I hope there comes a time and place when all of us can get back together and tell stories about what it was like along the trail. Here’s the nine-years-and-counting saga of us sticking together:
We are grateful for the opportunity to assist our blog readers! From a recent seller:
When we moved to San Diego in 2005 we rented a big house on Mt. Soledad (La Jolla) with 180 degree ocean views for the same payment as a mortgage on a dump in Chula Vista. Clearly something was wrong. Yet, the media was full of the usual happy-talk nonsense, so I was glad to find Jim’s blog.
I’ve followed his honest assessments and data since.
We decided to sell and move to AZ at Thanksgiving. Dec. 1st we met with Jim to sell our home. We closed today (29 days later). Jim orchestrated a feeding frenzy — we had 25 showings in 2-1/2 days, multiple offers, and sold for well over asking price. I’d say he earned his commission!
We have owned and sold homes in 5 different States always using experienced, productive, full-time realtors. Jim outshines them all. You don’t decide to sell and close 29 days later over Christmas (with COVID lockdown) without some miracles. Donna was amazing at performing lots of those miracles and ensuring that everything was done right and on time. They are a terrific team with a very responsive and professional network.
Are you looking for a quiet south-facing yard full of sunshine where you can watch the hawks soaring above and the crystal-blue enchantress calling from the west? Check out our new listing of this dazzling 4 br/3 ba, 2,597sf listing in Carlsbad! LP = $1,100,000!
Though last year had many challenges and was the worst year ever for many, it turned out to be a phenomenal year for us, business-wise. We are very grateful for our clients’ faith and confidence – many of whom found us here at the blog!
The Klinge Realty Group had a record year with 41 sales and just over $50,000,000 in volume!
THANK YOU!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s the new year message from my wife Donna:
Yes 2020 was one for the books – a year no one will ever forget.
As we bid adieu, many of us will look back and reflect on the many valuable lessons and gifts this year brought to us. It was a year full of uncertainty, fear, and doubts; but we also bore witness to a year full of love, service, human sacrifice, collaboration, and a sense of belonging to one same world – all of us in this together.
As we walk into the promise of a new year, we are thinking about all of the people who helped us get through so much unexpected change, and we are filled with gratitude and hope for 2021. We appreciate our loyal clients for their faith and confidence in us in helping them buy and sell their homes; our co-workers and team who said “Yes we can” and were beyond inspiring; and our family and friends who loved and supported us along the way. We love making people’s home dreams come true!
Who thought our generation would face a pandemic. But here we are, fighting together as one world.
“Did they just get caught up in the frenzy fever – or is Jim really that good”?
“Or does he just list ’em low just to stir up the frenzy?”
Let’s consider the two most recent sales, #3 and #6 on the list above.
Number 3 is a model-match to the subject property, but it did not have the additional bedroom and full bath down like we did. Our list price of $1,379,000 reflected a $54,000 premium for those.
Number 6 is the bigger floor plan and is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from our listing – and it closed for $1,410,000. We would have to expect that buyers would consider it strongly.
Two things to note about the subject property:
We have a downstairs master suite, which is an in-betweener. Seniors who want the traditional one-story think it’s too much house for them, and some families with little kids don’t like having them on a different floor. It’s probably why we had three offers, and the pending listing had eight offers.
Our backyard was a similar size as all the other comps and was tastefully landscaped, but it didn’t have any extras that would cause people to pay more. It also had a window that stood out:
All considered, our original list price of $1,379,000 looked like full retail when we started.
Nobody offers $91,000 over list just for the heck of it. Only two of comps closed substantially over list price, and just by $30,000 – which is way different than $91,000 over.
Admittedly, our market conditions have been hot and the inventory had dwindled down to there being virtually nothing similar for sale when we listed. But it was also December, so the holiday spirit or the raging pandemic could have cooled our chances too.
Someone must have created an ideal environment for buyers to pay the extra pop!
Two other notes:
Mr. Seller has read the blog since 2005 – my second seller this year who has been here since the beginning!
I first met the sellers on December 1st, and thirty days later they closed for $91,000 over list price. Is that the type of efficiency you’d like to have? Then contact me to sell your house!
He is right – I don’t give much thought to SEO, which is probably why we had the lowest number of estimated monthly visits (by far) of the nine blogs included. He mentioned that the view-counter tends to be low, especially for hyperlocal sites.
Here’s our number of viewers this month from Google Analytics:
Brett Farrow is a local architect, builder, and developer – and has been a long-time reader of the blog (you’ve seen him comment here as ‘Mozart’). Yesterday, we got together at his latest project, Laguna Row, and talked about his experiences in the village of Carlsbad:
I also did another tour around the village for an update on the booming redevelopment:
Bubbleinfo.com has been in existence for 15 years! The peak audience here was at the bottom of the market (~11k), but having 5.6k users over the last 28 days is fantastic – thanks for being here!
Over the last 15 years:
Total number of Blog Posts: 9,820 (plus a few hundred more on the previous Squarespace format)
Instagram: 482 posts, 1,087 followers (Natalie is running it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The big news this week is that Kayla is going solo!
You’re never going to be comfortable and ready to go on your own, so at some point, every agent has to take the plunge. She is going to keep working at Douglas Elliman in their midtown Manhattan office, and she has pledged to have her new blog up and running by October 1st!