Today we attended the soft opening of the new Compass office at 1953 San Elijo Ave., Suite 101 in Cardiff By-the-Sea (next door to Cicciotti’s). More than 100 Compass agents will occupy both floors eventually (63 now).
Other offices being built include a 22,000sf, ground-level office in One Paseo in Carmel Valley, which will be the central hub for San Diego. Compass will be the exclusive residential real estate office in One Paseo, and have the valet parking right in front, along with 100 parking spaces.
The downtown Encinitas office on Coast Highway 101 will probably be the next to open early next year, plus there is another 11,000sf office being built out at the Equinox center in La Costa, which will be the new HQ for the Klinge Realty Group.
Compass started in San Diego in January, and we joined in July when there was 160 agents. By the end of this week, there will be 320 Compass realtors in the San Diego area!
The twitter account doesn’t include every blog post, but I re-tweet other pertinent real estate topics. Those can also been seen in the right-hand column here too >>>.
My wife Donna has been the unsung hero behind the scenes all these years.
But with Kayla’s departure, we have the marketing duties being absorbed by Compass support staff, and Donna sliding into KK’s shoes as a frontline realtor on top of all the regular things she does to help get escrows closed.
The transition from a foreclosure-video website to a general real estate format has been challenging, and I’m thankful to have an audience.
I appreciate you being here!
Thank you to those who comment – you add texture and perspective to the content that makes it much more valuable to all readers. Hat tip to Gary (daytrip) who has supplied much/most of the outside content and colorful commentary – and I only use about half of each!
There are no ads here, and no paid blog posts by outsiders. I try to keep the blog focused on the most relevant, useful topics of the day to assist the reader with their real estate education. I want to be your realtor – what you see here is just a sample of what I can do to help you. I appreciate the blog readers who have allowed me to help them buy and sell houses – THANK YOU!
Our local associations of realtors are done suing each other, and as of today, those of us in the NSDCAR are officially using the nearly-statewide CRMLS. We are going to share the other local option, SDMLS, for the next two years so consumers probably won’t notice any difference on the portals.
What does it mean?
It means Jim the Realtor is going state-wide!
Well, almost – the map above shows the areas of coverage. While Temecula and the OC would be obvious markets that are closer to home, it’s not out of the question that I can sell homes anywhere.
When my Dad died in 2010, I sold my parents’ home in Concord for top dollar, and the long-timers here might remember my grandparents’ house.
My sister had just become a realtor in the Bay Area when it came time to sell the family homestead. It was a custom home my grandparents had bought in the 1940s, and there had not been much upkeep or improvements:
Plus, like with many families, there was an overload of sentimental value. It’s where we had most of the holiday gatherings, and there’s even a photo somewhere of me as a toddler sitting on Earl Warren’s lap in the living room!
My Mom and sister were convinced that it would sell for over $2,000,000.
I told them to send me the comps, and once reviewed, I said it was going to sell for $1,500,000. They were outraged and hurt, and accused me of knowing nothing about the local market – how could I possibly offer any assistance?
Here’s how it turned out:
I don’t think it’s feasible to be able to help homebuyers in other areas, but I can offer my full compliment of sales skills to sellers – contact me and we can discuss. I already have a listing coming in Murrieta, and another possible one in the OC so we’ll see how it goes. Tract houses and condos are a little easier to evaluate, but as you saw with my grandparents’ house, I can get pretty close on the custom estates too.
One other change with the CRMLS:
They have the same policy as Sandicor did about requiring that listings are inputted onto the system within 48 hours – but CRMLS only counts business days, not calendar days. So listings taken on Thursday don’t have to be inputted until Monday. Of course, agents are still welcome to use the SELM form to exclude the listing for days or weeks if they so desire.
People are wondering where real-estate-selling business will go.
The Uber Real Estate yesterday proved to be fake news – they aren’t affiliated with the real Uber – but they did follow a familiar theme; bashing the traditional realtor model.
Virtually every disrupter does the same thing, accusing regular agents of charging too much for doing too little. Then they claim to do the same thing (full service) for less money.
But nobody has offered a different way to sell homes. Why? Because there isn’t any mystery about the process; it is what it is.
Sellers decide how much help they want and need to expose their home to the marketplace, and handle the details of getting to the finish line. Buyers review the offerings, and decide how much help they want and need to buy one.
That’s it – that’s the process.
HOW MUCH HELP DO PEOPLE WANT? DO THEY KNOW WHAT THEY NEED?
Because nobody in the business does much to expose what they actually do to sell homes, the difficulty of buying and selling is a mystery. As a result, it looks easy – easier than it really is, especially as we’re transitioning into new and relatively unknown market conditions.
They don’t know how much help they will need because they under-estimate the difficulty. Sellers have sold cars and other items in their life, and take pride in knowing a few things about their world. Buyers have rented homes before – how hard can it be to buy one?
Disrupters ignore the difficulty too, and claim their Full Service is all you need.
But we’re in an era where the difficulty is getting harder, as the disrupters are making it sound easier – and cheaper.
As a result, the consumers (sellers and buyers) are under-served. Some don’t think they want much help, if any. This includes the sellers who think that paying less for limited exposure will still net them the same money, and the buyers who go to the listing agent direct – thinking they will get a better deal.
Traditional realtors could make their stand by mounting an effective advertising campaign to demonstrate the truth about the difficulty, and how important it is to get good help. It’s what consumers need to hear – and then find the appropriate service provider.
Without that guidance, consumers will select their realtor like they buy everything else in the Amazon era – rush a cursory review of the choices, and then grab one based on chance and luck, not thorough research.
Why don’t the traditional realtors step up to the microphone? Because they haven’t had to yet.
But when they do, they will be faced with an interesting decision. Do they take the high road, and educate consumers properly? Or jump into the swamp?
Let’s hope for more consumer education. We have more choices of service providers than ever, but less truth!
When I first started selling homes, most brokerages were mom & pop offices on the local corner. Man, how times have changed.
Now, venture capital is flooding the industry, and some outsiders flush with cash are trying to convince you that cheaper is better – without describing the services provided, other than to call it ‘full service’, making it sound sufficient.
Consumers deserve a legitimate full-service option.
They deserve the option to choose a company who hires full-service agents and then supports them with modern, high-tech resources to deliver an unparalleled consumer experience.
Compass is committed to full-service realtors – and is working with $800 million in venture capital to build the team, and provide the high-tech support.
Starting today, we are affiliating with Compass to improve our services and build our presence using their agent resources.
I did not sell my company to Compass; instead we are a branch office with our same address, phone numbers, blog, etc.
The reasons:
The Compass resources will help us expand and better define our services.
Having a luxury brand name will help me attract new clients who are unfamiliar with us.
We want to grow as a team, and being affiliated with Compass will help us attract better people.
With Kayla moving to NYC, I’m hoping that the marketing support from Compass will help bridge the gap.
I want plenty of distance between me and the discounters – not sure I’ll get that without a bigger and better corporate presence backed with VC.
Compass is backed by Goldman Sachs, SoftBank and others, and is hiring full-service realtors and brokerages throughout the country. The goal is to have 20% market share in the top 20 cities by 2020.
My ultimate goal has always been to create a full-service brokerage that the kids can take over. Teaming up with Compass looks like the best way to improve our brand and build a practice for the future!
Choosing the right realtor to sell your home is critical.
It’s not life-or-death critical. We’re just talking about the extra 5% to 10% that is available when effective marketing creates maximum urgency – and the agent’s skills and salesmanship creates competition between buyers to achieve a top dollar sale.
Here’s what I do:
I conduct a thorough pre-listing inspection to determine the best improvements to make prior to hitting the market. Repairing the visual dings, doing ‘clutter patrol’, and implementing any staging where needed to maximize the appeal to buyers. I focus on bang-for-the buck; spending as little as possible with max results.
I recommend an attractive price – one that is retail-based for the location and condition, and makes the buyers feel like it’s worth checking out.
I have professional photos done and include my own video tour to help sell the buyers on the value of the home, instead of playing elevator music. I won’t include a Matterport 3D tour, which is the worst thing any agent could do for you. The buyers can view every nook and cranny in the house, so they keep looking until they find something they don’t like – and then give up. The goal of marketing is to get the consumer interested enough to jump in the car and check it out in person.
Inquiries – I handle all inquiries myself, and I answer my own phone. My focus is to gauge the interest of the buyer or agent, and help to sell them on the house. Redfin and most big agent teams have showing requests handled by a separate and unrelated third-party called Showing Suite, and they miss out on a critical opportunity to pick up intel about the interested parties that I use later in the negotiations and bidding war.
I conduct the open house extravaganza myself. We effectively advertise and have 25-100 people attend every open house. The crowds help to create the Fear of Loss; where interested parties realize they better step up quickly and pay more than they thought so they don’t lose it. Nobody does open house like I do.
Once offers are pouring in, I qualify both the buyers and agents myself. Other agents can get swept away by sappy love letters, or by all-cash buyers and not give due diligence to every offer, or ignore the buyer’s agent and their critical role in getting to the finish line.
Virtually all agents will ask for highest-and-best offers, and then help the seller to pick their favorite. It feels exciting, and all can say they played the game. But I create an auction-like competition where buyers participate in the final outcome, rather than passively hope their blind bid is enough. It takes aggressive salesmanship to accomplish this, and it’s where I pay for myself with a specific strategy to achieve a top-dollar sale (I am registered as an auctioneer with the State of California).
Donna has been our troubleshooter-in-chief for the last twenty years, and is our secret weapon. She bird-dogs every sale to the finish line and beyond, and as a result, we rarely have an escrow fall out. Our clients feel informed and well-served, with every detail covered in advance.
My last thirty listings have averaged an SP:LP ratio of 99% (selling within 1% of list price), with an average of 20 days on market – and half of them sold in ten days or less. Commissions are described HERE, and you’re only paying a little more than Redfin to get the maximum service available.
I am happy to give you a free consultation in person, or by phone or email!
Yesterday, we had the west coast premiere of Giorgio’s documentary film, ‘Owned: A Tale of Two Americas’ at the SF Doc Fest. Here are tidbits:
For those in the Bay Area, it is playing again at the Roxie on Wednesday night at 9:30pm, and will be at other film festivals too. Giorgio is hoping to have the film picked up by Netflix or similar entity, and possibly explore a series where he breaks out each piece of the film for further discovery.
The film turned out differently than expected. When Giorgio first started the project, he planned to document how suburbia fared during the mortgage crisis – that’s how I got involved. But as the filming progressed, the subject of the film turned dramatically.
In Owned, the bigger story revolves around a contrarian interpretation of the usually unassailable notion that home ownership is an essential element of the American dream.
“What the film is trying to say is that it’s this double-edged sword,” Angelini says. “Owning a home is great and it provides security, and if you do it the right way it builds strong communities. It dictates where you go to school and your propensity to move up socioeconomically. But at the same time, if you let capital interests invade this utopian ideal and run amok, it can quickly become commoditized to a point that it becomes dangerous for society.”
Through the stark sights of abandoned construction projects in sweeping vistas, Angelini posits that the housing industry is an insatiable beast that subsists on the back of an ultimately self-crippling economic culture.
“The idea of home had been reduced to the most efficient capitalistic desires,” Angelini says. “Instead of bushels of oranges, they decided the best land use was a collection of air-conditioned square feet. There was lack of human intention, where you could almost feel these [markets] printing out this landscape of homes.”
Owned is also a tale of two Americas. In the five years he spent making the film, Angelini expanded his view into other planned development communities and ran headlong into how racial and economic segregation is inextricably linked to middle-class suburbia after World War II.
“The original idea behind the film was rooted in the relationship between design and commoditization,” Angelini says. “It became very clear that I couldn’t tell that story without telling the other side.”
The film goes to hollowed-out neighborhoods in Baltimore to locate the contemporary effects of decades of discriminatory housing practices and policies.
“White flight didn’t happen by accident,” Angelini says. “It wasn’t a self-selecting, albeit racist, situation. It was very much encouraged by federal laws that were interpreted on the local level in particularly bad ways.”
Other video excerpts here – hopefully we’ll have a local showing before long:
