" alt="Hillman Real Estate Group" />2020… what a year it has been already, in so many strange ways. The most common question our professional real estate team is fielding from our clients as of late has to deal with, “How Is the Market Doing?” Our Resounding Answer: It depends.
The entire Triangle area – from west of Chapel Hill to east of Clayton – is driven by so many factors, like price, location, schools, city/town, etc. We don’t like making blanket statements as we really try to answer this question based on each client’s specific needs and wants. But one thing that is obvious in our market is an overall lack of inventory. The supply is some of the lowest we have seen in quite some time, think 1998 low. Imagine now, with the additional population and people moving to the are, what that creates.
A supply and demand problem… again, pending price, location, etc.
“You Can Get That for My House?”
For the clients that purchased a starter with us just three-to-five years ago (and in some cases, even as little as two years ago), they are currently experiencing a very unique opportunity. One client literally said to us, “You can get that for my house? I am out of here!” The <$350,000 market is in great demand right now and allows our sellers to maximize their return on investment. As an added benefit, when it’s time to purchase a move-up home, the buying power is now far greater with interest rates at historic lows. This creates a win-win!
We have also noticed that the demand for move-in ready homes far exceeds a home that needs some TLC, as most buyers prefer something move-in ready. While that has been true for a while, I think our current times have exacerbated that. We like to be prepared with a solid action plan and a good list of vendors when there are repairs that need to be made by our sellers before showings begin or before our buyers can move in. When it comes to these home service providers, we have a hand-selected group that we’ve either personally used or come highly recommended.
The Migration is Still Happening
Relocation, in particular, doesn’t seem to be dampened by the current events, as there are still several great companies here in our market that are hiring and continuing to fill executive and C-level positions. In fact, we’ve moved four different families with Amazon in the past 60 days!
Basically, there are people out there that need to buy as well as people out there needing to sell and everyone’s motivation is different. It truly comes down to what your needs and wants are at this time and tailoring our advice based on that, as we’ve always done. Have we told some clients to stay in their homes? Sure. Have we discussed with others, “Get your home on the market, like, yesterday?” Yes! Our goal is to help get our clients the best return on their investment, which ultimately may mean not selling right now.
How We’re Operating Differently
Lucky for us, we have been used to the virtual world. 30% of our sales last year were either with out of state sellers or remote buyers! We are adept at using video to show our buyers’ homes and on the selling side, we already used all the tools that we needed to function in the virtual world. To say we were prepared is an understatement. The biggest difference for us is our cars smell like hand sanitizer and we are donning lovely face masks to appointments! 😉
We are also preparing our sellers for what showings will look like once your home is on the market – we’ve added signage, limited showings to 30 minutes, no overlapping, etc. We want everyone to feel comfortable buying or selling a home.
As more people are moving to working from home and kids are attending school virtually, we’re marketing spaces differently now when we are selling homes so the buyer can envision how to use these spaces differently. Spaces like guest bedrooms and dining rooms have become offices and classrooms overnight. Some of our buyers have tried to be creative with spaces long before COVID hit and now they realize that it really is just time to move. (Like we said, “move-up buyers”!)
Within our own team, we’ve continued to grow during this time because of demand. We love your referrals! And because of that, we are having one of our best years yet! We’ve worked really hard not only this year but in previous years to grow our business but still keep that “you are our only client” feel. You all have trusted us over the last 20 years and we want to ensure that pandemic or otherwise, we have the tools to support you and provide you with a five-star service.