As of September 22, Fall is officially here. Our market has seen some changes since I last posted. Shifts of all kinds usually cause a “pause” as people get used to the change. People generally have a way of moving forward to accomplish what they need to do so the pause ends and things pick up. In the words of “Mad Man” Don Draper – “I have a life and it only goes in one direction – forward.“ When these pauses occur it’s good to see things this way and gain a fresh perspective.
Rates are higher and the person who was waiting for something in March has now lost their window to get a really cheap mortgage but my guess is, they still need to move. So once they have had time to adjust to the current rates they’ll go on and make their move. As of late there have been many price reductions and there is generally a little more inventory so maybe some better selection. But things have NOT suddenly slipped into a buyers market. It now seems to be a more “normal” market where things may not fly off the shelf with a cage fight and sell outrageously over the market the first day of contract review… but things are still moving. Last weekend I put a new listing on the market and sold it on contract day a little over ask. And this weekend I represented a buyer who had to compete and win the bid over ask. Please see my market update video where I go area by area to explain what is going on.
Auto evaluations
Recently, I have had a number of calls from clients and friends alarmed by radical changes in their automated value estimate evaluation. Apparently these folks go to this nationally known website ( 😉) and look at their home value very (very) frequently. All of the people who called me were concerned because their values had changed drastically – like over 500k drastically in just a few weeks or days. One homeowner had purchased their house from me less than a year ago for about 1 million dollars and the value reflected by “massive nationally known website” had declined by 50% to approximately 500k. Of course they were alarmed as anyone who saw the actual value of an asset decline this much this fast would be about any investment. They asked me what was going on and knowing this woman fairly well, I answered cheekely, “you look at that site too much”. I then went on to explain about how these “estimates” ( 😜) are created. I could not however, explain the massive drop in her property and several others right then either. There was not a smoking gun transaction that while misclassified would cause such a major drop. Something in the algorithm had gone nuts.
This did get me thinking about how we could help our clients in a more connected way. I started looking around for a way for my clients to have access to better quality information so they would be able to be more informed and also provide an easier way to ask about how things are going with regard to their property. Through a connection in my Realm-Global™ network I came up with an evaluation provider that I feel is much more accurate than the “massive nationally known website”. It also allows me to interact with it and make adjustments as well as lets you – the Homeowner – make notations about improvements you have made etc. While no algorithm is going to be infallible, this is something I feel is better to build on. I have been working with it for a while and really like the user-friendly platform and find it to be more accurate than that “massive nationally known website”. Please do keep in mind that details matter and that nothing replaces a real first hand look from a professional.
If you would like access to this evaluator tool I am happy to offer this to you, at no cost , so you can have a better idea of your homes value, period. All you have to do is sign up and here is a link to do that, or click the link below.
Build More Wealth With Your Home
It is a season of change in more ways than just from Summer to Fall. We are watching closely to see how the ever changing events in our economy are affecting values in our market. If you have concerns about how our current situation impacts you directly please do not hesitate to reach out by text, email or call me with your questions.