Great thought and a good article!

Dear All,

 

Attached is an article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that touches on our current real estate market conditions (all of which we covered at the sales meeting yesterday).

I think this is a particularly good article for your apprehensive sellers who are either holding off from listing or are listed but overpriced.  Here’s why it’s good:

1.        It hits on rising interest rates “testing” buyers’ willingness to pay more than they would like.

2.       There has been a slowdown in sales and traffic in August and September .

3.       Rising mortgage rates are making it more difficult for sellers to ask higher prices in markets (Like our Central Valley) that have experienced the most appreciation in the last 12 months (remember, the National average in price appreciation is about 10% year over year and our Central Valley has had appreciation from (20-25%).

4.       The median sales prices in Fresno (but this range/example is fairly consistent from Merced to Hanford) over the last 3 months have been – June $185,000, July $183,500, August $185,000  -  so the question is, with this stutter, have we reached a ceiling in our current market?  If we haven’t, we’re real close!

5.       Our response to the Sellers’ apprehension and desire to time the market perfectly and sell right at the HEIGHTH OF IT ALL needs to be a standard response – one that you can repeat in your sleep:  “M/M seller, it is impossible to know exactly where the top of the market is until we’ve passed it, and are looking back, and then it’s too late; the train has left the station.  You see M/M seller, unfortunately, there is no bell that sounds when the market’s train leaves the station and 9 times out of 10, if not more, the folks that try to time it just right miss the train altogether and are left holding their bags or in this case, left with an unsold property or having to take less than they could’ve gotten”.   It seems as though the market is signaling that the train is about to leave the station – with that said, where do you think we should be priced so as NOT to miss it?

 

Good luck!