The activity this weekend was about what I expected for the middle of October, 2024.
Happy to report that the political circus has been less of a distraction recently, and hopefully the real estate market will feel a bit of a boost from those who are motivated to move by the election’s result!
Starting next weekend, this is the form you will see at every open house in California. It is a mandatory form, and EVERY visitor must sign it or they won’t be allowed to view the home.
What’s worse is that the association will be sending shoppers around to verify agents are using the form, and properly explaining the options. Fines will be levied upon those who don’t.
Visitors will want to use their real name, just in case they decide to buy the home. But you’d be crazy to give your actual phone number because the agent will call you until you buy or die.
Buyers need to be prepared to take the next step if they like it – do you buy it from the agent on duty? How many other buyers are they already representing? Should I hire my own buyer-agent?
One house doesn’t speak for the whole market but it sure felt like it was already peak selling season this weekend. We had 160+ people attend, received eight offers so far, and it’s already $100,000+ over list:
Now that summer is over and mortgage rates are screaming towards 8%, many will assume that the real estate market has gone dormant for the rest of the year.
But my strategy of effectively sprucing up the house and utlizing an attractive price keeps working. Towards the end of this video I show the recent comps for the neighborhood, and you’ll see that ‘attractive’ factors in the time of year and market conditions but isn’t under market – especially considering that the home has the original roof, original windows & doors, and original bathrooms:
A review of our day near the beach:
I hate when realtors say, “Price it right”.
It makes it sound like we know something you don’t – that our price is the right price.
Realistically, you can only say you priced it right if a house sells during its first week on the market. The frenzy made every listing agent look like a rockstar when most of the time it was due to the demand being so high that many listings were selling in spite of its agent and price.
How good are agents about price?
In the first half of 2023, there were 1,377 detached-home listings between La Jolla and Carlsbad. Of those, there are 896 that have sold or are now pending, which is 65%. Hmmm.
Let’s just price them attractively, which isn’t as specific as ‘right’. Put a price on it that causes people to want to come take a look, and then when they arrive, be a good enough salesperson to handle the rest.
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One way an agent can stay sharp about pricing is to see homes in person. The frenzy prevented us from doing the broker previews on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and those were the best way to easily view the new listings.
Buyers go to open houses on the weekends, and shouldn’t we know as much as them?
It’s easy to shrug off the broker previews if you don’t have any waiting buyers for the homes on the list. But seeing homes every week also helps to keep an agent sharper about pricing in general – and also build better relationships among the agents who are on the tour.
I’ll have my Aviara Drive listing on broker preview tomorrow from 10:00am to 1:00pm with food. I told the sellers that my over/under on agent attendance is 15, which doesn’t sound like many when there are 1,000+ agents working in the area.
Anyone who attends tomorrow and mentions the blog will get a bubbleinfo t-shirt – non-agents included!
https://www.compass.com/app/listing/7141-aviara-drive-carlsbad-ca-92011/1364510398054940729
We had 100+ people attend each open house this weekend, and it was probably half-and-half buyers and neighbors. But neither know the difference, so it just looked like a parade all weekend.
Four offers have been received between $1,200,000 and the $1,250,000 list price.
(edit: as of Monday morning, we have received six offers!)
We will counter everyone for their highest-and-best offer tomorrow:
I was speaking intently with a prospect at yesterday’s open house when a nice person told Michele she was blog reader and wanted to say hello. Sorry I couldn’t say hello then, but hi and thanks for stopping by!
I finally got an answer from Natalie the Dancer today!
Let’s be realistic, shall we?
It’s the original roof, three original bathrooms that look like $60k-80k to fix, original furnace (no A/C), only half of the windows were replaced, no solar, no pool, no spa, no backyard improvements at all – the skimpy old BBQ is a negative and there are more weeds than grass in the yard. The house was built in 1990 so it was designed in the 80s, which means it has a big living room/smaller family room which makes for an odd fit for a 6-br house. Doing our $75k in showing improvements only gets buyers interested – an attractive list price and gentle coddling are needed to get this one closed.
Everything wrong with this property can be fixed with money!
1276 Meadow Wood Place, Encinitas
5 bedrooms + bonus room, 3 baths, 2,962sf
0.23-acre lot
YB: 1990
LP = $1,850,000
Open 12-3pm this weekend!
Have you been seeing Encinitas Ranch and La Costa Valley homes selling in the mid-$2 millions and higher, and wish you could get something similar but with a bigger yard on a culdesac for less money?
Check this out!
Downstairs bedroom suite with full bath, hardwood floors, remodeled kitchen, new carpet & paint, new lighting, newer windows, fireplace, 3-car garage, and an extra-large 10,014sf lot that backs to open space. There is enough room to play catch, and this is dog paradise! The 6th bedroom is bonus room upstairs.
https://www.compass.com/app/listing/1276-meadow-wood-place-encinitas-ca-92024/1303745761955629769
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
