Giving It Away?

by Jim the Realtor | Oct 4, 2022 | Jim's Take on the Market, Thinking of Buying? | 2 comments

It was back when some homeowners had little equity that my favorite seller quote became a t-shirt legend.

But we still hear it today – when it comes to price, home sellers regularly say, “I’m Not Giving It Away!”.

Their equity positions used to be pennies, compared to today.  Back in 2009, there were plenty who were just hoping to break even, and maybe come out with enough cash at closing to buy a steak dinner!

Now that every NSDCC homeseller has hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equity, will they loosen up a bit? After all, the last 20% to 30% came pretty easy (in just a year or two) and if they had to give up some or all to make the deal, they certainly could

But will they?

Many potential sellers get so mad about paying the capital-gains tax that it prevents them from moving.  Those who are on the open market in October of 2022 have already dealt with that fact mentally, so they must have a fairly good reason to sell.

Those who will dump on price must be really motivated.  It probably also means their house isn’t that great because nobody wanted to buy it at retail, or for a little under.  Can you live with one of those?

The stock market has been cooking this week, and bond yields coming down in hopes the Fed might slow down the pace of their rate increases. Or maybe even pause, and take a look around at what they created?

If that were to happen, then the 2023 Selling Season should be somewhat healthier as rates dip into the 5s just as more quality homes are coming to market. If current sellers start to get a sniff of that, then they will cancel their listing and wait until next year.

Which means those who are still actively trying to sell the rest of this year must be unusually motived – and your best candidates to test whether they will give it away!  Stay in the hunt!

Bill’s take – there may be more deals available sooner than you think:

To Those Who Are Waiting

by Jim the Realtor | Sep 20, 2022 | Jim's Take on the Market, Thinking of Buying? | 0 comments

Here’s more click bait on the front page of the local paper, and most people won’t read any further – it’s too easy to decide to do nothing, which is fine. Wait as long as you want, and we will see where it goes.

It’s a great plan if you’re a buyer and don’t care much about what you are buying.  But if you are picky and want to wait until the headlines ease, then you can expect there will be others acting quicker than you, and probably with more horsepower.  The affluent aren’t as concerned about timing the exact bottom of the market when they just want a nice house.

Take my Aviara listing. It’s priced at 12% under the last model-match sale in June, and even the buyer of the comparable sale around the corner said mine was better than hers. In the story above, the San Diego County median price came down 6%, so I’m lower than that, and it’s got all the extras.

Yet, as I’m talking to open-house attendees, there was a steady flow of the usual soft stuff:

‘I don’t want to get into a bidding war’.

‘I want to wait-and-see where this goes’.

‘Prices are going down’.

Ok, no problem. But given what we’ve been through, you can’t expect that buying a quality home is going to get easier.  Even if the price was lower, there will be competition for the good buys – and when you think about it, there always has been in recent years. We had plenty of bidding wars and people paying over list prior to the pandemic – it isn’t a new thing.

Besides, if the market became so desolate that you could walk into an open house that you thought was a quality buy and nobody else wanted it, wouldn’t that scare you off too?

I have multiple offers on my listing and we’ll sell it for a decent price, so don’t worry about me.  I just want buyers to keep looking, and when you see something you like, don’t let the headlines written by ivory-tower guys talk you out of it.