By: Rachel Harclerode on October 23rd, 2020
Is Now the Right Time to Buy or Sell?
Check out this interview Eric Stewart had with Rick Fowler from WMAL where he discussed what the market looks like right now, and whether it's the right time to sell or buy a home.
Eric Stewart's Interview with WMAL
Rick (00:21): Thank you for joining us on this Saturday morning update. I'm Rick Fowler, we're joined by Eric Stewart. He pops in from time to time, to give us an update on the real estate market what's going on in town. And of course, Eric hosts Pointing You Home every Sunday morning, right here on WMAL. He is with the Eric Stewart Group and has decades of experience in real estate. Eric, good morning.
Eric (00:41): Hey, good morning, Rick. Thanks for having me on.
Rick (00:43): Well, you know, we've seen some interesting indicators in the economy, but what are we seeing in the real estate market in terms of how they're reacting to interest rates, COVID. What's going on out there?
Eric (00:56): Rick, what a great question. We have seen prices climb 10% this past year from August of ‘19 to August of ‘20. And even though we're now in September and going into October where we normally see prices kind of falter as we go into the fall, we're not seeing that. We're seeing a lack of inventory. We're seeing actually less homes on the market right now by 25% to 30% compared to just a year ago. And that was down from the year before, which was down from the year before, which was down from the year before. So we're in a very strong bull market.
We have not seen all of the legs of this market yet; I'm predicting. And I think if you're listening today and you've got a property, you're feeling like I just need to sell it now before the election, or I need to sell it, you know, before winter comes in. I would just tell you if you haven't gone to the market yet, sit back, give yourself five months. Don't sell your property yet. The market's going to be phenomenal next spring, I believe based upon the interest rates, which are going to stay where they are.
According to chairman Powell, he's saying we're going to keep things there for the next couple of years. This is going to keep this engine rolling. The cost of money is cheap, even though people's income–your income, my income–is not really jumping necessarily. The cost of money is cheap, which makes affordability increase, which is causing the buyers to be out looking. And we've got a lot of seniors who have decided, "I don't want to move into a retirement community. I'm going to stay where I am and live in place." Okay, good, fine. But that means a lot of the stock, the housing stock that would have been replenishing this market is not coming on the market. That's further exacerbating the demand over supply that's causing prices to climb.
And Rick, one more thing again, just do not under sell your homes. If you are thinking about selling, do not undersell your home. Please attend my webinars series coming up. Rick, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna mention this because it's great information on how to sell your home for top dollar and how to time the market, how to prepare your house, how to price your home, all of this. If you sign up at EricStewartGroup.com, right on the homepage. Just go to register and you'll see a place where you can save your seat.
We have had an excellent response to this, and a lot of our prospects that are coming in are still three or four or five years out. All good. You're 10 years away from selling, you want to get some insight into this market, come and be a part of this. It's an hour long, each one of these. And you come for any one you want; just sign up today at EricStewartGroup.com. And if you can't wait and you need some advice right now, call our toll-free number, which is 1-800-900-9104.
Rick (03:39): So you had advice in there for sellers. What do you advise a buyer right now?
Eric (03:44): Well, believe it or not, now is the time to buy. If you're a buyer, even though there's a lot of competition for buying and the market doesn't have a lot of inventory, you are risking pain more next year by not buying today. If you're buying, buy now. Look hard now. Recognize that there's going to be a little bit weaker market as we head deeper into the fall, even though it's going to be marginal this year compared to most fall markets, look for that opportunity.
And if you want, we have a guide called the Buyer Ready Guide that we've created, which we'll give out for free to any of your listeners. We'll ship it out. No postage, nothing. We'll send it out to you. Just to help you get an idea on how to approach that market. You can also download these resources EricStewartGroup.com.
We've got a webinar on selling your home for top dollar coming up this week. It's October the 6th, that's Tuesday at 1:30 in the afternoon. A week later, Tuesday the 13th at 1:30 on how to prepare the condition of your home. On the 20th, we're doing timing the market where I'll discuss how to enter the market for the best time, and I'm telling you don't sell now if you don't have to sell. Wait until February of next year, and I'll go over that on my October 20th, 1:30 Timing the Market webinar. And lastly, if you want to see pricing, well there's six factors of pricing your home. We'll discuss those. I'll answer all the questions that you have. Last time we had 50-60 questions, great questions, and I went back and forth with a group of prospects, just talking about how they can consider the whole market. That will be on the 27th. All of the webinars will have open-ended question time. You'll have a chance to request free information from us. We'll mail it out to you at no charge.
Rick (05:26): Eric Stewart, and you can find out more on the EricStewartGroup.com website. Thank you very much.
Please visit our Speaker Series page to see all of our upcoming webinar dates.
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