Tom’s house in South Oceanside was one of the homes that was picked up in that market surge about a month ago.  The weather was ideal, rates were rising, there was a bit of a lull before the holidays, and we compared favorably to the other houses for sale nearby.  When another market-surge happens, let’s see if we can determine the cause (hopefully there will be others!).

The two others that went pending the same week didn’t fare as well.

  1. The house that did close escrow looked like it had to dump on price to find a buyer – but it wasn’t as bad as it appears.  The owner/agent had it listed for $829,000, and it closed at $750,000, which looks like a dramatic 10% discount. But the buyer had gone direct, and the seller reduced the price by the amount of the commission.  It was noted as such in the confidential remarks, but future buyers won’t see those and will probably consider the $750,000 as the comp price in future valuations.
  2. The other house that went pending fell out of escrow, due to mixed signals that made the buyers uncomfortable, so they cancelled.

These demonstrate how the market has changed.

Previously, the first house would have had more interest, and owner/agents would have been more patient about working the price higher.

In the second example, buyers would have been more likely to put up with some mis-direction, but there is zero tolerance now.

We had Tom’s house listed for $989,000, and we closed at $975,000.

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