It’s a bit sluggish around town and it will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future – and likely for years to come. Prices and rates are high, and the inventory keeps growing, which gives buyers hope that either the perfect house will come along and/or prices might go down.
It’s real estate stagflation, also known as Flat City!
Hoppy Easter!
Los Alamos is #1 on his list – check it out here:
The market is ‘slowing’ and pretty soon we will all just be standing around wondering what happened. The underlying reason is that the new rules discourage agents from wanting to work with buyers.
I just had one where my buyers offered $175,000 over the list price. The listing agent countered and reduced the seller-paid commission to me by a half-percent. I got penalized for having my buyers offer $175,000 OVER the list price, and it put me at odds with my own client.
The other parts of how the listing agent handled the negotiations were so repulsive that it made me embarrassed to be a part of our so-called profession. Why would I want to go through that again?
It was already hard enough trying to represent buyers.
CARLSBAD — It has been a long time coming.
After 12 years, the city of Carlsbad, San Diego Gas & Electric and NRG Energy, and its subsidiary Cabrillo Power LLC, have agreed on a land settlement for property on Agua Hedionda Lagoon and along Carlsbad Boulevard and Cannon Drive.
The city and two energy companies have been haggling since 2013 over the deal, now known as the Seaside Agreement, but the City Council approved the deal during Tuesday’s meeting.
The deal will see the city take ownership of more than 5 acres at the site of SDG&E’s North Central Service Center along Cannon Drive and Carlsbad Boulevard, Cannon Park, the middle and inner lagoons, 5.7 acres of land on the north shore of the lagoon and more, according to Carlsbad Deputy City Manager Gary Barberio, who has worked on the deal since 2013. SDG&E will move its operations center to the east side of the property in a land swap with Cabrillo, while a new trail system will be constructed just east of the Carlsbad Strawberry Fields property on what is known as Lot 11.
Should the deal fall through, Cabrillo will pay the city $10 million.
Read the full article here:
https://ncpipeline.substack.com/p/carlsbad-sdge-landmark-deal
Robert Reffkin was in San Diego yesterday to talk Compass. He will be visting all the Compass regional offices to assure agents that we are on the right track.
We’re on the right track.
Private Exclusives are permitted in the Clear Cooperation Policy. Nobody disputes it, including Zillow who has already said that they won’t be blocking our Private Exclusives from their website.
Compass plays by the rules.
We hear a lot of noise from the ivory towers about Compass withholding properties in order to sell them off-market, but you saw in my recent blog post that we’re doing about the same number as we’ve always done (less than 1% of total sales) and other brokerages are doing about their same numbers too.
You won’t find any agents on the street who want to ban off-market sales. They are legal, within the rules, and we love them.
I have a new rule to fix it.
All off-market sales are forbidden to be on the MLS.
I’ve mentioned how it’s a badge of honor for agents to input their off-market sales after closing. They see other agents do it – many of them prominent – and their ego wants to join the party.
If the MLS police just stopped allowing off-market sales to be inputted, then the problem could solve itself. Agents who went a year or two without seeing off-market sales on the MLS would probably forget all about them.
Oh, you want to input for appraisal purposes? Appraisers have enough comps – and they will find yours on the tax rolls if they need it that badly. Oh, you want it on your sales count? Nobody cares about your sales count except you, and because we’re suspicious of anything off-market, sorry. No sale on the record for you.
It would help to eliminate the frivolous or shady off-market sales, which no one talks about or wants to change. People just use the topic to beat up on Compass because their knee-jerk reaction is that we’re up to something, when we’re not.
A month ago, Robert put this on his Insta account:
Corcoran, Douglas Elliman, Redfin, and eXp have now said publicly that they do exclusive listings. It’s rumored that every brokerage has them, and they should – they are legal and permitted.
If you don’t like it, then change the rule that permits them.
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Other tidbits from the meeting:
Of the real estate licensees nationally, 94% haven’t closed a sale this year.
Should Compass put up a big fight, or just go on our merry way? Robert is promoting our 3-Phase Marketing Plan that sounds really good to some home sellers. It’s within the existing rules, so let’s keep our head down and serve our clients the best we can. There’s nothing to fight about, really.
Lennar sold 800,000 homes last year, and HALF of them were off-market.
Several Compass agents agreed that they don’t use the MLS at all – everything they need is on our platform.
How about the people who aren’t used to being around other people these days? Today, there are people who get by without having a meaningful conversation with another human being – maybe they talk with their dogs and cats, but not much with other humans beyond the ‘how ya doing’ occasionally. We are cocooning as a society, and selling your home with minimal human interaction should be an option that many may prefer.
The market is softer and sellers might have a better chance to sell for their price off-market. Buyers are known for paying more for an exclusive offering, so it is a viable option for procuring a top-dollar sale. Sellers should at least have that choice available to them.
It’s a new day. Many, and probably most, listings aren’t getting any showings, let alone offers. The way it’s going, selling off-market will sound better and better.
Brain May from Queen joined Benson Boone for Bohemian Rhapsody
Benson’s guitarist is Sus Vasquez who toured with Natalie last year with Karol G.
Missy Elliott
Many influencers were active and this guy had an entourage – I stood up and got on camera in one of these.
Charli xcx
Green Day played their explosive set without one word in between about Trump or anything political. Because Billie Joe has given 45-minute political sermons between songs, I thought there would be something that might change the world but because they did the music for Bill Maher’s show and he came out as a Trumpster this week, maybe BJ was speechless? Hard to believe, but it was so!
If you prefer the polished version with close-ups, watch theirs:
The unsolds are rising quickly with +96 since mid-February.
In 2024, we didn’t have 462 active listings until the middle of June!
But South Carlsbad and Carmel Valley are cruising along nicely with their actives-to-pendings ratios within the 2:1 standard we use to gauge a healthy market.
The number of actives is +23% above last April, and the number of pendings is 17% lower – the result that we’ve been talking about since October. It’s mostly a higher-end problem and it won’t work itself out.
Sellers will just be content to wait and see, cancel their listing for the holidays, and be back again next year….at the same price.
Check out our new listing!
2302 Birdie St., Oceanside
4 br/2.5 ba, 1,944sf
YB: 1989
No HOA
LP = $1,200,000
Wouldn’t you love to find a renovated home on a big lot that is move-in ready? Here you go! Upgraded this year with new flooring & paint, windows, sliding-door, kitchen (with walk-in pantry), baths, lighting, and landscape – wow! Huge 15,224sf lot, central A/C, 3-car garage, and no HOA! Secluded location with minimal impact from neighbors. The last sale in Pacific Views was $1,250,000 on Feb 27th for a house that was 75sf bigger. Close to Carlsbad, beach, freeway and all the modern conveniences – check this out!
https://www.compass.com/listing/2302-birdie-street-oceanside-ca-92056/1820722907676486161/
Open 12-2pm Friday and Saturday, April 26th & 27th.
