Take Advantage of the Buyer's Market!

With over 2,300 real estate listings in Santa Clarita alone, of which all are fighting for the smaller pool of buyers, it has created what is known as a Buyer's Market. While a lot of buyers are sitting on the sidelines, waiting, hoping, praying, crossing their fingers that prices go down more, there are a few savvy people out there taking advantage of "deals", deals that otherwise haven't been around for years.

Seller concessions. Its a great thing if you are a buyer with little cash in reserves, but have an income to justify the mortgage payment. Why is it such a great thing? Well, imagine in a normal market that you want to buy a home. You enter escrow on it. You then are informed of the amount needed to close escrow, aka CLOSING COSTS. Typically these will run anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 on a first time buyer's purchase. Now, imagine if you will, paying NO closing costs. Imagine, receiving a credit from the seller that not only covers ALL of your closing costs, but leaves money left over for you to apply towards buying your interest rate on a loan down, which in turn will make your monthly payment less expensive. Sounds nice right? Well, that my friends (and hopefully future client), is just part of the idea behind seller concessions.

This sort of thing rarely happens in a "Seller's market", but that isn't the case, we're in a Buyer's market, so its happening quite a bit these days - and as I mentioned, there are some SAVVY buyers out there getting some GREAT deals! While there are of course some sellers out there who are simply sticking to their "guns" and not budging on ANYTHING, there are about 50 other Sellers to that 1 who will be happy to entertain your "creative" offer.

Now in order to get "creative", and make the best offer possible, you really need the assistance of a Realtor who knows their stuff (hhuhm), because your choice in Realtor, you know that person who is supposed to negotiate a great deal on your behalf, could cost you thousands of dollars, or SAVE YOU thousands of dollars. When choosing your Realtor, make sure to ask for a list of properties they have successfully closed escrow on in the past 12 months. If they give you a list of 0, 1, 2, or 3 ...make sure to look very closely at other aspects of their qualifications, and how knowledgeable they sound when answering your questions.

So you have the perfect Realtor, and its a Buyer's market, now what? I know this is not a revolutionary idea, but here it goes...LOOK FOR A GREAT DEAL, SOMETHING UNDER MARKET VALUE! Now that you are amazed by my great idea, I will tell you some of the best ways to find a great deal.

Some key factors that CAN LEAD to a GREAT deal in the making:

• A property that is priced about 5% or more below its best competition
• A property that has been listed for a LONG TIME - over 90 days, over 120 is even better
• A property that is vacant and has a stressed seller making two mortgage payments
• A property that has been served with a Notice of Default, and the owner has Equity!
• A property that needs some minor TLC, something you can fix yourself, but discount real dollars off the sales price for
• A not so hot looking property in a GREAT neighborhood, with one or ALL of the factors listed above in play
• A property that is offering up-front that seller will pay some or all closing costs
• A property that is or is potentially a short sale, with one or ALL of the factors listed above in play

Those are just a few items to look out for when on the hunt for a great deal. Personally, I love to look at how long its been listed. If its been listed a LONG TIME, with NO price changes, you may have a problem in that the seller is not motivated to sell. This is a BUYERS MARKET. So we are looking for the sellers that realize this and are looking to SELL, and move on with the equity they "currently" have. Ask your Realtor to investigate and see how motivated the seller is if you come upon a property that sparks your interest. Your Realtor can simply place a call to the listing agent and learn a great deal about the seller and the seller's "situation" (ie Moving out of state, Needs larger living space, Divorce, etc).

Tomorrow the Federal Open Market Committee will vote on whether or not to leave interest rates at bay 5.25% (8.25% prime rate for banks, credit cards, HELOCs) or hike them due to fears over inflation that still seems to be somewhat present. The current level of demand for housing could see a more fierce drop were the FED to increase rates again. However they have left them alone for the last 3 meetings, as inflation fears have seemed more calm in recent months. So hopefully, for all of you who want to purchase a home in the coming weeks or months (and have little money down), let hope for a continued pause in interest rate increases and lets start taking advantage of some of these deals in the Santa Clarita housing market.

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