You're getting ready to buy your first house, but everyone you know who bought a house in the last couple of years didn't have an inspection. But guess what? You can! Let's talk about home inspections. If you have questions, reach out to me, I'd love to help. DM me on Instagram @cindybennettrealestate or via my website at cindybennett.net

It's January 2023 and I'm here to give you the scoop on the Richmond area real estate market for this coming year. Have questions? DM me on Instagram @cindybennettrealestate or at my website at cindybennett.net

Are you thinking about buying a home in the Spring and wondering what you can do now to get started? I've got 5 things you can & should do now so you're ready to buy a home this coming Spring. Still have questions? I'd love to set up a time to talk and get you on the way to buying a home. Reach out to me on Instagram @cindybennettrealestate

I'm here with your mid-year shifting market review. So, the first thing I wanted to mention is inventory, we are still in an inventory shortage. So, while you might hear a lot of national news information, talk about a crash or an adjustment, or all these words that make it sound like things have really dropped, we are not quite there. To give you an idea of where we should be with a balanced market, a balanced market has six months of inventory. That means it'll take six months to sell all the homes on the market without any new homes coming on the market. We are currently at point nine of a month, so not even a month. So we are still a good bit away from a balanced market. And that has been the case for the last couple of years. So, taking a look at the inventory from last July to this mid-summer. Our inventory of both new listings and active listings on the market has dropped by a few 100. So not tremendously, but it's not going in the direction that I think the national news wants to let you know, what we are seeing are a few different things. The biggest one is where we were in a market a few months ago where we were seeing a lot of homes going for sale with 20 offers 25 offers we're seeing more that are going with four offers or five offers. So if you are thinking of buying it is a little easier to get in and get in the game. At this point, it's easier to get an inspection, it's easier to not have to waive the appraisal. You don't have to give away your firstborn child, you can actually get a house get it inspected, you might even get repairs done by the seller. Another metric we measure things by are the days on market the days on market last summer were 12 they did drop down earlier this spring and summer to 11. This is an average so that means it includes the worst house you've ever seen in your life that stayed on the market for three months. And the ones that go you know in a day or two hours. So keeping it in perspective, the average is still 12 days on the market which is historically speaking still very low. With the days on market being lower you still if you're buying want to move quickly if you see something that you really like. And keep in mind that again, going back to the average our average sales price to list price right now is still 104%. That means on average, homes are getting 4% More than they are listed for our market is still pretty much booming, but there is opportunity there whether you are buying or selling. And if you have questions about either one of those things, and specific to your personal real estate goals. I would love to talk to, you just reach out.

Hot Summer Market Update As summer draws to a close (how is that even possible?), our market in the Richmond area is still pretty hot! Here's a little break down of the late summer happenings. Stay tuned for fall and what's to come! So let's break it down! The average days on market as of July 22 is still 12, up just one day from last month, and the exact same as July of 2021. The "Month's Supply" right now is .9. That means that it would take 9/10 of a month to sell through all the homes currently on the market, if no others came on the market. A buyer's market is generally marked by a 6 month supply. While it may be taking things a bit longer to sell, and buyers have a bit more flexibility to ask for things like inspections, etc, that for a while there were hardly getting accepted, we are still very firmly in an inventory shortage and sellers' market in most of the Metro Richmond area. But how competitive is it really? Well, while the average percentage of sold price to list price has dropped to 104% in the Metro Richmond area, that is a bit deceptive. The median number is 102.6%. That means there are a good number of homes that are going well over that, keeping that average lower.   Cut to the chase- is it still a good time to buy? To sell? If you're buying- rates have definitely gone up from those all time lows, but pricing has, and continues to, become a bit more normal. So, if you look at it in the long term, prices are unlikely to go down (it's more than very doubtful we'll see anything here in the Richmond area that looks like a "crash") but you are less likely to be up against 20 other people on a home. That means you have more negotiating power, and probably won't have to bid up like a few months ago. If you're selling? Well, you may have missed the window of those crazy prices, no inspections, etc, but we are still in a very real inventory shortage, and there are still LOTS of buyers out there. That means you may have to put a little more effort in to getting it ready for market, but it is still a good time!    

How do you even go about picking the right Realtor? And is it even important? In the market that we're in right now, or really any market at all, having a good agent on your side on your team really is a crucial component of either selling or buying that house. You really want an agent that's going to be willing and able to have those hard conversations. So that means telling you that your offer may not win and helping you craft the offer that will. That means telling you that your cats smell a little bit more than you maybe think they do. That is telling you that you might need to move that old sofa out and have your home staged. So while we all like to hear what we like to hear, sometimes we need somebody to give us those hard questions hit us with those hard truths to get us where we want to go. Obviously, I'm going to tell you, I am the agent that's going to give you the hard truths, ask the hard questions, and tell you what you may not always want to hear. So if you're ready to have some of those hard conversations that are going to help you get where you want to be in your real estate goals. Give me a call. I'd love to talk to you!

Is this house in a good area or a bad area? What do you think of this neighborhood? How are the schools? These are some of the questions that I get asked all the time. And I hate to tell you, I can't really answer them. Because of a little thing called fair housing, we really can't, as Realtors, tell you what's a good area and what's a bad area. One of the things that I can tell you just as a person and not as a realtor is, we all have a different perception of what that is to just like, my favorite pizza might not be your favorite pizza. Telling you what an area is or is not necessarily going to give you the data that you need. My goal is always to be the source of the source. So I can always provide you with enough information and reference sources to get you where you want to be. Whatever you're looking for in a neighborhood. Remember, what's good for you may not be good for someone else and vice versa. What I can do to help you when you're searching for a home is give you all the information and resources to help you make the best decision for you and your family. If you're thinking about looking for a home and you have questions about any part of the process, please reach out give me a call send me a message. I'd love to talk to you.

So you want to buy a house in the new year, here are five things that you want to do now to get ready. Surprise, surprise, most of them are going to have to do with money. The first one is going to be your credit score. You can pull your credit score and your credit report all sorts of places for free. Now, you want to make sure that it's at least 620. To get a mortgage at all and at least 700 to get a good rate. Make a budget, look at what you actually spend and where you feel comfortable having your mortgage payment that may or may not be where your rent payment is now, because remember, you're going to have some extra expenses when you buy that home and it's not just the new stuff. Start saving, you definitely don't need 20% of the down payment anymore, but you are going to want to have a little bit extra in the bank to cover all of those things that might come up and closing costs. Be ready to compromise. We're going to talk about this in another video. But this doesn't have to be your forever home if it's your first home. I hope these tips were helpful. If you would like more tips, give me a follow, and if you want to put together a plan to buy a home in the new year. I'd love to help you. Give me a call.

Rates have gone up. The market is crazy. Everything's a multiple offer situation. There are so many competitive bids out there. Is it even worth trying to buy a house? There are lots of reasons like that, that I hear people say every day and I'm here to tell you that especially if you're renting, you may not want to wait until the market crashes or wait until things cooled down. Yes, rates have ticked up just a little bit, but they are still historically low. Also, if you think about the fact that a $300,000 home with 5% down, your mortgage payment is going to be somewhere around just under $1,800. If you put 5% down, your rent may be $1600, $1700, $1,800 right now. Think about it this way. That year that you're waiting for that market to cool off, you will be spending $1,600 a month paying the equity in your landlord's mortgage. Wouldn't you rather be building the equity towards your own future, paying off your own home than paying somebody else's? Also, just like home prices are going up, rental prices are going up at the same time. So, don't wait so long that you get stuck in a cycle of having to continue to pay rent while the prices continue to go up just because you're waiting for some imaginary crash. Don't wait for it. It's probably not going to happen for a really long time. If you're thinking about buying a house or just dreaming about buying a house, give me a call. Send me a message. Ask me a question. I'm happy to talk to you and I'd love to walk through whether or not it is really a good time for you to buy.