| I’m super excited about our new listing at 529 N Kilkea!  The offering is a single story open concept Spanish with the living room, dining room, and kitchen opening to one another (and to the front and backyards) + 3 beds/3 baths inside & 1 bed/1 bath in the permitted rec room over the garage. The owners owned the house since 2007 and they started to do upgrades in 2019 (sewer, bolting, rec room), 2021 (new roof), and a major remodel in 2023 including bathrooms, windows, interior doors + front door, hardwood floors, spa, California Closets, recessed lights, cinder block walls + driveway gate, Tesla charger.  It’s cool to get a fully remodeled house inside and out for the price point in the area and I’m excited for today’s open house!
We’re showing 403 N Orange for lease off market for now.  The offering is a townhouse duplex unit that truly feels like a house because the entrance to this unit is on Orange while the entrance to the second unit is around the corner on Oakwood.  This entire property was taken down to the studs in 2013 and built new.  It has 4 beds, 4.5 baths, a new kitchen with center island + Viking appliances + breakfast area, spacious formal rooms and a private front yard.  Every bedroom is a suite and the primary is luxurious with double closets, dual vanities, shower + soaking tub.  This unit will rent quickly…just like 311 N Mansfield rented the first day with multiple applications.
I’m super excited about our sale that closed this week, Nechama’s listing at 1015 S Hi Point.  Nechama did an awesome job preparing the listing for sale at lightning speed, per the seller’s request and timeline. The seller listed at 1,800,000 and we were inundated with offers..that came in on a Friday afternoon. Nechama and I were both observing Shabbat on opposite coasts starting Friday night.  It was very fun to tag team it! I spoke to Jose Prats (agent extraordinaire on the buyer side) before Shabbat began in LA, and Nechama accepted the offer when Shabbat ended in NJ. I love working and collaborating with Nechama and our team on deals!  We all love when the end result is a sales price of $250,000 over the list price!
Congratulations to Oliver and his buyers who closed on 1319 S Ogden this week, buying the house before it even went on the market!  Congrats to Bryan who closed a condo on Kings this week, representing a buyer who was paid relocation funds when his rented apartment changed ownership and the new landlord wanted his rental unit vacant.  Bryan’s client was paid 60,000 in voluntary relocation fees, which he promptly (smartly) used as downpayment funds to buy a condo (that has tremendous upside potential!)
I loved our three in person company meetings, hashing out and diving deep into all the new post NAR Commission Lawsuits Real Estate Laws and the forms that come along with them!  The new laws officially began this week!
So far we’ve had 3 listing agreements signed with the new forms. It used to be that we’d get listing agreements signed for 5% commission, 2.5% went to us as the listing agents and 2.5% went to buyer side representation.  With the new listing agreements, the sellers commit to listing side commission, and also to a commission to the listing agent if an unrepresented buyer buys their property.  The buyer side commission gets signed in writing only with an offer from a buyer.  As a listing agent, I’ve discussed buyer side commissions with my sellers, even though they’re not signing to it upfront, and so far every seller has been on board to plan to agree in the future to pay the buyer side 2.5% when an offer comes.  Buyer side commission will no longer be advertised by listing agents on the MLS BUT the MLS has a box for “Seller Concessions” with an option to click YES, to communicate through the MLS that sellers will pay commissions as concessions.  As agents, we’re allowed to advertise commissions on off-MLS platforms like social media or private websites or blogs.  All our current sellers, on market and off, are agreeing to pay 2.5% commission to the buyer side.
The purpose of the new laws is transparency around representation + compensation on the buyer side of the transaction.  Under the new laws, before a buyer goes out and tours property, the buyer needs to decide to be unrepresented OR represented.  If the buyer elects to have representation, the buyer needs to sign a form electing for the representation to be exclusive, non exclusive, or specific to some named properties.  Importantly, the buyer needs to sign and agree to the compensation their agent will get paid for the representation. The New Residential Purchase Agreement has a paragraph at the end of the offer with a section for the buyer to fill in the amount of commission the buyer requests for the sellers to pay their agent. The amount of commission requested of the seller can be no higher than the amount of commission agreed to be paid on the buyer representation agreement.
The new laws are fantastic because they mandate truth + transparency in all dealings, with signatures in writing by all parties.  As people who love iterating and getting things better, and full honesty and awareness by all parties always, we’re all here for the new way and we believe it will be easy to adapt and work with the new forms and laws!
Interest rates are down!  Citi is quoting 5.75% on a 30 year fixed with a relationship discount and 5.625% with a bigger relationship discount!  We have a buyer in escrow for 1.2M putting 5% down and borrowing the remaining 95% at 6.5% interest. Everyone believes that rates will go lower before the election and most lenders allow at least one adjustment downward with no cost. Rates right now are the lowest they’ve been in 2 years!
I keep thinking back to a few weeks ago when Chassi’s brother got married so Seth and I went to NJ for the wedding.  Knowing our grandkids would only be awake for the very beginning of the festivities, we arrived at the wedding hall early to catch the toddlers before they went home to sleep. We walked into the hall while Chassi’s extended family was perfectly set up and in place for a formal group photo.  Tiny little Nechama (who will be 2 yrs old in October) spotted us from her place on a lap on a stage, across the hall.  She squealed really loudly “GRAAAAANDMAAA” and in her lacy white wedding dress and clickety dress shoes, quick as lightning, she slid off the lap and off the stage, and she went running across the hall with her arms stretched wide open, and a smile from ear to ear, for a Great Big Grandma Hug!  A very excited Grandma had no choice but to meet little Nechama with matching arms stretched wide open and the biggest smile ever, and twirl Nechama in the air and spin her around and give her so many kisses!  I wish we lived closer so we could do that every day!!!!
Wishing everyone an awesome week ahead!! |
