Welcome to October!! The fall season has arrived, and our landscapes have shifted into a stunning sea of gold and red. While most of you are picking out pumpkins, your buyers are attempting to invest in a place to call home for the holidays. Facing low inventory and multiple offers, this can understandably cause heartache and frustration.
As their advisor, you can help ease some of that pain:
1. Make sure your buyers are prequalified. The time it takes to get qualified after seeing a home could mean the difference between a winning and losing offer.
2. Communicate often. Communicate clearly.
3. Set expectations that they will need to be decisive if they like something.
4. Bid competitively, but don’t get carried away. Make sure the buyer’s needs stay at the forefront.
One thing that might alter our winter and spring market is that approximately 7% of mortgages are in forbearance as a result of the pandemic, and will be coming out in March or April 2021. This may cause an increase in inventory and a need for agents to assist sellers through a difficult transition. While some do say that the prolonged economic shutdown this year could cause a 2021 crash, I prefer to believe NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, that there will always be a need for housing. Here is my tip: begin your Spring in January and start talking to those buyers and sellers early!
Agents have been forced to be more creative, and remarkably, these crazy times have resulted in a very cooperative environment. When you’re facing a tough conversation with your client, it can be easy to forget the importance of collaboration, so I would ask that in all matters you treat each other with the respect and consideration you’d like to receive yourself. That’s Who We “R”
Thank you for allowing me to serve in 2020!
