One of the ways Realtors, including this one, get new listings is by calling "expireds"—the loose trade term for those listings which did not sell, and have expired or in fact been cancelled. The idea is that the Sellers of these homes are the most motivated and represent one of the best opportunities for doing business in the near term. Sometimes the home was marketed ineffectively: poor exposure, lousy photos, inadequate knowledge of the amenities. Sometimes it’s as “simple” as unrealistic pricing. No matter what the reason for not achieving a sale, the subsequent actions of these Sellers can provide a good indicator of what Sellers at the forefront of the market are thinking. And right now, many of them are choosing to lease out their properties, rather than reduce their price to achieve a sale. Many of these properties, my latest rough estimates are as high as 30%, are being leased out until the Spring selling season, when the thinking goes, sales will pick up . . . . are these Sellers just putting off the inevitable or is this trend a signal to Buyers that this really is the bottom? We never know until the bottom is behind us, but many of us in the real estate business can’t believe the deals that are out there for Buyers right now. Couple this with incredibly low interest rates (30 year conventional mortgages as low as 4.0% recently) and it’s a hard market to beat for value. And those low rates benefit Sellers too, by enabling more ready, willing and able Buyers to be active. Why wait?
Regular quarterly statistics: see my website: www.MarinHomeProperties.com
