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807 Listings in Santa Clarita: Is Now the Time to Buy or Sell? · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: August 1st, 2025.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor McIver.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today's real estate update is going to include 807 total active listings on the market.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have about a 20% increase over the past couple months, and then we have over a 40% increase since last year in real estate listings for sale.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We were just in the high fours, low fives.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're over 800, and here we go.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: What we're watching is we're seeing it's taking longer for people to sell properties out there, though.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're having those days on market time frames increase.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've gone from anywhere from 10 to 15 to 20 days.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're up to around 40 to 50 to 60 days, depending on the area.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the real estate market is slowing, and that's very indicative of this time of the year.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Usually that springtime is hot.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: As we move into the summer, it still stays nice and steady.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: But then when we start to get into the fall, and I know we're not there yet, we just reached into August.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: But once schools start to go back in session, people that are looking for houses in order to get their kids into different school districts, different areas, maybe a lot of the movements come from the San Fernando Valley because people are paying for private school, and a lot of those areas wanting to come to Santa Clarita Valley so their kids can get into public school where they have very high remarks, uh, very high uh awards, their blue ribbon type schools, and those sorts of things.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's where that mindset seems to happen for the parents of kids that are wanting to transfer them to other schools, but then you get a little bit too late.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for the kids to start.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So usually people start to say stay put, so then we see the buyer drive slow down a little bit, and this year probably isn't going to be any different than years before.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Fed did meet, they didn't uh change any of that interest rate.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You got that little battle going on between uh the president and the Fed chair, Jerome Powell.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's very exciting, and uh apparently it looks like it's affecting all of us.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It would be awesome if that prime rate, the Fed funds rate actually came down a little bit, and that would affect the mortgage rate as it always does.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not as much as you would think, because that Fed funds rate that's really the money of what it costs for banks to trade back and forth, the night rate, as they call it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're more based on as mortgages, more based on the 10-year bond.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: But any big change in that does affect the mortgage rate as well.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: That would definitely kick off a lot of buyers.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And right now, the big hold off on people wanting to sell their houses are something called golden handcuffs.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you've haven't heard this before, that's where basically people are at 2% and 3% interest rate.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're going to go buy something, sell and buy something, they're gonna be at six and seven, depending on credit.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of where the rates are currently, and that's a big increase for them.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the numbers in a million dollars worth of property, million dollars worth of financing, those are big numbers, folks.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of different in payments, so it's holding potential sellers steady.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're not moving, they're not going anywhere, they're not listing their properties for sale.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I've seen come out lately are more of these organizations that are offering to buy properties for cash.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's no inspections, they're just gonna swoop in, save you all the headache, as they say, from listing with a real estate agent.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say it's worth it if you look at the number they're gonna give you, and then you look at what the market will bear on your property, what the actual comp value is, even now, folks, it's worth it for you to have the headache.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I would have the headache to make an additional fifty, sixty thousand dollars from where they're offering you on the property.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if your property conforms with cash only, if that's the only way it's going to sell because of maybe, maybe you have a current loan in place, but after that there was some insurance issue where insurance policies aren't being written or whatever it may be, there's a lot of different reasons why a property could go from being financeable to not being financeable, just besides condition.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: If a property is in such bad shape that it's been red tagged or something and the improvement basically is worth zero, then the financing of that would be like buying a piece of land.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a lot more difficult.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just say it's it's a normal residence structure, condo town home, and that Tando Town Home is usually where this has a bigger impact.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: If in fact that's what it is and it's a cash-only process, there are still a lot of cash buyers out there.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: The latest deal I closed, cash buyer, and that's a million-dollar piece of property, that is something that does exist out there.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So these are people that have cash from sales, maybe some kind of a 1031 exchange, but they have money from selling a real estate piece of real estate.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And now they want to come back and they want to get back into the market.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you being cash only is going to be beneficial to them, but they'll also make you a substantially higher offer than what you're going to experience with these different companies, these investment groups that want to come in and swoop in and save you from the headache of selling your property.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay, folks.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Have the headache.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have a headache, give me a call.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll deal with it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: We'll work on it and we'll make it work for you, but there are quite a few cash buyers out there.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So don't let that be a reason.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Also, one of the things that I'm seeing sellers do more of, especially now in this market, is a pre-sale home inspection.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've not heard of this.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: It does cost you whatever a home inspection in the pre-sale world costs, could be five, six, seven hundred dollars, maybe less in some cases, maybe more in some cases, depending on the home side, home size and complexity.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a really good showing of faith when a buyer comes in.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've already done the home inspection, you've already had somebody come and take care of all the issues that a home inspector would point out, health and safety stuff, maybe some cosmetic stuff, but that really does prime your listing to get a lot of attention.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that can be advertised and marketed about it, which buyers can walk in feeling secure that they're buying something that's already been looked at by an expert.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your home inspector, the one that you choose, the reputation, is going to fall back on this.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, this isn't something where the buyer's going to say, well, we'll accept your home inspection.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll just tell our home inspector to pound sand.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably not going to be the case.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're probably going to still have their own.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: But that home inspector that's going in and looking at the property, usually they're not one of those competitive types that really want to win.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they're going to look at that other home inspection report.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's done by a credible person, there's nothing to fear.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Their home inspector's probably going to find many of the same things that have already been remedied, or not find them because they've already been fixed.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: But at least it'll draw their attention to maybe something more serious that might have been missed.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: But it does help you because it shows transparency.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, you have this wonderful report that's been prepared.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's all written up.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have the remedy to it, and then the cost, and then you can charge even more for your residence because you did your due diligence beforehand.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Most sellers don't do this.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Most sellers are a little bit scared about having somebody go into their house beforehand because they don't know what they're going to uncover, and especially if they're a type of seller that hasn't taken care of their property in a long time.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at loans and interest rates out there, I do know that, like I said in the beginning, the Fed, the Fed met and they're not going to do anything with interest rates.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We still see people in California moving out here, even with the interest rates, but we also see a lot of people leaving.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Even more would probably leave if that interest rate was reduced.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing properties taking longer to sell, as I mentioned.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have 807 total active listings on the market for sale, which is a little bit higher than we saw in the last couple months.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, as I said earlier, quite a bit higher than our numbers last year.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the properties that are selling are still selling pretty much at the same rate.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been holding steady.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to take a lot of changes in the market to really change this market from where it is still in a seller's market to a buyer's market.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now there is a massive home development, new housing that was approved recently.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Something that you should look at is what are they charging for those taxes and what are they charging for those the Melaruz taxes on those which are an extra tax base above and beyond what's normally paid in LA County, which is typically about 1.25% of the new assessed value, which would be your purchase price.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if you got a million dollar piece of property, that's what you bought it for,$12,500 about are you're gonna be your annual taxes.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if there's Melaruz, and that's when if you go into new housing, you should have somebody with you on your side, which we get compensated by the new housing at no cost to you, but you have another set of eyes on all of the process.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But going in there, they're gonna say, well, the Melaruz taxes might be 0.5 or maybe even 1% more.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's an extra 10 grand a year on to if you're buying a million-dollar new home, if that's what their Melaruz happens to be.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good chunk of change, folks.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of money.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not to mention the homeowners association.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: They could be very large and in charge in those realms, especially at the beginning of building.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it at build out there'll be somewhat the the waters are settled a little bit.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the homeowners association dues will be somewhat less because you have total occupancy and all the houses have sold at that point.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: But at the beginning, you're gonna be paying a premium.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: That might be a good negotiation point for you.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, we'll be happy to buy this house, and especially if they're a little slow, those builders might negotiate some of the HOA fees that you're gonna be paying, which are gonna be more than what's gonna actually occur at build out.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's something to consider.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right, this has been your update.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: We are at August 1st, 2025.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready, go to Santa ClaritaOpenhouses.com.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have the system unlocked.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can search for real estate, see everything that's for sale.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I did a show on looking at older on-the-market properties first, instead of the way most websites reflect newest first.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes those older ones haven't had any price changes or reductions, and you can swoop in and maybe make an offer that the seller will definitely entertain that's a lot less than their listing price because they haven't done their price adjustments in a long time.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the only thing keeping them from doing it is an offer on the property.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you see those older on-the-market properties that fit at Santa ClaritaOpenhouses.com, not a bad strategy.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You might be able to pick something up for less than what the fair market value is, depending on who the seller is.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, make sure you're good to each other.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to just jump on a Zoom meeting with me, zoommescv.com.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Zoomme scv.com.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Go there, you'll see my calendar at my Santa Clarita Open Houses website.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to scroll down, choose a date, and we'll have a conversation.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'll listen to what you're thinking about doing in real estate.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: We'll pick it apart, we'll strategize, and we'll come to a good determination.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not ChatGPT, it's Connor McIver.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been selling real estate since 1998.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It is my pleasure, and we will see you in the next one.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for watching.