Of course, a high cash offer with no contingencies is only as good as getting the cash into escrow; in which case, get those disclosures filled out completely beforehand and have buyers acknowledge all disclosures from the jump.
Experts suggest making your house sparkle and making sure your house is staged well for buyers, and taking care to ensure the optimal curb appeal of your home. More importantly, secure and disclose cleared pest control and house inspection reports before actively marketing your home to buyers.
C.A.R. contracts are "as-is" contracts by default; specifically, the Residential Purchase Agreement (RPA) suggests "as-is" is what you make of "as-is." To wit, entertain only those offers received accompanied by all disclosures- signed, sealed, and delivered- at the same time to minimize contingency triggers used by buyers to back out or renegotiate price and terms while under contract. If something is a material fact, disclose that something upfront and early. When in doubt about the materiality of something, disclose that something anyway.
With respect to how this affects transactions between buyers and sellers in the Pruneyard Dry Creek neighborhood at Campbell, the market makers who represent principals should know that this neighborhood is stable, of very low turnover, and replete with a heightened sense of being a tight knit family-friendly local community. Of the 945 houses or so in Pruneyard Dry Creek, all are custom houses of similar age, and roughly 30-35 houses change hands each year. Thus, roughly 4% of the houses change hands in any given year, which is not unusual for a Silicon Valley neighborhood. What is unusual is the fact that no two market makers have listed houses for sale in any of the last three years, save one who had two listings in close proximity to one another in a very short time period.
There is no one neighborhood expert with a lock on a significant market maker presence in this neighborhood. Apparently, the choice of market maker is as unique as the choice of a house in a neighborhood of custom houses, wherein few, if any, are identical to another- at least not in terms of being built by any one builder of "ticky-tacky houses all in a row."
There is, however, a neighborhood expert who knows this neighborhood as well as anyone among market makers. This neighborhood expert purchased a small house on a big lot in 2012 for about $500/sf. In and of itself, this is not an unusual occurrence. What is unusual is that this house was razed, a larger house was constructed in its place and sold in the same year for $400/sf or so.
In the opinion of a retired builder (with 40-years of residential construction experience within the Greater SF Bay Area under his belt and currently a Keller Williams Realtor), one who lives and works in this neighborhood, the feat accomplished by that neighborhood expert is not so unusual. This author is not that builder, though this author recognizes that a property can be purchased for $500/sf and resell within one year for $400/sf at a handsome profit.
In general, the smaller the house, the higher the price per square foot of living space. One thing this author can reasonably assert with confidence, price per square foot is a significant pricing factor in Pruneyard Dry Creek. The average price per square foot of houses sold in this neighborhood for 2012 hovered around the mid to high $400s/sf range. As of 14 April 2013, three of six houses remaining unsold after at least two weeks on the market are in the $569-$686/sf range (details).
One particular rental house on the market for ten days has an asking price revised lower $100,000 because it is not selling fast enough for the absentee owner's taste, apparently. What was initially offered at $795,000 is now offered at $695,000, which is a 12.5% price cut. What is now $393/sf was $449/sf ten days ago. Another as yet unsold house on the same street was listed one day earlier at $399.50/sf, which other house has more square footage of living space than the one lowered $100k (details).
In summary, market makers have an inherent responsibility and obligation to represent material facts correctly concerning the market, in the best interest of their respective principals- buyers and sellers. Sellers have an inherent responsibility and obligation to the market that includes full disclosure of material facts concerning the property itself. Buyers have an inherent responsibility and obligation to themselves to perform their own due diligence when making a house purchase decision.
In a word, innexussis.
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