Study: Realtors Busiest in Irvine, Seal Beach, Mission Viejo

 
By MURRAY COLEMAN

Patrick Veling, a partner and real estate analyst with Dynamic Marketing Resources Inc, of Fullerton, sees too many real estate agents concentrating on selling houses in a few defined areas of OC, rather than spreading out and going where the demand truly exists.

  "There are a lot of potentially underserved housing markets in Orange County," said Veling.  "These are places that real estate agents are earning a good living and others may wish to look more closely at."

  His three top pick, based on market research and analysis of Southern California Multiple Listing Service data, are:

Irvine

  The most underserved market, where the average residential real estate agents represented 3.4 sellers in the 12 months ended June 30, according to Veling's analysis.   That compares with Stanton, at the other end of his list, where an average realtor actively working the area represented 1.5 sellers.

  Stanton, overall, had 284 units sold during the past 12 months tracking period.  But 184 agents were working the market, making it slightly more oversaturated than Westminster (635 sales by 321 active agents).   San Juan Capistrano trailed those two in Veling's statistics with 562 sales and 321 active agents for a 1.8 average ratio of agents to closes.

  "Those three markets, which are overserved and about as much business as Irvine," said Veling.

More representative of the Irvine market average, said Veling, was Jane Olinger of ReMax Premier, who averaged $287,000 per sale and ranked fourth in total volume in the city.

Seal Beach

  The next-most underserved market, according to Veling, where 128 active agents made 381 deals for an average per Realtor.  The average price of a home sold in the area was $241,000

  "However, among the Top 10 of sales agents nobody came in close to the average sales price," said Veling.     "They're either way above or way below the average sales price.   It tells you there's a tremendous diversity of product in the area and that there's a lot of specialization -- agents either do one type of property or another, but rarely do they do both."

Most representative among the leading agents, according to his findings, was First Team's Carolyn Theriault.   She represented 25 sellers of Seal Beach properties and averaged $375,000 a property.

Mission Viejo

  "It used to be the most active market in the county," said Veling.  "But it's been eclipsed by Irvine, Santa Ana and Anaheim, where properties have turned over the most."

  Still, he points out, Mission Viejo is a great place to be chasing real estate business.

  At the top of the heap in number of sales in Mission Viejo, according to Veling's analysis, was Wilma Dutoit with Landmark Realtors. She represented 35 sellers for an average sale price of $215,000.

  The average sale price in Mission Viejo, according to Veling, was $216,100.  "So she's a little low, but she had a lot of activity," he said.

But the third-place finisher, he added could be the most representative. Steve Ruiz of Regency Real Estate Brokers of Mission Viejo worked with 31 sellers and registered an average closing price of $252,000.

  "There's inventory, and that's the catch right now." said ReMax Premier's Olinger.  "Buyers are willing to pay top dollar if homes are the very best in a particular area.  That's keeping prices up."

Opportunities exist for agents choosing to specialize in a particular market, she added.  "But everything isn't black and white." said Olinger. "What comes out the computer is history.  We use that as a platform to analyze the market. You've got to look at the number of calls you're getting from potential customers, talk to lenders and other realtors.  There's no alternative to keeping your finger on the pulse of the market you're serving."