RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE : Multiple-Offer Sales in Woodbridge Spark Hope of Turnaround
Deja vu or a sign of things to come?
Joan Gladstone of Gladstone International public relations in Irvine sold her home in Irvine this week--one day after listing it and in a two-party bidding war that ended when the successful buyer offered $2,000 more than the asking price.
The last time stories like that circulated was at the height of the buying boom in 1987-88.
Gladstone, whose clients include the Orange County Building Industry Assn., said the quick sale caught both her and her real estate agent by surprise because she had priced the 1,500-square-foot, 3-bedroom, single-family detached residence at the top end of the market.
Gladstone’s agent said other sales of the same model in Gladstone’s north lake neighborhood in Woodbridge had been closing at an average of $285,000 in the last year. Gladstone listed her place for $299,900.
Her agent entered the listing in the books Sunday night, and the first agent, with house hunter in tow, showed up on Gladstone’s doorstep at 9 a.m. Monday, she said.
“By the time I got home from the office Monday night, there were cards from nine realtors on the kitchen counter,” Gladstone said. “At 8 o’clock Monday evening, I had two realtors in the living room, each with a signed offer and a deposit check.”
The agent for the low bidder came back Tuesday morning with a new offer of $302,000, and Gladstone accepted.
“I don’t know if this was just a one-of-a-kind deal or if it means something’s happening in the market,” Gladstone said.
Her agent, Duffy Riebe, said he has seen a couple of other cases of multiple offers in the Woodbridge area recently but suspects it is an Irvine phenomenon and not a sign that the market is coming back with a roar.
Dan Slater, an agent who specializes in homes in central Orange and north Santa Ana, said he and the agents he knows definitely are not seeing signs of a return to the boom times.
“Business has picked up,” he said, “but prices are still pretty soft.”
