15 Homes For Sale in Laguna Woods Village - Ready or Not?

Yesterday, I had the privilege of showing homes to a nice retired lady.  After raising her family in a large home in North Orange County, she's decided it's time to downsize.  She's planning to move into an active Senior Community called Laguna Woods Village (formerly known as Leisure World) in South Orange County.   She had identified a price range and we had seven homes on our schedule for the day.  After looking at about five of the seven, we decided to regroup.  We sat down at the computer with a bit higher price point and selected 10 new homes to go see.

We spent the day actually seeing 14 of the 15 on our list.  This community has approximately 15,000 homes and currently there are over 500 for sale.  In all we had selected 15 homes (5 on the original list and the 10 on the adjusted price list) to look at for the day.   Of the 15 homes, only 3 were occupied.  So with so much inventory and most of the homes being vacant and in about a six square mile area this should have been a very simple task, right?

Here's how our shopping day worked out:

• We were unable to see one home because the owner was ill - it happens and was certainly understandable.
• One of the homes was occupied by a gentleman who spoke little English.  When I called to schedule the showing, he clearly said, "I will not negotiate." Since the listing indicated "call first, go direct" I thought there must be some mistake, so I called the agent.  She said, "oh he doesn't speak English, just go there and show him your card and he'll let you in."  Sure enough when we just showed up at the door, he let us right in.  We looked at the home with him following us every step of the way, closing doors behind us and turning off lights.  He was trying to be helpful, I suppose.  Now, why would the listing agent say, call first when she knew the owner spoke only a few words of English?  And, apparently she had some way of communicating with the sellers, so wouldn't it be wise to let them know that it's not helpful to follow people around?
• One of the homes we went to had an empty lock-box.  I called the listing agent who said, "Oh, we had the carpets cleaned yesterday, the key should be under the mat."  The key was under the mat and we were able to get into a home that was tightly closed on a 98^oday, so the mixture of the smell of soggy carpet and the muggy air presented a very unappealing viewing.  We got as far as the front door and turned around.  All we accomplished there was getting the key back into the lock-box and saving the listing agent a trip.
• One home we visited had so much mail piled up against the door I was barely able to push it open.  It has been on MLS for about 6 months and I'd guess the listing agent hasn't been by to check on the property for at least a couple of months judging from the pile of mail.
• Then there was the listing with the combo box that was jammed.  I called the listing agent who offered to come right over.  So, we agreed I'd show another property first, and then come back to his listing in about twenty minutes.  In about ten minutes, the listing agent called to let me know that he'd just left the house and left the door open for us so all I had to do was close the door after we viewed it.  And just as an aside, he mentioned that as of about a week ago, this is a short sale...something not disclosed on the listing.  My client needs to move in 30 days.
• My client's favorite house that we're going back to see again tomorrow with her adult son in tow was another showing joy.  The owner of the home insisted on showing us the home himself.  It was my mistake to allow him to do so-that won't happen again.  The owner felt it necessary to show us everything he had recently done to the home over the past couple years and to share stories about some of the personal items that had nothing to do with the home.  This was a real turn-off to my client, however, the home is so lovely, we are going back for a second look tomorrow.  I called today and scheduled some alone time for us to view the house without the seller present.
• The remainder of the homes on our list were vacant homes in varying conditions.  Most were not move-in clean.  Some had been remodeled inappropriately and will be the subject of another article regarding making improvements to meet the needs of seniors when you are selling a home in a senior community

All in all, it would have been a disaster of a day, had it not been for such a delightful client.  Why have I detailed all this for you to read?  I've done so in hopes that you will be able to avoid these stumbling blocks and assist you in getting homes ready to sell.  Seniors typically need homes that are in move-in condition.  The information on the listings needs to be current as in the case of the week old short sale.  Make sure the lock-boxes actually work.  If your seller is incapable of communicating, why would you want to put a buyer's agent through the extra effort of trying to set an appointment and then having to call you for information anyway?

Again, this development currently has over 500 homes for sale.  Many have been on the market for 6-9 months.  I believe that the 15 homes we tried to see yesterday were an indication of why some of these homes have been on the market for so long.  It seems that the word fiduciary was merely a vocabulary word that some agents memorized for the exam and then felt it was one of those unnecessary bits of information in the practice of real estate.  The market has slowed down, so it would seem that this is the time for listing agents to ramp up their marketing efforts.  Increased marketing efforts don't seem to be prevalent in this seniors' community.  Many of the homes had no signs, only a few had flyers inside the home and many had obviously not been visited by the listing agents in many weeks or possibly months.  It's time to get back to basics.  Get the home ready to show, make it available to show, make sure it's in the best possible showing condition, service your listings checking on vacant properties to make sure they are actually in showing condition.

Thanks for letting me rant. 

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Marlene Bridges, REALTOR®  800 777-1775

South Orange County Real Estate Website

Orange County Seniors Lifestyles Blog

SRES - Seniors Real Estate Specialist®

CRS-Certified Residential Specialist®

President - Laguna Hills/Laguna Woods Chamber of Commerce

Marlene is a highly experienced  South Orange County CA REALTOR® specializing in residential Real Estate and the sale of Homes and Condos in South Orange County, California and Saddleback Valley cities of: Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Rancho Santa Margarita, Lake Forest, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo.   

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