Pinetop White Mountain Blog

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I was just cruising another Blog site and read an article by another REALTOR® and I thought the subject was important enough to touch on here today.

I am sure there isn't a Seller out there right now who is happy with the way the Real Estate Market is performing.  It's not performing much at all, it is as simple as that.  The questions is why?  The answer is simple, many sellers are caught in a time warp and want things to be the same as they were in 2005 and are asking way too much for their properties.  Real Estate Markets are not static.  They change, not just year to year, but sometimes month to month, or even day to day.  In the four years since 2005, market conditions have changed drastically.     

Yes I understand it is frustrating that you can't get the same amount of profit on your house that you could have in 2005, but the market is what it is, and no amount of wishful thinking is going to change that.  Yes, maybe the guy down the street did get $50,000 more for his property than you have been told your property is worth today.  The fact is that a property is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, and in today's market, that amount is significantly less than it was four years ago. 

The truth is that the home that sold for $50,000 more probably wasn't worth that back then either.  But money was easy, inventories were low, and buyers were buying faster than properties could hit the marketplace.  That just isn't the case today.  Lending Institutions are very picky about who and what they lend on these days.  So even if you were lucky enough to find a buyer willing to pay an inflated price for the property, the appraisal isn't going to justify that value and the sale would fall apart anyway.   One way or the other your property value is going to get knocked down to size.  So why not just price it where it should be in the first place?  If you know and trust your REALTOR® then you have to take their word about what the value of your property is in today's market.  If you don't like the price, don't sell.  If you don't have to sell, then sit back and quit worrying about the value.  The market will recover but it is going to take some time for that to happen.   

The upside of this is that if you are relocating, you are probably going to be paying less for your new home than you would have had to six months or even a year ago.  Prices are down everywhere, not just where you are, so in the end you should come out okay.   I don't think we are ever going to see acceleration in pricing the way we did in 2005.  There has been too much bad fallout from that time and we are seeing it today in all aspects of our economy, not just in Real Estate.     

What does that mean to you?  It means that the very best agent is not a miracle worker nor are there any miracles in today's market.  You may feel that your home is worth more than your agent is telling you it is, but is it really?  Probably not.  That Bank Owned property down the street is going to affect your value.  The one next door that sold for so much more in 2005, is probably worth the same as yours today or perhaps even less.  No matter how you look at it, the market just isn't the same as it was four years ago and it probably never will be again. 

The bottom line here is that we all have to forget what happened in the past.  We must deal with today's market as it is today and accept it.  We may not like it, but markets change and four years has made a tremendous difference in the Real Estate Market.  Call us today and let us help you adapt to today's marketplace.   

---Remember our motto---

"WE WORK FOR YOU!"

SANDRA & BRUCE PAULOW, GRI'S

YOUR HIGH COUNTRY REALTORS