How's the market?

Anthony Lamacchia: 

How’s the market? That is a question you are inevitably going to get over the holiday weekend here with Thanksgiving. So how do you answer that? Well, if it’s quick and it’s in passing, a simple, that’s pretty busy thing, seem like they’re on the road to picking up, great. But for those that get into more substantive conversations, you wanna be able to answer things and explain things correctly. That is how you impress your friends and your family. So how would I answer that with those that wanna get into a more detailed conversation and are actually curious

00:30
about how the market is. Number one thing people care about, especially if they are a homeowner, is prices. That’s a big deal to them. So I would be clear with them that, yeah, this is a market slowdown due to interest rates, but prices haven’t come down at all. In fact, they have continued to go up in most places, right? And you can say that, obviously, and back it up with data anywhere in the Northern States. If you’re in Florida, well, single families have gone up a little.

00:59
maintain the same condos, condos are having a harder time. But for the most part, you can speak pretty optimistically about pricing. Now, rates, you could mention rates did go down late August, early September, even into late September, but then they went back up, they’re hovering around high sixes, 7%. However, many experts feel, is what I’d be saying, and I would say my own opinion, over the horizon.

01:27
I can see the light with rates starting to come down in a sustainable manner. We’re probably six to 12 months from that and I would mention that, okay? Another thing, when they talk to you about how busy is it, well, the reason it hasn’t been as busy and the reason that sales are down is less people are listing their homes. The amount of homes for sale, generally speaking over the last year or two, has been lower, but in the last couple of months, take a place like here in Massachusetts, we went over 10,000 homes for sale.

01:57
for the first time in four years. I would mention that. And then if it really gets into a deep conversation, I would have a seasonality conversation. Seasonality, how can you quickly explain that to a layman who doesn’t, in layman’s terms, to someone who isn’t in the real estate business like we are? The way that I explain it is, listen, if you wanna buy, greatest time of the year to buy is the second part of the year. Best time of the year to sell, first part of the year. To be more specific.

02:25
buying September to Thanksgiving, best time. Selling late January to April, best time. And explain that’s because of the ebbs and flows of inventory. Keep in mind, let’s turn the camera over here. Keep in mind, in the winter, inventory’s lower. You get to March and inventory starts going up, okay? Maybe not that fast. I made that line a little too fast. Okay, you get to summer, October it goes up, and then it goes back down at the end of the year. Right now we’re about here. It started going back down.

02:55
You could explain that. Now, I don’t think you’re gonna pull out and draw line graphs in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner, but those are the kinds of talking points that you should have in your mind when people are asking you, how’s the market? Okay, again, you could give the quick answer, that’s been relatively busy, or if you don’t feel it has been, you can tell them. But remember words of wisdom from Mr. Brian Buffini, probably the best real estate coach in the country, most successful certainly for the last 20 years. What does Brian say?

03:25
You are never too busy and you are never too slow. If you hem and ha about being too busy, people are gonna be like, I don’t wanna send them a referral every time I see them. They’re complaining they’re too busy. Then if you’re too slow, they’re gonna be like, how successful is this person? Remember, people want to work with successful people. Last, I wanna thank my friend Dan Gavay, Keller Williams in Easton for giving me this idea to do this video on How’s the Market? That’s all folks. Have a wonderful, very happy Thanksgiving.

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