I just got a call from an out-of-area seller.  "Yipee - they want to list with me!" was my first reaction.  Wrong!  "I already have a Realtor," she told me, "I just need to know if low-flow toilets are required when a property sells in Lake Forest."

"Gee - why don't you ask your Realtor?"  I asked (innocently!)   "She is from out of the area and doesn't know." was her answer.

OK, I get it.  She wants to save money, so she listed the house with a relative or friend who is probably not charging her much, if anything, to put the house in the MLS.  Maybe she is a part-time agent who sells one house per year, or less, for friends.  Maybe she is a brand new agent who just got her license and has never sold any house, but this person wants to help her get started. 

Maybe there are a lot of good reasons to list with someone who doesn't know how to find some basic information about the property, but I can't think of any worth taking that risk if I were the seller!

Other things she may not know:

• Is that neighborhood considered more desirable than the one 2 blocks away where you got all of the comps? 
• Is the school for that neighborhood on the list of potential school closings for next year?
• Are there any neighborhood problems that will require a special assessment to fix? 
• Is the city going to put in a new traffic signal, or widen a street that will affect the value of this house, or neighborhood?
  
• Have many of the homes in that neighborhood had recent slab leaks or other physical problems that should be addressed before marketing? 
  
• Is there an environmental issue that the City, County or HOA is currently fighting?  (We had an invasion of bugs many years ago that killed a lot of trees in a particular neighborhood!)

I gave her the answer to her question, she thanked me and told me that I was the 3rd agent she had called, and the others just told her to look it up in the phone book.

I will just keep an eye out for a listing with an out of area agent who will probably either over-price it, or under price it substantially, and not be able to answer any questions that the buyers or buyer's agents call about.  Maybe I should help one of my buyers "steal" the house!  :)

Sales volume for September in Lake Forest, California is up from last year!  This year, 62 homes and condos closed escrow between September 1 and September 30, compared to only 50 during the same period last year.   The distressed sales (short sales & foreclosures) represented 53% of the sales compared to 42% last year.

The price range of the 30 single homes sold went from a low of  $398,000 up to $910,000.  The average price was $510,079 at $265 per square foot.

For condos, the total number sold was 32 with a closed price range of $113,000 to $410,000.  The average sold  price was $241,234 at $224 per square foot.

There are 200 “Active” listings today on the MLS ranging from from $104,900 for a one-bedroom condo up to $1,650,000 for a custom “point home” on the lake front.  If you have been thinking about buying a home in Lake Forest, there are a lot of choices right now!

“DOM” (days on market) or “CDOM” (cumulative days on market) are reported on most MLSs, and are often included in market reports by agents, newspapers, and real estate analysts.  This is a number that should indicate how quickly the market is moving, and give sellers a general idea of what to expect about the time it will take to sell their home and give  buyers an indication of how long they have to “think about it” before writing an offer.  In reality, this is almost a completely meaningless number!

Homes in “Backup” status continue to add days on the market.

When a seller has accepted an offer, and the escrow is opened, most agents will keep the home in “backup” status until the contingencies are removed.  The standard purchase agreement calls for 17 days for that period to be up, but many times there is still missing information that keeps the buyer from removing all contingencies.  It is not uncommon that waiting for appraisals, loan approvals, delivery of homeowner association documents, and negotiation of any repairs can add 30 extra days to the time that the sale remains contingent.

Agents leave the property in “Backup” status until it closes.

Homes in “backup” status continue to show as available on the real estate search sites such as Realtor.com, Trulia, and all the IDX services.  This will benefit the listing agent who still wants to generate leads by advertising that home, even though it is essentially gone.  A home that received multiple offers on the first day, followed by 5 days of negotiation to get to the “highest & best”, followed by a 60 day escrow will show 66 days on the market!

The time to approve short sales often adds months to the days on the market.

Many agents leave the property in the active status until the lender gets around to approving the sale (or foreclosing.)  Even though a property received 14 offers on the first day on the market, when it closes 9 months later, it may show 273 days on the market!

Due to the uselessness of these Days on Market numbers, I have decided to no longer include them in my local market activity reports.  If you want to know how many days a particular property took to sell, just give me a call and I’ll look up the details for you!

Sales activity in Lake Forest for the month of May was (not surprisingly) UP from last year!

The end of the national first time buyer tax credit, combined with the beginning of the new California tax credit (started 5/1/2010) was likely a very significant factor in this!  I am betting that there were several escrows scheduled to close in late April that ended up sliding into the early part of May to take advantage of a potential “double dip.”  The April sales totaled only 49 properties, while May included 59 – a 20% increase in volume!

Here’s the breakdown of sales for the month of May 2010:

Condos & townhomes -

24 at average sale price of $240,770 ($201.35/square foot) and 55 days on the market.  The range was from $115,000 to $355,000.  14 of these were short sales or foreclosures and closed at an average of 3% over the list price.

Single family homes -

35 at average sale price of  $524,011 ($258.60/square foot) and 68 days on the market.  The range was from $385,000 to $852,000.  The short sales and foreclosures made up 50% of these properties and 9 of them closed above the list price, averaging 102% of asking!

Total sales -

59 at average sale price of $408,794 and 64 days on the market and an average of 100% of list price!

For more details about Lake Forest real estate, or to find a home in Lake Forest, visit my Lake Forest website!

If you are planning to buy a home and get the $8,000 or $6,500 tax credit, you now have only 44 days left to find your home and get the offer accepted!  April 30th is the deadline to have the property identified and offer accepted, and you must close on the property by June 30th. 

Here is a chart that provides a quick guide to what is available to home buyers, and also shows what tax credits are available if you do certain energy improvements.

Click the image to enlarge

Source: Fixr