“Fixers are a real tough sell even at good prices. SD R check out the house on La Duela and tell me otherwise after looking at it. Great location w/ view, great neighborhood, good lot, single level fixer that isnt horrible and inferior houses (potentialwise) in better shape are selling all around it in a week or so at much higher prices.”
I got some more time and did a little more involved look. The La Duela home has been in and out of pendings 3 times since it has been listed. However in each case the buyers backed out quick for whatever reasons.
Pricewise the home is priced okay for that area. I wouldn’t say that it is priced super aggressively but I would say it is priced okay…right now at least. Indeed the escrow I am in (representing the buyer) is for a much much nicer home but at quite a bit higher price. Now the real question is, how is the home priced compared to the other homes in the area. The home is priced at 625k up until 4/29 which it then was changed to 595k and then on 5/12 to a variable range of 595k-610k. Why they bumped the price up I do not know.
Now there was a listing on Jacaranda that sold for 562k and is a bigger home back in 2/5/07. However Jacaranda is nowhere near as nice of a location as La Duela. It is far noisier with no view. Another sold on Amargosa back in 10/06 for 625. Again no view. Amargosa is not as noisy as Jacaranda but not as nice a lot/view as La Duela. There is another pending on Amargosa at a LP of 550k-600k, (why the big spread? can you say Prudential?) anyways this home doesn’t have the view but it looks very very nice inside. So it is priced VERY competitively and is in good shape but does not have the view. Yet it went into escrow in 6 days after hitting the MLS. There is another home on Represa in escrow at a list price of 615-674. Again, not a view lot at all but the home looks pretty nice from the few pics there are on the inside.
Okay so bottom line? My opinion is that La Duela needs to be priced a bit more aggressively. Yes it has nice views BUT the views are DOMINATED by looking at a sea of rooftops. It is not like a nice canyon view, you know what I mean? Again, maybe it is my personal taste. I only did a search on the mapcode that this home is in, so I am sure there are other properties that you alluded to that are inferior but that I did not catch. However compared to the properties I did compare it to, it did not match up well against.
In general I would agree that fixers are hard to sell. In theory yes, I suppose it should sell for the same price as an inferior location given the homes are equivalent. However it has not been like there have not been any pendings. It has had three pending round trips. Also it is being listed by a full service brokerage so I assume all the marketing is in place. Also I think there is a problem that these people should have priced more aggressively from the onset of the listing. As you always say and I heartily agree the first week or two are crucial.
