I frequently speak with Realtors on the Outer Banks to get their take on the Real Estate Market Conditions. Over the holidays, I had a chance to meet Holleay Parcker - the owner of Spinnaker Realty in Kitty Hawk. Holleay has an interesting take on the market and I thought I would share it with my readers:
Waiting for the best moment to get on the boat, many buyers may find that their ship has sailed
I had an interesting conversation with an investor yesterday who owns scores of properties on the Outer Banks. As you might imagine, the topic of our conversation was the Outer Banks real estate market.
We shared our thoughts and it was a lively discussion. Here are the high points:
The market is constantly running ahead of us all. At any given time, there are always properties that are under contract. It typically takes between 30 and 45 days to close on a property, although there are many instances where it is advantageous to the seller or the buyer (or both) to delay closing for an extended period, which can be several months.
These under contract properties represent the newest market data when these transactions close and these new closed sales establish market price. But since no one is privy to the price a property has sold for until it records (except of course the parties involved in each transaction), we all must wait for the sale to close before we have access to this information.
And by that time, more properties will have gone under contract…and so on, and so on…
Since the market is running ahead of us all, no one will know precisely when the market has hit bottom and is turning back to the seller’s favor. No one…
If you are waiting to buy until the market has hit the bottom, you won’t be buying at the bottom, because none of us will know until well after the fact when that has occurred. And by then, the market will be on the upswing, turning towards the seller’s favor once more, the best opportunities already a thing of the past.
Many buyers are waiting to buy thinking that they will ‘know when the time is right’. For most people, this means that they will need to see the market improving and they will need to hear from the media that conditions have changed. Many people are waiting for the media to make some kind of proclamation that ‘Now is the time! Go forth and buy real estate!’
But consider for a moment who has the most recent (and most reliable) information about the Outer Banks real estate market – it is the top-producing real estate agents. They are the ones who know how to analyze the information in the mls in meaningful ways. Of course, all Outer Banks real estate agents have access to this information, but not all of them possess the necessary skills to know how to interpret it.
The media does not have access to the relevant local market information that real estate agents do. They have to interview those closest to the market to get it. (Get it?)
So, if you really want to know the state of the market on the Outer Banks, you won’t get that information by reading the paper or listening to the nightly news. By the time the media ‘gets it’ that the market has turned, guess what?
The market will have turned.
I’ll leave you with the most valuable thought the conversation produced. It was this:
You don’t have to buy at the bottom to make money in real estate. You just have to get a good value.
If you just heard that, then you know all that you need to know about whether or not now is the right time to buy.
The boat is in the dock. Will you be getting on board?
If you have any questions for Holleay, you can reach her at 877-207-1617.
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