Archive for the ‘buyers’ Category
Wayback Wednesday… Recovery?
- Image by kenjonbro via Flickr
Recovery… In it or do we need to go to it? That was my question two years ago this week… and it is STILL a valid question. And two years ago, I don’t think there were many people (including me) that were expecting the housing slump to last this long.
But here we are, not knowing if a bottom to the market has been established or if there is more blood that needs to run in the streets.
At least now, more of us in the real estate community have figured out that stimulus and incentives aren’t the answer… JOBS are the answer. There are too many potential buyers out there that are worried about the security of their jobs. Demand can’t rise until buyers don’t feel threatened.
And that means that the Supply side of Supply/Demand will be out of whack… even thought the supplies have be mostly dropping for well over a year (compared to the previous year). And even though supply has been coming down, there have been reports of a wave of foreclosures just out of sight over the horizon (those reports have been with us for well over a year, too).
On the flip side, there are some pretty good deals. Mortgage rates are ROCKING… I heard a report today that rates hadn’t been this low in 60 years. If you ARE in a position to buy, it might be the best time in a generation. If not, I understand…
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- Wayback Wednesday… Don’t be Dumb Like a Bank (lanebailey.com)
- Wayback Wednesday… Add on or Get out? (lanebailey.com)
View CommentsFlashback Friday… Are You Ready to Rumble?
- Image via Wikipedia
Competition. If you are a seller in this market… and for the last several years… you have been in competition. If you weren’t… your competitors were, and you can’t win the race if you weren’t running.
If you are a buyer in this market, you have still been in competition. Same story as above. And while there is a LOT of inventory (less than the last couple of years, but still a lot), the deals aren’t on every corner. You have to grab them when they pop up…
The bottom line is that opportunities are out there for both buyers and sellers, but they aren’t so plentiful as to be squandered.
I wrote a post last year about this very thing… Drop in and take a look.
View CommentsThis is what I feared… Gwinnett Market Report – July, 2010
- Image by lane.bailey via Flickr
I have been kind of expecting this, but of course it will take a couple of months to confirm…
The Tax Credit did not kick the Gwinnett Market into gear…
Instead, its expiration killed sales. Looking over the last few months of sales we see that for 2010, sales were (compared to 2009):
- January – down 10.9%
- February – up 1.7%
- March – up 10.1%
- April – up 14.1%
- May – up 17.3%
- June – down 0.8%
- July – down 26.2%
As we look over these numbers, there are a few things to keep in mind… To start with, the July numbers will likely get a little better. Although sales are supposed to be reported within 48 hours of closing, there are always stragglers that take a few weeks to make it into the reports. Contracts had to be written by April 30th, and sales here usually only take 30-45 days to close. That would be why sales were up in May, but not in June… those sales were likely closed. I didn’t see a lot of buyers playing chicken with the contract dates.
All isn’t doom and gloom… Inventories are down a bit from last year. This is helping to keep the absorption rates at a reasonable level. But they are still decelerating.
Look for specific reports over the next couple of weeks for Lilburn, Lawrenceville, Duluth, Suwanee, Sugar Hill, Buford and Norcross.
View CommentsOccupational Hazard…
There are a few occupational hazards we real estate agents face… moldy foreclosures, rotted floors that we can fall through, angry undisclosed dogs, getting locked out of a house on the back deck 40′ off the ground (don’t ask). But there is something even more dangerous…
Houses we really like… really, really like. Ones that we can afford…
As a real estate agent, I look at a lot of houses. Some of them are amazingly cool. But, I’m not dropping half a million bucks on a house. Those aren’t so dangerous… Not to say that I don’t love the media rooms, pubs on the terrace level and the 10 car garages… especially the 10 car garages… but those aren’t that dangerous, because they are out of MY operating range.
And then…
So, I was out checking out some new cool garage homes in Gwinnett County, and I ran across this one. I shot a few videos to use in ‘discussions’ with my wife. Seriously, I didn’t shoot these to show the world, just one person.
The problem is that we don’t want to change schools yet… So, unless this house is hanging out on the market in 8 months, the best I can hope for is to find it a good owner.
Not bad for about $160k…
View CommentsWayback Wednesday… Don’t be Dumb Like a Bank
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A couple of years ago I wrote a post about a particular property. It was a foreclosure, and the bank acted stupidly. And I’m not saying that lightly. Had they accepted my client’s offer, they would have sold the property a year earlier and for $40k more than they eventually got.
Now I see a lot of people making the same mistake from the other side of the fence…
I see buyers trying to deliver one last beating to the bank… often during the inspection phase… and losing a great deal over things that are trivial. I understand it. That doesn’t make it any better…
I had one client that was angry that the bank accepted his offer. He thought they would counter. I had warned him that they might accept of reject, but not counter. Some of the banks have a number. If you offer $1 over the number, they accept. If you offer $1 below, they reject. During the inspection period, this client made a LOT of demands. The bank rejected. No counter… no discussion.
Don’t make the same mistake the banks were making.
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