Over List!

An update on two of the homes featured here that garnered multiple offers. As expected, they sold for well over their list price.  This one got $51,000 over the top of their price range:

This one had 20+ offers, and sold for a whopping $190,100 OVER LIST PRICE!

The fully-renovated, one-story homes are HOT!

Plus let’s also include this old classic in Olde Carlsbad that sold for $30,000 over list price, or $773/sf in an area that has averaged $539/sf over the last six months:

Petition Against Clear Cooperation

How to justify pocket listings, in one paragraph:

A broker from The Agency is hoping to mobilize support against the National Association of Realtors’ controversial ban against pocket listings, drafting a new petition to urge the repeal of a policy that many agents feel will disrupt the market and hurt their livelihoods.

“It feels as if it was done without a whole lot of thought for the person impacted the most, which is the seller,” said Jamie Waryck. “I, along with several colleagues, find that very frustrating.”

NAR’s policy, which was approved in November and is scheduled to take effect May 1, requires brokers to submit a listing to the Multiple Listings Service within one business day of publicly marketing a property.

NAR argues it will help make the business more transparent, but brokers, particularly in high-end markets like Los Angeles, Miami and New York, argue that pocket listings help protect sellers’ privacy and allow agents to be more flexible with asking prices.

“A homeowner should have the right to work with a realtor and decide for him or herself whether the home is sold with full exposure to the public, with limited access to the public, in total privacy or through a combination of any of these based upon the homeowner’s personal wants and needs,” the petition reads. “The National Association of Realtors has decided to remove this right from you.”

Top L.A. agents have previously spoken out strongly against the policy, including Agency CEO Mauricio Umansky and Hilton & Hyland’s Gary Gold.

“I think we should be policed somewhat,” Gold said in October, “but not treated like children.”

Link to Article

 

Mortgage Rates in the 2s

The MND’s survey above are today’s rates with no points, which means that homebuyers who are willing to pay a point or so will be getting a mortgage rate starting with a 2!

While there is certainly a big concern about the coronavirus affecting the world economy – and putting a dent in the down payments – these record-low rates should keep homebuyers engaged!

Barbara Gets Scammed

Barbara Corcoran said she lost nearly $400,000 after her financial team responded to an email that turned out to be a phishing scam.

“This morning I wired $388,000 into a false bank account in Asia,” Corcoran told ABC News.

Last week, the millionaire’s bookkeeper Christine received an email that appeared to be a routine message from Corcoran’s assistant Emily to approve a payment to a German company called FFH Concept.  However, the email in question was never sent from Corcoran’s assistant, instead, it was sent from a con artist.

The bookkeeper at first questioned the payment and asked in her reply, “What is this? Need to know what account to pay out of.”

“Someone sends you a bill. It’s paid,” Corcoran said. “And this one instance, it was not a good strategy.”

The crook responded to the bookkeeper with a detailed explanation and as Corcoran said, $388,700.11 was then transferred.

After the fact, Corcoran’s team noticed a missing “O” in the “from” address

“When she showed me the emails that went back and forth with the false address, I realized immediately it’s something I would have fallen for if I had seen the emails,” Corcoran said.

The savvy “Shark Tank” star fell prey to an all too common phishing scam, which is something her fellow shark Robert Herjavec, who made his millions running a tech company, knows all too well.

“85% of all cybercrime across the world comes through email, which is what happened to Barbara,” Herjavec said. “This is very, very common. It’s been happening of businesses for two, three years now. It’s now happening to individuals.”

Herjavec said there are a couple quick best practices people can implement to ensure they don’t fall for this kind of deception.

“Always verify that the email is coming from somebody you trust. Get that person to call you,” he suggested. “Number two, check your bank statements every single day, because if you catch it within 48 hours, the bank can get it back for you.”

Unfortunately, the money in Corcoran’s case is already gone, but her team traced the original scam emails back to a Chinese IP address and her attorneys are reportedly figuring out next steps.

Link to Article

Actives/Pendings

Rates are really low, and the market is responding. We’ve considered it a balanced market when the active listings are running about twice the number of pendings. Here’s how we’re doing so far in 2020, and compared to last February:

NSDCC Detached-Home Active and Pending Listings:

Area
Zip Code
Actives
Pendings
A/P Ratio
Ratio in Feb 2019
Cardiff
92007
14
9
1.6
2.3
Carlsbad NW
92008
29
19
1.5
1.8
Carlsbad SE
92009
48
50
0.96
1.9
Carlsbad NE
92010
12
12
1.0
1.4
Carlsbad SW
92011
21
19
1.1
1.4
Del Mar
92014
48
17
2.8
7.1
Encinitas
92024
65
53
1.2
2.1
La Jolla
92037
153
37
4.1
6.3
RSF
92067
158
24
6.6
10.5
Solana Bch
92075
18
12
1.5
7.7
Carmel Vly
92130
42
50
0.8
2.4
All Above
All
618
302
2.0
3.3

We are at the 2.0 mark, but take out La Jolla and Rancho Santa Fe and we’re at 1.3!

In SE Carlsbad and Carmel Valley – which are about the same size – we have more pendings than actives!

What’s Hot

We noted how there aren’t many of the newer one-story houses for sale.

When they do hit the open market, they tend to blow out – three of the last four sales of this 2,100sf plan in Santa Fe Trails in Carlsbad have sold over list price.  The previous high sale of this model was $1,100,000 in 2018, so they listed this one on the range $1,125,000 – $1,150,000, figuring they could get a little more:

https://www.compass.com/listing/3412-camino-largo-carlsbad-ca-92009/441432253076395113/

Four days later they opened escrow for $1,225,000 cash, and closed three weeks later!

State Street Commons

The Carlsbad Village Antique Mall was 14,630sf on a 7/10-acre lot.  The new owners paid $7,525,000 in August, 2019 (the sellers had paid $1,450,000 in 1999) and plan to increase the square footage by 44%.  Hopefully there will be plenty of on-site parking!

2742-52 STATE STREET. CARLSBAD, CA.

State Street Commons is an adaptive reuse and major renovation of the antique mall in the heart of Carlsbad Village. The project will pay tribute to the architectural character of the two butler frame buildings and quonset hut. The project consists of approximately 21,000 sf on a 30,350 sf parcel a couple blocks from the Pacific Ocean and directly across from the transit station. The vibrant mixed use project will house top tier retail and office tenants.

https://www.fabricinvestments.com/state-street-commons

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