Kendyl's Open House

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Northwest Glendale Real Estate Hot Sheet

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First I want to say congratulations to 1652 Bel Aire for going into escrow!  This is one of those, “i don’t know why it isn’t sold” homes.  The agent tells me that after 90 days on the market with no real offers, she had multiple offers.  The agent for the house on Ransom told me the same thing happened on her listing.  This tells me that there are real buyers out there… they are just waiting for the very “best” deal.  Does this mean that sellers should sit on their prices and just wait?  Well, that depends.  Can you afford to gamble with your largest financial asset?

862 Omar isn’t really a new listing.  It is an old listing that is now being sold short.  This is the cute Spanish with the rounded “turret” right on the corner of Highland and Omar.  The price is pretty darn exciting, but I think we should take a moment to talk about short sales and strategies for selling/buying them.

The Real Estate industry, here,  is in the beginning stages of figuring out the best practices for selling these “pre-foreclosure” properties.  These homes owe more to the bank than they can get in a sale.  I’ve noticed a growing trend of agents pricing these short sale homes shockingly low, getting multiple offers and then taking the best offer to the bank to get short sale approval.  Other agents price the homes just below market value and take the best offer they can get for approval.  This is the strategy used by the agent for 853 Omar.

Both strategies have merits and problems.  If I had a buyer for one of these homes, the first one would drive me crazy.  Work like crazy to get a buyer to write an offer, compete with other offers, not get the home and then possibly lose the buyer over the frustration of it all?  Yuck.  The second situation is far easier for the buyer and their agent.  But who is being served?

From a one sided view, that of the seller, the first strategy is unquestionably better.  They get it over quickly, they are likely to get the best price and the bank is more likely to agree that the resultant offer is one they should approve.

For the buyer, it is all just a huge pile of frustration, either way - in my opinion.  Buyers, you need to know that a short sale is a long and complicated process where neither you or your agent will have any control.   You should get the home at a huge discount on the sales price for putting up with the process and you should make super sure that your agent can give you a competent explanation of what you can expect.  Otherwise you should either find another agent or another property.  Or both.  Right now, in our area, about 23% of short sales are being approved and closing escrow.  These are not good odds, my friends.

The good news (and there is some!) is that in areas where short sales are more prevalent - the desert and in Riverside County- short sales are approved easier and faster than here.  This means that as our market matures both the agents and the banks will come to a consensus of what it will take to get that short sale approval - and the consumer will be the big winner.

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