Seasons change: Weather cooling and market could be, too

GRANBURY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

As president of the Granbury Association of Realtors, Jerry Allen writes a monthly column for the organization. The GAR provides services and resources to the Realtors of Hood and Somervell counties.

Howdy folks!!

Well, once again, both the weather and the market are headed in the same direction: Cooling off just a tad!

But this month, as fall gets into full swing and the Halloween AND Christmas displays start to hit the retail stores, I’d like to shift gears a little bit if y’all are OK with that. And I promise no further mentions of pumpkin spiced ANYTHING!

As we approach the midpoint of October shortly, you should notice a big decrease in folks looking to buy a home or wanting to move at all! No one wants to be moving over the holidays for the most part. They’d rather stay in the home they know right now for their Thanksgiving meals and Christmas or other December celebrations. I get that. Moving is a pain anyway, much less over the holidays!

Since a normal closing takes 30-45 days, buying a home in mid-October or later has a buyer moving over the Thanksgiving holiday and into December. So, likely folks are going to stay where they are until after the new year. Add to that the uncertainty of the 2022 midterm elections and folks are just fine with staying put and sitting at home through the winter. Kind of a “wait and see” attitude.  Can’t blame them. In this age of uncertainty, sometimes staying put is a good strategy.

Or not….

That being said, it can be a GREAT time to get a good deal on homes for buyers! Sellers want to sell their home before year’s end and avoid those taxes. Buyers, of which there have been an overabundance  over the summer, are suddenly in short supply. Homes that are ON the market can usually be gotten a bit quicker than they could when every home had multiple offers on them. And with less competition, buyers can bargain much easier.

Of course, sellers are always in control of whether or not they sell their house. Some choose to pull it off the market until after the first of the year. Some don’t have that luxury and need to sell pretty quickly.

Finding a good, experienced Realtor to help navigate these waters is a must, especially in a time like this. They know the market and they know proper negotiation tactics to be able to get you the home you want at a price that you can live with! Yeah, they STILL aren’t cheap, but demand still fuels the market, and decreased demand for ANY reason usually results in willingness for a seller to be a bit more flexible on what they will accept for their home.

Even the hot market of Austin’s Board of Realtors just reported that THEIR sales have slowed and the median price fell by over 7% from the prior month!

This is the time of year where most of us Realtors buckle down and work on our CE (continuing education) classes and/or certifications, catch up on PERSONAL things (yes, even WE have lives, contrary to popular opinion!) and some even take vacations. I personally haven’t taken a vacation since the pandemic reared its ugly head, mainly because Realtors were declared “essential” and the market has been insane since March of 2020, not even taking the “normal’ seasonal downturns.

But, as I wrote about last month, things are BEGINNING to return to a sense of normalcy as far as the cyclical nature of Real Estate. I, for one, welcome ANY return to anything that could be deemed as “normal.”

Have a talk with your real estate professional and see what options are available for you right now, in THIS market, and see if either buying or selling makes good sense to you. I think you’ll find that, depending on YOUR particular situation, it is almost ALWAYS a good time for either!

You can find them at the Granbury Association of Realtors (www.granburyrealtors.com).

Till next month, get your Halloween candy before it’s all gone! But don’t be a “candy hoarder!”

Blessings always.

817-578-4110 or jerryallen@kw.com