Why Sellers Cancel, Pricing Mistakes, & Foreclosure Strategies – Santa Clarita Real Estate Insights

Why do home sellers cancel contracts? What happens when a property doesn’t sell? In this episode of the Santa Clarita Real Estate Podcast, we break down the biggest reasons sellers back out of deals, the impact of overpricing, and how to protect yourself with written agreements.

We’ll also explore foreclosure-era banking strategies—how banks historically reduced prices every 30 days when homes didn’t move and what today’s sellers can learn from it. Plus, we’ll analyze the latest Santa Clarita real estate trends:
✔ 88 new listings this week
✔ 87 price reductions (mostly sellers correcting overpriced homes)
✔ 14 properties fell out of escrow—often due to financing issues
✔ 75 homes went into escrow despite shifting conditions

💡 Sellers: Learn how to price strategically to avoid cancellations and maximize buyer interest.
💡 Buyers: Find opportunities in homes that fall out of escrow and how to position yourself for success.

If you're buying or selling in Santa Clarita, this is must-know information to stay ahead in today’s market. Tune in now!

#SantaClaritaRealEstate #HomeSellers #Foreclosure #MarketUpdate #ConnorWithHonor #RealEstateTips

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Transcript

0:03

and I talked to other agents of course and they give me the idea as to what's happening in some cases the agents believe or the clients actually believe the agents either oversold them and under delivered so they basically promised something that they could not achieve and the other one has to do with just not being upfront and transparent with a client of course it's a lot of times that could be a misunderstanding but it's that's why it's very important for the buyers and sellers of the world when they're dealing with anybody any sales professional whether it's in real estate or some other venture make sure that you back up whatever you're being told in writing and make sure you make it very clear with him this is how that process is going to be all the way through you're going to make sure that in fact when you're being communicated with that everything's gonna be backed up and writing of course everybody well not everybody some people like phone calls some people would rather have text messages but either one of those should also be sent in an email just to verify everybody's on the same sheet of music when the balloon goes up so we can all be together forever to throw in some military terminology alright so right now we have 15 coming soon listings so it's gonna include all of the cities so that's 15 being posted 88 new have hit this last seven days 87 properties have had their prices changed these are almost all 95% of these 88 are reductions in price enlisting price now that doesn't mean the market is starting to reduce in price overall we're still seeing an increase these are sellers that started with their prices too high in the beginning so now they are doing a recalculation of sorts and usually the way the banks ran back in the foreclosure markets that speared off basically in 2007 or started then we see the bank strategy was usually about a 30 day time on market time frame when they didn't get any offers or the property didn't sell then they were able to have that price reduced to whatever the current market happened to be a couple of those though it reflected on the real estate agent that they were working with that had the first broker price opinion and then of course there was an additional broker price opinion usually ordered from another agent that wasn't gonna get the listing so if that first agent failed to sell the property and then the other agent would typically get reassigned that listing and the banks had the right to fire the agents at will at any particular point because that was what it said in a contract that was back in that particular market now regular sellers usually attend to that same time frame I do know that 30 days is really the sweet spot when a property isn't moving much to re evaluate the price but it could also be if you have an overall market where it's taking 60 to 90 to 120 or even more days to sell real estate listings a price or price reduction doesn't really change much but they do start to kick off a new line of advertising online whenever there is an adjustment in that price so even if it's $1 it's going to change of the syndication sites are gonna repool the listing and start to populate it up near the top so even those small reductions and price could actually help and right now we had those price changes that we had 14 properties that failed to sell during the escrow process actually falling out in the last seven days and a lot of times they're called bomb properties back on market or Bom usually when that happens it doesn't really have a lot to do with the residents it could be a buyer ability to finance situation where they were approved for a loan or maybe they didn't get there everything actually looked at by their particular lender and maybe the lender said oh you're good don't even sweat it you're gonna be fine and then taking their word for it because they talk to more with a telephone maybe this individual didn't know they had something on their credit report maybe they didn't know that going out and opening a new line of credit was going to harm them maybe they weren't aware that going out and actually paying off a credit card was going to cause a problem and in some cases it does so whenever you're getting close to getting an Astro or actually I'll say it this way whenever you originally get pre approved for a mortgage don't change anything unless it's something that you and your lender discussed and if you're going to do something on your own accord make sure you communicate that with your linder verbally but also re emphasize and re regurgitate continue to talk call them and email them as what I was trying to say email them and make sure that they understand that you are going to do what you and them talked about before you do it and get some verification back from them because in some cases sometimes changing even something it looks like a benefit is going to harm you financially and we see that in the properties that come back onto the market usually when people are looking at a property they're pretty good at judging the that particular property when they go in from the very beginning even before the home inspection and if something is revealed during the home inspection helpful when it comes to taking care of those things because usually the things that are requested after a home inspection have to do with safety things and health type things with regard to the property that being the case whenever the seller is looking at this request for repairs that the buyers typically submit they understand that they're gonna have to do it anyway even if they don't sell to this particular buyer because now it's been discovered it has to be disclosed and usually in most cases the next buyer is probably going to have that same type of request so there's that all right so these are the back on market properties 75 properties are actually in escrow have gone into escrow this past week we have 27 properties that have gone to the active in escrow status you can see that that's where the properties that still want to have viewings and also that still want they show active online and some real estate syndication sites what I've done at mine at Santa Clarita Openhouses com is I've made sure that those listings show up as if they're not actually for sale but you'll see those in the tabulated listings on the site cause I draw directly from the multiple listing service and you'll see that they stay active under contract so you particular status in some cases it doesn't hurt to still go view those properties cause that's what the sellers intend and in some cases just like we talked about the 14 properties that fell out of escrow you'll actually see that in some cases these properties will come back on and now you've already seen it so you could move on it a lot quicker typically that second go around into escrow if they had a high drive on that property lots of viewings maybe multiple offers usually some of those buyers are still gonna be around but if you didn't submit at that time or maybe you lost out that's a good time for your agent to jump on it again and say listen you were very interested in the property having said that even while a properties in escrow if you had a lot of intention with regard to wanting to purchase it but your offer wasn't accepted or maybe you didn't write make sure your agent also follows up with that seller especially if it's just one of those houses that you had to have but it just didn't work out for you that's good to know because you can have your agent continue to follow up with the listing agent or the sellers agent say hey you clients still interested what's going on I can't tell you at least a dozen times this has happened to me at least a dozen where I've actually called up with the intention of just checking in even on properties where the buyer that I was representing had not submitted an offer but just following up with the agency hey it's Connor listen you property that you have listed that you're in estro now it's about the time that probably the inspections are being close to be done or they are done what's going on with it oh I'm surprised you called yeah actually gonna cancel Astro because the buyer lost their financing or some other issue oh my God I say perfect and because of my diligence in calling usually the offer that since submitted next by me on behalf of my client pretty solid of course there might have been other offers that were back up and the seller can choose whether or not to get in line with him and ask them to come up to the table but typically that agents going to say well you called it's not very rare in the real estate industry to have a real estate agent that's doing the due diligence and actually doing extra work that they might need to be doing they actually called he was interested his clients really want the property they've already seen it sometimes that actually works out in a very good and very beneficial way for the buyers out there that have agents that are on the stick with regard to that and so on and so forth so that worked out great okay let's look at eight we have eight properties that sold eight expired eight cancel 888 I guess that's good luck in some circles 13 properties have been on hold and seven properties have been withdrawn taken off of the market one of the things that I will tell you another thing whenever you get prepared to wanna look at real estate make sure you get that pre approval done early even before you go out and look because it sucks to go out there and see properties that are way above what you thought you could qualify for and maybe you could qualify for the amount but maybe that payment is just and you don't wanna even get close to it so maybe you're shaving off a couple hundred thousand but now you've already seen those other properties don't get us leased at your first time buying a house don't go so far that you make yourself mortgage for you have the rest of your life to create that issue for yourself the first time should be just what you need just at that threshold where you have the affordability you have a good mortgage interest deduction on your taxes you set you're not banking on overtime or future pay increases for the residents you have a nice solid 30 year fix loan and in some cases the more money that you start to make from your job you just reinject it into the principle not the interest part cause you're already paying principle and interest in your main payment this is extra payments find out if your bank or your mortgage holder has the ability to do that which most to do just make sure that if you're writing a check for you 50 bucks a week or every couple weeks that is going towards principle you'll be surprised at how fast you can shave down a 30 year mortgage even less and get your house paid off faster and of course there's always refinancing into a 15 year 20 or a 10 year loan but you cost money so that's something to consider before you start spending money also whenever you buy a house whenever interest rates lower even a little bit you're gonna start getting hit up by the lenders that you worked with in order to get you that first loan on the property and I'll tell you this just don't get too excited with it because every time you refinance it cost money and if there's not enough of a discounted interest rate sometimes it's not worth it but lenders of course they're trying to follow up and you know look at the numbers don't let them just say okay is this cost me exactly because also when you do a refinance your loan is starting all over so maybe you had two or three years of payments now that gets white clean you got another 30 year mortgage but if the interest rates half a point or more depending on what it costed you then you can do the math to find out how long it's gonna take you to catch up to where you were before and if really this is a cost savings program for you or if it's just gonna make the lender some extra so Santa Clarita open houses of course that's the system when you're ready reach out to me I'm Connor with honor just don't get too much worried about the the out there that at all we do have increasing prices but they're probably gonna be slow and steady this year we have interest rates that seem to be reducing because more people are having confidence in the fad in the 10 year bond and these sorts of things so maybe maybe is your year to purchase if you haven't yet and as far as sales go definitely still a seller's market out here in Santa Cruta Valley we don't see that changing anytime soon but I'll keep you posted on that front as well we still have as many properties selling as are being listed for sale very very close we are close to 600 units active units for sale and will probably be about 6 50 or 700 by the time we get here in the next couple months that still isn't an oversupply because we have that much of a buyer drive out here buyers are drive buying in Santa Clarita for a lot of different reasons some of them are for the schools some of them because they just like the community they like the safety feel that it offers they like the law enforcement agency that's out here running things Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department they love the county fire apparatus the life saving the ambulance services hospitals the whole nine yards that's something that people move out here for plus when you get out here you can go around to the mall you go around to the parks there's a lot of sales there's good freeway access from every city out here and there's a lot of different avenues to get down to the San Fernando Valley even when we have some tragedy strike and the freeway shut down for whatever reason there's a few different ways to get back down into the valley if that's where you have to go I'm Connor with honor we'll see you in the next one and thanks for watching just the topic of today would be about cancellations because of some error in calculation of property value a lot of times the sellers are very