Aug. 3, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by Amy Stockberger Real Estate.

By Amy Stockberger

I’m going to be real with you: If you’re in the market to buy a home right now, you need a bulldog on your side.

We’re experiencing so many multiple-offer situations, if you’re the buyer you need an agent negotiating for you that has the moxie and empathy to understand how important this process is to you and your family.

Recently, a buyer client of ours had been looking for their first home with one of our skilled Realtors, Teresa Geiken. Their budget was in the low $200,000s — the hottest price point in our market with the least amount of inventory by far. It was not going to be easy to land them their dream home.

But Teresa got it done for them. She expertly negotiated an accepted offer and told them in the lobby of our office. There were screams, tears, laughter and, of course, the office bell was rung loudly announcing another victory for our clients. The energy in the building was priceless!

This type of competitiveness has been the story of our market this year.

Inventory is still 29 percent less this year over last year, driving supply and demand with a frenzy of multiple offers. Having a skilled Realtor® to represent you to negotiate on your behalf couldn’t be more important – for buyers and sellers. You want a specialist whose negotiating skills are laser sharp to navigate this critical transaction. We have leveraged more money for sellers this year than ever before, as well as providing ongoing support that our clients need not only during the transaction but after too.

But we think we can still do more to connect buyers and sellers.

You might have heard that the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire recently added a new procedure that possibly could help get more sellers into the market by adjusting a national “coming soon policy.” This new, national “clear cooperation policy” means a home not yet on the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, cannot be advertised to the public, advertised on websites or social media or have a sign in the yard unless it is going on MLS within 24 hours. An amended policy now states that we can list a home with a “Coming Soon” status on the MLS, and it will be distributed to the public sites and to clients who have a portal set up with their Realtor®, as well as a for sale sign with a “coming soon” sign in the yard. The caveat is that the home cannot be shown to buyers or put under contract until the home goes into an active status on MLS.

In theory, this will allow all buyers to see what’s coming soon and be ready to go as soon as they can see the home and make an offer. Ssome sellers, however, are holding out putting their home on MLS because they cannot find what they want in their next home because of low supply.

So what if we flipped the process? The MLS system is a database of homes for sale that all real estate agents within that MLS association can access and distribute to their clients and consumer websites. What if we created an MLS featuring buyers?

Amy Stockberger Real Estate is giving it a shot. On top of advertising our listings, we are going to be advertising and spotlighting our interested buyers just as heavily. A seller will be able to go out, enter in the basic parameters of their home and see how many pre-approved buyers match up. Think of it as a dating service type of system but for buyers and sellers.

Interested? We’re almost ready to roll it out, so contact me at [email protected], and I’ll get you connected.

It truly is still a great time to jump into the real estate market. When we look back at the first half of summer 2019 compared to this year, the theme is all about interest rates driving sales. Rates have dropped as low as 2.5 percent for a 30-year mortgage and 2 percent for a 15-year mortgage. The same time last year the 30-year was at 3.75 percent – still a smoking good rate, mind you. The monthly principal and interest payment on a mortgage of $300,000 in 2019 was $1,390 compared with $1,185 at today’s rates. The difference is staggering and allowing some buyers to jump up to a higher price point than they could afford last year.

Bottom line, to get your real estate goals met, you need a company that specializes in connecting buyers and sellers by thinking outside of the box to make moments like this happen for you:

If you or someone you know is in need of finding that next sale, contact us today for more details about our all-inclusive strategies.

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