It’s a great question right now.  Listen, I’m an experienced agent and this market scares ME sometimes.  The speed is unfathomable and the effect is like that of being on a tricycle on one wheel speeding downhill.  There’s no time to think.  When my clients ask me whether it is a good idea to wait, I’m torn.  Part of me thinks waiting would make sense, because rushing toward anything but ice cream doesn’t thrill me.  But then reality sets in and I think rushing isn’t so bad.  Here’s why.

First, as we have already seen…are already SEEING, because the trend forming now…interest rates are going up.  In this competitive bid market, every dollar counts when you are trying to win the day, and every uptick in interest rate lowers your home search price.  Every drop in home price means you have MANY more competitors.  Homes below 400K are getting hard to find, at least the ones without ‘issues’, in many cases.  And if YOUR price point dropped, so did that of your competitors, so the race will be more fierce.

For my clients, I advise them to make the financial adjustments that will allow them to stay in the hunt, to take advantage of low interest rates.  I’m not a financial person, not an accountant, not (thank goodness) a wall street employee, but I think we are heading for an economic correction like we have never seen in our lifetime.  

I don’t think we’re heading for a “real estate crash”.  Not even close.  Demand is too high and supply is too low for that situation to occur.  No, I think inflation is going to bite us big, I just don’t know when.  Common sense tells me we’re heading that way, and filling my car with gas confirms my assumption.  I’m not an accountant either, but I do know you can’t buy a dollar’s worth of anything with a dollar that is now worth 40 cents.

Then we have rising prices for everything from food to gas, and we have supply shortage of everything from PET FOOD to cars.  When this shoe drops, it’s gonna hurt.  So waiting is actually a bad idea.

Most of my clients are not moving for the fun of it; they are moving because of a need to position themselves for the future, whether it be for the next leg of the journey or for settling into the end of their journey.  So the need is there; that’s not going to change. So what I am saying is this:  

Go ahead.  Don’t wait.

And I know I beat this one into the ground, but hire an experienced real estate agent.  This is a brand new market/economic condition which CAN be navigated effectively, but your agent must know what all of the moving parts ARE and how they bump into one another and change things.  Your agent MUST know how to protect you in this unprecedented, fluctuating, expensive market.

Speaking of pet food shortage:  Mess with my pets and we’re going to have problems.  But it seems that’s also happening.

Call me and let’s talk about it.  

I’m Brenda Briggs, Broker/Realtor  919-210-6113

Coldwell Banker Advantage, Wake Forest NC