- Mar 25

How's the Market?

“The reward for being a good problem solver is to be heaped with more and more difficult problems to solve.” - Buckminster Fuller

Did you hear? The NAR Real Estate settlement was all over the news this week — not sure how anyone could miss it! The settlement, in a nutshell, bans the seller's ability to advertise a commission for the buyer's agent on the multiple listing service (MLS). What does this mean for real estate transactions? Commissions have always been negotiable, so that does not change, technically, but from a practical standpoint, Sellers and Buyers will now engage more directly in the fee paid to their representatives.

I have always appreciated the opportunity to articulate how we work and what our fee pays for. Now that this discussion is at the forefront of the transaction, I hope and believe it will enable Buyers and Sellers to understand and distinguish the difference between the services, knowledge, resources and abilities of Buyer's and Seller’s agents leading to a better, stronger experience. “Transparency” gets overused these days, so at the risk of wearing out this term, I look forward to engaging with all of our clients in the coming months to articulate the details and nuances of what goes into running a successful real estate transaction — from determining pricing, executing compelling marketing, highlighting the disclosure issues, overseeing an escrow and meeting deadlines, navigating inspections, repairs, permit and title issues and at the core of it all, negotiating a successful sale.

Last week there were 5 New Listings, 4 Closed Sales and 2 Pending Sales. What caught my eye was that all the Closed Sales sold below their last list price.

Check them out below:

1564 Ramona Drive • Sold for $8.2M • 13.6% less than its last list price of $9.5M • 159 Days on Market
433 Alcala Lane • Sold for $6.55M • 5.7% less than its last list price of $6.95M • 15 Days on Market
602 Parra Grande Lane • Sold for $5.8M • 6.4% less than its last list price of $6.2M • 42 Days on Market
847 Deerpath Road• Sold for $2.65M • 5.1% less than its last list price of $2.795M • 11 Days on Market