Real Estate Updates

For The Top 10 Deals in Newport Beach Real Estate visit www.NewportTop10.com

Investment properties are Selling

As a Realtor, I spend most of my time in the coastal areas helping people purchase their Newport Beach dream home.  Today I spent the day working with a real estate investor who wanted to purchase multiple properties in the Huntington Beach / Fountain Valley area.  It’s been a long day, but I enjoy working with knowledgable motivated (and motivating!) people and I feel inpired and hopeful that our Orange County real estate slump is close to bottom.

Just take Fountain Valley as an example.  The city has had a difficult time with housing prices.  There are currently 88 homes on the market, and almost 50% are short sales, forclosures or bank owned.  Ok, that’s the bad news…but here’s the good.  There are 64 homes in backup offers or pending sale, and 72 people have bought a home in Fountain Valley since January of this year.

That means:

• buyers are recognising a good deal when they see one
• Well priced, well kept homes are selling
• families that probably didn’t think they could afford to be homeowners are qualifying for loans
• Banks are approving loans and lending money
• interest rates are at a 50 year low
• And last but not least, homeowners who need to move on with their lives finally can!

If it's sold, why is it still active in the MLS?

I’ve been asked a few times this month why certain homes are still showing up in the MLS and MLS linked websites like realtor.com and redfin as active (still for sale) when they have heard that the home is in escrow or sold.  And why are they still having open house’s?

It seems like the latest trend with real estate agents is to keep the property showing in the MLS as active until the contingency period is up.  (Every buyer has 17 days from the day their offer is accepted by the seller to do any and all inspections necessary.  This is to insure that the buyer knows what they are getting and has made an informed decision.  It also gives them time to arrange financing, and get their loan approved.)  Due to our current financial climate, many agents are concerned that something could go wrong with one of those steps, and the buyer may find this particular home doesn’t suit them, or the buyer may not be able to qualify for the loan that they need.  If the deal falls through, that’s 17 days that the property isn’t being seen by other potential buyers.

There is an option to mark the home’s status as “accepting backup offers” which is the true and appropriate situation, unfortunately that keeps a lot of potential buyers from taking a closer look as they assume the escrow will go through.  Also, since many buyers and their agents only search the “active” listings, they may not even know about the home.

I think the easiest way to resolve the delemma is communication:  to make sure that buyers who write offers are pre-qualified by a reputable lender, for the seller and their agent to be upfront and forthcoming with all the information about the property, and perhaps even go so far as to have the home inspected themselves.  That way, they can take care of any little issues and inform buyers right away of anything else.  And agents, let’s keep in touch with each other a little better.  I keep a list of agents who have been through my listing, and send out a quick email to those who had potential clients.  I also keep a list of potential homes for each client…perhaps their top 5.  I let that agent know if I have someone who likes a home, but isn’t ready to commit yet, and I keep in touch.