September 28, 2010

(The following comments exclude my listings -- which are, by definition, the best on the market, but, with that as a "given," here are the best of the rest.)

The "Best Deals" on the market are estates on Sandhurst and Circle P -- each of which is currently listed at about half their value four years ago.

While not the Best Buy" the home for $1,250,000 on Quail View is the most desirable home at a reasonable price on the market.

The market is good for foreclosures and short sales -- and even better for regular sales that are priced to compete with short sales and foreclosures -- but the market is virtually non-existent for the million dollar market.

That is not good for the Meadows where we have a dozen homes above $1,000,000.

The market is awaiting the return of jobs, because with jobs comes confidence and confidence in one's ability to pay a mortgage is what makes the real estate market.

July 10, 2010

My new listing in The Meadows ($2,949,000) made the cover of prestigious Distinctive Homes, San Diego edition, and we had four pages in the Orange County edition as well.

This next week I will list a $1,395,000 Hidden Meadows estate as well.

In this market it is necessary to market homes to successful agents as well as the general public – so I have delivered packets of information on my seriously expensive listings to those agents in San Diego County who sell homes in that price range.

That is possible because there are not many such agents. In real estate, as in most business, 20% of the people sell 90% of the real estate. Finding those agents is not difficult, but getting their attention is difficult because they (like most agents) prefer to sell their own listings. Still, and this is particularly true with high-priced homes, all high-priced Realtors run out of their own listings quickly.

Even if they want to do so, Realtors only have a few high-priced homes – so they must expand their inventory to other agent properties. It helps to have another agent hand-deliver their marketing material to their hands. The more estate listings in an area, the better, because it is hard to get high-end Buyers to go to an area that just has one listed estate. They like to have a selection – we can now give them a selection.

Personal relations do matter. I sold a $1,700,000 home just a few years ago because the listing agent knew me, and did not know the agent who presented an almost identical offer. The listing agent simply said she knew she would have no problems with me during the sale, so my client got the nod.

While there are not a lot of estate properties available, there are also not many buyers for estate properties either. That lends itself to personal contact. As Escrow Officers and Title Reps determined a long time ago, “Out of sight, out of mind” – so they try to keep constant face time with Realtors.