to Zillow that he shared with GeekWire. “It spared me from having to go thru the trials and tribulations of wondering how many showings it was getting, then wondering if I should accept an offer, to dealing with the inspection deductions to worrying about what could go wrong with the closing.”
The home is now listed on Zillow with a priced at $425,000 (the Zestimate is $414,233). It boasts “real wood flooring, travertine tile, and stacked stone accents,” according to the listing. The company bets that buyers will love the “cozy gas fireplace” and “master retreat.”
Stunning home sweet home with endless views! Plantation shutters in most rooms. Eat in kitchen is complete with granite counters, breakfast bar, and stainless steel appliances. Cozy fireplace in great room. Master retreat has picture windows and a private exit to balcony. Full spa bathroom with dual sink vanity and separate soaking tub + shower. Spacious walk in closet! Backyard features an extended covered patio with plenty of room to dine alfresco!
What never gets mentioned is that every realtor has signed an agreement to share their listings with one another. This is how realtors are destroying the industry from within – because we foster the illusion of having a cooperative MLS but are happy to deprive our own sellers of open-market exposure in hopes of making two commissions.
The practice is so common that I don’t think realtors give a second thought to upholding their fiduciary duty to their own client, the seller:
Pacific Union International, California’s second-largest residential real estate broker by volume, is launching a new service this week that will give the public a peek at its “off-MLS listings,” meaning homes for sale that aren’t on a Multiple Listing Service.
It’s the latest in a growing number of ways home sellers can test the market — and maybe get an offer — before embarking on a full-on marketing campaign.
Putting a home on the MLS is usually the best way to get top dollar because it provides the greatest possible exposure. But in a red-hot market, some sellers figure they can bypass the MLS — and the real estate websites that repost their listings for the whole world to see.
Currently, agents circulate these “off-MLS” or “pocket” listings inside their firm and with other agents through Facebook groups or email lists. Some share them with groups such as Top Agent Network or Marin Platinum, which restrict their membership to high-volume agents.
Instead of holding a public open house — with strangers and neighbors traipsing through — agents arrange private showings.
Pacific Union estimates that 20 percent of its home sales in the Bay Area and 30 percent in Los Angeles last year closed without appearing on the MLS.
Mark McLaughlin, Pacific Union CEO, says Private View will help buyers and sellers by giving greater access to his firm’s off-MLS listings: “We are taking secrets in our filing cabinet and exposing them to the public.” He agreed that the MLS provides “maximum exposure,” but for clients who don’t want that, this is “an incredible” alternative.
“Once we get critical mass, I think more sellers will be part of this,” Segal said.
In a market starved for inventory, that may not be welcome news.
Pocket listings have always been used, mainly by celebrities and people selling extravagant homes that only a few could afford. But their use in California has grown since 2013, as the housing market rebounded and bidding wars broke out.
“As inventory goes down, off-MLS practices go up,” said Jim Harrison, president and CEO of MLSListings, the listing service for Santa Clara, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.
He estimates that 21.6 percent of all homes sold in those counties in the first quarter did not hit the MLS before they closed. That compares with 12.6 percent in the first quarter of 2012. (Many agents enter a sale into the MLS after it has closed to help establish comparable prices for an area).
The California Association of Realtors discourages pocket listings. In a 2013 press release, it said most sellers want the highest possible price from a well-qualified buyer, and the best way to get that, the association said, is to put the home into the MLS.
Most Multiple Listing Services are owned by local Realtors associations. Agents who join an MLS generally must post homes on the MLS within a few days of signing a listing agreement, unless the seller signs a waiver.
Every member of an MLS has access to those listings. They also go out to real estate websites such as Zillow and Redfin.
Pocket listings can lead to ethical, antitrust and fair-housing issues, the state Realtors association said in 2013.
Sellers typically pay a commission to their agent, who shares the commission with the buyer’s agent. In pocket listings, it’s easier for agents to keep the entire commission to themselves, or within their brokerage firm or a small network of outside agents.
Agents say there are many reasons to keep a home off the MLS, at least temporarily.
“My preferred way is to market heavily off-market for a week or two, and then go onto the MLS,” said Cathy Youngling, an agent with Paragon Real Estate Group of San Francisco. That way “I have built a level of excitement and enthusiasm” before the “time on market” clock starts ticking.
I was going to click past this song, until I noticed it had 51,000,000+ views. This is the first comment on YouTube, which recalls a time when regular folks could buy a house for less than $100,000 and live happily ever after:
Lol some years back I played this song and my dad laughed. He said this song reminded him of when he first came to Los Angeles in the mid to late ’70s. He was just assimilating to life in America and every radio station was playing it back then. He also said that times were much different then. People seemed more free and happy unlike today and this song took him right back to those years.
Want to hurry up with that empty nest? From cnbc.com:
A New York state judge has backed a couple’s battle to kick their 30-year-old son out of their home because he has not contributed toward household expenses or helped with chores and they wanted him to get a job.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Donald Greenwood on Tuesday ordered Michael Rotondo to leave his parents’ home in the town of Camillus, about 200 miles northwest of New York City, according to Anthony Adorante, an attorney for the parents, Mark and Christina Rotondo.
Adorante declined further comment on the decision, which ended a four-month family battle.
In court documents, Michael Rotondo referred to a “common law requirement of six-month notice to quit” before a tenant may be removed.
“I just wanted a reasonable amount of time to vacate, with consideration to the fact that I was not really prepared to support myself at the time where I was served these notices,” the younger Rotondo told local CBS television affiliate WSTM.
The full-blown frenzy we enjoyed in 2013 has been cooling off ever since, and I think we can call today’s market a bit soft. Home buyers are gradually gaining more power and control of the outcomes, and as we saw yesterday in the Inventory Watch, the unsold homes are starting to pile up.
There are signs of a slowdown everywhere – even on the MDLNY. They squeezed some market truth in at the 1:25-minute mark here:
Though they were talking about swanky NYC property, we have seen our higher-end inventory growing constantly too (today there are 512 NSDCC houses for sale listed over $2,000,000, when there were just 430 two months ago).
But now the lower-end is starting to feel it too.
You won’t see it on the official days-on-market metric of sold properties because those are the listings that dodged the bullet. It will be the rising count of active (unsold) listings that reveal the struggle.
How do you know if a listing agent is feeling it too?
Signs That A Listing Agent Might Know the Market Is Soft:
They’ve Sold A Few Listings in 2018 – Listing agents who are actively engaged know that the market has changed, and that fewer inquiries/offers are the norm.
Their Listings Are Sharp – Listing agent who are aware of a softer market know they must include excellent professional photos and video in their listings, and the listing remarks make you want to go see the home.
Showings Available Immediately – The initial urgency of a new listing dissipates faster than ever, and a good listing agent wants to take advantage – they won’t make you wait days or weeks to see a house.
No Extra Hurdles – We see listings loaded up with extra demands like having to include special forms or procedures just to make an offer. In a soft market, listing agents should make it easy to buy the home.
Decent Commissions – A softer market is no time to be lowering the buyer’s agent commission – there are too many other homes to show and sell.
Pushing The Product – To keep the urgency higher, a good listing agent is implementing every possible marketing tactic available. If you see a listing where the agent isn’t making any effort, you know they didn’t get the memo that the market is soft.
Buyers have enough reasons to be concerned about the homebuying experience (higher mortgage rates, rampant fraud and deceit, and significantly higher prices), and they won’t tolerate an ignorant listing agent who doesn’t recognize a shift in market conditions. It is too easy to wait-and-see now.
Get Good Help!
We’ll explore this topic more in the coming days and weeks!
Another strong week of new listings (115) but the new pendings (63) didn’t follow along – instead they dropped 20% from the previous week. As we roll into the Memorial Day weekend, graduation season, and 5% mortgage rates, we might be seeing the peak of the market for 2018.
The higher-end market has been sluggish all along, and now the lower-end inventory is starting to show a bit of a plateau over the last couple of months:
Another study that shows lower-income people leaving California, and rich people moving in. But what’s not examined is whether those leaving were long-time homeowners who sold their home and took a truckload of money with them to Texas:
