The Real Estate Market Takes Its Bumps
b"With Terry Story, 27-year veteran Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, FL
Things can get a bit bumpy in the real estate world and, according to Terry Story, this is one of those times. Existing home sales have slowed down, inventory is low in many parts of the country, and prices are generally too high for most buyers.
A regional breakdown of the decline in home sales shows the\\xa0 Northeast \\xa0down by 13%, the Midwest by about 5%, the South by about 2%\\u2014however, the West rose about 2.5%.
Terry\\u2019s remedy for this stalled market is for sellers to price more realistically, perhaps by utilizing the new pricing strategy she\\u2019s talked about recently; that is, by pricing the home just at or slightly under the desired price, thereby creating a bidding war among buyers which ideally results in a satisfying conclusion.
As evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, Terry says she has five offers on one house at the moment, with prospective buyers competing with each other to get a higher and higher price.
A page from the Terry Story Real Estate Survival Guide
Your house has sold and the inspection process has been completed. What is the best way to handle repairs that need to be done after the inspection?
Terry says that in our area homes are generally sold as is. After a report is generated indicating the necessary repairs, a dollar amount is determined, and the seller issues a credit to the buyers who are then responsible from that point forward. This avoids the buyer being dissatisfied with the quality of work done by the seller which, in turn, could cause problems at closing.
On a final note, September is Realtor Safety Month, designated as such primarily to alert sellers to be mindful of keeping valuables, personal information, drugs, car keys, and even pets hidden or locked away when realtors and customers come through your homes.
Read The Entire Transcript HereCollapse Transcript
Steve Pomeranz: It's time for Real Estate Roundup.\\xa0 This is the time every single week, we get together with noted real estate agent, Terry Story.\\xa0 Terry is a 27-year veteran with Coldwell Banker located in Boca Raton, Florida.\\xa0 Welcome back to the show, Terry.
Terry Story: Thanks for having me, Steve.
Steve Pomeranz: The real estate market's getting a little bit bumpy here.\\xa0 I understand that existing home sales have slowed down. That's existing homes sales.\\xa0 What do you think the reason for that is?
Terry Story: Steve, we have low levels of inventory in certain parts of the country.\\xa0 When you have low levels of inventory and the price is rising, you're going to get a slowdown in sales.\\xa0 What we're looking at is \\u2026\\xa0 And for the month of the July, they really fell off track. We've been climbing and climbing and climbing. Especially for the summer months, summer months are really busy times, especially for the single parent homes.\\xa0 They're usually really strong.\\xa0 It comes down to affordable housing.\\xa0 Low levels of inventory, prices rising, buyers can't seem to afford what's out there.\\xa0 We do have inventory, it's not like there's no inventory, but it's not inventory that people want. There are always homes that are on the market that are over-priced and those homes are going to sit there because the buyers aren't willing to pay more than what the market will bear.
Steve Pomeranz: Right. We\\u2019ve talked about this almost endlessly in the last few months. The fact that sellers really need to price realistically in order to get that house sold.\\xa0 We even talked about new strategies.\\xa0 Instead of pricing it high and looking to negotiate the price down, is price it just slightly below.
Terry Story: Yep.\\xa0 I got an offer today I'm trying to put in, there's already five offers.
Steve Pomeranz: Yeah."