Pristine Morgan Hill Listing Sold In One Day
Date: Tuesday March 30, 2010Posted in: Sellers, real estate, Morgan Hill
I put a beautiful new listing on the market last Thursday, March 25th. We received an offer for over the asking price of $859,000 the next evening, and had a ratified contract by Saturday. Whew! I haven’t seen a listing in that price range sell that quickly in a long time. It just reinforced what I had told my sellers, this is a GREAT time to put your home on the market! Inventory is extremely low right now and there are plenty of buyers out there looking and wanting to take advantage of the low interest rates and buyer tax incentives.
This is a five bedroom, three full bathroom home with 3176 square feet living area. The lot size is 12,196 square feet with the majority of the square footage in the backyard since this is a cul-de-sac lot. The home was built in 1988 and has many charming features.
The home is pristine and well-cared for. With a large, park-like backyard this home offers a wonderful, private area for entertaining. The pool and spa are enhanced with the rock waterfall. There is a corner of the yard for growing vegetables and many fruit trees as well as other flowering trees and redwoods.
The remodeled kitchen features slab granite, custom cabinetry, stainless appliances, a wet bar with a wine refrigerator and large tile flooring throughout the kitchen and adjoining family room. The huge master suite has a large sitting area and walk-in closet. There are a total of five bedrooms and one bedroom is on the ground floor with a nearby full bathroom.
This light and airy home shows extremely well and so buyers were quick to place their offer on it. Another example of a well-cared for home, priced at market value, receiving what these sellers were hoping for: a quick, above asking price offer!
To see a virtual tour of this property, click on this link: http://www.3cim.com/3cim/tour.do?method=viewTour&id=1269276194078&view=3
buyers homes listings months of inventory Morgan Hill prices pricing real estate residences sales Santa Clara County sellers sellers market
Morgan Hill Seller’s Market?
Date: Wednesday March 3, 2010Posted in: real estate, Morgan Hill, seller's market
What a difference a year makes! A year ago many residences sat languishing on the market while buyers were waiting on the sidelines. Fast forward to the present day: large numbers of well-qualified, motivated buyers are combing the sparse south Santa Clara County real estate inventory and now sellers are sitting on the sidelines! With the low real estate inventory in Morgan Hill and the rest of south Santa Clara County, is it a seller’s market? Let’s look at the data:
The first graph shows the number of residences for sale in Morgan Hill. As can be seen clearly, the number in the past few months has been quite low relative to the past two years. This data is backed up by the second graph which shows the months of inventory for active residential listings on the Morgan Hill real estate market. The months of inventory is the number of months it would take to sell all of the inventory currently on the market using current number of sales per month to determine this number.
With these two graphs in mind, sellers should feel confident in listing their homes in this current market. However, as with any market, pricing is the number one factor in whether your home will sell and how quickly it will sell.
The third graph shows the average sale price for single family residences in Morgan Hill over the past two years. Although it does look like prices have inched up over the past few months, sellers should beware asking exhorbitant prices for their homes - if they are serious about selling their home.
Inventory will gradually increase over the next months in Morgan Hill. But for those sellers currently on the market with a well-priced listing — enjoy your opportunity to choose from the multiple offers you are quickly receiving!
buyers homes listings months of inventory Morgan Hill prices pricing real estate residences sales Santa Clara County sellers sellers market
Why are Pending Sales So Much Greater than Closed Escrows?
Date: Tuesday July 7, 2009Posted in: real estate, pending sales, appraisal
For months now, I’ve been stating in my weekly sales blogposts that many of the pending real estate listings reported are short sales and therefore take a long time to close. This keeps our listings that are pending under contract percentage up artificially high because those listings stay at the pending status month after month. And the number of listings that actually close escrow remains low in comparison.
There are several reasons the pending sales numbers are high but actual closed escrow numbers are not. This was pointed out to me by a southern California colleague, Michelle Silverman, a Realtor in La Jolla, California.
Michelle recently shared this Wall Street Journal blog post, Three Reasons Pending Sales Isn’t a Reliable Indicator. The article discusses three reasons homes on the real estate market don’t close escrow after getting into contract. One of the reasons is the one I state week after week, short sale pending contracts. While the buyer and the seller wait for the seller’s short sale lender to approve the offer, the home sits in pending status on the multiple listing service. Often the transaction falls through because the buyer gets frustrated with waiting for months and finds another home to purchase and sometimes the short sale lender does not approve the offer.
Another reason that homes under contract don’t close escrow is that mortgage rates have gone up, albeit a small amount. However this raise in rates can knock out buyers who qualified at a certain interest rate when they first began their home search. They aren’t able to go through with the purchase because now they don’t qualify for the higher monthly payment. Buyers may also choose not to purchase due to the higher interest rates.
And the third reason pending sales don’t close escrow as discussed in the WSJ blog has to do with the latest difficulty besetting the real estate market: appraisals. There is a new law, The Home Valuation Code of Conduct, or HVCC, adopted May 1, 2009. The law was formulated to elevate the independence and accuracy of the appraisal process. To keep influence low, lenders are now required to use appraisal management companies. In theory, this should be a positive move. In actuality, many of the appraisers hired by the appraisal management companies don’t come from the area where the property is located and sometimes don’t even have access to the local MLS. For example, I’ve heard of ill-informed appraisers using property sold in Gilroy as a comparable sale for property in Morgan Hill. Some sales are falling through at the last minute due to under-valued appraisals.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, cautions that there could be delays in the number of contracts that go to closing. “Closed existing-home sales have improved but are coming in lower than expected because some contracts are delayed or falling through from the application of new appraisal rules for many transactions,” he said. “Rises in contract activity show buyers are becoming more active even as they face much more stringent loan underwriting standards. Speedy clarification of the appraisal rules could smooth a housing market recovery and support the overall economy.”
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