Jim Klinge – Klinge Realty

Thank you Klinge Realty! I am so glad that I chose Jim to sell my house in Rancho Penasquitos. Thanks to Jim, I accpeted an offer that was 5% higher than our asking price. So Jim practically paid his own commission!
Jim is professional, straightforward, and honest. He was able to bring in 6 written offers in less than a week. Then he handled those competing bids by being transparent with all parties involved.
I first found Jim back in 2006 when I was searching for news about the real estate bubble. Prices were skyrocketing back then and I was worried about a crash. That’s how I found Jim’s blog
and I’ve been religiously following it ever since. Jim tells it like it is. He gives so much valuable information in his vidoes and posts.
Jim posted a video tour of my house on his blog, and I think that helped to sell the house quickly.
Jim’s wife Donna and daughter Kayla were also directly involved. Once escrow started, Donna was on top of every detail. TRID laws have been causing lots of delays, but Donna was able to deal with all parties involved and was able to help get escrow closed in 30 days. All the banks are asking for 45 days now cause of TRID. Donna always respoded to my calls and texts quickly.
I highly recommend the Klinges if you want to buy or sell in the San Diego area. I am a very happy customer!

I just closed escrow on a sale that Jim facilitated. I definitely would NOT want to try to do this without good help, and Klinge Realty is the best in town! (Any town, for that matter.)
From determining the initial list price, to preparing the mountain of paperwork, to negotiating with the buyers on contingencies, all the way through to getting the deal closed on time — Jim and his family business (wife Donna runs the show behind the scenes and daughter Kayla is helping out up front) have been awesome. They were very attentive, responsive, and personable throughout the month-​long process.
Oh yeah, about that — I got relocated to Silicon Valley by my company and had to get a quick sale. Jim got a full-​price offer signed a mere five days after listing, on the same day as the open house. He really nailed the list price, obviously! And because I was in a hurry to get out, Jim also arranged for a short 30-​day escrow — and got it closed on time. Oh, and we didn’t «give it away» — I still made a decent profit on the sale after six years of ownership. Thanks Jim!
One final thing — on the final day of escrow, Jim got word that a package got delivered to our empty house. He drove down there (30 miles) to pick it up and got it in the mail the next day, overnight to our new home. Talk about full-​service!
If you want the best help you can get with either buying or selling, you can stop searching right now — you’ve found it!

In our 17 years of marriage, my husband Gene and I have bought and sold four homes. We have been fortunate to have had good real estate agents in most of our transactions, but only two of the four agents would I consider to be masters of their trade, Jim Klinge being the most recent.
Gene had found Jim’s blog
a few months after buying our house in San Marcos in 2007, about a year after the bubble had burst and real estate values were plummeting. On the blog readers reap the benefit of Jim’s experience and wisdom, and reading past posts will bear out the accuracy of his analyses over the years. The blog is informative and entertaining. I’m sure we’re not the only clients that ended up working with Jim after becoming fans of his blog. When it was time for us to sell our home and move out of state, Gene was convinced Jim’s expertise and described selling strategies were just what we needed to effect a quick sale for a good price.
I’ve got to say that Gene was absolutely right. I think we’d have had to look far and wide to find an agent at Jim’s level of skill and service. At our first meeting I knew we were in good hands as Jim described his intended strategy for presenting our house to as many potential buyers as possible, pricing it well to stimulate interest, and providing great suggestions on what we could do to make our house show at its best. We weren’t listed a full week by the time we entered into escrow.
Jim’s real estate company is a family affair. Once the client’s home is in escrow, Donna, his wife, takes over coordinating the details of getting all the forms and documents for escrow organized for us, including getting the termite inspection and repairs scheduled, title insurance, etc. Their daughter Kayla also works with them, and the three of them make an incredible team. Right in the middle of escrow, about 3 weeks from closing, the fires that broke out all over North County San Diego got dangerously close to our home and we were under mandatory evacuation for four days at a time we were supposed to be readying the house for the move. The Klinges provided much needed support throughout what ended up being the single most stressful sale of a home we’d ever experienced. I thank goodness and Klinge Realty that escrow closed on schedule, and buyers and sellers were both very satisfied with the transaction. (That’s the way I always hope things work out, both parties feeling they’ve made a fair and equitable deal.)
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Jim Klinge whether buying or selling a home. I just hope we find a Jim Klinge clone up here when we start searching for our next home.

Most people now think — Who even needs a Realtor? With all the internet sites now available, it’s easy to find listings and get market pricing. I’m good at finding things on the ‘net, and the last thing I need is someone sending me listings and rushing me to make a purchase. I can do it all myself.”
I used to agree with this view, before I met and started working with Jim Klinge. Jim has sold 2 houses for me, and helped me buy a third over a period of 10 years. I recommend him 100%, and have referred him to a number of friends and family.
You’re going to be paying the same commission to any Realtor you work with, so the best thing you can do is get the very best Realtor in the market to help you. In north San Diego County, Jim Klinge is that guy.
If you are buying, here’s what Jim and his team bring to the table — honesty, expertise in the north San Diego market, expertise in negotiation. If you fall in love with a house, he’ll make sure you get it. And he won’t try to talk you into something you don’t like, or encourage you to overpay. He’ll make sure you have quality inspectors check things out, so you won’t buy a lemon.
Once you’ve purchased, Jim knows the people who can help you make your new home the way you want it to be. I’ve personally used his referrals for contractors, painters, flooring, and plumbing, and have been 100% satisfied. His relationships with these companies and contractors have existed for decades, so you can be sure that the people doing the work are going to make sure you are satisfied. (Pricing was discounted as well, but the key thing is the reliability and quality of the work)
If you are selling, here’s what you’ll get — expert pricing, top quality staging, digital marketing and referrals, contract negotiation, and most importantly, someone in house (his wife Donna) who makes sure all the Is are dotted and Ts are crossed. Jim has sold two of my houses, and in both cases, went above and beyond to make sure nothing funky happened at the end of the deal. As a seller, it’s a hell of a long time from an accepted offer to the close of escrow, and the process can be trying. Donna makes sure everything is in order, and the deal closes on time. Not only do you get the outcome you want (sold house for a fair price), but the experience itself is as good as can be expected. Selling your home is stressful, and you want someone there you can trust to help you thru it. I’ve twice opted to work with Jim, and if I choose to sell again, I wouldn’t think of working with anyone else.

About four years ago, my husband and I started the search for a getaway condo in the San Diego North County Coastal area. I found Jim Klinge through his popular and wildly entertaining blog
and I knew from his highly informed, tell-​it-​like-​it-​is style, that he was the realtor for me.
Jim started showing us condos and telling us right off the bat, «This one is too expensive. It’ll be $ 100,000 lower by next year!» Who ever met a realtor who didn’t try to sell you a house?!? As we continued to view properties, Jim would take the time to point out the positives AND the negatives and comment on pricing. I’ve bought and sold a number of houses in my life and I’ve never met a realtor as ethical, honest and experienced as Jim. (It’s a bonus that he has a wicked sense of humor.)
Thanks to Jim, we decided to wait, then look, then wait, then look, then wait… well you get the idea. Lucky for us we weren’t in a rush and lucky for Jim he was patient!
Fast forward four years. By this time, we had saved a little money and the condo had morphed into a little house. (And the condo that we first looked at WAS $ 100,000 lower!) Eventually, after some painful false starts with short sales, we found a property that worked and it was thanks to Jim’s superb negotiation skills that the deal got done.
Then Donna Klinge, Jim’s amazing wife, kicked in to high gear. Between the two of them, they closed the deal with a level of professionalism and efficiency that seems hard to imagine in the real estate business, and then — GET THIS — stayed around AFTER the sale to help us fix up the property with their army of expert contractors.
Honestly, I don’t know which is better — an ethical, experienced team of real estate professionals who will help you find and close on a great deal you will enjoy hunting for every step of the way or an ethical experienced team of real estate professionals who excel at post-​sale customer service.
Lucky for us, we didn’t have to choose. Jim and Donna Klinge and their team are the total package and I can’t imagine using anyone else if you’re looking to buy a house in San Diego.

Klinge Realty is a top notch operation and I would not hesitate to recommend them. My wife and I originally started off working with Jim about a year plus a few months ago, around Feb 2009. We were just getting a feel for the market as we wanted to sell our 2 BR/​2 Bath condo and buy a house for us and our two kids.
Jim was really honest with us and told us the issue wouldn’t be in selling our place (that would be the easy part), but finding a decent place to buy. He was right. After 2 trips out with Jim there was just nothing reasonable for us on the market. So we waited and got back in touch with him in November as the market seemed to be better.
Jim was pretty busy at the time, so he had us work with one of his agents, Richard Morgan. Richard represented Klinge Realty well and had the same no nonsense attitude that Jim has. If we liked a place but Richard saw some negatives we were overlooking, he’d tell us.
Well, it took 5 months, but we just moved this past week. Klinge Realty was terrific thru the whole process. This is a really complex market right now and I cannot imagine having worked with anyone besides Richard and the rest of the team at Klinge Realty. I could write a book on all the different issues that came up during the process. I believe we were steered in the right direction at each turn.
Anyway, if you are looking for an agent, do not hesitate to work with the team that Klinge has put together.

If you’re searching for an agent to represent you in North SD County look no further than Jim Klinge. He represented us for the purchase of our home in Encinitas and we couldn’t have been happier from start to finish.
Jim’s no nonsense approach to the real estate market is a refreshing change from all the rosy fluff and BS spewed by 95% of industry participants — and it will save you money.
In good markets and bad you need someone who knows the market backwards and will call it like he sees it. You need someone who is happy to work with you for as long as it takes to get the job done. For me It’s hard not to see that the whole system is a minefield of conflicts of interest — but we never once felt pressure to make a move that wasn’t in our interest.
In the end it took almost a year to find our home, and Jim worked tirelessly throughout. And apart from the deal we eventually made, the best part was we actually had a pretty good time doing it.

I moved to Encinitas (from Chicago) about a year ago and rented a house. The market seemed peculiar and buying struck me as a bad idea.
Over the year, I spent many a happy hour reading Jim’s insightful and witty blog posts on
. «Here’s a guy that knows the market,» I thought to myself, «Here’s a guy I want to buy a house with.»
By the time our lease was up for renewal, I was feeling a little better about the market and shot Jim an email. I am tremendously happy that I did.
Jim showed us around homes and was incredibly honest with us. He knew the areas we were looking at, had in-​depth information about the houses we were looking at and his expert commentary made the tough decisions much easier.
We ended up buying what is, in my opinion, the perfect little house for our family. Jim got us a great deal and made the whole purchase process a breeze.
Jim’s blog made it feel like I knew him from the moment I met him but working with Jim has made him feel like a friend.