Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: A Brutal Winter for Home Prices

The good news? The basic principle of supply and demand is in play here.  Supply and demand determine price. With inventory low and the buyers in full force, we are already seeing homes sell above asking price and even above comps in the area. If we continue to see this trend, we are likely taking the first steps towards being able to officially say we are moving away from the bottom of the market.

In the meantime much can be done for buyers to position themselves to be successful in multiple offer situations such as upgrading a pre-approval to a full underwriter approval status or reducing contingencies and increasing deposits. Redfin agents have many unique techniques that they are using to position their buyers to win at the table. The first step is to educate ourselves as to what is happening out there, so let’s take a look.

Inventory down sharply

Inventory in Orange County as a whole continued and increased the angle of its nosedive in March, dropping 17.8% from February, and down 44.9% from March 2011. Newport Beach and Newport Coast were the only two cities* in the county that bucked the trend, with monthly gains of 4.8% and 2.1% respectively. However, they were both down year over year.  On the other end of the spectrum, Anaheim and Lake Forest each dropped more than 30% month over month.

At the same time, the number of sales in the county shot up to levels we haven’t seen since last June, putting a big squeeze on home buyers.

Looking forward, growth in pending sales in Orange County was almost off the charts, up 17.3% month over month and 33.1% year over year. These pending sales are an indicator that in coming months, the number of sales will also rise, putting more pressure on inventory.

Prices remain mostly stable

The price surprise was in the median condo price in Orange County, which jumped 7.2% from February and dropped 50.5% from the previous year. However, the median price for a single-family home was relatively stable, up only 1.1% for the month, to $470,000, but down 6% from $500,000 from March of last year.

In terms of month over month price increase, the big winners were Laguna Beach, with a 48% month over month increase in median single-family home price to $1.4 million, and San Clemente, with an 11.4% month over month growth rate to $685,000. Tustin and San Juan Capistrano were on the other end of the spectrum, with the median sale price falling 22.7% to $495,000 and 22.4% to $449,000 respectively.

* Of cities with more than 100 homes for sale on the last day of the month

You want the best referrals, ratings and information to make that decision. That’s why we’ve expanded Redfin Open Book to include reviews of handymen and stagers in the Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego areas.

Now home-selling clients can search for the best professionals to prepare their home, then rate and review the work done once the transaction closes. Every time a Redfin client uses a service provider, she’ll have an opportunity to review their work, and those reviews will accumulate over time. Open Book’s information is verifiable – only Redfin clients will review service providers—not some handyman’s brother making Mr. Joe Hammer look good when he’s actually just barely adequate. Plus if you sell with Redfin, we’ll match up to $250 toward your home improvements.

We’ve partnered with some of the best professionals we’ve worked with and screened them thoroughly. We’ll post every review, good, bad, or ugly, right on their profile just like we do with our own agents.

Besides Southern California, Open Book for Sellers is now available in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and the Washington DC area.

Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: LA’s Middle Tier Took the Biggest Hit in December

Later this spring, we’ll add the stagers, landscapers and handymen used by sellers to get their home on the market.

Our goal is to ensure our customers get the best service at every step of a deal, by bringing together the best local team and holding that team accountable for the best result.

The Goal: Better Service
Unlike Angie’s List, Open Book is completely free. And unlike Yelp, it’s completely focused on the folks who serve our customers when buying or selling a home. And it’s better ‘policed’ than Yelp, because the reviewers are our customers, and we can vouch that they actually used the service they’re reviewing. It’s not the business owner’s college roommate or best friend’s uncle leaving the review.

There are no kickbacks from anyone we include or recommend. In fact, there’s no revenue model at all for Open Book; not now, nor in the foreseeable future.

The goal is simply better customer service. The best real estate agent in any market is good because of her own skills, but also because of her team, and her ability to hold that team’s feet to the fire when a loan or a listing is on the line.

As Redfin’s online traffic and transaction volume grows, our influence over all the folks who provide real estate services grows too. We want that influence to lead to better performance across the board for our customers.

This means that our focus is quality, not quantity. We don’t want to be the phone book, showing every lender or inspector in town. We want to be a reliable guide to the partners you should actually use, in any market we serve.

Today, people mostly take their agent’s recommendation for an inspector or a lender. But we think customer recommendations are important too, in finding an inspector who will tell you when to walk away from a crumbling house, or a lender who will steer you toward a cheaper loan, even if it pays him less.

This is crucial information, which is why Open Book, while intended for our own customers, is available to everyone browsing our site.

Our Advantage: Redfin-Certified Reviews
No one else could build such a reliable reviews site for real estate vendors.

Because we honcho a transaction the whole way through, hundreds of times a month, we know which inspectors and lenders our customers are using. Redfin’s online Deal Room, for tracking who is supposed to do what to close on time, stores information about thousands of vendors in a big database.

And we already survey every customer, deal or no deal, so it’s easy to ask each customer about his lender, inspector or stager. This means that we can validate every review, to avoid the bogus reviews from vendors’ friends and competitors that plague most review sites.

At some point, we’ll probably solicit reviews from the general public, but we’ll always highlight the reviews that came from actual customers, just because we can verify that the customer did in fact use the vendor she’s reviewing.

Our Investment: Redfin-Certified Partners
As with our brokerage, we aren’t just offering technology; we also offer a human touch. The inspectors, lenders and stagers who get the best reviews qualify for an additional level of certification, as Redfin partners.

Redfin has hired a team of former Redfin agents to interview potential partners, briefing each one on Redfin’s mission and our service expectations. We then monitor the partner’s performance. The ones that make the grade are certified as official Redfin partners. In Open Book, a tiny Redfin ribbon appears beside their profiles.

These are the folks our agents are most likely to recommend to our customers.

Over time, we’ll ask each certified partner to deliver premium service to our customers. This may entail attaching digital photos to an inspection report, or offering to refund the inspection fee if an unexpected repair crops up within 60 days of the closing.

We expect to drive plenty of customers toward our partners; if history is any guide, we’ll have to be careful to ensure no one gets overwhelmed.

And of course we’ll also be careful to strike a balance between ensuring our partners build a profitable business, and giving Redfin customers premium service. Inspectors, stagers and lenders who want to apply to be a certified partner can email us at openbook (at) redfin (dot) com.

Where We’re Starting: Washington DC, the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California
Right now, the reviews are available only in the Bay Area, Washington DC and Southern California.

To find Open Book, just click the “Buying” link at the top right of any page on Redfin.com, and choose “Open Book” from the menu. As we capture more reviews in the coming months, we’ll launch Open Book in more markets, for a wider range of services.

Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: Another Winter for Home Prices

Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: Seasonal Slide in Home Prices Continues

Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: Get Ready for a Long Winter for Home Prices

Since Case-Shiller lumps LA and Orange Counties together, I won’t repeat everything I wrote on the LA Sweet Digs blog. For more analysis and some graphs of the LA Case-Shiller data, check out my post over there: Case-Shiller: Summer Ends Early for Los Angeles Home Prices