Clayton Living & Real Estate

On Thursday, I held an open house for a 3 bedroom townhouse off of Keller Ridge Drive (201 Condor Place for $595,000). I normally hold open houses for new listings on Thursdays from 3pm to 7pm because it is a great time for the neighborhood to view the property on their way home from work. Many people leave Clayton for the weekend and this timeframe allows them to see the property before their trip.

At any rate, this is the first time I had less than 10 people visit on a Thursday. I determined this to be the reason: Oakhurst neighbors visit open homes that are at least of equal or higher value. The higher in value, the more curious the neighbors. Since this property is one of the smaller ones in the area, it puts it at the bottom of the food chain, hence fewer local visitors.

An open house in Eagle Peak or Peacock Creek at Oakhurst, where home prices exceed $1 Million, normally gets up to 20 guests on a Thursday evening. Come to think about it, the majority of those visitors are from the Keller Ridge area. There’s no such thing as too much exposure though, so even if I get one visitor, you never know if they are going to be the “one.”

Two weeks ago I hired a stager to prepare a home for sale. It had been vacant for 3 months and prospective buyers liked the house but no one made an offer. Last week, with staging complete, I held an open house and received an offer the next day. I always knew the importance of staging, but had not seen such a huge difference in buyer reaction before and after this important step. During the open house, buyers interacted with the rooms better, asked fewer questions and had a lot more compliments on the home - not the furniture. I even heard people suggest that it was underpriced. Two months ago, I was hearing the exact opposite. The total cost to stage this vacant home was $3,500, including 6 weeks of furniture rental. After 6 weeks, an additional $1,000 will keep the furnishings rented for another 6 weeks.

For this particular house over 3,000 square feet, it was crucial to stage it. Buyers in this price range want to see the house in it’s full glory. They don’t want to have to visualize the spaces, they want to see them being used well and they want to emotionally connect with it. In addition, when competing properties are being staged, expect buyers to get spoiled by it and disappointed when it is not present.

One of the most attrative features of Clayton is the picturesque rolling hills surrounding our town. They are unique because they clearly reveal the boundaries of our town and remind us of our small size. They show us that our growth is limited and they remind us of our agricultural heritage. They frame the town of Clayton with soft curves that change color with the coming of new seasons and allow us to enjoy an unobstructed, peaceful view of nature that most of us in the Bay Area rarely experience. Most properties in Clayton have a view of the hills. For those of you that are considering Clayton as a potential home, I highly recommend choosing a property that allows you to experience this wonderful characteristic that is unique to Clayton. For those of you that are from Clayton, I recommend experiencing the hills first hand, by hiking or biking. I guarantee you will see a side of Clayton that will make you appreciate it more.

December turned out to be exactly what we predicted as far as sales in the Oakhurst neighborhoods of Clayton. Just as the past few months, most homes are selling under list price as shown by the red tags on the map. It was the holiday season, so we can expect the January sales map to be less eventful than this one since people get offers accepted in December and close in January. There are a total of 30 houses for sale in Clayton at the moment, substantially down from 45 homes a few months ago. I do know that many residents have postponed their home sale or avoided the holiday season. Get ready to see the amount of properties on the market increase within the next two months, even if real estate values have clearly dropped. If you are considering buying in Clayton, you are in a good spot for the next 3 months before spring arrives.

Let’s face it, Real Estate Agent commissions are under attack these days by the government and the consumer. It is only a matter of time before the consumer will win. If real estate professionals do not adjust to these pressures, consumers will bypass agents and find alternate routes to get the services they need at what they feel is a fair price. To survive as an agent in 2006, agents will need to be flexible with their fee structure, informed of powerful online services, aware of the changing market, and better equiped with marketing tools and ideas.

Traditionally a 6% commission based on a home’s sale price was split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. When homes were selling for $400,000 in Clayton, less than a decade ago, that was about $12,000 per agent. However, with many Clayton homes now valued at $1,200,000, that equates to a $36,000 commission for each agent, that’s $72,000 that the home seller pays out! Homeowners in Clayton do not feel that this number is fair, although they do believe that agent services are important and valuable, just not that valuable. Although agent expenses have increased over time, like advertising and materials, sellers feel the agent is performing a similar service to back when their house was worth much less.

Recently I have started offering a 5% commission right out of the gate. That’s usually where I ended up anyway. This is looked down upon by some agencies and people that taught me how to be a successful agent. Once I got out there and met with residents, who loved me and felt no one could do a better job, I found myself coming in second place because of my non-discounted 6% commission. The winner, offered a lower commission and many times was less experienced, less capable and sometimes from another county! If I was more flexible back then, they could have expected better results with me, and I could have still expected an attractive commission. That’s when I decided to change my approach.

Remember buying that new car a decade ago and negotiating back and forth at the dealership? I’ve bought several and found it to be an annoying, inefficient experience. If I could have gone online, found my car with a list of all local dealerships and prices, I would have done so without hesitation. Well, it may have taken a while for me to realize, but this is where our industry is headed. The agents that are going to be successful will need to adapt to this changing model, some already have. Give the consumer what they want at an attractive price. That’s what will keep agents around as long as there are homes.