Friday Update, November 13 2020

It's Friday the 13th, 2020.  Wooooooooooooh.  So crazy.

Guess what?  The real estate market still hasn't crashed!  As a matter of fact it's continuing to get more and more ridiculuous.  Like how?

740,000 people live in El Paso County, Colorado.  Something to the tune of 4000 Realtors are members of the local association.  And guess how many houses there are to sell today.  Thats right, 412.  So roughly one house for every 10 agents and for every 1796 people.  That's all price ranges county wide.

The median price is still hovering around $385,000, so let's take a look at the houses that are truly in demand.  Let's say 400k or less, 3 bedrooms or more, 2 bathrooms or more with a 2 car garage and not totally out in the fields.  77 of those!  So the norm these days is when we go to look at houses there are people there ahead of us and behind us looking at the same home.  A lot of the folks are in seriously desperate positions like living in hotels or their friend's basements and they are willing to pay pretty much whatever it takes to get into a home.   What often defines a good deal today is not how much of a discount you can get but how little of a premium you pay over listing price!

So here's the point of my rant today.  If you want to buy a house here in the Colorado Springs area in the near future you need to bring your A game.  Get prequalified with a reputable LOCAL lender.  Have your expectations either ready or ready to be lowered.  Work with a solid, good real estate agent.  This I can not stress enough.  Did you know the average real estate agent sells about 5 houses a year and is broke?  Do you want that person helping guide you through a major purchase?  If they need that commission check to make ends meet are they truly looking out for you?  Just because they got a license and a suit doesn't make them an expert.

Now I sell roughly a house every week and have been doing that for years.  I own several properties, I'm building my next house myself from the ground up on a lot downtown that I own outright.  I run an Airbnb that I built from the ground up and keep it at over 90% occupancy.  I wear camo shorts to work half the time with some variation of a t shirt or a hoodie.  So far this year I've been kind of a slow having closed out only $13 million in volume.  But we also had a baby!  Am I saying this to toot my own horn?  No.

I'm saying this because when I go to work with you it's because I want to be there helping you.  I want to help you understand not just the process but the bigger picture of real estate as a whole.  But I don't HAVE to do it.  That's the difference between me and about 80% of the agents out there.  That and about 300 plus successful, closed transactions.

  So if you're seriously thinking about buying a house in the next 6 to 12 months please think about the following:

-do I have my finances in order?

-do I understand the process?

-do I have a grasp on the market?

-Who are my lenders?  Talk to at least 3

-Who is my agent?  Interview a few but then stick with the one you choose.  If there is one thing that there's a bigger abundance of than agents it's disloyal buyers wasting everyone's time.  Loyalty goes both ways and is completely underrated.

-how long do I plan to live here?

-Am I willing to be a landlord?

-And a lot more considerations

Feel free to contact me anytime.  If my bluntness hurts your feelings while reading this you will probably hate working with me, so don't.  But if you like doing business the old fashioned way, where loyalty, trust and experience all play important roles in getting shit done then call me!  I'm happy to help because I get to!