With Terry Story, 26-year veteran Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker in Boca Raton, FL
When talking shop, Terry always counsels that all real estate is local. And so speaking of the South Florida market, one buyer’s positive is another seller’s negative. A lack of inventory has created a sit back and enjoy the show moment for anyone with a For Sale sign in front of their house. Buyers, on the other hand, find themselves in a state of frustration with higher prices and heavy competition for a few desirable properties.
When it comes to the choice of either buying or renting today, Terry cites the Case-Shiller Home Price Index as showing that in some metro areas, such as Boston and New York, it’s better to buy, whereas, in Dallas and Denver, renting seems to be the smarter way to go for the moment. Again, it all depends on your location.
As for the luxury market (over $2.2 million), there’s been a decline both globally and nationally. Even in Dubai, that area of glitz and extreme wealth, housing prices have tumbled by about 25% because of falling oil prices.
From the large and luxurious to the extreme opposite side of the housing scale are tiny homes, those of about 400 square feet. These Lilliputian dwellings are a rising and growing trend appealing to students, millennials, and retirees.
For today’s slice of her Real Estate Survival Guide, Terry talks about a term known as “procuring cause”, which is the series of events taking place with a client that determines if the realtor is entitled to a commission on a sale. This often happens when a home seeker works with multiple realtors. Besides often resulting in an ugly situation that has to be arbitrated through local real estate boards, using more than one realtor is not a smart move for the buyer since, especially in the same community, all realtors have access to the same properties.
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Steve Pomeranz: It's time for Real Estate Round Up. This is the time every single week we get together with noted real estate agent Terry Story. Terry is a 27-year veteran with Coldwell Banker, located in Boca Raton, Florida. Welcome back to the show, Terry.
Terry Story: Thanks for having me, Steve.
Steve Pomeranz: Hey, Terry, are sellers happy these days? Are buyers happy? Who is happy?
Terry Story: Who is happy? Happy, happy, happy. Right now, we have happy sellers and very frustrated buyers. They did a recent home purchase sentiment index by Fannie Mae and, basically, the report indicates this: The homeowners are at an all-time high in their happiness as to it being a good time to sell. On the reverse side, we have the buyers at an all-time low as their sentiment as to the market conditions. What's causing this is lack of inventory. Lack of inventory is driving fewer choices for buyers, prices rising, being placed into multiple bid situations. For a seller, they're sitting back and watching the show and enjoying it.
Steve Pomeranz: They're not really selling in mass, though.
Terry Story: No, they're not selling in mass. The numbers of sales, I think, are down. I know the reason why the number of sales is down is because we don't have enough inventory. The demand is out there. There's plenty of buyers. When I talk about this, Steve—real estate is local—so when I say this, this may not necessarily be true in your specific neighborhood or community. On a national level, this is what we're seeing.
Steve Pomeranz: Terry, is it more advantageous to buy today or to rent? We always have that discussion.
Terry Story: The buy-rent battle.
Steve Pomeranz: In different economies, in different locations, one may be better than the other. What do you see?
Terry Story: Sure. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index found that, nationally,