My friend and superstar realtor Ed Brater on the show. Ed, first of all, welcome back to the show.
I am so happy to be with you, Mandy. It's always a pleasure, you know.
I always tell my listeners, even if you're not getting ready to sell your home, you should always pay attention to what's happening in the real estate market because that is your biggest asset.
Right and you need to know what's going on around.
Your asset that could have an effect on the price of your asset if you do decide to sell someday.
And I saw some stories on the last.
Week or two and they've been things about the current real estate market. So I want to kind of just let you set the table. What does our current real estate market look like right now from your perspective.
Well, I mean there's a lot of stuff, there's a lot of stories in the news, and frankly speaking, you know, we just had our data, you know, for the month of March, and we had the median closed price the values across the Metro area, you know, stay right about six hundred thousand, and before that, we actually saw a month on month game of old or four percent, and that would say that things are holding together fairly well.
We are seeing active inventory increase. You sent me an article that talked about that sort of that ten thousand unit mark of active inventory across the eleven counties and makeup in metro area, and it's a bit of a scary number, but only because it's something that we hadn't hit for many, many, many years. But the truth be told, we actually eclipse that mark last fall for a couple of months, so it's not the end of the world. And what we're really looking for is what is the
absorption behind it. So we've seen an increase in active inventory is we get into the buying and selling season, obviously, sellers are bringing the homes to market. You know, we are seeing properties sit longer, but you are seeing the rate of absorption increase faster than that, you know, so the amount of homes going pending. But we're watching really closely because.
At the end of the day, we need that to keep up or we're going to.
See that active inventory continue to increase and that could be tough for Well, let me.
Ask you what you're hearing from buyers right now, because it's definitely a situation where people have I think people are finally coming around to the fact that mortgage rates are what they are, which is very near historical highs until we hit two percent, right, So they're finally like, look, they're not going back down, and if they do, I can refly at that point.
So what are buyers looking for?
How are they behaving differently than they did a few years ago?
Well, you're exactly right. I mean, now that we are a few years out of the pandemic and the the interest rates to go along, you know, with the pandemic, these rates are starting to normalize.
You know, we're we were at sort of the and I hate the.
Quote rates, you know, but if we're in the sixes, you and I both know we've been there in the past and we've seen we've seen the market certainly work. When we look at real estate, there's two colors that really push things forward. It's interest rates and it's employment. And you know, with the jobs report being pretty darn good, you know, employment unemployment ticking up the four point too,
that would that would seem pretty optimistic. The more difficult side of things is when we look at you know, we really look closely at the ten year note and to see what it did last week. It's basically lockstep
with rates what I'm getting at. As we've seen rates increase a little bit of a reprieve today, which I'm happy to say, but I think we got across these with this sentiment and everything that's coming out across the news, you know, with the things happening in the economy, and we're all sort of uncertain waiting to see the sentiment is not great. But to answer your question, you know buyers that we're still seeing buyers out there taking advantage
of opportunities. There is distress when you see active inventory increasing, you have distressed in the market and sellers that are needing.
To differentiate and sometimes you know.
That means price cuts and and of course on the other side of that going that might mean opportunity for buyers. So we're seeing a lot of activity. You know, there's more to choose from. But it's really specific, and for whatever reason, I think we've talked about this before, Mandy, but it's so specific to your community. It's not a JEB code, you know, it's it's not a city, of course, it is your community because the comps are going to be different everywhere. And as we get out to the
west side. We're seeing things move very quickly some of the suburbs of Denver, and then you see other areas that are really stagnating, and you're starting to see that active inventory increase, which again can be really tough on sellers. We're seeing condos, especially with what has happened with roofs and hail and deductibles and assessments. You've got to be really, really careful just to make sure that that hoa is sound.
And of course the last thing you want to do is a buyer get into something and then get whacked with a big assessment. Yeah, you know a couple of months after you purchase.
Well, let me ask you, what kind of pressure is this putting on prices? Are you seeing price drops? Are you seeing concessions by sellers in order to get these deals done? What are we looking at in those terms?
Great question, and it's a combination of both. So when we're working with our sellers, and let's just say it's one of those properties or one of those areas that's having a tougher time, we say, how can we differentiate ourselves without giving away the farm. Part of that might
be really pushing a lot of marketing around. Hey, we're willing to do this, you know, concession and maybe it's something specific with the home like carpet, or maybe it's more, Hey, we're willing to buy that rate down to get that debt to income ratio more comfortable for a buyer, or you'll have price reducsion. Obviously that you're putting marketing around, and you just want to be careful because you don't
want to have to chase that price around. Obviously, we want to make sure that our folks are getting the most money in their pocket. And we can control a lot, but of course we can't control demand in the market, and so you know, we are if nothing else, you know, we can check all the boxes, everything that's in our control. And then we're looking at the absorption and it really it's almost on a daily basis now on what's going on around us. Are we positioned well because a price
cut for a price cut's sake is stilly. One thing we need to point out too, is the days of throwing a sign in the art crossing our fingers. Yeah, are well well behind us, you know.
So we're seeing agents.
That need to work harder, and I really like that you know, we all know that we are. There's a million real estate agents out there, and frankly, we saw a huge influx in agents with the pandemic because property's kind of sold themselves and.
There was nothing else to do right, well.
Exactly exactly right, and so you're sort of sorting out, you know, the cream rises to the top, and so you're having to work harder, you're having to reverse prospect, you're having to go out and find those buyers. But that's what we're here to do.
And that's kind of the thing that I was getting to. It's like, here's what we're If you're looking to buy a home, here are my tips ed and feel free to add any to the if you're buying a home. If you're buying a home, you're going to want to watch the mortgage market for the foreseeable future and lock in a rate on the dip if you can hand
just because it's so volatile right now. Yeah, if you can do that, if you can be poised and ready work with your mortgage broker to make that happen, call American Financing and say listen, I want to be poised and ready to lock in a dip fix your number and keep your eyes peeled. But then two really start to look at at you know, your your must haves. Because I think that there's options right now for buyers.
It sounds like that we haven't had in a few years where they don't have to walk in and make a decision the moment they walk through the house once. I mean, there's it feels like they definitely have more options, Like it's a good time.
To buy right now, absolutely well, And it's you know what is the warrant buffet? You know, be greedy when everyone else is fear for That's absolutely the case now. You know, in some cases we're going to get that rate bought down and it makes total sense. In other cases, you know, it might push that comfort zone, and it's it's tough when everybody is running one way to go the other way. It's it's tricky. But you see, and that's where I always give back to that opportunity, the
opportunistic buy right now is getting a great deal. And the fact is, you know, this can change on a dime. For instance, last September, we saw a different rates and we.
Saw a huge increase in just a matter.
Of two or three weeks of activities starting from mortgage applications all the way to closings. It really pushed values up. So if we were to see, you know, increase confidence in the dollar, we see that the note and rates come down. I mean, you could see the market turn very very quickly back towards being a seller's market.
And that when that happens, all that's are off and I think it's a feeding frenzy. I've been saying this for a while, and when rates hit a solid like mid five, it's just going to be insane. It is going to be so insane, and that's going to put you in a position to be in a battle with other buyers again. So it's like, if you're ready, do it now.
Well you're You're absolutely right. And a big part of that, I mean, I'm a color out of a native and I couldn't live anywhere else. I just my family's here. I love it here, and.
A lot of other people love it as well.
We have a lot to offer, So you've got a lot of infrastructure and a lot of insulation. You know, you've got parts of the country that are having a much much harder time than we are.
The mess right now, you know, You've.
Got exactly right. You've got pent up demand here. But still, I mean, interest rates and employment really pushes things. So if you see those interest rates come down, or let's say some things change in the economy and the sentiment increases or it gets more positive, it can change very quickly. And in our experience, it can change much much faster
than you would think possible. I mean, over a matter of days, you could have, you know, a fifty to sixty one hundred percent increase in showings from one weekend to the next.
Oh wow, wow, Ed Brather, I appreciate your insight. Are there any areas that you're seeing you kind of mentioned I was reading something kind of like Denver is Denver proper downtown?
Is that still struggling.
Or there are still hot pockets within the city limits?
Well, Denver's big enough that certainly there are hot pockets. I think when you look at the CBD, the Central Business District, that's pretty tricky. You know it's coming back, we know that they've finished the work on Sixteenth Street mall, but you have ho ways that are really.
Out of whack unfortunately, And I think it.
Just highlights the fact, I mean down there it's building by building. There's plenty of people that want to live, you know, down in the middle of everything. But you just need to make sure that that hoa isn't going to kill you know, if you go up and up in the future, because that's that's a scary proposition.
Right exactly. Ed Pray, there's my guest.
If you need a real estate agent who can get it done right now in this challenging environment, you got to call Ed. This isn't a paid commercial by any stretch of the imagination, but I really believe he can help you get it done if you need to. That's Edpraither dot com, Ed p R A t h e R dot com. And I appreciate you coming on today, man.
Always a pleasure, and we're here for you.
Thank you, I thank you.