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.
Of course there is an alternative the reverse mortgage to provide more resources. With that cleaning out the house becomes someone elses problem.
See bottom right…
Older folks are more likely to have paid off their mortgage as well.
Prop 58 in California will have a lessened impact as time goes on. The exclusion is limited to $1MM, so there will be property tax increases for some of the kids that inherit or are gifted parental homes. That might influence a few decisions. Also, two houses in my neighborhood were just listed for $1.7MM. At what point do people take the money and run?
At what point do people take the money and run?
You like to remind us of how comfortable the older folks are, but those aren’t the market makers. As the market starts to flatten out, the people that matter are those who are willing to sell for what the market will bear, which admittedly are down to a very small subset.
The low inventory gets a lot of attention, but it is worse than that – how many of those really need to sell? It is probably less than half of the current active inventory.
How many of the ‘sellers’ of current active listings would take 10% less than their list price, if that was all they could get? I’d say 25% or less.
While it would seem to be a good time to take the money and run, egos will get in the way.
One of the houses is remodeled, has a pool, and has a pool/guest house. The other has a huge downsloping lot and a pool. One is an original owner, not sure about the other. Will be interesting to see if they get close to their asking prices.
We are down to five original owners with six long term second owners on my thirteen home cul de sac and none shows any interest in selling. The original owners next door are remodeling and retrofitting. They are nearing 70 and plan to stay until the end. Very few people here have sold to downsize into a retirement home or move closer to the grandkids. Most sales have been job relocations, and with more residents now employed in local high tech jobs, a job change means a few blocks, not 2,000 miles. So no one is selling.