Almost 700 homes were held open in celebration of our Great American
Open Home Event, and most all areas reported excellent attendance. The
event provided us the opportunity to showcase a wide variety of listings
throughout our communities, and the potential buyers were out in full
force. One Half Moon Bay property saw a surprising 80 visitors, and
a Millbrae home drew over 130 potential buyers. In the City, it was
the typical “double-park Sunday-scramble” as Buyers attempted
to get in as many Opens as time permitted.
The upper-tier properties are still seeing strong activity in most
areas, but in areas where inventory is higher, buyers are better referred
to as “window shoppers.” More prevalent in our outer East
and North Bay offices, these Buyers are looking at everything available,
but are difficult to pin down when it comes time to write an offer.
In areas where inventory is tighter, pre-emptive and multiple offer
situations are happening in more than half of the reported sales. There
were 5 offers on a San Mateo property that went for substantially more
than the $2.5 million list price. Menlo Park reports a pre-emptive property
that went for 20% over asking. The Lombard office in the City reported
every sale this week either in multiple or pre-emptive offers. Market
Street and SF Lakeside reported 16 out of 26 were in multiple offers.
SF Noriega offices states a fixer in Inner Richmond district had 17
offers and went more than $100,000 over asking. From Burlingame to San
Mateo, the past week’s more than 50 closings in MLS were showing
roughly 85% sold at list price or greater.
The past two week’s office reports have included more comments
regarding transactions being re-negotiated prior to the closing, and
some occurrences of deals falling through. Back-up offers can be key
for Sellers in many of these situations. In some cases, a Buyer is simply
looking for a small consideration prior to close, in others it may be
a full-blown case of Buyer’s remorse. Strong listing and selling
Agents are helping their customers stay focused on the main objectives
in Buying or Selling.
Of the offices reporting, listing inventory remained steady for 12,
increased for eight and decreased for six. Sales activity remained comfortably
steady for a whopping 16 offices. It increased for eight offices, and
decreased in only two.
Rick Turley
President
Coldwell Banker SF/Peninsula
