These Players Need Speed, Guts to Slide Into Home

Pat Eby, relocation coordinator for Merrill Lynch Realty, was putting Barbara and Mark Ish, recent arrivals from Houston, squarely in their place.

“Buyers are not the jewels that they once were,” she told them. “It is definitely a sellers’ market. Most have several offers. Most homes are going close to the selling price. Some are going for more.”

Mark Ish gave his wife a sideways glance from beneath his glasses. It said, “Oh.”

Not that they were totally in the dark, these future homesteaders in the close-your-eyes-and-sign-on-the-dotted-line Orange County real estate market.

The Ishes are intelligent people. He, at 27, is a veritable computer genius and she, a 25-year-old technical writer, can translate computer-ese into English. Even before stepping off the plane from Houston the night before, they had asked around, talked to friends and colleagues recently transferred to the area. They read.

Mark Ish knew enough to announce to Eby almost immediately upon arrival at her Tustin office that “the advice we got was no Garden Grove, no Santa Ana and no Westminster.”

Eby glanced at Ish over the top of her glasses. Her eyes said, “Oh.”

Easing the Pain

Eby, whose job it is ease the pain of transfers for such couples as the Ishes, suggested that it was not that simple, that there were some areas of Santa Ana, for example, where real estate values had appreciated 100%. But she got their drift. They wanted a house, true enough, but they also wanted a sure thing, something in an area where resale would be no problem.

Eby began to talk in terms of “maximizing their investment.” She pulled out the laminated map of Southern California that color codes residential areas according to median income levels. She explained about the “outer ring.”

“As people become more affluent they tend to move out from town,” she said.

That’s until the outer ring begins to feel like outer space--when you’re talking about commuter time--and then they have been known to transform themselves into urban pioneers, renovating blighted buildings and making a killing.

That’s where the Santa Ana example came in handy. Of course, Eby pointed out, there are services to think of as well. They are usually not very good, she said.

The Ishes understood. They nodded. And in no time flat, they were off, ready for experience in the field. But they made one thing clear: They were just looking. If they were too scandalized by what they saw, they might even stay in Houston, where, if they were so inclined, they could easily afford digs befitting a Newport Beach attorney or a Beverly Hills neurosurgeon.

Moreover, Mark Ish’s contract with his employer, Genisco Technology, gives him until April, 1989, to move. The couple, married this year on Valentine’s Day, said they were in no big hurry to uproot themselves from friends and family.

Enter Merrill Lynch agent Joyce Peterson, behind the wheel of a sleek, black 1987 Mercedes-Benz 300 SDL. Cruising her territory, nice and slow, in the cities of Orange, Yorba Linda, Anaheim and Anaheim Hills, Peterson makes an impression not unlike that of Darth Vader, silently menacing, awesomely powerful. Her business card mentions that she is a member of her firm’s Multi-Million Dollar Club and that she is a certified relocation specialist.

The Ishes, mere neophytes at this game, sink into the black leather seats of Peterson’s Mercedes. They mention, rather wistfully, the 1,700-square-foot condominium they own in Houston. They paid $60,000 for it in 1985. It’s worth about $45,000 today.

But Mark Ish says his employer will cover the loss and is also throwing in another $100,000--give or take a few thou--to entice the couple to make what they call a lateral move.

So he isn’t too glum. When Peterson starts tossing out a few ballpark house prices, he starts saying such things as “the best investment I can make is to buy here.”

House No. 1: Peterson is excited because she and the Ishes are to be the first to see it. The owner, an agent in Peterson’s office, just decided to sell last night. It is not even on the computer printout yet, the 4 p.m. listing that has become to Orange County real estate agents what the Daily Racing Form is to race track junkies.

It is a three-bedroom, 1,750-square-foot house in Orange. It’s cute, and Peterson thinks the $235,000 price is too low.

“Isn’t this a nice house?” she asks the Ishes.

“Yeah, it is,” Mark says.

“Well, it will be gone when you guys get back.”

“Thanks,” Mark says.

Back in the Mercedes and on to another neighborhood in Orange, then to Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda and East Anaheim. These are areas convenient, more or less, to Ish’s future office in La Mirada.

Among the not-so-bads is a 1,630-square-foot house in Orange for $265,000--$15,000 more than what the Ishes said was their limit--and another, with 1,848 square feet, that Mark likes but Barbara doesn’t, for $249,000 in Anaheim Hills.

All things considered, Mark says, Orange County real estate doesn’t seem too bad. Maybe they could live here.

Peterson suggests patrolling a neighborhood of condos, all of them with Tudor-style facades, in Anaheim Hills. She has another client who is dying to live here but just lost out on a bidding war on one of the homes.

“Lord have mercy,” Peterson blurts out as she rounds a corner and sees a “Sold” sign on one of the condos. “How did I miss that?”

Missed Opportunity

She says she hopes her clients don’t come up here and see the evidence of their missed opportunity.

Peterson adds that the condos have been selling in the $235,000 range.

“Are they right on the fault line or something?” Mark Ish wants to know. “These are nice-looking houses!”

The Ishes are definitely getting in the swing of things.

OK, so they haven’t made an offer after about three hours in the field. But they are going out again tomorrow, all day in Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and maybe even Fountain Valley. And after all, they tell Peterson, they are just looking. If she should find something for them, they could always fly in from Houston on a moment’s notice.

Crossing the Line

Peterson talks finances with them and gives them the names of a few brokers.

Day 2: The Ishes hook up with another Merrill Lynch agent, assigned to the Newport Beach office, for a look-see of her territory. But somewhere along the way, who knows exactly where, the Ishes cross the line from “Why should we?” to “Why not?”

By the end of the day they have made a decision. They’ll take that 1,600-square-foot number in Huntington Beach--three bedrooms and 22 years old--for $270,000.

But isn’t that $20,000 more than the couple’s absolute ceiling of $250,000? A ceiling that they said would really test their resources?

“Yeah, but my wife fell in love with it,” Mark Ish says. “And besides, they are asking $275,000 and it’s already been on the market 16 days.”

Oh.