No matter what your real estate goals are, you’re much better off working with a top-producing agent than a new one.  

Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, are you better off working with a new agent or a top-producing one?

Before I answer that question, I need to dispel a common myth: Top-producing agents are too busy to give you the attention you need. The truth is, while a new agent may have more time to deal with their clients, they don’t know how to utilize that time as well as top-producing agents do.

That being said, there are five points you need to remember that explain why you’re better off working with a top-producing agent than a new one. For your convenience, I’ve provided timestamps from the video above in the spots that detail each point:

2:24—Top producers are successful for a reason

3:00—New agents don’t have as many buyers

4:23—Top producers have more connections

5:13—Top producers have a bigger marketing budget

6:13—Top producers are better trained

If you have any questions about this topic or you’d like to talk more about what a top-producing agent can do for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

For both buyers and sellers in our market, what does our seller’s market mean for you? Find out in today’s post.  

Our market is a seller’s market, and today I’ll cover a few points about what that means for both buyers and sellers looking to make a move.

For home sellers, a seller’s market means:

• You’ll have more showings. In this type of market, you’ll have a lot more buyers and agents coming through your home, which means you’ll need to have your house show-ready before they do if you want to make a good impression. You’ll also need to be a lot more flexible with your time, given that influx of showings.
  
• You’ll potentially get multiple offers on your home. Having more traffic through your home means that you’re more likely to get offers from multiple buyers, possibly allowing you to get a higher price with fewer incentives, depending on the offers. Be sure to discuss your plan of action with your real estate agent in the event that you do whip up a multiple-offer situation.
  
  For my part, if my client gets a bunch of offers coming in for their listing, I create a timeline. Following that, I let the buyer’s agents know to submit their highest and best offers. After a certain amount of time, we cut off showings and then address the offers that have been presented to us as fast as we can so that we can get locked in under contract. My client and I will then go over the pros and cons of each offer and let the buyer’s agent know when their bid has been accepted.
• You’ll need to provide fewer incentives to buyers. In a seller’s market, you get to be in the driver’s seat of your transactions. You won’t have to provide as many closing costs, home warranties, fence allowances, etc., in order to get buyers interested in your listing.
  
  Just half a year ago, buyers were calling the shots in terms of the incentives they wanted from sellers before making an offer on their home; now, however, there’s more demand and inventory, meaning those days are over.

 "In this type of market, sellers will have a lot more buyers and agents coming through their home, which means they’ll need to have their house show-ready before then if they want to make a good impression."

On the other hand, for homebuyers, a seller’s market means:

•  You’ll need to act fast. In this type of market, you can’t really afford to wait around to make an offer on a home you like. When you see a listing you feel strongly about, have a discussion with your agent and be prepared to make an offer that same day.
• You need to be prepared to make an offer. That means you’ll need to be pre-qualified before making the offer. That way, your real estate agent is ready to put it in at any time.
• You won’t likely get as many incentives from sellers. You may have to spend cash out of your pocket during your purchase, the possibility of which you, as a buyer, should have factored into your plans in the first place.
• You’ll need to be ready to compete. There may be multiple offers on the home you’re interested in, so you need to be ready to get aggressive with your own offers. Think of what you can do to get the seller to pick your offer. One of the No. 1 ways to do that is to ask for fewer incentives like seller-paid closing costs, home warranties, or certain repairs. This, along with meeting or exceeding the seller’s asking price in your offer, will put you ahead of other buyers.

If you have any questions about how to navigate a hot seller’s market like the one we’re in, please reach out to me. I’d love to give you advice about the best way to proceed with your transaction.

Don’t let yourself be fooled by these five myths when putting your home on the market. 

With the number of properties that my team and I list, hearing the myths that circulate among sellers is an all-too-familiar occurrence. That said, here are five myths that sellers should be wary of:

1. “The best time to list is summer.” Sure, summertime is when everyone and their brother wants to list their home, so by going along with this line of thinking, you’re really just thinking like the competition. Deciding to follow the herd will only hurt your chances to sell and do so for top dollar. Alternatively, stay ahead of the competition and list before the arrival of the summer market. Think about it this way: The teams and agents who excel in this market are those that don’t list based on seasonality—they’re listing and selling at any and all points throughout the year.

2. “I should price high to prevent lowball offers.” Actually, most houses in our market are selling within $3,000 to $6,000 asking price. What some fail to understand is that when you list high, you run the risk of not getting any showings at all; in that case, you’ll go from worrying about low offers to having no offers. Price your home based on current market conditions and your agent’s opinion of what range you should be in. This way, your home won’t languish on the market and you won’t have to go through a series of price drops as a result. 3. “I’ll save money if I sell on my own.” If you’re under this impression, think again—just 2% of FSBO sellers successfully carry out a sale, so it follows that 98% of home sales are accomplished by enlisting the help of an agent. That begs the question: Why take the chance on going it alone when the odds are that lopsided? Of those who are successful going FSBO, most end up selling for less than they would with an agent. Why? A non-professional doesn’t know what’s common to the market and lacks the savvy to maximize their sale price.

 "Just 2% of FSBO sellers successfully carry out a sale, so it follows that 98% of home sales are accomplished by enlisting the help of an agent."

4. “I can't list my home while it’s rented.” Contrary to popular belief, you can put your rental property on the market as early as 90 before the lease expires. Say in the second month you and your renter agree to an extension—in that event, you can pull it off the market and you’ll have another year of rent payments. Bear in mind that all showings must be coordinated between you and the tenant and you’ll have to honor the terms of the lease; all of this will be marketed by your Realtor.

5. “If my appraisal comes in higher, I can sell at that price.” This can’t be done without both parties agreeing to it, and more often than not, your buyer isn’t going to pay above the agreed-upon price. If the appraisal comes in lower, you and the buyer will have to renegotiate.

I hope that I helped to clear up some of the false beliefs around selling your home. If you have any further questions or would like to give us some ideas for future topics, please reach out to us. I look forward to hearing from you!

Here are a few hints that will hopefully help homebuyers navigate the purchase process.. 

While today’s helpful homebuyer hints are not all-inclusive, I do think that they provide some good information that will help you prepare for the process when the time comes:

1. Get pre-qualified. This is the most important thing to do before calling agents or going to view properties. Inexperienced agents are happy to show properties to anyone, even those who haven’t been pre-qualified, but veterans of the industry tend to stick to those who have. It doesn’t do you any good to go out and look at properties before you even know what kind of home, if any, you’d be able to afford.

2. Narrow your home search criteria to neighborhoods, school districts, subdivisions, and cities. Refining your search to these criteria will better help your agent find you the kind of house you’re looking for.

3. When your agent sends you a list of houses, pick five or 10 of them. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with too many choices, so be sure to only visit about five properties on a given day. Otherwise, they’ll start to run together and you won’t be able to make an informed decision. Once you’ve visited all the properties on the list, narrow your choices down to your top three, unless you’ve already made up your mind. In that case, go ahead and make an offer.

 "You need to be sure that you’re not confusing those desired items with items you need."

4. When you’re looking at houses, focus on major points. Don’t sweat the small stuff; focus your attention on the functionality of the home and whether it fits your family’s needs in terms of space, layout, et cetera. Make sure that your agent also knows what features you’ll be paying attention to, as well.

5. Be sure to distinguish between your needs and wants. Many buyers enter the market with a long list of wants, and that’s okay. But you need to be sure that you’re not confusing those desired items with items you need. For example, you might want a kitchen with an island, but you need a home within a reasonable distance to the school your kids will attend.

6. Our market has turned into a seller’s market. That means that buyers will have fewer liberties in terms of negotiations. That doesn’t mean that people are trying to be difficult, however; it’s just the effect of the market’s shift.

If you have any questions about these hints, please feel free to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you however I can.

Whether you’re buying or selling a home, there are five real estate myths you shouldn’t believe. 

Here are five major real estate myths you shouldn’t believe:

1. All agents are the same. We all go to the same real estate school, but after that, we choose our own career paths. In the beginning, agents tend to work with whoever they can. After a certain point, though, if you’re successful, you’ll pick a path and stick to it. That could mean being a buyer’s agent, listing agent, foreclosure agent, commercial agent, etc., and you don’t want to work with an agent whose skills don’t align with your real estate needs.

2. All agents are full-time. Actually, a lot of agents only work part-time, and whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home, you’re better off not working with any part-time agents. 10% of all agents produce 90% of the business, and only 3% of all agents sell 25 homes or more per year. Furthermore, 80% of all agents are out of the business by the fifth year of their career, so do your research and choose wisely the next time you need to buy or sell a home.

3. Even good agents can run out of inventory. Some marketing can be deceiving. If an agent tells you they’re out of inventory, that means they’re not really in the real estate business—they’re either a part-time agent or they don’t know what they’re doing. Can you imagine walking into a Walmart and finding out that they’re out of inventory?

 "The more top-producers a firm has, the more homes they’re going to sell."

4. Agents work for companies. We’re licensed under certain firms and we have to follow the policies of those firms, but at the end of the day, we’re all independent contractors who work on commission.

5. You’re better off hiring a smaller firm. The more top producers a firm has, the more homes they’re going to sell. More homes being sold means more business being generated. I work for the biggest firm in the Jacksonville area, and it’s not a coincidence that we’re also the top-producing firm.

If you have any questions about other real estate myths you shouldn’t believe or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

What’s happening in the Onslow County area market? Find out in today’s update.

Today let’s look at how our area market has changed in the last year:

In terms of sold listings, we had 1,510 in 2018 at this time. Now, that number has increased by 68, leaving us with 1,578 as of this moment in 2019.

There were 1,913 pending listings, or houses that have gone under contract, in 2018. This year, we jumped up to 2,244—an increase of 331 homes. If you’re a potential seller, this is a good indicator that you should jump off the fence and get into the market.

Our 2018 market had 10,255 active listings at this same time last year. Since then, that number has decreased by 2,409, and we currently have 7,846 active listings. This shows that we had much more inventory last year than this year, which helped us to realize that we’re shifting toward a seller’s market. Sellers will have the same number of buyers, but not as much inventory, meaning that sellers will have less competition.

Absorption rate—how long it would take to sell all the homes currently available in the market, assuming no additional ones enter—is another key figure to watch. Last year at this time, we had about 4.87 months of inventory. Inventory dropped in 2019, leaving us with a 3.59 months’ supply.

In 2019, the average days on market was 101 days; this year, we’re at 91 days. The majority of these homes are residential, which are going pending within a couple weeks after their listing if they’re priced well and are in good condition. Ultimately this type of market is going to shrink, and I believe that when we look at the February/March statistics, we’ll see that the days on market drop down even more drastically.

If you are looking to sell your home, I HIGHLY recommend speaking with a real estate agent. We can tell you what your home is worth in today’s market and tell you our strategies for making sure it gets sold for the most money possible. All you have to do is reach out to us—we’d be glad to help.