This is the single-level home that sold in February, 2022 for a million over the $2.5 million list price (set deliberately low by the seller). The buyer passed away, unfortunately, and their heirs listed it a year later for $2,900,000. The listing agent (who lives in the ER) also set his list price attractively low and got it bid up to $3,200,000 this time.
While the casual observer would deduce that prices have come down 9% in the last year, you have to wonder if the buyer had to pay as much as $3,500,000 to win it last year – or if that was a random plunge.
The minute I saw this address I knew that it would have a big ocean view because I sold one in here before. It turns out, I sold this very home in 2001 for $257,000 when it was all-original (I rep’d the seller then). It has since sold for $461,000 in 2005, $429,000 in 2014, $613,000 in 2018, and $979,000 on Thursday.
My buyer is out-of-state and made the offer based on this video – and then came for the home inspection:
This looks like a miracle in the post-frenzy era, so how do you use it for a logical comp? This is a cautionary tale for the buyers looking at the house for sale up the street. It will be likely that someone will see my high sale closed and just go grab the other one without much thought as to the actual value.
And this was Buyer #2, after the cash buyer blew out after two days.
I mis-spoke about the original list price. It was $1,600,000
This is the type of premium offering that has enough going for it that they should get their money. The non-pool buyers probably won’t like it at any price, but those who want turnkey with big view on a culdesac will find it hard to pass up – here’s a minute of it:
I had four showings of my new listing today, and the buyers sure seemed serious – and we might not make it to open house weekend. Here’s a quick spin around the house, plus a surprise at the end:
Our new listing across from Tide Beach Park in Solana Beach has fully-approved plans to build a spectacular Mark-Morris-designed California Modern Contemporary – or just enjoy your beach cottage!
Mark designed the La Jolla house we sold last summer at 365 Marine Street – this plan has similar qualities! Open 12-3pm this Sunday, March 5th.
Jessie says we are in the top 3% of local realtors, which means she is counting 16,000+ agents in the county. She doesn’t include out-of-area or off-market sales, and because we made it into the Compass Top 50, we’re hoping it might mean we’re a little higher. Stay tuned.
In the discussion today, it quickly became obvious how important it is for agents to be able to discuss scenarios and solutions. These days, a buyer-agent will just email an offer to the listing agent, and hope it gets accepted or an easy counter-offer comes back. Any tougher than that and the buyer-agents just turn to their clients and say, ‘what do you think?’ and because no other solution is presented, everyone gives up.
The wicked seller’s market during the last 10-12 years has caused everybody to expect that buyers will just pay the sellers’ price – and if they don’t, then they are called names and declared not serious. Being able to craft these scenarios into sales is where this market will benefit greatly.
It may sound simple to expect agents to discuss offer terms, but don’t underestimate how limited that opportunity is. Not only do people who are used to texting and emailing all day find it a struggle to stitch together a sentence or two in person, they usually have little or no experience with actually discussing offers and how to find a win-win solution. It’s too easy to give up instead.
