Potential home buyers, that's opportunity at the door. Are you going to go after it or let it pass you by? If you are in the financial position to buy a home, now is always the best time. Like Warren Buffet says, it's not timing the market, it's time in the market.
The fact is, every day there are opportunities for all of us out there, and when you are in the business of selling homes, you end up seeing lots of good opportunities. The only way to succeed is to make offers that make sense to you. Sellers might accept your offer. If sellers don’t like your offer, they can always counter. Their counter might be acceptable to you. It’s like Wayne Gretsky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
This past weekend I looked at a cute 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house of 1st Street in San Rafael. The price was artificially low at $788,000. I spoke to the listing agent and he sent out 17 disclosure packets, so I figured the final price was going to be at least $900,000. Considering the fact that I sold a barely habitable, similar sized house on Octavia St just a few blocks away 8 years ago for $715,000 I’d say the 1St Street home would be a bargain under $1 million.
What can you get for less than $1 million in Marin County these days? You’re looking at mostly condos and townhouses, or small single family homes. Still, if you are a first time home buyer you need to start somewhere. You need to build equity by paying down your mortgage, and over time your property will appreciate. If you do it right, before you know it you’ll be moving up in the housing market and creating generational wealth for your family. Or you can keep renting and paying someone else’s mortgage, helping them boost their net worth.
Do you want to try to fix and flip a property? People do it successfully all the time. I see it every year, in markets that are both going up and down. There’s just one problem. You need to know what you are doing. The full Gretsky quote is cogent here, “A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. When you win, say nothing, when you lose say less. I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”
I never played hockey, but I get the point. You need to anticipate the future: specifically your future. Get your sights on your financial future and the future of the housing market. What is your goal, and how are you going to score? You need to think ahead and be realistic about what you can afford and the work you can take on. Be strategic. Take concrete steps, don’t just sit on the sidelines and watch other people succeed. Don’t let another year go by without creating the future you want for yourself and your family. Make your dreams come true, instead of someone else’s. That’s what the housing market is all about.