Just Sold: 836 Calle De Arboles Redondo Beach
I just listed and sold this Single Family Residence at 836 Calle De Arboles in the Hollywood Riviera neighborhood of Redondo Beach. Well actually it is the second time I sold it. I represented the sellers when they bought in in 2009.
When I listed it for $1,599,000 I knew it would get a lot of activity and be bid up. But even so, I was surprised when it closed escrow for $1,715,000 just two weeks later. Literally. The cash buyers did a ten day close and my seller clients had their funds 2 weeks after this first hit the MLS. I guess that’s what happens when my clients follow my advice. or most of it anyway.
When I’m listing homes I always focus on the two things I have control over: price and presentation. As for what’s going on with mortgage rates, the pandemic, the economy, politics - totally out of my control. Presenting properties in the best light and pricing them to get the most showings possible, well that’s what I do.
Truthfully most sellers are somewhat resistant to both, particularly my pricing strategy. I don’t want to be the broker who gets 27 offers and sells a house for hundreds of thousands of dollars over the asking price. I think agents who do that are pricing too low and wasting a lot of people’s time including their own. Pricing, though, is more of an art than a science.
As most buyers expect new hot listings to get bid up anywhere from $50K-$100K after the first weekend of open houses, if you price too high (usually the seller’s number) you will cut down your traffic because buyers these days are likely to think you are over priced. And that’s a mistake I see a lot of less experienced agents make all the time.
On the other hand, if you price too low, the listing may not wind up getting bid up as high as it would have otherwise. So to those agents who are selling their listings for $200K over the list price I ask how much more they possibly left on the table.
That means the best practice is to price about $50K-$100K lower than where you want to end up with the outer limits of the range being the best play. While many sellers intellectually understand this concept, convincing them to go along with their most valuable asset is another thing entirely. Simply put, sellers, you get more by pricing lower.
Fortunately for my clients in this case they understood that.
ABOUT THE PROPERTY
836 Calle De Arboles is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath highly updated house originally built in 1948 about 1400 Sq Ft sitting on a 6200 Sq ft lot. Here’s how I described it in the MLS:
“Location, Location, Location. Sitting on one of the most desirable streets in the Hollywood Riviera neighborhood and backing up to the walking trails you’ll find this charming remodeled home with an open floor plan, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a direct access garage. The kitchen and bathrooms have been updated and everything is ready for you to move right in. Surrounded by more expansive properties on situated on a large lot you are minutes to the beach, Riviera Village, shopping, great schools and everything else that makes living in the South Bay so desirable. Put this one on your list to see because it won’t be around very long.”
Kind of short and to the point, right? I find these days most buyers mostly look at the pictures, 3D walkthrough and video and really don’t spend too much time with the verbal description. Maybe that’s because people are looking at new listings on their phones.
I spend a lot of time sequencing the pictures to make sure that visually I am telling a story. You may have noticed that many of my listings have twilight nighttime exteriors in the main slot. Those really show up great in a gallery setting. If I can’t get a good exterior twilight my next order of preference is often the kitchen and then the living room. The only exception is if it is a view property with an amazing view.
For this home, I went with the kitchen shot because it was one of the main selling points. Highly updated and really the nicest room in the house. Let’s take a look at some other pictures. I guess you can say the theme is “some updated - some outdated” because there’s really a difference in the rooms.
