Palos Verdes Real Estate

May 2019 Newsletter

                                                                                                                                                                  May, 2019

Dear Neighbor:

Palos Verdes (and surrounding area) real estate prices continue on a slow, barely perceptible downward trend.  The data and news in the press are all over the place (the parameters are often set to fit the story), but that’s the big picture.  One reason the trend is so slow is that there continues to be a shortage of houses for sale, which is supporting the prices.  Interest rates hover generally the low 4%’s, though you can beat that if you know where to go (I do).

There is a phenomenon in the real estate business known as “buying the listing”, and it doesn’t refer to the buyer of your house.  I have seen it a lot in Palos Verdes lately.  It generally involves an out of area agent who doesn’t know the Palos Verdes market and is so anxious to get a Palos Verdes listing that they flatter the seller with an inflated asking price to get the listing.  I could name at least half a dozen examples right now just in PVE that have come on the market in the last 45 days, and are still sitting there.  Now, the seller may think that if it doesn’t sell, he’ll just reduce the price in a month or two – no harm no foul; but that isn’t exactly true.  The listing is only new once, with all the opportunity for creating excitement in the market that that entails.  There is a whole group of buyers who have been looking for months, maybe losing out on a house or two, are ready to buy, and who will descend upon each new listing that meets their criteria – and they have a sense of urgency because they don’t know how fast it will sell, they may see other buyers looking at it, etc.  That initial rush of buyers will happen whether the house is over-priced or not and the seller of the over-priced house feels temporarily vindicated.  Unfortunately there will be either no offers, or perhaps offers in the range of what the house is worth, which will seem too low to the new seller, who will turn them away.  Odds are high that he will eventually have to sell for less than would have been the case with a realistic initial asking price.  Every experienced agent has examples of sellers with an originally over-priced house who, after 2 price reductions and 3 months on the market (when they’re down to one showing every 2 weeks and no offers) would give anything to have that offer back that showed up 2nd day on the market, at which they turned up their nose.  It takes about 30-45 days for that group of buyers who were lurking in the wings initially, to go thru the house.  The odds are high that one of them is the best buyer for the house.  That is the most critical time in the sale of any house.  It is crucial to go on the market at the correct price with all guns blazing, to maximize the chance of securing a contract with one of them, because once that time has passed, showing activity falls off noticeably.

So I say again, if you’re going to sell your house, use someone who specializes in your area.  I don’t care if the agent from Manhattan Beach or Torrance says it’s worth $200K more than the PV agents you interviewed.  That doesn’t make it true.  If your house is in Palos Verdes, ask for a list of sales in Palos Verdes from all agents you interview.  I’d include mine here, but it’s too many pages.  Visit my website, www.DanaGraham.com  and click on Testimonials in the upper right to see what my past clients think of me, or call me at 310 613-1076 and we can speak in person.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

This entry was posted on Monday, May 6th, 2019 at 6:30 am and is filed under Buyers, Everything I've Written, Newsletters, Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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