Yes! It’s Spring! Next to Autumn, it is, at least for me, one of the most pleasant time of the year, with blooming flowers and freshly grown limbs of plants and trees as nature blooms. Everything is awake. And while there is a slight feeling of Sisyphean as to how we carry about, it is a familiar welcome cycle, like a comfortable pair of pumps. As a real estate agent, this is a great time for me, even though the season here in Southern California is year round, in the spring time, it is full speed ahead; especially with out-of-towners relocating to our beautiful cities en masse.
This is the time when buyers and sellers are on a mission to purchase and/or sell their homes in order to get settled in before the summer break and holiday travels. It is also a time of great frustration as buyers are discouraged by the lack of available homes for sale, while sellers are excited that so many buyers are eager to purchase their properties, (oh, what joy!). Except, many potential sellers are still holding on, waiting for the demand to increase just a bit more, which would fetch a higher asking price for their homes. In reality, prices have been on a steady rise. In January, median home prices were $480,950, an increase of 8.9% YTY, in Los Angeles County.
So what to do with all this demand for homes and low inventory at a time when home affordability continues to be a challenge at just below 30% for single-family homes (condos/townhomes 38%, Q4 2015) in this constricting market? Be creative and find unconventional ways to get the attention of potential home sellers. Tour the neighborhood of your choice and contact the homeowners directly and ask if they would consider selling their home or know anyone who might. Make a personal connection, get him/her to like you, create that bond, all the while be sincere. And of course, talk to you friends and colleagues and have them spread the word. You never know until you ask…
It might take a little time to make that dream home, or your first home, your own because of the influx of competition vying for that “California living,” and for good reason; it is a year round delight to be here. Nonetheless, be patient and diligent, it is worth it – especially when making one of the most important and largest investments many of us will ever make.
“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou
Source: “Research & Economics – County Market Update” California Association of REALTORS® Research & Economics (January, 2016).