Cash maybe king, but if it's in your mattress it will pose a problem with buying
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Cash maybe king, but if it’s in your mattress it will pose a problem with buying
Connor “with Honor” MacIvor - November 12, 2025** Tags: [Santa Clarita Real Estate](/-/Blog/tag/Santa Clarita Real Estate), [Real Estate Market Update](/-/Blog/tag/Real Estate Market Update), [Cash Buyers](/-/Blog/tag/Cash Buyers), [Money Laundering in Real Estate](/-/Blog/tag/Money Laundering in Real Estate), [Connor with Honor](/-/Blog/tag/Connor with Honor), [Santa Clarita Open Houses](/-/Blog/tag/Santa Clarita Open Houses), [Home Selling Tips](/-/Blog/tag/Home Selling Tips), [Real Estate Ethics](/-/Blog/tag/Real Estate Ethics), [Housing Inventory Trends](/-/Blog/tag/Housing Inventory Trends), [Local Real Estate Agent](/-/Blog/tag/Local Real Estate Agent), [Unverified Funds](/-/Blog/tag/Unverified Funds) ** 0 Comments | Add Comment
Santa Clarita Real Estate Market Update and The Dangers of Unverified Cash Transactions
By Connor MacIvor
Welcome back to the update. Whether you are watching, reading, or listening in the morning, afternoon, or evening, I am glad you are here. Today we are going to cover two extremely distinct but equally important topics that are affecting buyers and sellers right now in the Santa Clarita Valley.
First, we are going to dive into a very serious conversation I had recently regarding “creative financing” and the dangers of using unverified cash—often called “mattress money”—to purchase real estate. As a retired LAPD officer, my radar goes up when I hear things that sound too good to be true or border on the illegal. I want to protect you from making a mistake that could cost you your freedom or your fortune.
Second, we will do a deep dive into the current market statistics for Santa Clarita. We are seeing a shift. Inventory is depleting, cancellations are rising among high-end homes, and we are heading into the classic holiday slowdown. But within those numbers, there is a story about opportunity and strategy that you need to understand if you plan on making a move before the year ends.
Let’s get to work.
The “Mattress Money” Myth: A Warning Story
I met with a potential client yesterday, and the conversation we had is one that I feel compelled to share with you. Names and details have been changed to protect privacy, of course, but the core of the situation is something that comes up more often than you might think in the real estate world.
This individual was interested in buying a home. However, during our qualification discussion, it became apparent that they did not have the traditional income documentation required for a standard mortgage. They weren’t qualified on paper. However, they told me they had a significant amount of cash on hand.
When I say cash on hand, I don’t mean money in a savings account or a verified money market fund. I mean physical cash. The kind of money people keep in a safe or, metaphorically speaking, under the mattress.
He mentioned that he had a friend who knew a lender who also “did real estate.” This friend had told him that he could take this massive chunk of physical cash and essentially “fix” the situation. The plan was to hand this money over to the friend or the third party, who would then use it to purchase the property, or perhaps filter it into the system to make the purchase happen.
Why This Is A Major Red Flag
I am not here to judge anyone’s financial habits. However, I am here to keep you out of legal trouble. When you start talking about taking large sums of undeclared, unverified cash and handing it to a third party to buy a house, you are walking into a minefield of legal and financial liability.
From my background in law enforcement, listening to this plan sounded immediately like money laundering. Even if the money was earned legally, the act of moving it around in this manner to avoid banking regulations or to mask the source of funds can be construed as structuring or laundering.
The friend’s proposal was likely to deposit the money slowly—trickling it into accounts to avoid triggering federal reporting requirements. In the banking world, any cash transaction over $10,000 triggers a specific report. If you try to break that deposit down into smaller amounts—say, $9,000 here and $5,000 there—to avoid that report, that is a federal crime called “structuring.”
The Dangers of Straw Buying and Equity Loss
Beyond the criminal implications, let’s look at the civil and financial nightmare this creates for you as a buyer.
If you hand your hard-earned cash to a friend to buy a house because you cannot qualify, whose name is going to be on the title? It won’t be yours. It will be the friend’s name. You might have a side agreement or a handshake deal, but in the eyes of the law, the person on the deed owns the property.
You are effectively giving away your wealth to become a tenant in a house you paid for.
What happens if that friend gets sued? What if they get a divorce? What if they have tax liens filed against them? That house—your house—is an asset in their name. It can be seized to pay their debts. You would have zero recourse because you have no legal standing as the owner.
Furthermore, consider the equity. Real estate is one of the primary vehicles for wealth generation in this country. If the home appreciates in value over the next five years, who gets that equity? The legal owner does. Unless you have an incredibly complex and watertight legal contract (which would likely expose the questionable nature of the financing), you are not going to see a dime of that appreciation.
Seizure and Asset Forfeiture
We also have to talk about the risk of seizure. If you take a large amount of cash and hand it to someone else, and that transaction is flagged as suspicious by banking algorithms or law enforcement, those funds can be frozen.
If an investigation is opened into the source of those funds, your money could be tied up in federal asset forfeiture proceedings for years. You would not get the house, and you might never get the cash back.
I told this gentleman exactly what I am telling you now: It does not sound above board. It sounds like it borders on illegal. I wished him and his family well, but I could not be a part of that transaction.
I am sure there are agents out there who might turn a blind eye because they want the commission. They might tell you, “Don’t worry, we will make it work.” But I have to sleep at night. I have to look at myself in the mirror. I spent decades enforcing the law, and I am not going to start breaking it now for a real estate deal.
The Bottom Line: Use licensed, bonded, and insured professionals. Keep your money in verified financial institutions. If you have cash, get it into a bank and let it “season” properly so it can be used legally. Do not chance it.
Santa Clarita Market Update: The Winter Shift
Now, let’s shift gears to the hard numbers. What is happening in the Santa Clarita real estate market right now?
As of this week, we are seeing the numbers that typically indicate the beginning of our seasonal holiday cycle. Here is the breakdown of the current activity:
That number—631 active listings—is the key indicator right now. Just 24 hours prior to this count, we were at 641. We are watching a steady declination of inventory. We are losing more homes than we are replacing.
The Inventory Decline Explained
Why is inventory dropping? It is not necessarily because buyers are buying everything in sight, although sales are steady. It is because sellers are pulling back.
We are entering the holiday season. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s are on the horizon. Historically, homeowners do not like to have their homes on the market during the holidays. They do not want strangers walking through their living rooms while they are trying to cook a turkey or host family gatherings.
As a result, we see a natural attrition of listings. Sellers who haven’t sold by November often decide to take a break and try again in the spring. This creates a scarcity of inventory for the buyers who are still looking.
If you are a seller who needs to sell, this is actually good news. Less competition means the buyers who are active right now—and winter buyers tend to be very serious, motivated buyers—have fewer choices. Your home becomes more visible simply because there is less noise in the market.
Anatomy of a Cancellation
We are also seeing a specific trend in the properties that are leaving the market without selling. Let’s look at the “off-market” stats for this week:
The number that stands out here is the 17 cancellations. When we dig into the data on these cancelled listings, a pattern emerges.
Most of these cancellations are properties that have been on the market for a very long time. We are talking about days on market (DOM) numbers like 169 days, 143 days, and 157 days. These are not fresh listings that changed their minds after a week. These are frustrated sellers who have been trying to sell for months and have finally given up.
The Price Point Problem
Interestingly, the majority of these cancellations are in the higher price brackets—specifically, the million-dollar-plus range. Properties priced at $975,000 and above are seeing the highest rate of failure right now.
Why is this happening? It almost always comes down to price.
If a home sits on the market for 150 days in Santa Clarita and does not sell, the market has rejected the price. The seller may have an emotional attachment to that number. They may feel their home is worth more than the data supports. But the buyers have spoken by not writing an offer.
When we look at the age of these homes, they run the gamut from 1960s builds to brand new 2022 construction, but there is a heavy concentration of homes built in the 1990s and 2000s. These represent the larger, move-up buyer homes. When interest rates are high, this is the segment of the market that often freezes first because the buyer pool for a $1.2 million home shrinks significantly when mortgage payments increase.
The “Out of Area” Agent Issue
There is another critical factor I noticed when reviewing these cancelled listings: representation.
A significant number of the failed listings were represented by agents who are members of different real estate boards—not our local Southland Regional Association of Realtors (SRAR).
This is a massive issue that many sellers do not understand until it is too late.
Real estate is organized by local boards. In Santa Clarita, we are part of the Southland Regional Association. If you hire an agent from Los Angeles who is a member of the CLAW (Combined Los Angeles/Westside) board, or an agent from Riverside or San Bernardino, there are often reciprocity issues.
Understanding Reciprocity
Reciprocity is the agreement between different MLS (Multiple Listing Service) systems to share data. While technology has improved this, it is not perfect.
If your cousin is a real estate agent in Riverside and lists your home in Valencia, they might put it on their local MLS. They assume it will automatically populate to the Santa Clarita system. Sometimes it does, but often the data is incomplete, or it doesn’t show up in the specific searches that local Santa Clarita agents run for their clients.
Furthermore, there are logistical nightmares. Does the Riverside agent have a Supra key that works on our local lockboxes? Often, the answer is no. I have seen situations where a local buyer wants to see a home, but the out-of-area listing agent cannot get the door open because their electronic key is not programmed for our region. They have to drive two hours to let someone in, or the showing just doesn’t happen.
If you are selling a home in Santa Clarita, you need a local expert. You need someone who knows the schools, knows the neighborhoods, and crucially, participates in the local board so your home is visible to the thousands of local agents who are bringing the buyers.
The Importance of Ethical Protection
Bringing this full circle, whether we are talking about avoiding shady cash deals or choosing the right agent to list your home, the theme is protection.
In my previous career with the LAPD, my job was to protect and serve. In real estate, my mission is the same. I am here to protect your capital and serve your best interests.
There is a lot of noise in this industry. There are people who will promise you the moon to get a listing signed, only to let it sit for 160 days and then cancel. There are people who will encourage you to take financial risks with unverified funds just to close a deal.
I choose to operate differently. I believe in being “Pauliana”—maybe a bit overly cautious, maybe a bit of a stickler for the rules. But I would rather be safe than sorry. I would rather give you the honest, hard truth about your home’s value or a potential legal risk than sugarcoat it and watch you suffer the consequences later.
If a buyer wants to use “mattress money” and a friend wants to facilitate it, let them go to another agent. They can find someone who is willing to bend the rules. I am not that person. I am living my life, they are living theirs, and I intend to keep my license and my reputation intact.
Questions and Answers
I know this information can be dense, so I want to break down some common questions that arise from these topics.
Q: Is it illegal to buy a house with cash?
A: Absolutely not. Cash offers are very common and often preferred by sellers because they can close quickly. The issue is not the cash itself; it is the source of the cash. If the money is in a bank account, verified, and seasoned, it is perfectly fine. The problem arises when the cash is physical currency that has not been deposited or declared, or when the person providing the funds is not the person receiving the title.
Q: What does “seasoned funds” mean?
A: In the mortgage and real estate world, “seasoning” usually refers to how long the money has been in your bank account. Lenders typically want to see that the money has been sitting in your account for at least 60 days (two bank statement cycles). This proves that the money is yours and wasn’t just borrowed yesterday to make you look wealthier than you are.
Q: Why does it matter if my agent is from out of the area?
A: It matters for three reasons: Access, Pricing, and Exposure. An out-of-area agent may not have physical access to local lockboxes. They likely do not understand the nuances of local neighborhood pricing (e.g., why a home in Saugus might sell for more than a similar home in Canyon Country). Finally, if they list on a non-reciprocal MLS, local agents might never even see your home is for sale.
Q: Should I take my home off the market for the holidays?
A: It depends on your motivation. If you absolutely need to sell, keep it on. Inventory is low (631 listings), so you have less competition. However, be prepared for fewer showings, as people are busy with holidays. If you are not in a rush, withdrawing and re-listing in the spring is a valid strategy to reset your “Days on Market” counter.
Q: What happens when a listing is “Cancelled”?
A: A cancellation means the contract between the seller and the agent has been terminated before the house sold. This usually happens because the seller is frustrated with the lack of results, or they have decided not to sell. As we saw in the stats, this is currently happening most often with overpriced luxury homes.
Final Thoughts
The real estate market is always moving, even when it seems to be slowing down for the winter. We are depleting inventory, which keeps a floor on prices, but we are also seeing resistance from buyers on overpriced homes.
If you are thinking of buying, ensure your financing is rock solid and above board. Do not listen to “friends” who have creative ways to skirt the banking system. It is not worth the risk.
If you are thinking of selling, pricing is everything right now. You cannot price a home based on what your neighbor got in 2022. You have to price it for the market we are in today. And please, hire a local professional who knows this valley, knows the agents, and knows how to get the job done correctly.
I am Connor with Honor. I have been helping families navigate these waters since 1998, and I am here to help you too. Stay safe, keep your head on a swivel, and don’t take unnecessary chances with your money or your future.
I will see you in the next update.
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