Irvine Realtor Ratings 7-8-2007

Since we are the Irvine Housing Blog, and since we can be unbiased (we don’t take advertising dollars from realtors), we are the perfect conduit for information regarding the performance of local realtors. We are strictly acting as an information conduit — with our own interpretation, of course. The source data can be found at OC Home Review. The OC Home Review’s list of Irvine Realtors provides a ranking of realtors based on the number of active listings they currently have on the market. Since it is my opinion that this is a completely meaningless statistic, I have downloaded their information and sorted it on different criteria.

I have compiled 4 different categories of agent rankings:

  • Largest Number of Sales
  • Highest Sales Rate
  • Lowest Sales Rate
  • Dishonorable Mention

The largest number of sales is self-explanatory. The agents who are closing deals, particularly in this market environment, are doing a great job, and I wish to recognize their accomplishment here. If you want to sell your house in Irvine, these are the people you should be seeking out.

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The Highest Sales Rate is another way of looking at performance. These realtors may not take as many listings and sell as many houses, but if they take a listing, they get the job done. These are the realtors who will be able to focus more attention on your listing and make sure it sells. To make this list, the realtor must have had at least 4 listings, and sold at least 3 of those.

These final two categories are something you will only find on a website like ours. These are the lists of realtors who are not doing a good job.Kool Aid Man There are plenty of starving realtors out there who are doing no job at all, but these lists do not include those. To make either of these lists, you have to be actively listing properties. The one thing both of these lists have in common is that the realtors are not acting in their clients best interest. These are the realtors who pandered to their clients fantasies and wishing prices and put properties on the market at prices that simply will not sell. When these sellers most needed a dose of market reality, these realtors served them kool aid.

The Lowest Sales Rate list is composed of realtors who had at least 3 market listings and less than a 25% sales rate. Basically, these people did not get the job done. A realtor’s job is not to make a homeowner feel good about their property values by stroking their egos with ridiculous asking prices. A realtor’s job is to sell houses — period. Unless they are getting paid as psychologists or emotional hookers by pretend sellers, they are simply wasting everyone’s time. Which leads us to our last category: Dishonorable Mention.

Dishonerable Mention is our WTF Hall of Fame — or Hall of Infamy if you prefer. Any realtor with a listing that makes our WTF list is featured here. A realtor can be removed from the list in three ways:

  1. Make the Largest Number of Sales list.
  2. Make the Highest Sales Rate list.
  3. Sell the house for a purchase price within 5% of the asking price. If this occurs, we will admit we were wrong and apologize.

Other than that, they are blacklisted for life.

If you click on the agent’s name in the lists below, it will lead you to a complete listing of the properties these agents represent. I clicked on some of these, particularly the poor performers, to see what was — or wasn’t — going on. Two things jumped out at me: first, John McMonigle and Rodney Sudbeck have almost all of their listings in Turtle Ridge, and nothing is selling there; second, Lee Ann Canaday (the Sunday Morning TV Show) took on a bunch of listings in the Marquee towers, and nothing is selling there either.

Largest Number of Sales

Agent Name Sold Expired Sold Rate Active Total Listings

1 Todd Muradian 62 20 75.61% 15 97

2 Roula Fawaz 25 9 73.53% 0 34

3 Frank Agahi 17 12 58.62% 13 42

4 Fred Stepanian 17 12 58.62% 0 29

5 Mike Dunn 16 8 66.67% 0 24

6 Matthew Ingalls 15 6 71.43% 0 21

7 Doris Lipscomb 15 4 78.95% 0 19

8 Ali Atri 14 8 63.64% 3 25

9 Donna Gillespie 14 4 77.78% 0 18

10 Hanu Reddy 13 7 65% 0 20

Highest Sales Rate

Agent Name Sold Expired Sold Rate Active Total Listings

1 Ryan Kashanchi 11 1 91.67% 0 12

2 Tom Nash 7 1 87.50% 3 11

3 Chris Merritt 11 2 84.62% 4 17

4 Amy Farrell-Caves 5 1 83.33% 0 6

5 Dale Cheema 5 1 83.33% 0 6

6 Lynn & Gina Yang 5 1 83.33% 0 6

7 Sherman Smith 4 1 80% 3 8

8 Maurice Sousse 4 1 80% 0 5

9 Mehri Borhani 4 1 80% 0 5

10 Kevin Tolan 4 1 80% 0 5

Lowest Sales Rate

Agent Name Sold Expired Sold Rate Active Total Listings

1 John Mcmonigle 0 8 0% 0 8

2 Rodney S. Sudbeck 0 5 0% 1 6

3 Michael Lowary 0 4 0% 0 4

4 Janto Hariyanto 0 3 0% 1 4

5 Connie Chung 0 3 0% 1 4

6 Olga Matthews 0 3 0% 0 3

7 Hannah Lim 0 2 0% 10 12

8 Kerianne Waldrop 1 5 16.67% 3 9

9 Nancy Keeley-Campbell 1 5 16.67% 1 7

10 Lee Ann Canaday 3 12 20% 0 15

Dishonorable Mention

Paula Allen – WTF-Were-You-Thinking Prices

Mija Kim – LOL, OMG, WTF?WTF

Marcus Garcia – Insulting Asking Prices

Brian Righetti – Edington Terrace Trifecta

Kathy Kudray – Turtle Ridge Dreamers

Joanne Chivers – Turtle Ridge Dreamers

Sheila Mayers – Turtle Ridge Dreamers

Dale Cheema – Birds of a Feather (will be removed for making highest sales rate list)

Sally Anne Sheridan – Birds of a Feather

Susan Lombardi – Happy Birthday

Michael Pickell – New Mountain High

Final ThoughtsStocks

As many of you have probably speculated, we have a number of realtors who read this blog regularly. The vast majority are lurkers who just want to be aware of what the bears are saying. Some of them may not be happy about being called out here.

Too bad.

Realtors who are doing a poor job should be called out. A spotlight should be shined on them until they perform better or get out of the profession. Perhaps a little public humiliation will cause them to change their ways. They should be happy this isn’t medieval Europe. They had effective ways of dealing with problem behavior.

Bring back the stocks

Pie in the Cobalt Sky ** Update 1 **

This WTF award winner just keeps on getting better. Now the property is now for lease at $25,000 a month! Anybody want to guess what the owner’s carrying costs are? Personally, If I were going to spend that kind of money on rent, I would take this beachfront property in Laguna Beach, but that is just me. I don’t know… Irvine tract home, beachfront in Laguna Beach… That is a tough choice…

Cobalt Sky Kitchen

Asking Price: $5,200,000

Purchase Price: $3,458,000

Purchase Date: 7/29/2005

IrvineRenterAddress: 25 Cobalt Sky, Irvine, CA 92603

Beds: 5
Baths: 5.5
Sq. Ft.: 5,700
Lot Sq. Ft.: 21,000
Year Built: 2005
Stories: 2
Type: Single Family Residence
View: City Lights, Mountain, Panoramic, Park or Green BeltWTF
County: Orange
Neighborhood: Turtle Ridge
$/Sq. Ft.: $912
MLS#: S468569
Status: Active on market
On Redfin: 181 days

From Redfin, “There is no lack of high quality appointments evident as you survey th is gracious home of luxury. Each room opens onto a gorgeous courtyard creating an excellent flow, perfect for entertaining. Richly appointed kitchen & nook complete with elegant cabinets, beautiful center island with top of the line slab granite countertop & state of the art stainless steel appliances. A wine cellar for the connoisseur. Beautiful backyard complete with designer inspired pool & loggia perfect for your parties.”

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This property was first profiled at OC Fliptrack, but I wanted to revisit it because it is revealing of the mindset of sellers accustomed to a bull market. First, to put this price in context, lets look at the identical house available from the builder on the same street:

28 Reserve

Price: $3,595,000

28 RESERVE
Irvine, CA 92603

Beds: 5
Baths: 5.5
Sq. Ft.: 5,699
Lot Sq. Ft.: 14,441
Year Built: 2007
Stories: 2
Type: Single Family Residence
County: Orange
Neighborhood: Turtle Ridge
$/Sq. Ft.: $631
MLS#: S451762
Status: Active on market
On Redfin: 317 days

Look at these two properties. They are almost identical. What would make one seller believe he could possibly sell his home for $1,700,000 more than an identical home on the same street, particularly when the lower priced home has been on the market for almost a year?

In a bull market, prices rise because bidders constantly raise their offers. Sellers can set a price, even a ridiculous one, and know they will eventually sell because the market will come to them. These are unique properties, so the supply is very limited. This seller has reasoned that the builder will eventually sell their home, then he will have the only property on the street available for sale. Buyers will have to pay his price. This mentality might have been successful in 2004 or 2005, but right now, it makes this guy look like an idiot — which he is.

The collapse of easy credit financing at 10 times income will stop this sale from ever occurring. Bidders simply will not be able to raise the money to buy this home. Yes, it is possible some very rich individual may simply pay cash for a home like this, but with many great estates to choose from for $5,200,000 why would they buy an Irvine tract home?

WTFThis is not exactly the worst place to be trapped by falling housing prices, but the seller should save himself the embarrassment of putting this house for sale at a ridiculous asking price. Maybe now that this post has humiliated him publicly, maybe he will take it off the market — I doubt it, greed springs eternal.
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Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

Need a New Castle? ** Update 1 **

Newcastle Front

Old Asking Price: $549,000

New Asking Price: $490,000

Purchase Price: $555,000

Purchase Date: 7/19/2006

Address: 609 Newcastle, Irvine, CA 92620IrvineRenter

Beds: 2
Baths: 2
Sq. Ft.: 1,260
Year Built: 1998
Stories: 2
Type: Condominium
View: Mountain
County: Orange
Neighborhood: Northwood
$/Sq. Ft.: $436
MLS#: P564715
Status: Active on market
On Redfin: 68 days

From Redfin, “Great Location in Northwood’s gated community, Spacious Kitchen with w alk-in pantry, lots of cabinets, Master Bedroom with master bath and walk-in closet, Inside laundry, Private Balcony, Close to schools, park, shops, Community Pool/Spa and much much more!!!” More exclamation points…

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New CastleThis flipper didn’t even bother putting in granite tops…

As you have probably noticed, the low end of the market is showing the most signs of stress. Assuming a 6% commission, this flipper stands to lose $38,940. That’s almost $4,000 per month over the 10 months of ownership. Also, it probably won’t sell at this price, so the expect that loss to grow.

This poor seller may have to go cry in his beer…

** Update 1 **

With the new, significantly-lowered asking price, this flipper now stands to lose $94,400 after commissions.

Making Hay

Rallies don’t last forever, despite what realtors may say. This seller was hoping he was making hay while the sun shines, but he was late to the harvest, and now he is a 2004 rollback.

Hayward Kitchen

IrvineRenterAsking Price: $599,900

Purchase Price: $600,000

Purchase Date: 6/1/2004

Address: 172 Hayward, Irvine, CA 92602

Beds: 3

Baths: 2

Sq. Ft.: 1,588

Year Built: 2001

Stories: 3

Type: Condominium

Rollback

County: Orange

Neighborhood: Northpark

$/Sq. Ft.: $378

MLS#: S479574

Status: Active on market

On Redfin: 110 days

Unsold in 90+ days

From Redfin, “IMMACULATE HOME IN GATE GAURDED COMMUNITY OF NORTHPARK. .. SHOWS VERY NICE. .. UPGRADED THROUGHOUT WITH HARDWOOD FLOORS IN LIVING ROOM, KITCHEN AND ALL BEDROOMS. .. THRIRD BEDROOM IS USED AS AN OFFICE WITH ANICE BUILT-INS. .. GOURMET KITCHEN WITH COIAN COUNTERTOP AND FULL BACK SPLASH AND GE APPLIANCES. .. . PLANTATION SHUUTERS, CLOSET ORGANIZERS AND MUCH MUCH MORE. .”

Do realtors have a spell checker? And what is an ANICE?

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I am finding more and more of these 2004 rollbacks. Assuming a 6% commission, and assuming a property that has sat on the market for 110 days sells at its asking price, this seller is going to lose $36,094 on a 2004 purchase. Do you think this person was told, “prices won’t crash, they might level out for a while, but they won’t actually DROP.” Well, this seller seems to be stubbornly holding to the flatline. I have a news flash for them, “Prices do drop.”