Over the last couple years, San Diego has been one of the top 2 hottest real estate markets in the country. Sellers are looking to make a quick sale at top dollar. Buyers are looking to find their dream home and take advantage of low interest rates without hurting their financial future. More than just an overview of the market, however, you need a real estate professional who can protect your interests each step of the way.

Ready to get started? Talk to a knowledgeable realtor like Rich Kushner, Broker Associate at Burke Real Estate Consultants, Inc. Along with an incredible breadth of real estate expertise, he offers experience in home inspections, appraisals, and loan administration. With over 20 years of experience, it’s no surprise that around 80 percent of his clients come from direct referrals and repeat business. You can find his website at Charitable Real Estate Agents.com.

With Kushner, you can get the guidance and expertise you need for a home sale or purchase—while also supporting your local community. He donates 10% of his commissions to his client’s favorite charity. His own personal favorite? The Humane Society.

From buyer financing to seller listing, from navigating a bidding war to knowing exactly what’s in the contract, no amount of online research can substitute for a realtor’s formal training and experience. Even in a seller’s market, buyers have important protections in place, and sellers may have tough choices to make along the way. Homes are frequently listed on Thursday or Friday and have multiple offers by the end of the weekend, but there’s a lot more that goes into completing a home sale.

Here’s one common situation that Kushner sees: “Sellers can ask for an above market value price, and get an offer for that, but that is before the appraisal. Frequently, it’s too high, and the appraisal is going to knock that price down.” There are cash buyers who aren’t constrained by appraisals, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to pay more. “Buyers who make a cash offer are often looking for a discount. The goal is to take the highest offer that is going to close…sometimes, the highest offer is not the best offer – financing and contingencies are all variables to be taken into consideration.  A realtor can help the seller understand what’s at stake with this decision.”

Don’t get overconfident just because you’ve been there before. As part of his repeat business, Kushner finds that people who have had positive experiences in the past may not realize exactly what’s at stake. “I’ve heard people tell me, ‘no need to go through the contract, this is the fifth house I’ve bought, and I’ll tell them that I’d feel better if they understood what they were signing. They think everything’s going to be fine, but by the time they get to the second or third page, they’re saying, ‘What? That’s what that means?!?’”

As strong as the homegrown crowd is, one of the reasons for San Diego’s hot market is people moving here from out of town. You can also see this trend of people moving to the area in terms of the peak season for local real estate. In many areas of the country, spring is the most popular time to list a property or to go house-hunting. In San Diego, it’s year-round, including around the holiday season.

Kushner explains, “Out-of-town visitors come in for the holidays. Kids are visiting parents, or parents are visiting kids. And the parents want the kids to live close by.” Nevertheless, there’s never a truly bad time of year to sell or buy a home in San Diego. From North County down to the border, Kushner knows the home styles, property values, and neighborhoods throughout the greater metro area. But like most real estate professionals, he also has an area of the city that he knows like his own backyard.

If you’re trying to get a head start on your house-hunting, education and schools is as good a place as any. Kushner explains, “The 56 Corridor—from Del Mar to Carmel Valley to Rancho Penasquitos to Poway—is known for having great schools.” Better yet, if a great school district is on your list of must-haves, you can then find a home at a location and price point that makes sense for you. By starting near Del Mar and the coastline and moving inland, you find the perfect home in any number of good areas.

With this in mind, this area is popular with both young and older families. Maybe you’re drawn to this area, but you’re not entirely sure why. Part of it is probably the location, which Kushner describes as “Centrally located to the expanding business districts of North County and, of course, to the beaches.  Easy access to north/south and east/west highways are also key” He continued, “Empty-nesters will look at this area and ask why the quality of schools matter to them, and I’ll remind them about resale value.”

Maybe you’re moving extra belongings out of the house as part of the staging preparation. Maybe you’re from out-of-town and using temporary housing while you look for your dream home. Or, once you move in, you may discover you have more stuff than you thought. With our San Diego storage, you can get free pickup, digital inventory, and on-demand returns for about the same price as self-storage. 

Whether you’re selling, buying, or moving, even the best realtors can’t completely eliminate the stress and time-crunch that tends to follow a real estate deal. Use our full-service storage and a knowledgeable realtor to help keep your head in a good place and to make the best decision you can for your San Diego real estate deal.