[Adame99]

[quote=CA renter]Call my cynical, but I highly doubt it was accidental. And you could have been harmed if you had accepted an offer within that two-day window.

Nonetheless, I’m glad you caught it and asked her to fix it. Good luck with your sale; it’s a good time to be a seller.[/quote]

Thanks. I fall into the category of not quite cynical. But I am a big believer in “Trust but verify.”

OK, if anyone is interested, here’s an update: It seems maybe we priced it reasonably after all. People making offers at list price or a couple of percent above list, and nobody biting at any of my counters above that. Most of the interest is from young families looking to live there (and needing financing, which means appraisal contingency becomes an issue). Fewer cash offer investors than I expected. Several people asking to rent it.

Doesn’t feel like a frenzy. More like just a healthy market. It’s not in Carmel Valley or any of the really hot areas, so that might explain it. I’ve been reading that the really frenzied bidding wars are pretty localized to upper income areas with excellent schools. My experience seems to bear that out, if one data point can bear anything out.

[Adame99]

[quote=CA renter][quote=SD Realtor]When a realtor enters the listing onto the MLS there are entry fields in the listing template that allow for 3rd party distribution. Most realtors by default always allow for this. You may want to query your realtor about why they did not.[/quote]

Yep. I’d be seriously pissed (to the point of making it a legal matter or negotiable issue with the broker) if my realtor did this without my permission.[/quote]

Oh, I wasn’t pissed. It was accidental. She fixed it as soon as I pointed it out (I had called Redfin to ask why they weren’t showing it and that’s how I learned it was set to realtors-only).

Anyway, for me this is all a learning experience as much as it is about money. Besides, I seriously doubt I was harmed by a two-day seller-side delay in a rising market.

[Adame99]

Interesting. So I just discovered that realtors can place a home on the MLS for agents only, or for all the public. That was why my place wasn’t showing up on Redfin and the other sites.

After it got changed to public, it showed up on Redfin, SDLookup, and Zip Realty within ten minutes, but it’s still not showing up on Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com.

For me, part of this sale process is actually getting the place sold. The other part is the learning process – seeing what I can learn for the future.

If anyone cares, the sale process is going pretty much as expected. Offer prices are in reverse order of offer strength: Cash at lowest, VA seems to be at highest, with other stuff in the middle. Everyone has offered at full price or higher. Nobody has really surprised me with their offer (i.e. nobody came in 20% over list or anything crazy like that). Just sitting back and countering offers and keeping my options open and wondering what May will bring.

[Adame99]

[quote=ltsdd]Adame99,
I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this already. But if I were you, and IFF you have the desire to be a landlord, then why not do the following:

1. Keep the property as a rental AND
2. Extract as much equity as you could/want out of it and use it for stocks trading.

By doing this you’ll get the $$ you need for stocks and at the same time own a rental and avoiding paying the gain you would have from the sale of property.

BTW., let’s go BRCM!

Good luck.[/quote]

Thanks. That is probably the smart thing to do, but I don’t think I’m built for it. I’m very much risk-averse and generally hate carrying any debt, even if it can be invested profitably.

I generally pay off my cards every month. I also never had student debt, despite getting multiple degrees. I used to always say that money comes and goes, but debt stays.

(Actually, maybe I’ve become old-fashioned since now the government is bailing everyone out. I guess debt also comes and goes in this new economy).

[Adame99]

[quote=no_such_reality]Really? He’s talking about trading when it’s 20% over-valued. You really think he’s talking about doing it on an upside down asset?[/quote]

OK, finally got the quoting people thing right.

[Adame99]

I’m not sure if you are referring to me (I’m the OP), but you are right. I am not upside down. I bought the place almost 10 years ago and a lot of the mortgage has been paid off since then.

[Adame99]

This is a really fascinating discussion, with lots of good information.

OK, since people seem to be speculating about my situation, intentions, what cap rate I can get, etc, let me flesh things out a bit more.

SD Realtor: I really like your point in regards to having a plan, but being flexible about it. My plan for the proceeds is to get back into the equity market, which is where I am much more comfortable. I had to sell my equity portfolio (not my 401K, that’s still there) in order to put down 20% on my recent purchase (a 4 bed/3 bath in a pleasant part of suburbia).

The old place is a townhome in north Misson Valley. The cap rate based on what I still owe on it would be just under 10%. The cap rate based on what it’s listed at would be a bit over 7%. The cap rate based on what I think it could actually sell at is 6%. So it seems to make sense for an investor to buy it and rent it out.

I’ve decided to keep it on the market and counter strong offers (cash or very strong conventional) at 10% above list. First one who accepts takes it.

Strangely enough, even though it’s on the MLS and people are making offers on it, I don’t see it on Redfin, Trulia, or any of the other real estate websites. Not sure if there’s a delay in those sites picking up new listings or if there’s an error somewhere. If it is a delay, that puts buyers who use these sites at a significant disadvantage since they’d be coming late to every party.

[Adame99]

Sorry, my reply was to spdrun.

[Adame99]

That’s a really interesting point. So it’s not that banks are holding off on short sales and foreclosures because they want to. You’re saying they’re doing it because they HAVE to.

In other words, the inventory is becoming equity sellers and people who need to sell for personal reasons.

Did I understand you correctly?

[Adame99]

Good lord! On the other thread, Kev mentions a house that had 45 offers and went for 20% over list price to a cash buyer.

Kev, if you are reading this, any idea if that buyer was a person or some kind of fund? Thanks.

[Adame99]

Wow, that would be quite an accomplishment if you can have zero housing costs in NYC!

I’m familiar with the NY-area market since I used to live there. Makes San Diego real estate prices look like affordable housing.

[Adame99]

Thanks CA renter.

Yeah, that’s exactly why I don’t want to be a landlord, even if the numbers currently make sense. My neighbor rented to a family that did considerable damage to his place while having serious financial problems that affected payment of rent. I think he had to go to court to get them out or something like that. He eventually said forget it and sold. Right at the bottom of the market.

I wonder what the realtors on this site are saying to their prospective sellers: “Sell now while the market is hot” or “Wait, wait, don’t do it”.

[Adame99]

Your other point is very valid and logical. Let someone else pay my mortgage.

And I’m thinking that maybe I SHOULD do exactly that and yank it off the market. Still thinking it over.

[Adame99]

This is where the statistics get interesting.

In your link to Department Of Numbers, it shows asking prices up 0.9% month-on-month.

Meanwhile, Redfin’s graph at the bottom right of this page shows an 8% increase month-on-month in asking prices.

Both are for San Diego, so it should be an apples to apples comparison. So how can two reputable sources come to such hugely different conclusions. (A 0.9% m-o-m increase is a normal market. An 8% m-o-m increase is a boom. Very different animals).

I don’t know enough to know which one is right. Anecdotally, I don’t see a slow-down.

[Author]

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