Dave’s a broker himself, but we’re both affiliated with Prudential California. We think it’s a good company, but still don’t recommend picking an agent by his or her company.

As for franchise affiliation, Dave’s worked for Prudential, Gallery of Homes, and Realty Register (for those of you who were around in the 80s)–without ever changing office, managers, or corporate president!

We could probably service a seller in Orange, but would most likely find a local agent for a buyer there, depending on the specific situation. After over 30 combined years selling & something like 80 combined years living in So Cal, we’ve gotten to know a lot of communities.

We have represented sellers with property from the west San Fernando Valley to a 400 acre “dry farm” in Oklahoma.

In both of those cases, we located and contacted experienced local agents to assist us, but we stayed in the loop for various reasons.

We generally service the area roughly south of the 105 freeway between the 710 and 55 freeways, but have been going further south into OC of late, depending on the situation. Blair is also familiar with the area around his alma mater, Biola, in La Mirada.

For buyers out of our area, we normally find a competent local agent to refer them to.

Dave Emerson here, one of the authors::

Good question, Cyberdude. Figuring out how much info to include is always a challenge. Thanks for asking!

Here are the details.

This is a vacant house which this seller, who lives near Riverside, inherited. So it’s been sitting empty for six months with nobody getting any use or value out of it, declining in value, while the seller pays the mortgage, taxes, gardener, utilities, & commutes out here to check it out periodically.

This was a very nice but overpriced home that needed some tweaking in staging, aggressive marketing, and an immediate, aggressive price “adjustment,” as we diplomatically say. In any market, especially a declining one, our goal is always to have the home in a solid escrow within 30 days of putting it on the market. When our clients cooperate, we normally have the home in escrow within ten days. (See “How to Sell Your So Cal Home for Top Dollar in 30 Days” )

There’s no reason that home shouldn’t have been in escrow five months ago. Instead, it’s still sitting vacant and unsold, and a little the worse for wear/time.

During those five months since we should have had it in escrow we’ve seen major declines in value, as you’re aware. I estimate it at roughly $30,000 - $40,000 for this specific home. There are currently 6 homes for sale on his street, including a couple below-market foreclosures. There were about 2 6 months ago.

Instead of banking his ever-declining equity or using it to pay down credit card and car loans, the seller’s been making about $4,000 a month payments on interest, tax, and insurance. $4,000 x 5 months = $20,000. (Technically, it would have only been closed for about 4 months by now, but it isn’t even in escrow yet, so I added a fifth month.)

I could add in costs of ownership like the gardener, trips out weekly to inspect it, utilities, and ongoing repairs. There’s also the effect an extended time on the market has on buyers’ perceptions. Unoccupied homes just don’t get better sitting–landscaping deteriorates, dust and dirt accumulate, things break while nobody’s there. If his insurance company finds out it’s vacant, insurance costs could increase tenfold.

So we’re already well over $50,000–and there’s still no sign of that home selling any time soon. All because he picked an agent for his gimmick and friendliness (as well as our # 1 way not to pick an agent, coming later today). Instead the seller should have looked for experience, diligence, competence, integrity, track record, and appropriateness for the property and situation. The agent he chose did have a “Talking House Sign,” but had never sold a home in that tract, had only a few years experience, and had a track record of selling only 1 of every 4 or 5 listings taken.

The other sad fact, is that when the seller first invited us over to give him input about seven months ago, he’d already spent several months and tens of thousands of dollars trying to “fix it up,” while the market was declining. Then he tried to sell it himself at a price way over market for another 4 -5 months. We’ve been preaching “the time to sell is yesterday” for the past two years. Had this seller called us when he first inherited the property we could have saved him well over $150,000, between declines in value, expenses for upgrades, and ownership costs.

The sooner a seller calls us, the more money, time, and grief we can save him or her. In this market, it’s kind of like treating cancer as early as possible! 562.822.7653.

Does that help?