Sales hit 8 year Slump locally....Hows the rest of the year look? Should I wait to buy?

Sales have hit an 8 year slump. Now the big question has been, how does the rest of the year look. People are asking...should I wait to buy.

Lets take a look.

THE GREEN LINE is amount of new listings on market.

THE BLUE LINE is our average price.

THE RED LINE is the number of homes sold per quarter. (Graph made by Wasatch Front Regional MLS)

ABOUT THE GRAPH:

As you can see Salt Lake has hit an all time low for sales. The reason why this has happened is largely due to the loan credit crisis. Loans have changed and many of our clients that bought a home a year or two ago are stuck. They cant buy another home with current loan guidelines. A second reason but not as important is out of state sellers having a difficult selling their home in order to move in state. The media hype could be another aspect but that is more of a cloud over people's minds rather than a direct influenence on the local economy.

The under 200k mark is still hot. There are multiple offers in this category.

The over 400k mark is slower in certain parts of the valley. Mainly the southern part of the valley where all the new housing was created.

OUR OUTLOOK:

Forbes recently rated Utah as number one place to find a job. They also rated Utah as the number one place to buy a home due to good value and future appreciation.

CURRENT STATUS OF NEW HOUSING:

Current new housing supply: Builders arent pulling permits right now. And many of the builders are no longer in business. There was a clean out in this industry. A large supply of new housing happened to be people building spec homes and hoping to flip for a profit. These speculators are hurting right now but wont be building in the future. What does all this mean? That there is approximately 9 months supply of extra inventory on the market before our demand for new housing picks up again. Due to this extra supply buyers can buy a home for a great price until supply decreases.

WHERE DO YOU MAKE YOUR MONEY TODAY?

Perfect time for anyone wanting to move up. Right now if someone wants to trade up their home they will get more money for their current home and they will buy a better bargain in the higher price range.

Zillow in Utah; Why Zillow may be accurate in other states but NOT in Utah!

Zillow has become quite popular for many people looking up to see what their home is worth. But is it accurate in Utah?

Utah is a NON disclosure State while other states are Disclosure states. What does this mean?

Many other states have laws that require when someone sells their home that they have to report to the state what the home sold for. This is called a disclosure state. In these states Zillow can pull off information from the state records and come up with a fairly close method of knowing what homes are selling for in that area.

Utah on the other hand is a Non disclosure state. Our state sends you in the mail a form saying they are required by state law to find out what you sold your home for. Many people just throw this away because we actually aren't required to send it in. Therefore, the state GUESSES what home values are in your area. Because they dont have accurate information this leads to Zillow pulling information that isnt accurate.

Other items to consider:

Many neighborhoods in Utah have half a million dollar homes sitting next to million dollar homes. Others have homes range in price from 300-400k in the same neighborhood. There are various factors such as builders, upgrades, lot size, and finish work just to name a few.

How can I know what my home is worth?

You can always get an appraisal. These cost around $350-$425 usually. Refinance appraisals vary and always arent that close. In a market that is depreciating and appreciating up and down, you will want to get a good idea of what homes are going to be selling in the next 30 days. This information isnt on a appraisal but you can get it from a local Realtor who is knowledgeable about your area and neighborhood.

Dont trust online. Get a professional to evaluate your home for a good idea of what your home is worth!

Free Grant Money up to $10,000

Free Grant Money up to $10,000

The federal government gives away free money. Everybody has seen that on TV. Most people just dont know where to go or how to get it and what the qualifications are.

The Qualifications:

1. Must be a first time homebuyer. (Meaning you cant have owned any homes within the past 3 years.)

2. Must be within a certain income bracket depending on how many people are in your household. (Sorry, dogs and pets dont count.)

How many are available? Why dont more people know about it?

Every year our relationship with the bank and government has been granted only 5 grants per year. My clients are always gobbling them up. Since there arent very many, not very many people know about it. Right now, I am filling out 3 applications out of the 5.

How do you cash in? Who will be the other lucky 2 people?

Those who call me at 801-809-5300

This is one of my favorite things about my job. Getting people into homes 100% financing with free government money. Know someone? Have them call or email me. My website is www.UtahDave.com

I dont have an agent...BUT weeks later...I want you to give my Brother 35% Referral Fee.

http://www.utahdave.com/ is a site where we are used to having many other agents on our site using our site. Thats great..we love the traffic and being able to help people..so here is what happened this week.

Over a week ago, we had a buyer that when we asked the golden question, "Do you have an agent you are working with?" They answered the golden answer. "No."

So my buyers agent started helping them, showing them homes and getting them ready to buy. The buyer shows up at our office yesterday morning with a Referral agreement for their brother for 35% fee. (He is a local agent and as a matter of fact, they are renting and living in one of his homes that he has for sale.)

They said, "Well, we want to use you but we need you to do this."

What would you do? Well, this is what we did....lets see what you think.

We signed it. We told them the following: "We actually never pay this high of a referral fee to anyone, and we actually never pay referral fees unless the agent called us up and wanted us to help their client. We understand that this is important to you since you feel bad about not using your brother especially when he showed you homes months ago. Im going to do this, just for you. I appreciate getting to know you and love working with you and would love working with people you know in the future. Would you be willing to let me know when you come across someone looking to buy or sell a home and send them our way?"

I figure hey.....we got someone to use us instead of their own family. Capitalize on the experience, get a testimonial, and use the experience when next time someone says...I have a cousin in the business. Besides, if the brother called us in the beginning instead of when we were doing the offer...we would have paid a referral fee. I believe the law of abundance wins.

What are your thoughts?

Don't be Tempted to do this...IT COSTS YOU MONEY!

Don't be tempted to do it! It will cost you money!

How fun it is to go shopping for a home. You drive around, you look online, and you even go to open houses. Well, you finally see a few homes and you think you have your favorite picked out. Should I write an offer? Is it the right one? Maybe I should bring by my family or friends to take a look at it. Maybe I should see if my furniture fits in the house. I cant really remember how the kitchen looks, lets go back and see if everything looks right. OR Its so exciting I just want to drive by it. Honey, lets go drive by the house and take a look at the neigbhorhood and the home.

What actually happens when you do those things? Heres the Truth..and a true story.

One of my sellers had a potential buyer look at their home, about 3 times. Yes, the buyer had to come back and show the husband. Okay thats a good excuse. But than they had to bring the whole family. While they are there, they tell my seller how they love the house and that they have been looking for 6 months and just cant find anything they like. "We love your house," they exclaim. So they put in an offer. Then my client sees them driving by the house.....they drive by once....ohhh wait, there they go again. So what do you think my seller thinks so far about their offer? Its too low. We need full price. Look how excited they are...they will pay anything for the house right now. So, we end up selling the home for more money than the seller actually would have taken.

The moral of the story.

You want to save money when buying a home? First, dont lay your cards on the table to the seller. Second, Only look at the home once before you do an offer. Never show it to family...you can show them after. Third, dont do drive bys. Every time you drive by it could be a $1,000 toll road for you. Price on the home goes up that much every time you drive by. Yes, its a temptation to break the rules. Save yourself the money!

What your Realtor is for!

Daily I receive phone calls and numerous online inquiries regarding buying a home in Utah. As I help people every now and than I will bump into a big surprise. Someone is looking for homes, has all sorts of questions, and wants me to do all the work in finding them a home. Now that isnt the surprise. The surprise is that when I ask if they have a Realtor they are using they say yes. Why would they be calling me when they have a Realtor? So I ask, and here are the answers that I get,

a. My agent does this part time.

b. I have a family member that is an agent.

c. My agent is new.

d. My agent is on vacation.

e. I cant reach my agent.

f. My agent isnt sending me anything I like.

g. My friends dad or brothers uncle is an agent.

What Your Realtor or Agent is supposed to do when you are looking for a home:

Your agent represents you. The person listing a home for sale represents the seller. Builders have agents that represent the builder. Whenever you buy a home you want to have an agent that represents you.

Here are two guidelines on what your agent is supposed to do when starting to help you.

1. Free your time by looking for your home and sending you listings. (They should have access to anything for sale. There shouldnt be any reason why you would need to look at other agents websites or other home magazines or newspapers for a home. The newspapers, magazines, and everything are a waste of time. Your Realtor should be able to give you homes every day!)

2. Make it so that you only have 1 person to call instead of having 10 agents calling you all trying to get you to buy their listings.

If your Realtor is finding you homes for sale and making all the phone calls for you, good on them! If they aren't...why are you doing the work?

(This isnt the main job of a Realtor but its a good sign of the other services they are going to provide. If they do a great job from the beginning, your success probability of a great experience will skyrocket. If they arent doing the the 2 things above....I wish you all the luck in the world.)