Archives for March 2012

My Company Sold Houses ~3x Faster than MLS Average Last Summer

During Summer 2011 Tahoe Real Estate Group sold our listings almost 3x faster than the MLS average during the same time. I enhance this with hands-on transaction management. Days on market is a good measure of the success of marketing but there is more to every property listing than simply finding the buyer. Get in touch so we can talk about: ‘The First 21 Days” of your listing; my detailed working knowledge of the sales contract; tricks for keeping tabs on buyers’ progress during the deal; how I manage the details of every escrow so nothing gets overlooked; and anything else you’d like to discuss.

Click here to see more graphs: Days on Market, Inventory (May was the best month to be on the market last year), and Sales-to-List Price Ratio.

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

Tahoe Real Estate Group Average Days on Market Summer 2011

Tahoe Real Estate Group Sells Homes ~3x faster than MLS avg.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

Encouraging News For Sellers

The Tahoe Basin is off to a very good start as compared with 2011. There have been 52 sales this year vs. 40 during the same time last year. 2009 was abysmal through March, by the way, with only 18 sales.

All segments of the market are getting solid action as prices at the low end are in the basement and high-end lakefronts have come to the table ready to make things happen. There are 6 lakefronts in escrow now (some are distressed Tahoe lakefront properties) and recently there have been other very solid, high-end sales. Thus far lakefront sales units are the same as 2011 – 4 sold thru 3/22. A Dollar Point property listed at $945k went into escrow after ~80 days which is pretty good considering it was listed during the slowest time of year. Tahoe Sierra Estates currently has no active listings and McKinney Shores has 2 Listings – one shared ownership and one standard offering.

Days on market across the MLS is up but click here to see how my company’s listings sold 3x faster than the MLS average last Summer.

There have been 18 sales under $300k; 22 sales from there to $700k; 7 sales to $1.5 million; and four that ranged from $2.6m to $8.6m. Click Here to View The Four Most Expensive Sales in 2012

I am always happy to email sold or active listings if you’re curious about any other sales or offerings.

Data on 2012 vs. 2011 Tahoe Basin Units Sold Thus Far

2012  TOTAL  HIGH  LOW  AVG  MED
SALES: 52 DAYS ON MARKET: 1069 2 156 127
HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE
LIST PRICE: $10,500,000 $89,900 $876,745 $411,500 $45,590,750
SOLD PRICE: $8,600,000 $76,000 $782,753 $395,000 $40,703,198
2011 Thru 3/22
 TOTAL  HIGH  LOW  AVG  MED
SALES: 40 DAYS ON MARKET: 704 1 111 64
HIGH LOW AVERAGE MEDIAN TOTAL PRICE
LIST PRICE: $6,995,000 $125,000 $783,250 $504,500 $31,330,022
SOLD PRICE: $6,300,000 $120,000 $725,054 $480,000 $29,002,178

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

Tahoe Luxury Sales Update

It’s been a busy week in Tahoe luxury property sales – four sold properties averaging $3.1 million. They are two North Shore lakefronts, one West Shore semi-lakefront (!), and a view property in Talmont. Click Here to View these Luxury Sales on MLS.

Showing activity in these price ranges has been relatively busy especially given the time of year. Inventory is slimming down but there are still some very nice homes on the market. Now is the time for sellers to start getting ready for summer. May 2011 saw almost as many sales as July and August but had half the number of homes on the market.

Tahoe Sierra MLS Inventory and Sales Timing Throughout the Year

Tahoe Sierra MLS Inventory and Sales Timing Throughout the Year

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

 

Dollar Point Down to Just 10 Listings

Dollar Point is in the pre-summer gearing up stage of Tahoe’s Yearly real estate cycle. Much like the lake has what some of us call a Yearly Tide, the number of MLS listings is usually at its lowest point during this time of year. It’s time for sellers to take a much-needed break, strategize the best moves for their property (repairs, inspections, price, marketing, etc.), then get back on the market, ideally in April.

The Tahoe Basin market in general is picking up with 23% more sales so far this year than 2011. And that’s not included two lakefront sales which were done off the market in Rubicon (contact Alex for more information).

See all current Dollar Point MLS listings

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

BIG Tahoe Windstorm Today

How I got Inspired by a Client

I met with a new client today and it made the simple words of my 32-year broker ring in my head: “I love real estate because you meet the most interesting people.” Her thought is especially true here at Tahoe because you don’t get pigeonholed into a certain demographic or business vertical that you ‘work’ as a client base. You get all the walks of life who want to live or vacation in Tahoe.

Today’s client is considerably young and he’s looking to relocate to Tahoe. He went to a competitive boarding school and university Back East then went on to labor in NYC. During this time he saw a discrepancy in his field where locating to a different country and starting fresh could conceivably make for huge business growth in a short period of time. He went for it – alone. As the business grew he faced all the usual challenges but one of the surprising things was that none of the old colleagues from the States would join him. All of them wanted to stay in the familiar network and not take the big risk. Long story short, within 5 years his bet paid off and the company was bought by a competitor.

While his business story is interesting and impressive, his outlook on life is even more so. Within 3 minutes of sitting down together he was telling me about what he thinks of as the internal battle between the heart and the brain. You’ve heard or thought something like this before but it was so interesting to me that he chose to focus on this so soon after starting our meeting – it told me a lot about his priorities.

It went something like this: “The brain says, ‘we’re going to keep our head down and work all the time because I want [substitute material possession here].’ But the heart mutters, ‘wait, what about those things we thought were pretty cool and interesting that we were going to try and do.’ Brain: ‘we’ll get to those…later. 6 months. When this other stuff is done we’ll get to that.’ Well once the 6 months comes and goes, then another half a year does the same, the heart voice starts to disappear. The material possessions start to pile up, bank accounts increase but is that the goal? Shouldn’t the heartsong be the focus and you can let the money come later?”

It was a great meeting and of course made me reflect on myself. I got into real estate after living in Tahoe for a number of years. I had bought a couple houses here, thought I might enjoy real estate…and was ready to see if I could start making some money. Well almost 10 years later, I realize that thankfully I may have gotten in for some of the right reasons – but I’m staying in for the right reasons. That is, I know that by doing such a good job on every deal that I am helping people. I get to use my writing and photography (and now with YouTube am learning video) skills while developing great marketing plans for my clients and myself. And last, I enjoy doing all of this.

Thanks for making it to the end of this post – honestly I’m surprised I wrote it. But I guess when you’re moved, you’re moved!

Tahoe Sierra Estates / Olympic Snowy Pics

Some nice shots from a beautiful morning in the neighborhood…

Click here to see information on Property Sales in the Olympic neighborhood

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

Snowy Dollar Point Pier Pics

The snow stopped and the sun came out this morning. Such a nice spot to be…

Click here for Dollar Point Property Value info

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.

 

Lake Tahoe Lakefront Foreclosures / REO’s & Short Sales

Strange as it may seem but there are currently 4 lakefronts in escrow right now: 2 are short sales, 2 are foreclosures. But it should be said there has been a spate of activity on other lakefronts which have already closed escrow. Short sales, the worst moniker in real estate, take forever to close so there’s always a good chance of one being in escrow (!). These ones are all pretty good deals.

Click Here to View 3 of the Lakefronts in Escrow

Click Here to View the Fourth which is not listed as a Lakefront (contact Alex for details)

Lakefront Property Request Form

Receive an immediate email whenever a new lakefront listing hits the market. My company has pocket listings and there are usually interesting rumblings within the lakefront community. I can share these with you, as well.
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McKinney Shores POA Pics

Some nice shots from a beautiful morning at the McKinney Shores POA beach.

Click here to download the first few pages of my Integrated Sales Strategy and please call or email to see the rest.

What's My Property Worth?

Alex will do extensive research then present you with an in-depth analysis of your property's value.