This is a superb time to consider selling whatever type of property you may possess because, from my 38 years in the business, the most serious and qualified purchasers are out there not and throughout the winter months.
The No. 1 reason is that interest rates are at a 50-year low. My parents bought a home in Great Neck in 1956 and rates were around 6.04 percent from what I could read on their original commitment letter.
So now that the rates are almost half that amount it’s an amazing moment in time to get your income, credit, and debt to income well positioned to search out your starter, upgraded or dream home.
Besides interest rates being so, so low and not only are there possibly some motivated sellers who want to get out before any major snowfall or experience those dreadful heating bills, as gas and oil prices have increased this year; there are some extremely serious and very much qualified purchasers that are out there, looking for homes, investment properties, as well as rentals of residential and commercial properties.
Just because we are getting into the winter months doesn’t stop the qualified consumer from searching high and low for that specific “place to call home” or valuable investment or even a basic rental.
It wasn’t that long ago that the rule of thumb was for people to stop looking for the winter and come back during the warmer spring and summer months. That entire paradigm has been radically changed, especially since our housing inventory is still at less than six months; when historically six to seven months have been the normal barometer.
In 2008 when our market succumbed to the subprime loan crisis and we sold our poisonous collateralized debt obligations to other countries and Iceland almost went bankrupt from those toxic and deadly deals! Canada was one of the few countries that were smart enough to avoid our Wall Street scams and their devious ways that were also provided by mortgage brokers and even some of our realtors!
The market will still be strong for the next five years, as I mentioned in a column a few weeks ago based on five sources, the main one being Core Logic, who is a fairly accurate company, and who all predicted 2.9-4+ percent increases in the values of homes.
There are always exceptions to rule of predictions, nothing is guaranteed but birth, taxes (if you are earning any serious money) and death, the rest is always negotiable. There are two Ph.D. professors who (for the life of me I have forgotten their names and Siri, as well as Alexa and the internet, have not helped me find their names), who have been excellent prognosticators of our economy, who, I read somewhere that they too see the market continuing.
I would appreciate it if maybe one of my readers will call me and will let me know their names if I don’t find them first. The buyers are out there, but the sellers seem to very slowly putting their homes on the market.
However, to satisfy the demand we desperately need more of you sellers to step up to the plate and put your homes on the market, only and only if you have had it with the winters, high heating bills and the weekly and monthly upkeep and upgrades of your homes to keep them current.
Moving down south or out west or to some exotic location like Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc. that will afford a really nice lifestyle with all that money you will earn that you can take with you. All I am asking you is to give it some serious thought and then we can get more of those “searchers of homes” into one!
Philip A. Raices is the owner/Broker of Turn Key Real Estate at 3 Grace Ave Suite 180 Great Neck. He has earned designations as a Graduate of the Realtor Institute and a Certified International Property Specialist. He can be reached by email, at:Phil@TurnKeyRealEstate.Com, or by cell: (516) 647-4289.
