You are right about the market in California. San Joaquin County is a little better then the San Jose and L.A. I guess because our median price is still affordable. On the selling side it actually takes skill to sell a home. We take a lot of expired listings from discount brokers. Most builders are offering 3%-6% to sell there homes. here’s a few examples from my blog I am selling a lot of new home standing inventory because they are willing to slash the prices, pay closing costs or other incentives for a qualified buyer.Also there are a lot of affordable but nice condo conversions that are popping up that I have been getting buyers into you just don’t see that kind of stuff in a sellers market. A lot of my sellers are moving or planning on moving out of state, mostly Texas.

Business is picking up because inventory is finally starting to come out to play. As I said on Monday…Spring has Sprung!

I laugh when someone aks “Did you have a nice weekend?” What weekend!?

Brian, Business was hotter than this when I worked the Beach Cities of the South Bay. Maybe the frenzy follows me LOL.

I find it peculiar when we hear from time to time about the ho-hum relevance of appraisals and that they will invariably ‘come-to-value’ in a sale. Mostly that’s the case, but not always. And yet, you were astute and informed enough to know that the home may not come to value (appraised value) based upon your own research.

An appraisal rescued me from a potential $45,000 mistake a year ago. Prior to that, in mid 2004, as a consumer armed with sold data, we also walked away from a home in a multiple offer situation that sold just 5 wks earlier. The listed price at the time of our offer was such that it just covered the sellers closing costs to the tune of approx. $40K (commissions, title, excise, etc..) This is the artificial appreciation that you speak of. Like you, I wondered if the prevailing party knew that the home sold for roughly $40K less a few weeks earlier. In fact, I felt a little guilty knowing that because of our competing offer, and knowing it’s sales history, it forced two other parties to jack up the eventual sold price.

To Brian from California:

If the agents here in our market could experience what you and fellow colleagues are in California, seeing the shift going on outside our state lines, it makes you wonder. I just got back from San Diego a week ago. You wouldn’t believe the amount of housing inventory increase,particularly in condos. Browsing through the Sunday paper ads from builders– giving “$25,000 off this weekend only”, among other incentives, I just shook my head. It is a very different market in the Puget Sound region.

This past Sunday morning at a small four home development, I struck up a conversation with a nice couple from Orange County who were looking for a home in the Snohomish area. They are relocating here to take a position at Boeing. Said the two markets are night and day. They said our average home for $400K would be like a million plus in OC.

PS. had a transaction fall through a few weeks ago because a client’s home in San Diego (ironically) did not close due to, get this…. the buyer of their place got cold feet and refused to sign the day prior to closing. They did lose earnest money, but evidently thought it was a small price to pay vs. overpaying. The moral of the story is that markets outside our state can influence buying here.

Pss. We’ve recently just got slammed with work over the past couple weeks. Any local agents seeing an uptick in sales activity in their offices, regardless of their own production?

(guess I can’t tell you to ‘try harder’ now if my offer isn’t accepted… darn)

Insisting on a must appraise will lose you the property, even when it WOULD HAVE appraised. There are other ways to protect yourself regarding the appraised value. Not getting the property at all, doesn’t serve any purpose.

Don’t let the appraiser choose what a property is worth to you. That is no different for an investment purchase. You don’t even know the appraiser! Don’t give him that much control over your choices. Do your own valuations to your own purpose.