AIM HIGH, CALL LOW

Tim Low has been selling real estate in the Las Vegas Valley since 1999. Through his 24-year career, he’s had the privilege of working with some top brokers, starting with Joe Childers, and then onto a rockstar team with Michele Sullivan.

Tim shares his insight on the real estate year:

If you had one piece of advice for someone looking to purchase a home or other property this year, what would that be?

He then was offered a position to partner up with Jeff Bradshaw, a top producer with Realty One Group at the time. This was during the short sale years, preceding the decline of the real estate market in 2007. Tim and Jeff processed short sales so well that they would put on classes to teach other agents how to get through a short sale. It helped that they sought out management contacts and established relationships with most banks, in order to assist them with any trouble home sales.

Eventually, he moved over to Signature Real Estate Group in 2013 and has been there happily ever since. Their commitment to ensuring their agents are well informed about the whole selling process has been second to none. Brandon Roberts the owner has been a great source of knowledge, experience, and motivation for Tim. Tim understands the importance of providing value for his clients, before, during, and after real estate sales. He is a life real estate partner you can count on for advice, contacts for other business resources, and support.

Inventory is up from last year and leveling out, and interest rates have steadied some since the beginning of 2023. Most buyers now have the opportunity to get more of what they want in a home. The last few years have been really rough on buyers. Competing against Investors, iBuyers, and Cash purchasers, most of the buyers, primarily resident purchasers that need a loan, were pushed out of the market or forced to pay 10, 15, and 20% above market value just to compete with multiple offers. The inventory had been so limited, that buyers were forced to choose from a very small pool of homes that MIGHT fit their criteria, and so buyers were forced to settle for homes that didn’t meet the majority of what they were looking for. With the current market, there are more homes to choose from, and many ways to write an offer on a home of your choice that weighs heavy in a buyer’s favor. If money is tight and monthly payments are more than you can comfortably afford, we might be able to get a seller to contribute toward a buyer’s closing costs in order to lower the buyer’s interest rate. And with loan caps going up this year, Conventional loans extend up to $726,200, FHA up to $472,030 for Clark County, and VA at no limit (lenders have their own max amounts on VA), these loans limits up the purchase game for those that might have been pushed to do a jumbo loan. There are many bonuses to this market leveling out, and as soon as buyers and sellers settle into the new norm, the sooner sales will start to kick off once again this year.

This is always a hot topic. But if I were to describe what many feel the market will do, I would say the sentiments shared seem to be that it will be flat. The market has changed significantly since last year. It is healthy for the market to get a correction. The brakes were slowed to a crawl in the 4th quarter of last year. Home sales in that time frame were down to the lowest in sales volume since the COVID shutdowns. Inventory recovered to a more average pace of around a 4 month supply. The interest rates also peaked in the 4th quarter. Now, the interest rates seem to have caught a more level rhythm. And with the probability of an announcement of a recession very possible in the future, there is a chance that interest rates will follow down. But if that happens, it is likely that the buyers that have been on the fence will all come down to purchase at the same time, which will in turn lower the inventory once again.

For sellers, they will be working with less offers than in the past decade, and homes are spending more days sitting on the market. This will spark them to work with the buyers that they do have, accepting contingencies, making repairs, working with overall sales price, etc. As a seller, you want your home to stand out, so make the repairs and improvements needed. The home will show well and have the best opportunity to get to the closing table. It is more than advantageous to partner up with a seasoned real estate broker or agent that has a strong listing plan to get buyers in. The more buyers that come through, the more chances that you get the home under contract with a buyer. Having a real estate partner, before the listing process, during showings, and into an escrow is worth its weight in gold. They can assist in maximizing your profit, while making sure they help with risk reduction, and lighting the way on what to expect through the selling process. MV