|
Daring buyers make blind bids;
Submit an offer on a home sight unseen? It's one way to get a
jump on the competition.
Like a spy on reconnaissance,
Amy Sanchez silently cruised a South Pasadena neighborhood often
over the course of a year, eyes alert to for-sale signs on the
street she wanted to call home.
On a cloudy morning four weeks
ago, the 30-year-old social worker and mother of two finally
spotted a modest three-bedroom house for sale, the home that
would become the object of her affection, if not obsession.
Sanchez smacked into a problem
right away: She and her husband, Rafael, a teacher, couldn't get
inside for a look because the house was undergoing a remodel and
was closed to prospective buyers, they were told. Furthermore,
they weren't the only ones eager to make an offer -- two other
bids were on the table for the 1,651-square-foot house whose
bedrooms, new kitchen and freshly tiled bath had yet to be seen.
In a Southern California real
estate market that is more competitive by the day, and sometimes
hour, some daring buyers have begun to make offers on homes
sight unseen. As they head toward the peak purchase season in a
region well stocked with buyers but severely lacking in
moderately priced homes, frantic families are willing to buy on
the fly after repeatedly losing in multi-bid situations.
"Buyers who have played this
game are taking it up a notch," said James Joseph, owner of
Century 21 Grisham-Joseph in Whittier. "The usual weapons aren't
enough."
Amy and Rafael Sanchez pulled
out the big guns. After inquiring about the South Pasadena
property they wanted so badly, they put up their condo for sale,
stretched their pennies to make a full-price offer of $525,000
for the new home and visited the next-door neighbor's house --
similar in design -- to get an idea of the floor plan.
Heeding their agent's advice,
they also wrote a letter to the seller of the house, which has a
pool and avocado, orange, pomegranate and loquat trees in the
backyard. They expressed their love of the neighborhood, their
involvement in Little League, their desire to raise their
children in the home. They expect to find out soon whether
they're the lucky buyers.
Patricia Kelly, the Huntington
Park Century 21 Powerhouse agent who represents the seller, said
that she received 100 calls about the sale and that 1,500 fliers
were snatched up immediately by buyers interested in the house,
which is priced competitively with others in the area.
The median price for a home in
South Pasadena jumped from $532,000 in the first quarter of 2003
to $674,000 in the first quarter of this year, according to
DataQuick Information Systems, creating a sense of urgency among
buyers interested in that neighborhood, Kelly said.
"People living in places like
San Bernardino and Lancaster are selling their homes, then
renting an apartment or living in hotels, and want to find homes
back here," Kelly said. "When they find a home, they
aggressively go after it." Whether they've seen it or not.
Agents usually discourage
buyers from signing contracts for homes they have not inspected,
but sometimes both parties give in to that scenario when, for
example, uncooperative tenants won't allow potential buyers to
see a home, or agents' clients live out of town.
Shorewood Realtors agent
Shirley DePasse navigated business executive Ed Sawyer, 45,
through just such a blind sale beginning in April, when the
Florida resident accepted a job promotion in Santa Monica. He
had only two days to find a home before heading back to
Jacksonville to prepare for a June move.
DePasse took Sawyer to North
Hills in the more affordable San Fernando Valley, where he
wanted to bid on a house the agent felt sure Sawyer's wife, Lina,
would dislike. But Sawyer, feeling desperate, insisted, so the
agent wrote up an offer. The appraisal came in lower than the
seller's asking price, so Sawyer passed, to his agent's relief.
That feeling was short-lived,
however, as DePasse scurried to find a home she knew her clients
would not see before purchasing.
She quickly found two homes for
sale, both of which the Sawyers bid on sight unseen, when
DePasse, at the 11th hour, saw a brand-new listing for a
four-bedroom townhome in Canyon Country, with all the amenities
the Sawyers hoped for: high ceilings, manicured backyard and
kitchen appliances thrown in.
DePasse pounced. The sellers
agreed to a two-week escrow and the Sawyers were in business.
With the help of technology --
photos of the home were sent via e-mail and contracts were faxed
-- the Sawyers got the townhome for $430,000, a price that would
have been far higher had other buyers tendered competing offers
that Memorial Day weekend, DePasse said. The Sawyers will see it
for the first time when they arrive at the end of the month,
with the moving van, their cat and high hopes.
"I'm not really nervous,"
Sawyer said. "I'm just relieved to have a house."
Real estate agents, typically
reluctant participants in sight-unseen sales, occasionally give
in themselves to the urge to buy without a look-see.
Aaron Zapata, 29, a Whittier
agent, put an offer on a Yorba Linda home a year and a half ago,
just before it went on the market, without seeing it. On the
brink of buying a condo, also sight unseen, Zapata and his wife,
Dawn, 28, jumped instead at the chance to buy the house, which
was in their price range.
They were acquainted with the
sellers through friends and trusted that the house would be just
right. Turns out, it was.
"We couldn't save fast enough
to wait for the opportunity to buy a house like that," Zapata
said, adding that the three-bedroom house already has
appreciated to $515,000, from the $355,000 they paid 18 months
ago. "We couldn't afford it today; prices are moving up that
fast."
Real estate experts recommend
that those determined to bid on a property they haven't seen
include in their contracts a contingency that the sale is
subject to the buyer's approval of the interior.
Or, buyers can make a backup
bid on a house whose interior they've seen, which the Sanchezes
are considering while they await the outcome of their offer.
"I feel like I've aged two
years in the last two weeks," Amy Sanchez said of her
roller-coaster experience in South Pasadena. "I'm trying to
ground myself in this chaos. I have to remind myself that if I
don't get the house, it's not the end of the world."
Source:
http://www.buildersmediagroup.com/news4.htm
Los Angeles Times
June 13, 2004 Sunday
Home Edition
Features Desk; Part K; Pg. 1
Diane Wedner, Times Staff Writer
|