More MLS Remarks

Please use your own directions.

NOW EXCEPTING BACK UP OFFERS…

AGENTS: PLEASE PROVIDE BUYERS POF AND LENDER APPROVAL OR, IF CASH – BUYERS PROOF OF FUNDS WHEN SCHEDULING A SHOWING.

Seller only wants serious buyers.

Do not sue ShowingTime.

Michelob lamp does not convey

Google maps works better than Apple Maps but both of them will take you to the home…. I just like google better.

Seller has a strong preference for using First American Title and First American Escrow, if your buyer can not accept that do not make an offer.

Big Price adjustment was to no fault of property owner simply wanted to test market to make sure they were not leaving any money on the table.

Buyers are recommended to investigate neighborhood safety by contacting the local police department. (listing in Carlsbad)

I do not know if the seller will accept an offer or counter. We cannot discuss offers.

“Dear Seller” letters will NOT be presented to seller. Please do not send.

Please do not ask me to host open houses. (vacant listing by an Orange County agent)

Complex also boast pickleball and tennis courts.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL TO HOST OPEN HOUSES. ***

Please note La Jolla does not allow “For Sale” signs.

Please whatever you do….do NOT use Showing Time.

Creating Fraudulent Documentation

In the apartment leasing process, landlords require applicants to provide proof of identity, employment and income before granting approval. Traditionally, those would be printed and either mailed to a leasing office or handed over in person.

Since the pandemic, more apartment leasing is done online, with renters signing for apartments without even visiting the building. But as online leasing platforms have proliferated, so have scams designed to take advantage of them, industry experts said.

Reported internet-based real estate crimes have risen from $213M in 2020 to $350M in 2021 to $397M last year, according to the FBI’s internet crime reports.

Those crimes include renter fraud, as well as other forms of real estate scams. An FBI spokesperson said the bureau doesn’t investigate these types of crimes, and landlords have expressed frustration that state and local law enforcement officials have been slow or unwilling to respond to the rise in fraud.

The surge in this type of crime has come as apartment operators have pushed the leasing process to online platforms, meaning renters rarely come face-to-face with a property manager, making it easier to pass off fake IDs. In 2022, 23% of renters took zero in-person tours before signing a lease, 69% submitted their applications online and 36% signed their lease electronically, according to Zillow.

“With the advancements of online document-editing technology, it means that really, anybody can do it,” said Daniel Berlind, the CEO of multifamily application verification service Snappt. “If you think about the process and the technologies available to fraudsters five and 10 years ago, manipulating a bank statement, a pay stub … really any financial document would have required a pretty high level of skill.”

Prospective renters use documents such as doctored W2s, faked employment verifications and fake or stolen identities to skirt the screening process and get approval. Renters who submit fraudulent documents during the rental applications are seven times more likely to end up in eviction proceedings, Berlind said.

While widespread, the practice is especially common in a handful of major metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, Los Angeles and suburban Dallas, Berlind said.

A New York comedian went viral earlier this year with a clip explaining how she used Adobe Photoshop to alter her pay stubs and bank statements to afford to rent an apartment on her own. She later backtracked those comments and said, “To be clear, I was joking,” the Daily Dot reported.

But the social media landscape is rife with people who aren’t joking about how to commit application fraud.

Pages like Fresh Documents and Hart2Hart Entertainment, Kivysaptapprovals on TikTok, CyberCredible on X, and the ApartmentHacks subreddit  — which now threatens to ban any members that talk about faking pay stubs — all offer suggestions and products to create new financial forms and other information for customers to get around a credit check, according to Snappt, which helps landlords identify fraudulent applicants.

“There are entire online communities that collaborate to discuss fraud,” said Berlind, who runs Snappt as well as his own real estate firm, Berlind Properties. “There are videos on TikTok that have millions of views, showing how to edit documents. There are entire forums on Reddit that discuss properties and lease-up, what their concessions are and literally give walkthrough guidance to would-be fraudulent applicants and how they can circumvent the process.”

Link to Article

Oceanview One-Story

1704 Azul Vista, San Marcos

3 br + den/3.5 ba, 3,372sf

YB: 2005

SP = $2,175,000 – we represented the sellers

Hard to believe that the former model with killer ocean views is for sale because larger single-story homes with big ocean views are hard to come by – this is a keeper! New designer kitchen with commercial-grade range and newer built-in refrigerator, new carpet and paint, custom-crafted 8’ entry door, 3-car garage and spiffy BBQ area too! The gated community of Varadero is located at one of the highest points in San Marcos and has a pool/spa and entertainment area, and lake privileges are available. This is Carlsbad-adjacent too. Wow!







Frenzy Monitor

NSDCC Active and Pending Listings

All except three of the highest-end neighborhoods (Del Mar, RSF, and Solana Beach) are at a 2:1 ratio of actives to pendings, or better (my measure of a healthy market). La Jolla deserves special recognition – the pendings have blown up there in the last 30 days!

The inventory is running +14% YoY, which should be about the best-case scenario. Just enough extra homes for sale to have buyers be more interested without scaring them off with a big surge.

But let’s note that the total number of pendings is the same as last February, so it’s not a full blown frenzy yet with more homes not selling. If we carry excess unsold homes for a few more months it could look like a glut to the skeptical buyers.

Aviara Drive Closed!

In the beginning, we recognized that there was still some of the original look from 1997 in this home – and we could have spent some real money to bring it current. Instead, we let our price fix it.

The other listing on the street was coming back on the market for $3,700,000, so we just snuggled up underneath it with our list price at $3,500,000 – and became the value buy because we had ocean views (out the front of the house).

But the astute buyers will wonder why a home hasn’t sold after being on the market for 18-20 days. The cash buyers can make their terms very attractive too.

Our sellers took a slight discount to close in two weeks and help make their deal on the other end. Win-win!

https://www.compass.com/app/listing/7180-aviara-drive-carlsbad-ca-92011/1484911523312510961

Self Destruction

We don’t need the DOJ or commission lawsuits to take down our business – realtors will self-destruct, beginning with the elimination of the buyer-agents as we’ve known them.

A few of the comments below. Click here to see the whole thread.

Over List, January

There were 23 buyers who paid over the list price last month. There were 29 in the previous month, but because there were 20 fewer sales in December, the percentage looks much larger.

Cash buyers purchased 41 of the 107 sales, or 38%.

Fifteen of the sales were round-tripped (buyer and seller represented by the same agent). Thirteen of the sales had zero days on market. Of those, six were round-tripped.

With all the desperation among realtors due to the lower volume, you’d think the shenanigans would be rising faster, but those numbers are fairly normal. Last January, there were nine of the 105 sales that had zero days-on-market.

Our lousy pricing metrics stayed towards the higher end of the 10% range:

NSDCC Monthly Sales and Pricing

With the hot CPI report today, mortgage rates should be heading higher and take some of the buzz out of the marketplace. Get an FHA or VA mortgage and save 3/4%!

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