Okay, the holidays are finally behind us. We were so busy with holiday get-togethers, shopping and end of the year activities that December just flew by! Now that 2016 is here, let's get our act in gear.
Why should you think about selling? Because there is
nothing out there in the inventory! Well, "nothing" is an overreach. There are some homes out there, but they are flying off the shelves and are pending before you know it! Right now in Washington and Columbia counties, the average months supply of listings is
one month for anything under $500,000! That is incredible! It means that if no new homes came on the market we would be out of any homes under $500,000 in a month! Crazy!
What we are seeing in the market is that buyers simply don't have enough homes to choose from. Often times sellers that price their home at market value are having multiple offers submitted on their home. A single buyer can put in anywhere from two to five or even more offers on different homes before they finally get one accepted. Only one offer on a house can be accepted; so buyers are getting rejection after rejection when another buyer offers more.
This leads to frustration and why is buyer frustration a good thing for sellers? Because when a buyer keeps missing out on the "perfect" home, their next offer goes even more over asking price, because they don't want to miss out on yet another perfect home.
To sellers, this means that offers received are going up. If a buyer learns that there are already five offers on a home, if they want to submit an offer, they know that in order to win they are going to have to go much over asking price.
Simply put, now is the time to sell. Get your act together for 2016 and you just might be able to capitalize on the crazy market that is the Portland area!
