Don’t Go On Wondering If You Should Buy or Sell

In the last 3 months, every single time anyone finds out I am a Real Estate Agent, who didn’t previously know, I get asked the exact same question, down to the same wording.  “How’s the market?”

My answer is always the same – it is fantastic!!  I’ll tell you why.

For buyers, it perfect because it’s a buyer’s market.  What does that mean?  It means that property prices in San Diego are at their all time low.  So low it is ridiculous.  The other aspect of being a buyer’s market is the interest rates.  I have seen them recently in the 3’s!  Come on, that is also ridiculous.  And now, I have also had conversations with people that think they are going to watch the market and wait for it to be a better market.  Well….  I do not agree with that thinking.  Because it is unpredictable, we do not know if the interest rates will shoot up in a heartbeat or the prices will rise again.  Sure, we have information that leads us to believe things as we watch the market, but there’s no 100% knowledge about these two aspects of purchasing a property.  It can’t be guaranteed, either way – going up or going down.

So this is why I say the market is gorgeous.  Beautiful today.  And that is only part of the reason.  The other part is the Seller’s side.  Sure people are selling their homes in Short Sales and having their homes foreclosed on but there is a turn in that market, too.  It’s an awesome thing.  The Banks are getting better with their short Sale process.  I had a Short Sale transaction with Bank of America 2 years ago that took 1 year. Last week, I closed a Short Sale transaction with Bank of America that took less than 3 months.  So in just 2 years, I can already see that at least one Bank has amped up it’s game to the market of the real world.  It seemed like the Banks did not really believe we were serious before when it came to Short Sales.  The process was tedious and made not sense.  Now there’s a flow.

That brings us to the other aspect of the Seller’s side – Foreclosures.  The Banks are slowing down on their foreclosure activity.  They actually prefer to do Short Sales, they don’t want any more foreclosures.  That’s been the case for many, many years but it’s becoming more noticeable now.  They used to begrudgingly do foreclosures, saying they wished they didn’t have to but are doing it anyway.  Now they are actually not doing them on purpose and holding off so the property can be sold as a Short Sale.  This is big news!  And you know, I get my information from my experience only, I don’t quote experts in the field, I don’t work like that.  I listen to what is going on in the real world – the world I live in.  I talk to so many levels of Real Estate; it almost blows my mind when I think about it!  Maybe I’ll write a blog about all of the contacts I make in Real Estate that gives me the confidence to speak about this Housing topic today.

For me, the market is beautiful, perfect!  I am working with many Buyers interested in buying;   I am working with many Sellers interested in selling.  What more could a girl ask for in this market?