Real estate market outside the MLS (San Diego: houses, cabinet, costs)

[cruitr]

Originally Posted by ShelbyGirl1

Nothing like wasting a lot of people's time!

Good point. Been there myself. Buying someone's home where the owner has no real need to sell is a big red flag.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

We're selling our house in Madison, WI directly to a friend. Just used the FSBO paperwork. No listings, no showings and no realtors. He's getting a fair market good deal and we're not paying realtor fees, so it's a win-win. Plus we get to time the closing perfectly for both of us.

I'm sure some of this must also happen in San Diego among friends and family members.

Great Ragnar! Congrats. Always nice avoiding realtor's fees when you can. I've bought a LOT of properties without ANY realtors involved. Sometimes when I've liked one building, I've gone around and slid a letter under the doors of ALL the owners in the building offering to buy their properties.

Once I tried to convert an apartment building into a hotel so I wanted to buy all their units. I ended up getting 9 of the units that way without a realtor involved. And I paid for their legal fees so it made for fairly easy and quick closings.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

We're selling our house in Madison, WI directly to a friend. Just used the FSBO paperwork. No listings, no showings and no realtors. He's getting a fair market good deal and we're not paying realtor fees, so it's a win-win. Plus we get to time the closing perfectly for both of us.

I'm sure some of this must also happen in San Diego among friends and family members.

Thats great Ragnar! Congrats.

I have not seen many advertised FSBOs like I would when traveling throughout the US *where literally the sign is put up that says FSBO.

Like that article I posted, I am sure its done around these parts.

So does that put you on your way out to SD fairly soon then?

Edit: I also forgot to mention that Zillow has this "Make me move" feature. Where the owner of the property can basically put a house up pre-MLS or actually putting it up officially.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Thats great Ragnar! Congrats.

So does that put you on your way out to SD fairly soon then?

Thanks, shmoov. I wish we were heading out to SD so soon, but we are putting our equity to work here and building a new home in WI. The job and childcare situation is such that it's not time to make the move yet. Hopefully the SoCal housing run-up craziness will have subsided by the time we are able to seriously pick this up. In the meantime we're going to maximize the opportunities where we are.

[Pray4America]

Originally Posted by CatWarmer

We are hoping to eventually relocate to San Diego (essentially retired but husband is consulting). We rented for a couple of months in early 2012 in Sunset Cliffs and Del Mar and spent our time really getting to know the neighborhoods and market in our price range ($600-800K) and talked with a Realtor. We visited and drove by tons of listed properties and also went to open houses on our own. She has us subscribed to her MLS service so I can see the homes that go on the market. After our visit, we decided our favorite place to live would be on Point Loma. We want a house with at least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and a back yard and there's not a lot coming onto the listings. My husband is a lot less flexible than me and there aren't many houses that meet his criteria.

He would like to only move once but I think that's unrealistic. I have been in touch with local builders and we will be able to sell our property as a tear down with either a delayed closing or a lease back so we should have the cash or a contract for the sale before making any offers in San Diego. We've also talked with a mortgage guy and he's ready to move quickly if we need a mortgage.

So - is there a market that never gets on the MLS? I've looked at Craigslist and all the listings seem to be from realty services. There's almost nothing on FSBO dot com. I think we'll need to sell our house and rent somewhere in San Diego temporarily to be able to move fast. Are we limited to houses on the MLS, or would we be able to find houses for sale that aren't listed?

YUP. I'm finishing up real estate school in CA and MANY homes that are listed with a realtor never make it to market because all the realtors I know all have a list of interested parties who will purchase the property before it ever gets put into the MLS.
Frustrating, I know. Do you read Doctor Housing Bubble? (dot com) It may answer some of your questions.
Good luck.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Thanks, shmoov. I wish we were heading out to SD so soon, but we are putting our equity to work here and building a new home in WI. The job and childcare situation is such that it's not time to make the move yet. Hopefully the SoCal housing run-up craziness will have subsided by the time we are able to seriously pick this up. In the meantime we're going to maximize the opportunities where we are.

Nothing like hearing sound decision making

Wow that sounds like quite adventure building a new home!

SD is not going anywhere and pretty sure what goes up must come down

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Thanks, shmoov. I wish we were heading out to SD so soon, but we are putting our equity to work here and building a new home in WI. The job and childcare situation is such that it's not time to make the move yet. Hopefully the SoCal housing run-up craziness will have subsided by the time we are able to seriously pick this up. In the meantime we're going to maximize the opportunities where we are.

Spot on target about what you are doing. From all your posts Ragnar I can tell you have a GREAT head on your shoulders. San Diego will always be here when you're ready to truly move out here.

Looking forward to "breaking bread" together once you move to town.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by earlyretirement

Spot on target but you are doing. From all your posts Ragnar I can tell you have a GREAT head on your shoulders. San Diego will always be here when you're ready to truly move out here.

Looking forward to "breaking bread" together once you move to town.

Thanks, ER. Me too!

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by shmoov_groovzsd

Nothing like hearing sound decision making

Wow that sounds like quite adventure building a new home!

SD is not going anywhere and pretty sure what goes up must come down

The amount of decisions to make when building a new custom home are enormous, and the time required can be taxing at times! Truly an adventure. So far much of the process has been very interesting if not fun, and we've learned a ton. I'm very happy with the way everything is coming together. The whole process has really shown that my wife and I work very well together as a team too.

Should be ready to move in the first or second week of July.

[earlyretirement]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

The amount of decisions to make when building a new custom home are enormous, and the time required can be taxing at times! Truly an adventure. So far much of the process has been very interesting if not fun, and we've learned a ton. I'm very happy with the way everything is coming together. The whole process has really shown that my wife and I work very well together as a team too.

Should be ready to move in the first or second week of July.

That's awesome Ragnar! ABSOLUTELY the amount of decisions like you said are enormous! I've built a few custom homes from scratch and it was QUITE an experience. Adventure is the appropriate word! LOL. After I finished my first custom house I knew everything else after that would be easy and I could do anything. LOL.

The great thing about it is being able to pick out everything from scratch and just getting the bathrooms, kitchen, flooring, etc. all how you want it. When we moved to San Diego, I was so tired of doing renovations and construction that I told my wife I did NOT want to deal with building a house. She agreed. So we bought a house that was not too old and already had good kitchen, bathrooms, etc.

Well, ironically I should have just gone that route. We've done several upgrades in our house. We've been there 2 years and we have done several renovations throughout the 2 years. We just finished renovating 4 of our bathrooms and I think that will be the last of it! (I hope anyway).

My wife just shrugs her shoulders as about every month I come to her with another plan to change something else. LOL. So you did it right Ragnar going custom.