The standard advice in a cooling market is to price competitively. But in East Ventura County, the problem is not that sellers are ignoring comps – it is that the comps themselves are misleading. A closed sale from six months ago may have been listed using data that was already six months old at the time, and that listing may have sat on the market for 90 days before closing. By the time a seller uses that sale as a benchmark, the reference point is more than a year out of date – and in a market that has been gradually declining, that gap is enough to strand a listing.
Alex Gandel, a Realtor with Pinnacle Estate Properties in Simi Valley, California, has been selling real estate in the area since 1980. He describes the current dynamic as familiar in shape but distinct in detail. “The market today kind of reminds me a lot of the early 90s, but there are two distinct differences,” he says. Inventory remains low compared to that era, and short sales are rare because homeowners hold so much equity. People who bought four or five years ago are in a strong enough position to sell rather than hang on through a difficult cycle.
Gandel points to one of his own listings. The home sits on a golf course street, and its asking price was based on a sale from about a year and a half earlier: a house on the same street, from the same builder, that he had also listed. The earlier home had been partially updated but had no pool; his current listing is dated but has a pool and a hillside view. Even so, the market moved faster than the listing, and a price cut was not enough to catch up. The sellers are taking it off the market and plan to relist at the start of the year, priced for conditions then.
“The shift in the market has been very, very rapid,” Gandel says. The information sellers find online – a neighbor’s sale from six months ago – feels current but often reflects conditions from over a year earlier once you account for how long that earlier sale took to list, market, and close.
Some sellers simply are not ready to accept the adjustment. If they are retiring and need a certain amount of money from the sale, Gandel says, it may not be the right time for them to list.
Sellers do not want to give up mortgage rates in the two and three percent range, and buyers do not want to pay around seven percent. The result is low urgency on both sides – but especially among buyers, who for the first time in years feel no pressure to act quickly.
That changes when a property hits the market with the right combination of condition, floor plan, and location. Gandel describes showing a $4.5 million lakefront home with a layout that required going down two levels to reach the lake and another level to reach the primary bedroom. Functional problems like that stall even expensive properties. A comparable home with a single-story layout at the same price, he says, “would sell in a minute with people lined up to buy it.”
For buyers coming from Los Angeles, Simi Valley’s main draw is price. The same home in nearby Thousand Oaks, Westlake or Calabasas, all a short drive away, costs noticeably more, and the gap grows the closer a buyer gets to Calabasas. Even with that relative affordability, buyer hesitation is pushing prices lower. Many buyers also stretch so far to close that they have nothing left for renovations, Gandel says, so fixer-uppers sit unless the price is low enough to cover the work.
Even when pricing is right, transactions can unravel over conditions no one expected. Gandel describes a current deal where a home, purchased new in 1979 and fully remodeled eight years ago, went into escrow and was discovered to be full of mold. The sellers had been living in it and had no idea. “People don’t check, have their homes checked for mold,” he says. “It’s not like you’re taking your car in for an oil change.”
Termite damage is another common surprise – Gandel cites cases where a $20,000 repair bill surfaces on a home that was never routinely inspected. When buyers submit repair requests after inspections, sellers often take it personally. “That whole renegotiation process can be very tense,” Gandel says.
Failed deals carry a secondary cost. When a property goes back on the market after falling out of escrow, future buyers immediately wonder what is wrong with it – regardless of the actual reason. And under California disclosure rules, even if an inspection report contains inaccuracies, the seller is obligated to provide it to the next buyer. Gandel says the seller loses either way in that scenario.
To reduce that risk, Gandel requires a pre-approval letter or proof of funds before a buyer can tour a listing. “If we don’t receive a pre-approval letter or proof of funds, if they’re cash, they’re not even getting in to see the house,” he says. Even so, pre-approvals are not guarantees – lenders sometimes fail to do thorough underwriting, and the buyer still cannot perform.
Gandel’s advice to buyers waiting for lower rates is direct. When rates eventually decline, competition will return, and buyers will face bidding wars again. “It’s probably better to buy a house now, bite the bullet for a short period of time if you can afford it, and then refinance out of it in two, three years,” he says. The lack of competition right now is itself the opportunity – fewer buyers means more negotiating leverage and less risk of overbidding.
He also notes that the longer rates stay where they are, the more buyers adjust to them as a baseline. At that point, affordability becomes a settled calculation rather than a source of hesitation. Historically, Gandel says, seven percent is roughly in line with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac long-term averages.
About The Expert: Alex Gandel is a Realtor with Pinnacle Estate Properties in Simi Valley, California, active in the East Ventura County market since 1980.
This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.
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