Home Solutions San Diego Blog

In San Diego there are many, many real estate agents and it can be a challenge to find someone you can really trust. As a former real estate agent I’ve met my share of agents who were not-so-honest. However, there are still quite a few agents out there who have their clients best interest at heart.

One San Diego real estate agent I know who is indeed a professional and highly experienced in the field is Andrew Arroyo. He was kind enough to take some time to answer a few questions…

What did you do before you became a real estate broker?

I was a high school student. I worked a minimum wage job delivering pizzas for $3.75 an hour in 1994 to save up money to buy my first car. I pumped gas for a while as well when I was 14. After high school I went straight into real estate and decided to skip college.

Who or what inspired you to get into real estate?

A very good friend of mine who I worked with at the pizza place also worked at a real estate appraisal agency his mother owned. I started to assist him with a few appraisals and had the chance to meet some of the real estate agents. The agents were mostly jokers, extremely obnoxious like all the clichés. I decided on the spot there was room in the industry for down to earth, hardworking agents. After meeting with a few more I realized that is what I was going to do the minute I finished high school. I remember being in class during the last recession in 1992 reading classified ads, speculating which homes would foreclose.

What’s your view of the current real estate market?

The current market is challenging, especially for those who purchased multiple homes or over leveraged themselves. When you analyze the market between 2000 and 2005, it was like a great party where everyone was having a good time and making lots of money. Today is like the hangover. There was a combination of critical factors that created this bubble. The public started speculating heavily and the Federal Reserve over did the low interest rates. This is why we now have inflation and gas prices over $5. The lenders didn’t help either by setting unrealistic guidelines for unqualified borrowers to get big loans. All financial markets, including real estate, are made up of fear, greed, supply and demand. At the present, we are over supplied and the psychology is full of fear; a classic down trending market. Buyers are scared to buy and sellers just want to break even. All that said, we will be just fine here in San Diego once the shake out is finished, California has always been a boom-bust state. Besides, we have the best weather pattern in the country and 76 million baby boomers looking for sunshine.

I read somewhere that the luxury market hasn’t declined very much. Have you experienced any slow-down in business?

Our business grew 40% in 2007 and we should hit 50% growth this year. I credit all of our growth to my hardworking team, they are priceless. Thankfully, we built systems modeled from the last cycle 1990-1995 when prices declined 50% which have got us through the tough times. We actually have been donating money to charities this year.

The luxury real estate market has not declined much….yet. Many people believe that the luxury market is immune from the real estate debacle. However, all price ranges will eventually succumb when the markets reach equilibrium. The way real estate markets recess is that foreclosures slowly climb the ladder. They start with the lower end homes like the sub-prime market and slowly work their way up the ladder. The luxury markets will have there fair share of troubled times before this cycle is over.

You’ve sold over $100M in real estate which is a phenomenal achievement. What is the secret to your success?

When I was 23 when I sold my first home over $5M when people told me I could never sell real estate being so young. The bottom line is that people want an agent they can trust and will deliver them a good deal. One example is a home I found for a buyer for $10.6M that was sold for $17.7M two years later netting the owner $7M. Not a bad day at the races.

Our secret for success with sellers is the custom marketing plan we implement for each home; which translates to higher prices for their homes. Our secret for buyers is providing them the knowledge to make an educated decision when finding their dream home. In general, our team is routinely quizzed to know the market like the back of their hand; taking the temperature daily. Our exclusive database helps also.

If you could only give one tip to home sellers, what would it be?

Don’t hesitate. If you truly need to sell your home in this market you need act swiftly and aggressively. Waiting it out is a mistake if you are leveraged and have little cash saved. You will need experience and exceptional marketing on your side. Many sellers confuse marketing with advertising and hire agents who do the most advertising which is a mistake. Make sure you are working with a firm or an agent who is well capitalized to spend the money necessary to get your home sold.

How about advice for home buyers?

Find an expert who really knows the area. You can spend dozens of hours looking at homes online until you are blue in face and learn nothing about the underlying value certain neighborhoods offer. We live in a do-it-myself generation which is great for purchasing many items, just not your home. When you go to the doctor’s office you don’t tell the doctor what you will prescribe for yourself. You tell the doctor your symptoms and they use their knowledge and experience to provide you a solution. A good real estate agent should listen well and do the same. The metric that needs to be studied carefully today by home buyers is price per square foot. Once again you need an expert to share the history of that metric, if not you have no benchmark.

If you’d like to buy or sell a home in the La Jolla, Del Mar, or Rancho Santa Fe area, contact Andrew Arroyo at 858-342-9292 or email: vip [at] andrewarroyo.com. Visit his website: www.andrewarroyorealestate.com/imain.html