nsxtasy:
Yes, now you're beginning to see....
BTW, see today's MSN article below about where I live:
"Homebuyers Face Tough Market"
By T.J. Sullivan, Ventura County Star Staff writer
June 11 - Nicole Romanowski coaches first-time homebuyers the way a big league baseball manager might prepare a rookie for his first at bat. Though she doesn't use the jargon, the translation is the same -- be ready, not just ready to swing, but ready to run, dive, slide and run again.
Nicole Romanowski coaches first-time homebuyers the way a big league baseball manager might prepare a rookie for his first at bat.
Though she doesn't use the jargon, the translation is the same -- be ready, not just ready to swing, but ready to run, dive, slide and run again.
Sometimes it takes several pitches to sink in, but after some missed opportunities most of them catch on, says Romanowski, a Realtor for Troop Real Estate in Simi Valley. Many of her Ventura County colleagues agree that, in the current market, homebuyers have about as much time to react to a for-sale sign as a batter does to a fast ball.
"It used to be that you could tell people go home and sleep on this," Romanowski said. "Now you show them a house and you need to tell them, 'You need to sit down and write an offer right now because I can't tell you if this is going to be here an hour from now.'"
Many Realtors say it has become one of the most competitive home-buying markets ever in Ventura County.
"It's brutal, that's my best description of it," said Ventura-based Coldwell Banker Realtor Jeff Roundy.
Agents are keeping listings to themselves, within their own offices, sometimes intentionally holding them off the multiple listing service used by the county's many real estate brokers. Some Realtors even tell war stories of frustrated buyers who go so far as to make angry telephone calls to sellers after having purchase bids rejected.
Bidding wars are more common than they've been since the late 1980s.
"When a listing hits ... there's such a shortage ... it's almost an anomaly if you don't have multiple offers," Roundy said.
"If a property is on the market more than 20 or 30 days, in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, then you have to wonder what the problem is," said Dale King, a Realtor with Century 21 and a member of the board of directors of the Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors.
Writing a $300,000 purchase offer on the hood of a car --the biggest single purchase of many first-time buyers' lives -- may rattle some nerves, but its something all buyers need to be prepared to do, or risk losing out, said Jeff Haring, branch manager for Coldwell Banker in Ventura.
"Some of my buyers have lost four or five houses," said Pat Helton, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker in Thousand Oaks.
It's all the result of big demand and little supply. More buyers want houses than there are sellers to satisfy them. Homes are being snatched up within days of hitting the market --sometimes faster than newspaper classified ads, or Internet Web sites can list them.
As bad as it may sound, however, it's worse elsewhere --and that's the problem.
Santa Barbara and Goleta workers priced out of that market are seeking homes in the city of Ventura. Corporate transfers to businesses in the San Fernando Valley are looking to make their dollars go further in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark. Workers from Amgen in Thousand Oaks are seeking housing in Oxnard.
Every community, it seems, has pressure on homebuyers, so much so that, in some cases, prices are being bid up.
"The most I've been involved with personally ... it went up $25,000 over the asking price," Roundy said. "I've heard of it being as much as $40,000."
Figures announced in April revealed that Ventura County's median home sales price has jumped to a record $355,080 --up 18.1 percent from last year, according to the California Association of Realtors.
Sellers have been put in an enviable position, giving them control, sometimes to the point where they can demand that the buyer pay closing costs.
Buyers, in return, are going to extreme lengths to make themselves look more fit, even selling their current homes and moving into temporary quarters, such as at a relative's residence, all so that they can have money in the bank waiting for a purchase. A move like that means their bid will not be contingent upon anything, making them appear to be in better shape than other bidders, particularly first-time buyers.
And it's not just the single-family house market that's experiencing the competition. Even mobile homes selling in the $49,000 to $80,000 range are seeing multiple offers, a surprising situation to some because mobile homes do not include property. On top of a mortgage payment, buyers also have to pay monthly space rent of $500 or more.
"It doesn't surprise me because we have so little inventory," said Susan Kimberling, a Realtor with Century 21 Gold Star in Oxnard. "Many of these people, they qualify for condominiums, but the condominiums aren't out there."
Realtors and brokers say they emphasize that buyers be ready in every way possible, especially with regard to financing. "They need to be pre-approved," said Bettina Beck, a home mortgage consultant with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Ventura. "They need a letter of pre-approval in their hot little hand so that the sellers know that they are serious buyers. And it needs to be a strong pre-approval letter."
A pre-approval, however, is not the same as a pre-qualification. A pre-qualification means a buyer has demonstrated the indications of qualifying for a loan. A pre-approval means they've actually sat down with a mortgage broker, gone through credit checks and received approval.
Another frequent recommendation is that buyers work with knowledgeable Realtors in a position to spot homes when they come up for sale, especially those that may not be included on sales lists.
Realtors also emphasize the need for loyalty to one sales person -- a point some drive home by requiring their clients to sign binding, 30-day agreements that dictate any purchase made in Ventura County must be made through them. It's becoming a more popular instrument, some say, because buyers are so frantic they sometimes seek the assistance of more than one Realtor at a time, a practice that is frowned upon because it results in large losses of time for agents.
"Buyers right now are pretty desperate," King said. "A lot of agents are using buyer-broker agreements to at least keep them working with them."
Realtors feel "empowered" by the agreements, and work harder to make the sale because of it, Haring said.
But that also means that buyers need to stay by a phone, or pager, and be prepared to jump in the car when they get a call about a new listing.
Roundy said one of his clients learned the hard way, failing to use her mobile phone from the start.
"After she missed a house, or two, we decided she'd have to turn the cell phone on," Roundy said.
Despite all this, Realtors say buyers are still finding the homes of their dreams, though they may not always be in the communities they initially dreamed of living within.
Romanowski said first-time homebuyers need to be flexible, especially when it comes to location. Homes priced under $300,000 are becoming more rare in Ventura County, and communities like Simi Valley, once heralded as the salvation of service workers in nearby Los Angeles, are growing out of reach.
"Simi has become a very affluent community and the first-time buyer is almost priced out of Simi Valley," Romanowski said. "If you're not a $300,000 buyer, almost seriously you can't afford Simi."
So where's the new farm club for those under-$300,000 rookies trying to break into the market?
"Lancaster, or Santa Clarita," Romanowski said.
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