Boy, what a few weeks I have had with my buyers! Don’t get me wrong, the buyers are great. Young families struggling to scratch out their first piece of the American dream who have worked for years to repair and build credit and save for closing costs—getting the tar beaten out of them like it was 2002.
All of the sellers that I talk to have the same complaint—there aren’t any buyers out there. All of the buyers that I run into have this one—the homes that were reasonably priced are sold, the ones that are left are overpriced or the sellers are being unreasonable. It’s probably a little of both. There are some great programs out there for first time buyers—the state of Nevada
actually has some down payment assistance and loan programs with locked low loan rates but you have to make less than about $70,000. per household in order to qualify. If this is your income, the loan ratios will only approve you for a purchase price of about $230,000. All of the homes that are this price or lower and are at all decent have sold like the proverbial hotcakes. What is left is the junk that is in that range and the homes that are just a little out of reach.
Buyers and their agents have been desperately trying to negotiate the homes that are out of their reach down into it. This is the same phenomenon that occurred in 2003-2005 when creative 100% financing ARM loans made the price range of $290,000-$310,000 extinct. The funny thing is, these are the same buyers. The fallout in the secondary loan market has eliminated the creative loans that pumped up the price range of the first time buyers.
The market is flooded with buyers, they are just all approved for the same price range and it has already been pretty well picked over.
Buyers should look for the following: vacant homes, homes that have been on the market longer than 120 days, homes that are in need of cleaning or cosmetic fixes that can be done inexpensively but are making the home look less attractive, good landscaping bones that have been neglected but would be easy to nurse back, or homes that appear to be ready for an offer—bring all offers, etc. in the remarks on the flyer or in the MLS.
