Home Sales Decline Near and Far

Everyone always wants to know about real estate and generally it’s, “So how’s the market...is it as wild as I’ve heard?” My general response currently is that the market is somewhat on pause. By this I mean the frantic pace of last year or even six months ago has slowed significantly. As mentioned in this publication several months ago, when a new listing was rumored to go on the market, good agents tried to get their buyers in the first day of showings in order to have an early chance to nab. And in many cases the original list price was the starting point of where a buyer would make an offer. And the offer had to be as clean as a buyer could make it (limited financing contingency, closing and possession date of seller’s choice, purchased AS IS following inspections and in some occasions ability to go above the list price for the property). While that may sound wonderful, if one was working with buyers, it was not the place one wanted to be. Sellers, however, loved being in the driver’s seat. However, about mid-spring, the market seemed to be cooling a bit. To wit, my listing in the Belmont area had three showings the first day on market and produced one offer. The offer was slightly above list price but had several contingencies – all of which we were able to negotiate and the property closed successfully last week. My sellers got $15,000 above list with most all other terms and conditions satisfactory to them.