Welcome Quarter 4:
Well, it’s hard to believe that we’re in the last quarter of 2011 already! It’s funny; the other day I went to the bank and the teller looked at me with sorrowful eyes and asked, how is your business doing? Boy … was she surprised at my response!
I told her that we were “on fire”! You can’t listen to the newscasters, I said. Our August Sales were up from 107 in August of 2010 to 170 in August of 2011 and what’s more than that, over 35% of our sales were to CASH Buyers. She thought that was surprising, so I asked her, how much interest is your bank paying on CD’s? She replied that they’re competitive at 0.8% for deposits over $100,000. This was fun. I let her know that our Real Estate Investor Clients are buying properties for cash and consistently earning returns in excess of 8% and those who are taking advantage of today’s historically low Interest rates are getting even higher returns. I guess that’s why money is leaving your bank. Oops!
Then I went on to let her know some Market Stats. Our MLS reported that in August of 2007, there were 21,851 homes for sale in the MLS and there were 1,154 sales for the month resulting in an 18.9 Month Supply of Homes, and, the same report for August of 2011 indicated that the Inventory was down to 10,181 homes for sale in the MLS and there were 1,957 sales for the month resulting in a 5.2 month supply of homes. Furthermore, the days on market and List price to Sales price Ratio has remained steady all year at about 100 days and 95% respectively. I could see her tune beginning to change. Oh, one more thing, the average sales price has increased from $142,000 in January to $165,000 in August. Wow, I had no idea, she said. So I invited her to one of our weekly Career Sessions.
The fact is, well priced homes are selling and they’re selling fast, so much so, that with the lower supply of homes, multiple offer and bids higher than full price are not uncommon. Please understand, I don’t mean to make this sound easy, it’s not. Our company has invested in numerous systems and tools that are now generating in excess of 1000 leads each month to our agents. This comes at a huge expense to the organization and is accompanied by diligent effort of hundreds of trained sales professionals who I’m very proud to have affiliated with our firm. Check out our enhanced listings on Yahoo.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com, and REALTOR.com and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Our listings, quite simply, stand out from all the rest. I guess the old adage is true, the harder you work, the luckier you get!
Okay, enough boasting for now. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell real estate, we’re here to help and we’d really like you to operate from a position of strength. If you’d like to see why smart buyers are buying now, go to www.C21Beggins.com and sign up for the FREE Art of Investing in Real Estate Course. This will give you an entirely different look at the state of the Real Estate Market and how our Great Recession of 2011 is similar to the Great Depression of 1929 and how the recovery is expected to be similar over the long term. Another great tool that we’ve invested in for our Buyers and Sellers is Listingbook. This amazing tool will give you access to search the MLS for properties you’re interested in so you can see firsthand what’s happening in the market without having to rely on an agent and it will send you daily reports to keep you in the know. And, since we’re not out of the woods yet, if you need to sell and are upside down, and many people still are, contact your CENTURY 21 Beggins Agent and ask them to set you up with a FREE Attorney Consultation to help you assess your situation. You should know your options. Thanks for your business!
Until next time, may you have fair weather and following seas!
Craig J. Beggins, President
CENTURY 21 Beggins Enterprises
