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!
How many times in your life will you get the chance to purchase a newer 3,372sf one-story with full ocean view on a culdesac in a gated community for $2,175,000 that is Carlsbad-adjacent? In a previous video we shopped for slabs – this is the house:
Our Cedarcrest listing hit the open market on January 25th, and we recieved NINE offers! I gave all of them a chance to bid it up, and ten days later, our sellers had their net proceeds in their account!
They moved to Portugal, and yesterday they reported that the weather is similar to what it is in California, and his favorite cup of coffee only costs seventy cents!
You’ve saved and invested your whole adult life for this, and the time has come to quit working and start living. But where will you spend your retirement years?
If you decide the answer is abroad, you won’t be alone. Millions of Americans have done just that. Some experts estimate that as many as 12% of the nation’s 45 million or so retirees are living overseas.
There are a lot of incentives for such a move: a lower cost of living for a higher quality of life, for instance. New experiences in exotic settings. And there are any number of locales willing to up the ante to have you choose them as the golden isle for your golden years.
There is no guidance on how to effectively handle a bidding war.
I don’t see or hear anything from NAR, CAR, brokerage managers, or team leaders on how listing agents should handle a bidding war, other than to put the offers on a spreadsheet and let the seller decide. But they are paying us a lot of money to give them advice, and that’s all we got? Embarrassing.
For realtors who think that’s good enough, then fine. Do you mind hurrying up with that retirement?
I made an offer on behalf of buyers last Thursday that was 6% over the list price. The listing agent won’t tell me how many offers they have, what price they are at, or even how the winner will be determined. After five days of waiting, we are left with nothing except “I’m trying to get you a counter” that came last night.
It never occurs to them that their inaction for days causes the buyers to cool off in the hurry. The agent will finally get around to picking a buyer they like, and the home will finally sell. But it won’t be for top dollar.
When I receive multiple offers, I’m transparent with everyone.
With our Cedarcrest listing, I’ve been telling every buyer and agent exactly what to expect. I encourage all of them to make a written offer, we will request their highest-and-best offer on Monday, and then find the winner on Tuesday.
Once the offers are in, usually half of them won’t submit a highest-and-best because they already did, or they cooled off quickly. No problem, and thank you for your offer.
We’re up to nine offers now, yet only two or three have expressed their sincere desire to buy this house. What a great filtering system to find the real players! Once I’ve confirmed with every agent that their highest-and-best offer has been received, I ask them if they want to go any higher – and tell them that if they don’t they are going to lose.
The efficiency is spectacular. The buyer-agents have the intel they need to literally tell their buyers, “If you don’t go higher, you’re going to lose out”. Every buyer would like that clarity in which to make a decision – yet every other listing agent thinks it’s better to keep them guessing in the dark for days.
A few will be startled by the transparency because they have never seen it before.
They think they deserve some favoritism because they are a cash buyer, or because they were first, or because their agent is a sweet-talker…..but what they really want is to score an off-market deal at a lower price because they see a lot of those happening – and they’ve never seen anything like mine.
Another agent asked about the action because she has a new listing coming in the neighborhood that is on the canyon side. She got what she wanted out of me, but then wouldn’t tell me anything else about hers, other than, “You’ll see it when it’s on the open market”. Great – we’ll see how she does vs. me!
There is a common belief that it takes longer to sell homes that are more expensive.
The statistics back it up too.
But the belief is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is executed by realtors and sellers every day. It’s hard enough to put an attractive price on a more-expensive custom home, and then sellers and listing agents can’t resist goosing their price by another 5% or so, just to make sure they don’t leave any money on the table.
It looks like Zillow is going to help bring an end to this sloppy practice.
We know that the zestimates are way wronger than they admit, especially with custom homes. Once a home hits the MLS, we also see them adjust the zestimate to within pennies of the list price – so they are unreliable at best, and fraudulent by most common standards.
But I’ve also noticed on this listing that the zestimate has been going down since we went for sale.
After a week on the market, the zestimate was down to $3,419,900 on Jan 22nd:
Then today the zestimate is even lower, and the spread between the views and the saves is getting larger because the highly-motivated buyers see it in the first few days and run up the count of saves:
Buyers have full access to all data now, and the longer a home is on the market, the less they will want to pay. If a recognized authority (in their mind) is also lowering their zestimate on the home publicly, it will fortify the buyers’ belief that they should offer less. Thanks Zillow!
I can’t change that belief – I’m just going to try and sell my listings early on!
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:
Check out our new listing in the heart of Sorrento Valley! You’ll love this central location that allows for maximum convenience when getting around town – and be on a quiet and friendly culdesac! Three bedrooms plus den, remodeled primary bath, new appliances, new carpet and paint, high ceilings – light & bright – plus a good-sized yard (with new sod) and two-car garage with third bay for storage! Wow – be close to everything here!
Homes.com is making a run at Zillow and all other search portals. They are advertising 100 million users already, and they are displaying the listing agent’s phone number prominently on their properties for sale:
Zillow must have felt the pressure, and they are doing it too, although in a more subtle way because they still want you to contact their call center so they can control – and get paid from – the agent they desire:
This is will probably have more to do with the extinction of the buyer-agent than the lawsuits.
All anybody has to do is spend $100 million per year on advertisng to become a major player like like Zillow did, and homes.com is in a position to do it. Look for the homes.com ads during the Super Bowl!
Already gorgeous and now thoroughly renovated, this one-story charmer has all the hot buttons – remodeled white kitchen and baths, lighter hardwoods, high ceilings, new roof, solar, walk-in closet, RV parking, no HOA, low-maintenance yard, and walking distance to coffee or church! Secluded on an elevated 10,000sf corner lot with good privacy, this creampuff is enhanced by the easy indoor/outdoor transition that creates multiple entertaining areas! The address says Poway but RB is only a block away so freeway access is excellent. Larger than most of the RB homes nearby, and in great shape – perfect for downsizers! Three bedrooms PLUS den!
Over the last few years, the real estate disrupters have figured that the high-tech environment should produce an easier/cheaper way to buy and sell homes. No matter how it’s presented though, the message is clear. We’re hoping to beat the agents out of their commission.
Saving the commission is a noble aspiration and sounds very feasible when consumers run into most agents. Usually they come away thinking, “what do they do to deserve that much commission?” Some consumers get so defiant that they will sell their home without an agent just to be right about not paying a commission – even if they sell for less.
The most famous example here was the blog reader who wanted me to provide him with customized market data – even though he was listed with one of the $500 input services. When I brought it up here on the blog, he got beligerent and raised his price by $300,000, just to show us how determined he was – and this was in early 2022 when the frenzy was red hot:
But 16 months later, he still had not sold his house.
He finally gave up and hired a BH agent who promptly got him a sale over list price:
There is a gap between wholesale and retail pricing that is about 10%. A good listing agent will sell your home towards the top end of the range, and the average agent will sell it for less. The message that agents should be offering is to Get Good Help, because the top agents pay for themselves by selling your house for full retail!
Why can’t a for-sale-by-owner sell for full retail? Because they always price too high, and buyers aren’t as comfortable with the process or the price when there isn’t a good agent involved. You need one or the other – a good agent, or a very attractive price to compensate.
Are homeowners going to risk giving their house away? No, they will just price at full retail and wait until somebody comes along – and we know who comes along – realtors, by the dozens.
The disrupters will put all sorts of spin on it – remember Make Me Move by Zillow?
But none of them are able to change the fact that buyers aren’t comfortable paying full retail unless somebody is there to instill ease and comfort. Price didn’t matter as much during the frenzy, but it matters now, and the best thing any seller can do is to Get Good Help who pays for themself by getting full retail while making the process easier and more predictable for you.
