Are offers coming in?

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rattaom

New member
In the market for a SFH, but also not in a rush. Houses are sitting on the market for a long time. I’ve been watching Woodbury closely, and very little seems to be moving.

I’m curious - to those on the front lines of this - are these houses getting lowball offers that aren’t being accepted? Or is there just no activity?
 
This is pretty much the best time to buy. Housing market is usually at its slowest and lowest from Aug to Jan. Spring time is when it starts picking up and peaks around April to end of May.
 
I am seeing closed sales in the last month lower than before. It really depends on the seller and whether or not they need the money asap. Otherwise they can wait until home buying season next year as it seems rates will be lower then.
 
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Is it the market? Perhaps. It's more likely two of the three types of realtors causing much of the mispricing to market.

1) The "Area Expert" realtor. We've all seen certain agents shouting about their high sales volumes, but remember high volume doesn't mean high price. Most sellers don't dig in to see "original list" to "closing price" later bamboozled into signing a listing agreement. The agent says they can get the list price that an ill advised seller thinks is a market price. It's not the market price, but the sellers price... A price that is simply unrealistic.

2) The grossly inexperienced realtor. It's too easy to get a real estate salespersons license. With many realtors and few listings, it's a market destined for trouble. Inexperienced agents give oceans worth of bad advice and sloppy service. Even a well priced home can suffer from A.I. Slop property descriptions, minimal IPhone photos on-line, and bad staging. Agents with less than 5 sales YTD shouldn't a sellers first choice for representation when selling a $1.5M property, even if they are a sellers cousin/co-worker/ or FB Friend, but often are.

3) The 80/20 rule applies to Realtors just as it does to any other business. I'd say (with 35+ years of experience behind me) that it's more like 99/1 percent. I'm not talking about the advertising gimmick of being a "TOP 1% AGENT" as you often see on your grocery cart at HMart or Mitsua, but that 1% of Realtors who make home selling a profession, not a hobby. @usctrojancpa is one for example. I'm in South OC and know 2-3 others that are at the same level of industry professionalism, but unfortunately I also know literally hundreds who should be avoided. Just because you get a good Realtor doesn't mean you won't have a price adjustment during your listing, but you will know what your strategic options are well in advance. Look up "The 7 P's" as most genuine 1% agents demonstrate this phrase during the entire sales process. It's the kind of Realtor you want in this present market

My .02c
 
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We always have agents that are incompetent. I would argue the market has a lot to do with the situation at hand here as we have never seen interest rates this high since the 2008 recession
 
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The market is currently a weak buyers market. The sense of urgency to buy is gone for most all buyers and since inventory levels have increased coupled with many price cuts many buyers are being very patient and waiting for a price or two before submitting an offer. I got a buyer into escrow on a home in Mission Viejo recently that was listed at $1.685m for over 60 days (they cut the price from $1.7m). We started out with an offer of $1.6m, the seller countered back at $1.65m, and we submitted a best and final counter offer at $1.63m which the seller accepted and I also got them a $9k credit in lieu of repairs.

It's totally fine to send out semi low ball offers after a home has been sitting for over 45-60+ days to get a sense of how motivated the seller is. Remember, you are not out there to make friends. If the seller rejects the offer then let them sit and then wait for a price drop and then submit an even lower offer to teach the seller a little lesson for not willing to negotiate with you on the first initial offer. Showing traffic is way down for both agent showings and open house traffic from what it was last Spring (the last peak of the market) so it's important to price homes correctly right off the bat because homes that are priced right or really special do go into escrow in weeks not months.
 
I'm a professional Redfin browser. This is anecdotal and region specific. A year ago I was seeing absurd prices. About 6 months ago I started seeing a moderate amount of modest price cuts in the $50k to $100k range (on $2M to $3M SFHs). Lately I'm seeing $100k to $200k price cuts.

The issue with a lot of Irvine listings is that sellers/listing agents are still delusional using 2024 pricing to come up with the list price while market prices are down 5%+ from last year.
 
Only 5%? Have you seen those million dollar price drops at Cielo and Olivewood.

That % is an average, higher priced homes have seen a higher %s price declines as view lot premiums have deflated and the supply of $2m has significantly increased since the beginning of this year. Irvine properties sub $1.5m have not seen material price declines this year.
 
From my observation, isn't the real estate market getting hot?

This is what sold the past 2 weeks in OH and Eastwood from zillow. I'm a bit surprised quiet a few houses around 2M sold.

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From my observation, isn't the real estate market getting hot?

This is what sold the past 2 weeks in OH and Eastwood from zillow. I'm a bit surprised quiet a few houses around 2M sold.
Sub $2M homes are still selling quite well. Sub $2.5M homes are a bit more difficult to sell, but can still sell if priced correctly. $2.5M+ homes are very difficult to sell.
 
The market is currently a weak buyers market. The sense of urgency to buy is gone for most all buyers and since inventory levels have increased coupled with many price cuts many buyers are being very patient and waiting for a price or two before submitting an offer. I got a buyer into escrow on a home in Mission Viejo recently that was listed at $1.685m for over 60 days (they cut the price from $1.7m). We started out with an offer of $1.6m, the seller countered back at $1.65m, and we submitted a best and final counter offer at $1.63m which the seller accepted and I also got them a $9k credit in lieu of repairs.

It's totally fine to send out semi low ball offers after a home has been sitting for over 45-60+ days to get a sense of how motivated the seller is. Remember, you are not out there to make friends. If the seller rejects the offer then let them sit and then wait for a price drop and then submit an even lower offer to teach the seller a little lesson for not willing to negotiate with you on the first initial offer. Showing traffic is way down for both agent showings and open house traffic from what it was last Spring (the last peak of the market) so it's important to price homes correctly right off the bat because homes that are priced right or really special do go into escrow in weeks not months.
Hi, Martin, what do you think of those $5M+ new homes by TB at OH4.
 
Hi, Martin, what do you think of those $5M+ new homes by TB at OH4.

They are overpriced for the most part and will sit unless the builders reduce prices. There aren't as many $5m+ buyers as there was before this year so it'll be a while before all of those homes are sold.
 
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