Resale vs New - Battle of 2022 Housing Market

WILMINGTON NC - by Buddy Blake of Waypost Realty.

Hi, my name is Buddy Blake here with Waypost Realty in Wilmington, North Carolina. And this week, we're going to be talking about what sellers need to be thinking about as we move forward in this shifting market. There's absolutely no question that the market is moving around. We're certainly not seeing a cliff or anything like that that's happening right now with prices, but we are seeing a change in the velocity of sales and the number of buyers that are looking actively in the market.

And we're certainly seeing a difference in the attitude of buyers. Many buyers have lost that whole fear of missing out syndrome where they're coming in and willing to get into a heavy, multiple offer situation or going way over asking price and things like that, or waving their inspection rights. We're just not seeing that like we were earlier in the spring and summer.

Now, who knows if that'll come back next spring? But I think most market experts don't expect that to happen. They do believe that we're going to be coming down and losing some steam in the market, which is probably not a bad thing considering how overheated it's been.

Anyway, let me tell you what I think is going to be happening in the next three to six months. I think that home sellers are going to likely be better off selling their house in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year. And the reason I say that is, locally, regionally, and nationally, they're going to be... As a resale house, you're going to be up against some really stiff competition with new home construction. Because new home construction during these times have slowed down production a little bit to catch up on things, but they have been pulling permits all along. They've just not bringing these houses to the market and doing presales or selling them before they're finished.

Many home builders across the country are now selling things just when they're getting finished right after they received the certificate of occupancy or right before it. We're seeing that in our market and we're seeing that in a lot of markets. So what that means is, there's going to be a significant amount of new construction coming on for the spring market of 2022.

So what you can do as a seller is react now, get ready now. And I'm going to tell you a few reasons why I think it's a wonderful time. One of the biggest problems that sellers run into is, what am I going to do? Selling my house, I don't know where I'm going to go. I have that at my own house. I would love to sell my house, but my wife's first question is, where are you going to go? Well, normally, especially in a beach area, coastal area, that's a big problem because there's no rentals available, but what you have now, you have a vacation market that has calmed down for the winter and seasonally calmed down because kids around the country are back in school. So you can't work or go to school from anywhere anymore.

So what that means is, sellers have always had the luxury in our area. If you sell during the fourth quarter or the first quarter, you have the idea where you can move to the beach or a coastal area and rent for three to six months, furnish your work term at reasonable monthly rates. You're going to see that come back into the market. So as a seller, you have an option. Put your stuff in storage, get your house as ready as possible so it shows beautifully, so you don't have to lose out to new construction, and put your house in the market, move there and then you've much to find something as inventory comes back on the market, which it will. We're going to have new homes come back on the market and we're going to have resales come back on the market, all at one time. And the resale is going to be behind the new homes just because people want to buy something they know what it is and have some type of support behind it.

So the other thing I recommend doing as a potential home seller is getting a home inspection before you put your house on the market. Getting a roof inspection if your roof is not new or getting a HVAC inspection. And if you get those things, that is a wonderful way to be ready to sell your house because we've had fantastic luck in selling houses that if they've fallen apart because of a bad home inspection, we take the home inspection and we provide it to a copy of a home inspection that we've had done, and we provided a copy to the buyer and say, "Here it is. It's here. It's completely undressed. You can see everything about it. So now you don't have as much uncertainty about the property."

People are always more scared about the unknown versus the known. I've learned that over the years when things are being built around properties, you'll have buyers that are worried about what might be built whereas once this actually built, they know what it is, they know what they're getting, and is not as much uncertainty. So if you are thinking about selling your house, I know it is an investment, it's a time, it's a nuisance, but it's better to control those elements on the front end than it is on the back end, especially now when we're still seeing higher than normal prices being gotten for houses. The house prices are way more than they normally would be over the last two years.

So take advantage of that, be prepared, make your life easier, make your move easier by getting these things done and being proactive in a way that you can control it. Then you lay it out there, "Here it is." Okay? "I'm not fixing this. I fix this, et cetera, et cetera." You've removed much of the uncertainty and the fear from a potential buyer who you might would lose normally to a new construction, especially as we're moving into a higher interest rate environment with less buyers looking. So you don't want to lose out.

So, hopefully this helps. And if you do not have the money or you do not want to spend the upfront money doing that, we at Waypost Realty have a program for you where we will actually take the risk, spend the money up front. We will pay for the home inspection. We will pay for heating and air inspection. We will pay for the roof inspection that also comes with a warranty by the way. And we will do these things up front. So if you're thinking about selling, we'll be happy to have a conversation about what that might look like and the different programs that we offer.

We're very competitive, we're very aggressive and we're very proactive and we don't want to see anybody it behind a market shift that we all know whether we know it for sure, or whether we know it deep down, we know this market is shifting. Okay? Anybody that's in the business, if you pull them aside, they're going to tell yo, "Things are not the same as they were in spring and summer." So it is definitely different.

Anyway, thank you so much. If we can help in any way or be a resource in any way, whether you hire us or not, whether you're in our area or not, I'm happy to get on the phone call or Zoom and have a conversation about how you might be able to get the most money possible for your house, or how you might be able to navigate the future market that we may well see very soon. Thanks.