We have known Jim & Donna Klinge for over a dozen years, having met them in Carlsbad where our children went to the same school. As long time North County residents, it was a no- brainer for us to have the Klinges be our eyes and ears for San Diego real estate in general and North County in particular. As my military career caused our family to move all over the country and overseas to Asia, Europe and the Pacific, we trusted Jim and Donna to help keep our house in Carlsbad rented with reliable and respectful tenants for over 10 years.
Naturally, when the time came to sell our beloved Carlsbad home to pursue a rural lifestyle in retirement out of California, we could think of no better team to represent us than Jim and Donna. They immediately went to work to update our house built in 2004 to current-day standards and trends — in 2 short months they transformed it into a literal modern-day masterpiece. We trusted their judgement implicitly and followed 100% of their recommended changes. When our house finally came on the market, there was a blizzard of serious interest, we had multiple offers by the third day and it sold in just 5 days after a frenzied bidding war for 20% above our asking price! The investment we made in upgrades recommended by Jim and Donna yielded a 4-fold return, in the process setting a new high water mark for a house sold in our community.
In our view, there are no better real estate professionals in all of San Diego than Jim and Donna Klinge. Buying or selling, you must run and beg Jim and Donna Klinge to represent you! Our family will never forget Jim, Donna, and their whole team at Compass — we are forever grateful to them.
When I’m the listing agent, I always counter every buyer – how will you ever know what they might pay unless you give them a chance???
Criminal that the listing agent just took whatever looked nice + moved on.
Crazy, if the listing agent had put in the effort + pressed for highest and best they probably could have funded their 3%.
We live in an environment where getting more than you expected is good enough.
It never occurs to agents that their laziness is preventing max money/top dollar sales.
There are class-action lawsuits pending against the industry over dumb stuff. The one that could stick is how seller representation is so lame and inefficient that sellers leave money on the table in virtually every sale (every non-JtR sale). But nobody has thought of that one yet.
When I’ve sold, I asked to see every offer.
Do you think this seller didn’t care enough to ask?
Good question – like all the questions by bubbleinfo readers!
Imagine the moment of impact, which is remarkably different depending if the sellers live in the house.
If they live there, they have been inconvenienced 100x by all the showings and they know it’s hot.
Sellers of vacant houses typically aren’t driving by every hour and, as a result, are relying on the listing agent’s report of activity. The lazy agents aren’t tracking it closely, though the lockboxes report every showing – they just want to hurry up and take an offer so they can go back to sleep.
In this case, the agent might have told the sellers that there were 30 offers, but must have shrugged off the majority and recommended that they only counter the “serious” buyers. He told me they countered the top 3-4 offers.
If you are a seller, doesn’t it sound like good advice?
When a listing agent does counter-offers, they do it to “clean up” an offer, which means to dictate the title and escrow companies to be used, and inflict stricter timelines for all contingency removals. This is what agents call, “expert negotiating”.
It NEVER occurs to them to pit the buyers against one another. I have never experienced any agent trying to run up the score like I do.