Inventory is Biggest Issue….

Inventory has been the issue in the real estate market for the last five years, too much of it. But that has all changed. I speak with a ton of agents every day and the biggest issue is they can’t find homes for their clients!

We have heard their is a ton of “shadow inventory” in the foreclosure market, and there maybe but it seems the banks are content to sit on them for a while right now and let them trickle into the market. We currently have 360 bank properties in our pipeline that will hit the market in the next nine months, that is not much, (compared to the buyers we work with we will sell over 800 homes this year) so I don’t anticipate a flood inventory in the next 12 months.

I hate to be positive about the real estate market but freshman (high school) econ tells me supply and demand drive markets. Dare I say we have seen the market turn into a sellers market in many segments?

Many of our bank owned listings are selling with five plus offers and a final price 3-4% above asking.  These are crazy claims and we are currently putting the data together for  a future blog. Point is it is time for agents to start marketing and quit chasing price reductions, buyers are in the market and giving up because they can’t find what they want…there seems to be a disconnect between, buyers and listing agents.