Now talk real estate with Sharon McNamara, sponsored by Boston Connect Real Estate Services.
Hi, I'm Sharon McNamara and you are listening to Talk Real Estate Roundtable. Let me share a little bit about my background before we get started. I am the broker owner of Boston Connect Real Estate, a boutique real estate firm that is home to over 30 real estate sales and marketing consultants who serve as home buyers and home sellers throughout Boston, the South Shore, the South Coast, and Cape Cod. Our firm takes pride in assisting our clients in the next chapter of their lives by taking a holistic approach to their real estate endeavors. We believe that every move should be a moving experience every week. My real estate team member, Mary Baker and I, along with the director of Boston Connect Real Estate, Melissa Wallace, provide you with our unique marketing approach to selling homes and share with you our expertise in navigating the home buying process. We like to mix it up sometimes, so not only will you hear our perspective on real estate topics, but you will hear the expert thoughts and opinions of some of our real estate agents at Boston Connect Real estate and the preferred professionals that we trust be part of our round table.
If you have any questions during the show, please call 7 8 1 8 3 7 4900. We'd love to talk real estate. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and wherever you listen to podcasts at Talk Real Estate Round Table. If you would like a one on one consultation with me and my team, or one of the dedicated agents at Boston Connect Real Estate to discuss your real estate needs, you can connect with [email protected] or 7 8 1 8 2 6 8,000. Now sit back, relax, take good notes, and let's talk real estate.
And hello to all my South Shore neighbors. You are listening to Talk real estate round table. My name is Melissa Wallace and I am joined in studio by my broker owner, Sharon McNamara.
Hello. I'm so, it sounded like I was the owner of you, <laugh>. Oh, yes. My owner,
My owner, Sharon McNamara, uh, no, the broker.
Owner of.
Boston Connect Real.
Estate. Yes. Yes, yes. And I am here. Hello. Hello to George. We have Mary joining us as well. Hey, George. Hey.
Everybody. Hey Sharon. How you doing?
Good. Thank you so much for joining us on Saturday and getting some of those great photos. I got you got some good ones of my dogs, by the way, CA Uh, I almost said Casey. I met Gracie and, uh, Marley. And thank you so much for all your help with the speaker and all that. Uh, you were a true gem to have around. I'm very curious to see how your drone footage came out. I haven't seen it yet. No, that's art. Oh, that was art. That was art. This is George.
Yeah. It was a fun event to be a part of and, um, hoping to be a part of the next one. Hopefully everybody who's listening will join in next year.
Yes, absolutely. And you know what, just as we're winding down with one event, we're getting ready, uh, Thursday, we're gonna have our debrief on how our Halloween dog truck contest went and we had all kinds of raffles and things. It was so much fun. We have the best vendors who sponsored us throughout the whole process. Uh, so again, a great big thank you to all of them. And um, we have, we have what's coming up <laugh>, the photos. I'm still not over photos with Santa. Yeah.
Our holiday open house. Silly goose.
Yeah. Holiday open house. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Uh, we're gonna have a professional photographer. I heard Santa is gonna be joining us. I heard that the sleigh, he can't take the sleigh. It's just cuz there's no snow. So I I heard he's coming in a red Corvette. <laugh>. Yeah. Okay. Like, no, a red Mustang convertible Mustang.
Red Mustang. Yeah.
Red, yeah, red convertible Mustang.
He is always traveling in style. He.
Really is. For sure. So that's, uh, coming the Saturday afterwards. So if you wanna join us to all our w a t to listeners, we have me, CASAA, su Casa. It's open, open, open, open house. So, um, tonight we're gonna be talking about selling. Uh, should I wait until the spring to sell my house? That seems to be the topic. Did you wanna say something? Yeah,
I was just gonna say, um, if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, we sort of put it out there that like, we get asked this question all the time, every year we get asked, should I wait until the spring or I'm gonna wait until the spring. Um, so now that we are in fall market, um, and we have been, and we're moving into winter <laugh>, um, you know, we, we are getting this question, you know, oh, I wanna wait. Um, especially with, you know, sort of where we're at in the market. Mm-hmm. So I think you guys were doing some research right before, um, to get the, the most accurate sort of numbers mm-hmm. <affirmative> for our listeners. Mary, you're coming in like, I'm sorry, bowl China hot.
I'm coming in hot guys.
<laugh>. Um, so I know you guys have some statistics, um, sort of comparing the market from last year around this time. Um, and, and sort of where we're at right now. I don't know if one of you want to go first, but, um, but yeah, so we, we get asked this question all the time. Yeah. Um, so we're like, you know what, let's just do a show about it. Yeah.
Well, I think so even before we get into the statistics, it's a natural instinct. I think when, especially where we're in New England, the weather is going more inclement the further we get into the fall months and the, uh, winter. Wow. Winter is almost here. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, fall is over and winter's coming.
Next week is daylight savings, I think. Is it? I think so. Yeah. Well, you, yeah.
I think it's
Sunday. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Um, that's not my favorite time of year. Not gonna.
Lie. Me either. I need to change that. I'm.
Not the.
Winter to.
About that. I'm, I'm not a winter person mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but I do love sweaters. So anyways. But I think it's a natural reaction for sellers to think, all right, as the inclement weather comes, I don't wanna go through the process of having my house on the market for the holidays. I don't wanna have to worry as I'm setting up for Thanksgiving or all of potentially, you know, um, you know, you have family and friends that are visiting from out of town. I don't wanna be worried about having to accommodate open houses and shellings. And same things going into Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate waza. If you have a bunch of people coming over to your house, you don't necessarily want to be worried about one additional thing. So it's a natural instinct to just say, Hey, I'm going to pause and wait and I'll revisit everything when the weather is a little bit better when the holidays have passed us. And that will give me, you know, the most ample amount of time to enjoy one last season in the house. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, however, and this is what we're talking about tonight with, from a stats perspective, that can be counterproductive to what you actually want. Or like, if you're looking to get the highest sale price, potentially it can be counterproductive. And there's a few different reasons for that. No, I feel like I'm rambling, you guys, you're not.
Rambling. Oh, I'm, I'm looking at some statistics here. You're, I'm fully vested in what you have to say right now. <laugh>. So.
One of the, one of the things that we can look at when we're talking about selling in the spring versus selling in the winter is, um, you know, how many, so your competition, how many properties are on the market in the spring versus the winter. So notoriously you have as a seller, you're going to have more competition in the spring months. Um, and competition being another house. So if you have a four bedroom colonial, there's likely another four bedroom colonial that could be in the same town in the same price range. That's considered your competition. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So in the spring market, you have more competition. So one of being one of less inventory is something that we talk about all the time. In the winter, you have the opportunity to be one of less inventory where buyers still have to move during the winter months. They have less options and are more apt. You're more apt to get in front of them and be the house chosen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's one of the big factors. Um, and then another factor that I think we're gonna talk about pretty heavily or try and dive pretty deep into is comparables. So we've talked about how we do our CMAs, our comparable market analysises assists. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> assist assists analysis, <laugh>, what is the plural of moose Meese. Oh, I came across,
Oh my gosh, I came across that me the other day and I went to send it to.
You Macy's. Um, but one, so we talk about how we use an appraiser's mindset when we're looking at comparable properties. So we're comparing apples to apples and only going six months back. Um, so if you are selling in the winter, you're comparables, and let's just use November 1st. Right? It's November 1st. Today your comparables are the previous six months. So you're looking at October, September, August, July, June and May. That's actually the spring and summer properties are selling, uh, potentially four a little bit more in the spring and summer. Then when you, so if you're waiting until the spring, so I wouldn't even say they're selling for a little bit more. I take that back. There's the market is a little bit quicker, right? So you have more buy your competition, um, during the spring. But then if you're looking at, um, selling during the spring, so you're looking at your comparables again. Say you're gonna list in April, April of 2023, now you're looking back at March, February, January, December and November. You have less options, less, less people, less inventory that were on the market probably during that time. So it can be harder to find appropriate comparables and, um, your sale price might be, or the comparables might be pushing your sale price a little bit lower from that time of year. Mm-hmm.
<affirmative>. Yeah. I think that that's one of the things when, you know, when I do an analysis for people and I'm trying to help them figure out what the price is, it's really important for them to come into the office and sit and talk with me because the numbers of what the numbers are. Yeah. And that they don't lie. And the reason why I like to do that is because I like to show you everything I can see as an agent, uh, versus just showing up with paper and saying, okay, these are the comparisons I came up with, or these are the ones I found at least, you know, there's full transparency and I'm showing you everything I can possibly see. Um, and I think that that's helpful for sellers to really understand where the market is. Um, there's also the demographic of people who don't understand how our, like if you haven't sold in several years that you don't, they don't fully understand that buyers, they always say, well let's just put it on for this price. I know it's higher than what you're recommending, but somebody can just throw me an offer and that just doesn't work anymore. There is like this rogue fly that's been in our office, what is happening?
It's like this one low ranger.
Just flying around. I know. He's like a maverick. Oh, he's on you. Yeah. Little thing. Let.
Him stay.
On you. I don't want 'em anymore. So, um, I think that that's important for people to understand, is it like that just doesn't happen anymore. And this is the reason why we're seeing more price breaks and price changes in the market is because sellers are still testing a market that is no longer there. Yeah. And then the longer there are statistics that show the longer that you're on the market and you continue to do price breaks, the less you're going to end up with at the end of that. And I always, I remember back in 2000, let me get my numbers right here. So like 2008, nine, and 10, when we would do an analysis for people, one of the slides I had was the, the reason to properly price your home is because if you put it on high and then you have to lower it. Right. Cuz you're testing the market, you'll never win with that, by the way. The market will tell you what it's going to pay. But if you try to lower it, it's almost like going downhill, chasing a snowball. And before you know it's bigger than you. Do you remember I used to say that all the time. I am starting to say that again in my presentations and it's 100% true. And some of the statistics I took here, you know, just proved that.
So one thing, um, where you're talking about price, price adjustments and sellers are living in a market that no longer exists is because I feel like seller, both sellers and buyers currently are living in a market from a year ago. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So sellers are hoping for the sale prices that were a year ago. And buyers are hoping for the interest rates that were a year ago. And I've said it on the show before, perspective is everything. So if we forget about the past and just live kind of where we are, because there is no going back and we can't predict when or if we're ever going to get back to where we were. Even though I think most economists will say, we'll never see 2.375 again. Um, or it'll be a very, very long time from an interest rate perspective. The market might pick up in the same, um, fast, furious way that we've seen it, you know, in the past couple of years.
But it will be in spurts, which is what we used to see. Whereas a year, two years ago, it was just never ending. It was like the pipeline was full and you're just pushing everybody, pushing everybody through this little itty bitty tunnel to get the houses. Um, that's, those days have kind of gone to the wayside. And now buyers are being very strategic and very discerning with their funds. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that means that sellers, like you were saying, Sharon Yeah. Now have to be more strategic than they were in the past. They were, you know, what is it throwing like spaghetti at a wall.
Or sea. Yep. That's what I used to say. They would throw jello, jello. Did I say j I used.
To j I said spaghetti. It was the Italian.
Maybe the spaghetti. Yeah. Just throwing spaghetti. But.
You do.
Love jello. I do love jello. I really do. I'm gonna have to have jello tonight cause I ran outta pudding. But, um,
My gosh.
Um, it was, it's just like, it's like throwing it up against the wall and seeing what will stick. And you just can't do that. You just.
Can't. And when money, when money was, um, cheap to borrow, you sellers were able to do that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I mean, we literally used to say, it doesn't matter what your house looks like, just put it on the market right now, somebody will buy it. Because interest rates were so low that it was driving buyers, pushing more and more buyers into the market and making it very, very affordable to become a homeowner. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> those days have dwindled. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you sellers have to be more strategic and we have to be discerning these numbers a lot more intricately or a lot more, um, aggressively than.
We had.
<laugh>. So.
If you're, there's,
If you listen, if you're watching us live on Facebook, I'm whacking Mary with paper because there is literally this fly that is dive bombing. It's torturing us for.
Two days and we can't, if anybody's out there, bring us a fly swat,
Please, please bring us a fly squad. Oh, actually, if you have any questions for us, that's a very good point. Uh, we are live tonight. Uh, and you are listening to Talk Real Estate Roundtable. We are, uh, sponsored by Boston Connector Real Estate and McNamara broker team, which is actually now named Sharon and Mary Real Estate Team. 7 8 1 H 3 7 4 9 0 0 7 8 1 H 3 7 4 9 0. Any questions about real estate is great. And if you, uh, want something on this topic, feel free to call us on that. Um, we had a couple callers, I think it was on Saturday when we had our show right before, um, we had one caller anyways, right before.
Our event.
Did many callers visit? That would've been fun. I don't know.
Usually we get one or two people from Wtd that will come and see us. Yeah. So.
There were so many people here. Just on a side note, there were so many people here. It was so amazing to see just the, like, the community come together and that's awesome. Yeah. Dozer. So I'm, I'm kind of a big deal. I'm sorry. That was hysterical. I know Dexter was a little overwhelmed. He's he's not a, he's a people dog. Well,
Well, somebody fell in love on Saturday. Did you see Grace? Grace Love
Fell in love with
Dozer.
Oh yeah.
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