Denk Mountain is the unofficial name of the highest point in the City of Carlsbad. It may be a little presumptuous to call it a mountain, but at 1041 feet of elevation, it is high enough to offer dramatic views up and down the San Diego coast, especially west to where the Batiquitos Lagoon discharges into the Pacific.
The name honors the Denk family, who once owned much of the land that is now the Rancho La Costa Preserve, which is owned and managed by a non-profit, the Center for Natural Lands Management (tax deductible donations are appreciated). If you are a mountain biker and don’t already know about these trails, you should definitely check it out.
The preserve has over 6 miles of trails, some of which are very challenging. It can be a pleasant hike or trail run for anyone in moderately good physical condition. Many trails of varying difficulty lead to the peak. The route described here is only one of several possibilities.
The trails are open year-round from dawn to dusk, but the best times to go are mornings between January and June, preferably after a storm has left the area with clear air and perhaps some dramatic clouds.
Warning: rattlesnakes live here. Also, it is a very active mountain biking area. While hikers have the right-of-way, you should do whatever you need to do to avoid a collision with a rapidly moving bicycle. There is no shade, and the hillside tends to face toward the sun. Bring trekking poles if you have them, as they will be useful at times.
A few readers have sent in articles regarding the class-action lawsuit filed about commissions – an excerpt:
A class-action lawsuit is seeking to upend the way homes are listed for sale and the commissions paid to agents. The goal, say the plaintiffs, is to make home selling more affordable by challenging how agents share commissions on local Multiple Listings Services known as the MLS.
The focus, the suit claims, is on NAR’s “Buyer Broker Commission Rule,” which, according to the complaint, requires “all brokers to make a blanket, non-negotiable offer of buyer broker compensation” in order to participate in the MLS, which is what brokers traditionally use to list for-sale properties. Brokers who don’t participate in the MLS can’t effectively market their properties, according to the lawsuit.
NAR, however, has no such “Buyer Broker Commission Rule” as described in the lawsuit, according to Mantill Williams, vice president of communications at NAR.
“The only requirement imposed by NAR rule is that the listing broker advise all other MLS participants what the amount of compensation to the buyer’s broker will be,” Williams says. “That amount is determined by the seller and the seller’s broker – not by NAR or the MLS. It can be expressed as a percentage of the sale price or as a fixed dollar amount – as low as $1. Under NAR policy, a buyer’s broker is free to negotiate the amount of the commission with the seller’s broker.”
Sellers can negotiate the amount of commission they pay to their own agents. Although sellers traditionally pay the commission, that commission is typically split with the buyer’s agent. The seller might end up passing on the commission costs to the buyer in the form of a higher listing price.
There are two problems that contribute to the situation; 1) The commissions aren’t disclosed to buyers, and 2) In spite of the statement in bold above, the commission rate offered to the buyer-broker is non-negotiable, according to the Code of Ethics:
Standard of Practice 16-16
REALTORS®, acting as subagents or buyer/tenant representatives or brokers, shall not use the terms of an offer to purchase/lease to attempt to modify the listing broker’s offer of compensation to subagents or buyer/tenant representatives or brokers nor make the submission of an executed offer to purchase/lease contingent on the listing broker’s agreement to modify the offer of compensation. (Amended 1/04)
The lawsuit wants to cause the buyer-agent’s commission rate – and who pays it – to be more negotiable (it’s not negotiated by the buyer now). What this lawsuit will include, but not solve, is buyer-agents steering their clients to listings that pay 2.5% or more in commission.
The attorneys will sensationalize the facts during their jury trial, and NAR will probably end up agreeing that buyers have more access to commission rates.
We will ignore this basic premise though: sellers should be free to offer a bounty to buyer-agents to sell their house, and the listing agent should convey that message, and encourage sellers to offer a rate that causes buyers to be steered to their house.
It sounds edgy, but it’s how it works in real life.
I said previously that this will likely cause more buyers to go directly to the listing agent, which will destroy the broker cooperation model we enjoy now.
But we could solve all of these issues with one answer.
If we did auctions instead, we wouldn’t have these problems.
The commissions would be obvious in advance (it’s been the 10% premium, paid by buyers), and all buyers would have an equal chance to buy the home. The sellers would be the big winners – no commissions, and eye-to-eye competition to drive the price higher, with no shenanigans!
In Indiana, the town of Story — with a population of three people — is on the market for $3.8 million.
For that price, you get 17.4 acres with a historic general store, fenced horse pastures, an old grain mill, several barns, rental cabins and outbuildings that include two 19th-century outhouses.
And as of 2018, only three people — plus four dogs and a resident ghost — lived in the town, located about an hour south of Indianapolis. The only employer is a bed-and-breakfast called the Story Inn.
The B&B’s owner, 62-year-old lawyer Rick Hofstetter, also owns the town. He plans to keep the hotel — which, as the state’s oldest country inn, attracts visitors — but wants to relinquish the responsibility of managing the rest of the properties.
“The town’s fortunes should be decoupled from our hospitality operations,” he told the Herald-Times. “Macy’s doesn’t own the mall.”
The lucky buyer will get what Hofstetter calls “an entire historic town nestled in the hills of southern Indiana” that dates back to 1851, per the listing.
“This is not a reconstruction of an authentic little town,” Hofstetter told WANE-TV in Fort Wayne. “This is an authentic little town.”
Ryan is seeing it in Sacramento about the same as we see it here. The market is active but statistically the pricing has been fairly flat – it could be worse!
Being a casual home buyer is fine, and most people are.
They’re looking for the perfect home for them, and they will know it when they see it. But because virtually every house needs something – even new ones – it can be a long hard road in search of perfection.
Try this approach.
Instead of declaring yes or no on each house you see, put a number on it.
At what price would you buy it?
It takes more time to research the comps and compare the features, but it gets you onto the playing field. Here are some of the benefits:
Hone your home-evaluating skills.
Get more familiar with the comps.
Identify what features are most important to you.
If you do make an offer, it bolsters your case with seller.
Your offer negotiations have a specific target.
If you don’t make an offer, it prepares you for the next time.
When do you make an offer?
If your research concludes that you might pay within 10% of the list price, then make a written offer and see where it goes.
If your price is more than 10% below list, then call it in and see what the listing agent says. Nine times out of ten they will hang up on you….and you’re looking for the tenth!
The yes-or-no approach won’t buy you a house – instead, put a number on it!
While the old tradition of broker cooperation via the MLS is slowly eroding, there is an opening for others to intrude. Two quotes seen this week in different articles:
Founder and CEO Rich Barton said in a radio interview on April 1st that he sees Zillow Offers as an evolution of Zestimates. In fact, at some point in the future, a Zestimate and a cash offer may be the same thing, he said in an appearance on National Public Radio.
“Ideally, I would like to have the Zestimate be a live offer on every home in the country,” said Barton, adding, “It will take quite some time to get there.”
Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, a real-estate brokerage that has also got into the home-flipping business, said he still believes the endgame for Opendoor, as well as his own company, is to get buyers to purchase homes without necessarily using an agent.
“A large number of these companies, Redfin included, are going to be selling direct to consumers,” he said.
Will consumers trust them enough to buy and sell houses based on their fabricated estimates of value, without a realtor on their side? All that needs to happen is for these ibuyer companies to overwhelm the public with advertising, and convince you that their value estimates are close enough.
The advertising is the key. Consumers don’t have much real estate experience and education, and it’s not easy finding helpful resources (how many real estate blogs are there?). They just want to click and go!
It will be like TrueCar, where they advertise that their valuation system gives you an advantage, and to go down to one of their dealers to buy the car for that amount. TrueCar has sold over 2 million vehicles!
To further examine the off-market phenomenon, here are the first few entries snipped today from Facebook realtor groups:
I don’t fault the listing agents – this is realtor marketing in 2019, and everyone is doing it so it must be ok. Agents who represent buyers need to be well-connected and searching for homes in other places besides the MLS.
