How to be successful in a HOT Real Estate market!
“OMG this market is crazy right now” - These are words we need to remove from our vocabulary!
But how? And why should we remove these words? To be completely honest, its not the market that is crazy…
With the massive amounts of people still filtering into Denver daily, it is no wonder our numbers are still up, and our inventory is still low. Couple that fact with the interest rates being at record lows and in my opinion, you would be the CRAZY one not to be in the market to buy a home right now! There are so many scare factors out there in our world right now making people act a fool, from sickness, to terrorism, to lack of social connection (I am not talking about social media people)… Yes, these things are scary and yes a bit crazy too but adding our wonderful Real Estate market to that trend is a bummer at best!
“Nothing worth it ever comes easy, you’ll have to work for it”. Remember that quote? Same strategy applies in our Real Estate market! So, let’s dig in, it doesn’t matter what hat you are wearing in the process, each of us will feel the tingle in our own way. So why are we so scared? Have you been hearing about how this market “feels a lot like the one is 2006-2008"?” Or how about, “we are in a bubble again and it’s about to burst!” Well, the fact of the matter is that no one has a crystal ball to tell the future but if we learn from history, we CAN affect the future. Lucky for us here is the beautiful state of Colorado, we are still in a positive migration pattern of people moving here, and in turn our economy for the most part is holding strong. Market conditions change when there are major shifts downward in the health of our economy. Alongside our stability, stats are also showing that compared to 2006 homeowners in today’s market have much more equity in their homes which will insulate us from a crashing market, for now. Let us not allow fear to drive one of the biggest investments we will ever make!
Each party in the market process whether buyer, sellers, brokers, or lenders will feel this struggle in their own way, and we will give you some ways to overcome the obstacle right here and right now!!
The struggle is real for sure, but again this too shall pass and instead of clothing yourself in discouragement, let us spin it in another way! Ya with me? How about we face this as we would any other challenge we might come up against in life!! Face on! Know the facts, get educated, warm up and stretch and in our case, it would be more or less like, get pre-approved and go see houses! As a buyer in this market, it is so important that you and your Realtor spend time making sure you are educated and know the number prior to stepping foot out that door (or in them). These numbers range from your qualification with your lender, your magical monthly payment number, your down payment numbers, the number of homes in the market area that you are interested in, and finally the number that you are comfortable going up to in order to compete in this market! As you get more and more educated as to the current market conditions you Broker will guide you through the ins and outs of what it takes to be successful in the market today! They are here to prepare you and set the expectations for you to be comfortable putting your best foot and your best offer forward! Set time aside to discuss what may help you “win” the offer acceptance with your Realtor, know what kind of risk you are willing to take and when to back away and move onto the next! Be consistent and flexible! When you are faced with a fast pace market, you must be able to jump and see a home whenever your earliest availability may allow! Early bird gets the worm after all!! Enjoy the competition, enjoy the process, and get in the game!!! You can’t build equity without having the home!
So if this market is soooo buyer heavy and the inventory of homes is soooooo low, then why might a seller struggle?? HA! Imagine, you now work 100% of the time from home after the pandemic you company decided office space is unnecessary. Add that to the fact that you have 3 kids all at different schools, playing different sports, your husband/wife works a complete opposite shift from yours, and Fiddo and Spot the 2 family dogs are in constant mud wrestling battles in the back yard! Yeah. On top of that, your Realtor wants the house to be “Show” ready, they are prepping you for 100+ showings in 2 days, and you are now a germ freak! AHHHHHHHHHH. How will you accommodate the needs of everyone, let alone in 2 days! Add this stress and the stress of the anticipation of getting 15+ offers to review and negotiate and answer all parties by a certain time…. Man, do I really want to sell? I could answer that question if I didn’t already know that I have to move because honey got their dream job 2 states away. Ha! Ok reader breathe. All of these things are going on, on the opposite side of that buyer who is concerned about how they will even get a showing slot…. Our advice for all the Sellers out there, relax and allow your Realtor to take the wheel, after all that is why you hired us! By this stage of the game, you should have a game plan, know the obstacles and have a plan B incase! Allow your Realtor to guide the showing process the way that you had discussed prior to listing the home, maybe now is a great time to drive to the mountains and take a weekend off :)
Alright, so our lenders. Where would we be without them? Honestly, nowhere. We love them and they are working soooo hard right now! They are our last line of defense when submitting our buyers offers, and also, they first people we are calling to qualify a buyers offer that was submitted to let our sellers know that the buyer is ready and willing and able! On top of being with us the entire way from offer to close, our lenders are constantly fighting a higher power to get the best rates for buyers, get through underwriting without issue, and ultimately doing whatever is necessary to get the buyers and sellers to closing successfully! They are up against appraisal deadlines, lack of comps for appraiser to justify values due to the heightened supply and demand issues we have, and they are riding in on their white horses (most of the time) and giving us the “Clear to close”! Be patient, submit your docs and info in a timely fashion, answer your phone or emails when they come and let’s rock it!!
Ok we won’t bore you too much with woe is me (us) on the Broker side of things, after all we asked for this… WE LOVE IT! This is what we do for a living but truly it’s what we love to live for! Our people are our passion, and their success is our success as well as their pain is ours! If your Realtor is not educating you, communicating regularly with you, prepping you for any and all outcomes, not asking you your wishes and wants, and not advocating for you each step of the way, RUN (and call Armor RE we got you!). We are regulated heavily to be preforming our fiduciary duties and frankly when you have an agent that you click with and that loves what they do, you have already won! Hang in there with us and as well come together as your Dream Team, the sky is the limit!!
Homeownership is a huge blessing and a dream most of us hope to achieve in our lifetimes. If this is true for you then there should not be anything that stands in your way of reaching this dream, not even a competitive marketplace. With the right tools in your toolbox, and the dream team on your side, it is only a matter of time until we are sitting at the closing table having successfully come through your buying or selling process out to the other side to embark you on your next adventure! Take the risk, it’s worth it because there can’t be anything worse than wondering what could have been :)
