In mid-March the entire market freaked out. Buyers cancelled contracts and lenders changed underwriting guidelines. We recommended several of our owner-occupied listings take their houses off the market temporarily. I had been tracking the rolling 7-day average of homes going under contract to gauge the direction of the market. To give you an idea of how bad a shock we went through and how fast it happened here are the number of homes that went under contract in the entire Austin MLS the previous 7 days…
That was a huge drop and we’ve almost recovered. We are still off from this time last year by but transactions happen every day and things are heating up.
Despite the overall number of houses selling being down, we are not recommending to our clients they list their house at a discount. The number of sold houses is down in part because sellers have decided to hold off listing their property. The number of buyers has also gone down but we’ve noticed the buyers who are in the market are very serious.
If you’re listing your home now you have to expect you will get some low-ball offers. There are always going to be people who think they can get a deal. We have a home under contract where a buyer wanted to offer 10% less because the stock market crashed 10% that day. Those buyers were not realistic and now that home is under contract at full list price to someone else.
What this means is if you have been planning to sell your house this year and thought you now need to wait until next year you don’t. Contact us today for a no obligation consultation about your situation.
A Little Extra Make Ready Is Worth It Today
We can't wait for things to get back to "Business As Usual" but until then we have to pay attention to how buyers are reacting. Right now, buyers are concerned they won't be able to get contractors in to do home repairs. They're also worried about letting strangers into their home after closing. Because of that in this market it pays for sellers to do a little more make ready prior to going on the market. That allow buyers to feel less anxious about buying your home. We always want to be careful about not over-improving a home. We know you don’t want to spend money just to spend money. However, addressing some items can be the difference between getting a great offer or no offer at all. There are contractors who are working and we are happy to pass on names of our trusted recommendations. If you’re planning to do repairs before selling call us before you spend a dime to make sure you’re going to get a positive ROI from your time and money.
Whenever you are ready to talk about a marketing plan for your home in today’s market call/text 512-791-7473 or email eric@koparealestate.com.
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