Tips For Landlords

by | Sep 29, 2018 | Jim's Take on the Market, Real Estate Investing | 0 comments

Being a landlord is everything it’s cracked up to be, and tenant rights in California are extreme.  Here’s my favorite from the list:

7. Check Social Media

Landlords should always use a third party background and credit checking service. They should never skimp on checking references. Just like when you apply for a job and HR takes time to Google the potential new hire, we always Google our prospective tenants. You don’t have to agree with their lifestyle, but it’s a good idea to see what they post publicly. – Tanya Delahoz, Dwell Summit

Here are the 11 tips from the AAOA:

Link to Article

$400 Million x 2

by | Sep 28, 2018 | Compass, Jim's Take on the Market, Realtor, The Future | 0 comments

The most fascinating thing about working for Compass is how many people ask about Compass (especially other agents).  I signed up primarily for the future potential, and where big money might lead us.

We got another sense of how big yesterday:

Compass, a real-estate marketplace startup, raised $400 million in an investment round that will bring the company closer to an eventual initial public offering.

After the investment, the New York-based company will have a $4.4 billion valuation, a person familiar with the matter said. The financing will help Compass expand its real-estate technology into more cities, including outside the U.S., the firm said in a statement.

The Softbank Vision Fund and Qatar Investment Authority are leading the round, Compass said.  The company expects growth in 2018 to double to almost $1 billion in revenue, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is confidential. Compass makes its money by taking a small cut of each transaction coordinated by its real-estate agents. The company said it’s on track to post more than $34 billion in sales volume this year.

“We will continue to capitalize on our momentum nationally and internationally,” said Ori Allon, the company’s co-founder and executive chairman.

The latest funding brings the total raised by Compass to $1.2 billion. Besides international expansion, Compass is seeking to enter related businesses beyond property listings, such as mortgage title transfer and moving, CEO Robert Reffkin said in a June interview.

“What books were for Amazon, the brokerage model is for us,” Reffkin said at the time.

Link to Bloomberg Article

On the same day, the same bank announced the same for OpenDoor:

Growing direct homebuyer Opendoor now has $3 billion in financial backing (yes, that’s “billion” with a “b”) thanks to a sizable new investment from Japanese technology company SoftBank Group.

Opendoor announced Thursday that it secured a $400 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund, SoftBank’s investment arm.

That investment pushes Opendoor’s total equity capital raised above $1 billion – $1.045 billion, to be exact.

In addition, Opendoor said Thursday that it also recently secured $2 billion in debt financing from unnamed “top banks,” meaning the growing company now has more than $3 billion in total funding since it first began buying and selling houses in Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth in 2014.

Since then, Opendoor has been growing by leaps and bounds and raising money hand over fist.

Opendoor is now operating in nearly 20 markets, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, Tampa, and San Antonio, and has plans to into California, the Pacific Northwest, and several other areas over the next few months.

Opendoor’s next market expansions will be in Sacramento, California; Riverside, California; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Jacksonville, Florida.

And the company plans to be operating in 50 markets by 2020.

Link to Article

It looks like the future of real estate sales will be determined by how these big-money players spend their dough!

50% of Boomers Plan to Move

by | Sep 28, 2018 | Boomer Liquidations, Boomers, Jim's Take on the Market, Market Buzz | 0 comments

Here’s the interesting excerpt from this article – the other alternatives that older adults might consider:

Communities become a source of support and engagement for residents, particularly for older adults, who have an even stronger desire to age in place. The AARP survey finds many adults age 50 and older are willing to consider alternatives such as home sharing (32%), building an accessory dwelling unit (31%) and villages that provide services that enable aging in place (56%).

Link to Article

Eagles

by | Sep 26, 2018 | Jim's Take on the Market, Wednesday Rock Blogging | 0 comments

People are still talking about the Eagles show at Petco on Saturday, and no doubt it was epic – almost as good as Def Leppard the next night! (we didn’t go to either, just based on reports).

I like the idea of bringing Glenn’s kid out to sing his vocals, and if you have to add other complimentary people, I’ll understand – heck, these guys are old.

But Randy Meisner deserves better. He was a founding member of the Eagles, and contributed to the first five albums. I know he’s had some hardships, but they should find a way for him to play again:

One-Story Premium

by | Sep 26, 2018 | Jim's Take on the Market, Sales and Price Check, Why You Should List With Jim | 1 comment

Let’s look at the price on my new one-story listing.  After all, the 5,345sf house right up the street (that went pending the same day) was listed for the same.

At first glance:

$1,799,000/5,345 = $337/sf

$1,798,000/3,729 = $482/sf

(43% premium)

But we know that the cost-per-sf metric is one of the worst ways to compare the values of two homes.  We use it for measuring the change in the general trend, mostly because no other metric has been devised that is any better.

Why is it a bad measuring stick?

Because when you are only comparing house to house, the cost-per-sf bundles up all the many variables into one neat package to call it apples-to-apples.

But consider the many variables here that shouldn’t be bundled:

The 5,345sf two-story house appeals to younger people, probably to those with a few kids.  Even if you have 4+ people to occupy, you probably only need 4,000sf of it, and be lucky to get around to using 4,500sf.  It is a view home, but you only look over scrub brush – I’ll give you a little benefit of not having a neighbor behind, but that’s about it – and the fire danger should be considered.

While younger folks don’t mind a single level, the older crowd insists on them – and they won’t consider a two-story, which skews the supply-and-demand.

Let’s compare Carlsbad houses sold in the last six months over 2,500sf:

Product type
# of Sales
Cost-per-sf
Median SP
Median DOM
One-story
32
$509/sf
$1,337,500
8
Two-story+
303
$374/sf
$1,225,000
18

The average one-story premium in Carlsbad over the last six months has been 36% when you are comparing the general statistics.

If you insist on using the cost-per-sf metric, a more-accurate way to compare my price is to compare it to the general trend of other one-story sales:

My listing = $482/sf

Carlsbad one-story sales over 2,500sf, last six months: $509/sf

Heck, I’m giving it away!

If you are the type of buyer who will only buy a single-level home and need 2,500sf or more, you want to consider the rarity factor too. There has only been only five sales per month, and they’ve been popping off the market.  The median days-on-market is eight!

I was the one who put the price on my listing, based on the one-story premium. We will see if today’s market agrees!

Here’s my YouTube from last month that showed a few examples:

https://youtu.be/5Frb9P4t89I

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