Marin County Mid Year Real Estate Market Report Part 3
Here’s the final installment in our mid year market report.
6.Transactions are tracking at even lower rate than last year, but recent trends indicate an increase for the second half of the year.
2008 saw the fewest real estate transactions since 1982. Right now, we are tracking slightly below that rate.
It can’t stay that low forever. People have life changing events that make them want to move, such as retirement, new babies, divorce. There is going to be pent up demand for movement in the market, and when the market does turn, we think it will do so fairly briskly.
7.”It’s not a buyer’s market. It’s not a Seller’s market. It’s a lender’s market.”
That’s a quote from one of our co-workers at Frank Howard Allen, and it is absolutely true. Lenders are the ones that hold all of the cards in this market. In their efforts to make up for past sins, they are, we believe, over correcting in the other direction.
Ask anyone who has gotten a loan or refinanced in the past six months. What used to be pretty simple and handled over the phone now bears a much closer resemblance to a major medical procedure, and a very invasive one at that.
How jumpy are the banks? We were representing a seller recently and there was a price reduction negotiated after the home was in contract for work that needed to be done on the house. The loan was approved, everything was in gear, and we were three days away from the close. We got a call saying that the price REDUCTION triggered something at the bank that made them want a new appraisal. Closing was delayed two weeks, the new appraisal came in, everything was fine, except now the banks wanted to review all of the inspection reports. Once they did, they demanded that all of the work be done BEFORE the sale closed! No one had the cash or the interest to do that.
It does have a happy ending. We found another lender, and the transaction closed three weeks ago.
And that’s really the moral of the story. We are finding ways get to deals done. Don’t believe everything you read.
Is it tricky and stressful? Yes. But there is always a way, and with patience and persistence, we can get you there.
