Here’s a great phrase from our annual Marketing Meeting … from the owner of the company: You can be ON the market or you can be IN the market! With great frustration I saw a house in my neighborhood go on the market with what seems to be a Discount Agent. I checked on line and there was virtually nothing about this company meaning that the marketing on this house will be equal to – hmmm – nothing! It’s the Solana Beach Overpricing nightmare of putting house into the MLS and then doing that prayer vigil that someday it will sell!
Solana Beach Overpricing is frustrating not only because I live in the neighborhood but because I KNOW the business. A seller just throwing out a price to the wind and an agent saying “well ok” let’s try it is not to anyone’s benefit! Even the SELLER. Seeing your home accruing days on the market is a very bad thing. This agent is NOT from our area! No they obviously do not have to LIVE in the neighborhood but they DO have to KNOW the neighborhood to some extent. It means RESEARCH! Again Solana Beach overpricing! This particular house is located in an appendage of Solana Beach. We live here – we love it! But it takes a certain buyer to understand the area.
Because of this the PRICE has to reflect those issues. Yes, we have Ocean Views, however the views are directly parallel to the 5 Freeway. That is something most 3M dollar buyers do NOT consider seeing when purchasing! This is not the A plus area of Solana Beach that commands the $800.00 per square foot SOLD prices. This again has to reflect on listing price! These sellers have put in excess (according to them) of 1 M in remodeling. Now if you look at when they purchased home and see the photographs it was ALREADY remodeled. Maybe not to their taste but that does not matter to a buyer “right now”. I tell sellers over and over again that many of the upgrades they are doing they are doing for “themselves”! Just because you SAY you have put $200,000 into your landscaping doesn’t mean a buyer is going to absorb that cost. They like the pretty pool and yard – they DON’T care what you paid to get it to look this way! Everything is public record these days— go on Zillow and you can see “previous listing” and what the house looked like when purchased! Overpricing in Solana Beach or anywhere – even with low inventory – is the “wish upon a star” method of Real Estate. You are ON the market or you are IN the market! Wise words!!!
The Del Mar County Fair is going on right now — what a joyful event for us who live close by. This is NOT the time to put a High Priced property on the market!!! Fair goers are not out LOOKING for a house, but a cheeseburger between two Krispy Kreams! Our neighborhood is inundated with cars parked up and down the street from fair goers too cheap to pay at the parking lot. NOT the Best day to drive a 3M dollar buyer up our street. See how far you get before they jump out of the car and head west!! Right into the ocean!
My ranting is brought on by the frustration that sellers should not be setting prices, and agents should be doing their homework and not throwing things against the wall and hoping something sticks! It does not do a neighborhood any good to have a house over priced that sits on the market for months and months. If wishes were fishes the Fish Market would be out of business.