I’m going to share with you what’s happening in the market give you my thoughts on what it means for buyers. And then give you some advice on, ‘What to do if you’re thinking about buying a home right now.’

Don’t forget that the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit expires November 30th.  So far, that has not been extended. I know there’s rumors in the news that it might be, but right now it has not been. So, you need to be under contract on the property in October to be able to close by the end of November in order to take advantage of that $8,000 credit.

It’s important that as you are searching for listings that you know about what’s happening in the market so you can actually purchase the property you want.  The reason that I’m going to go into this today is because it is getting more competitive. It’s not necessarily a buyer’s market right now. It’s not a seller’s market either, but it’s more of an equilibrium.

You’re going to have to be realistic about your purchase prices. You can’t low-ball sellers anymore, (well you can, but you won’t get the properties) because the good ones are seeing multiple offers in a short amount of time.  The very good ones are selling very quickly within the first couple of weeks of being on the market.

There’s only about 21,000 homes on the market, just under 21,000 and there’s over 440 homes a month that are selling. So, if you do the math, what that means that there’s less than 5 months of inventory on the market. The National Association of Realtors says that, ‘6 months supply and more is a buyer’s market.’ ‘Under 6 months supply is not a buyer’s market anymore.’

I want you to be aware that if you find properties you like:

• you have to act fast
• you have to be reasonable about what you’re going to pay

Also, prices have actually inched upwards this year. They’re still lower than they were at the same time last year by about an average of $10,000, they’re up anywhere from 2-3% depending on what area of town, and I can tell you about specific areas and neighborhoods, if you’d like. July was down a little bit again, but overall this year prices are trending upward.  What this means is that seller’s are pricing their homes appropriately now.

Keep in mind that this represents a smaller amount of foreclosure inventory. There’s very few foreclosures in the market right now, therefore, average prices are up because the more high quality and good shape properties are the ones that are selling since the foreclosures aren’t on the market as much.

If you’d like more information or if you’d like my complete set of market update charts or more information on your specific neighborhood that you’re interested in, call me:  303-526-2606

or send me an email:  Sam [at] SamWilsonGroup.com

or visit a great search website, called:  www.EasyDenverHomeSearch.com
(Where you can search for listings and any neighborhood 24/7 and you can even sign up to get email alerts, so you can see all the good new properties before they go!)

And they are going fast. You’ll see when you’re out there looking at what’s available today, if it’s priced right and in good shape, it’s probably under contract within a week or two.

Until next time

The numbers just came out through July of 2009 and there’s a couple of key points that you should know whether you’re a buyer or a seller. These are important, relative to selling your home or finding the right home to purchase.

The first important fact is that we have dropped below 5 months of inventory on the market.  There’s about 20,000 properties between detached single family homes, condos and town homes that make up this amount of inventory. Importantly, there’s a little over 4,000 homes a month that are selling right now. Meaning, if no other homes were listed today, it would take about a little under 5 months to clear out all of our inventory.

Obviously, that’s a moving number and moving target because there’s always more homes listed and more homes sold. It’s very fluid. But the significance of this number is that the National Association of Realtors says that, ‘Over 6 months of inventory is a buyer’s market, under 6 months of inventory, is a seller’s market.’

Now I don’t want to get you too excited as a seller because one of the reasons the inventory is down so much is there’s a lot less foreclosures on the market. I’ll explain that at another time. What’s important to know right now is that inventory is down, mortgage rates are still down and actually dropped a little bit in the past couple of weeks and the home buyers out there, if they’re first time buyers, still can take advantage of the first time home buyer tax credit.

With over 20,000 listings to choose from, it’s important that you find the listings that meet your criteria and that you’re able to act quickly in order to make offers and purchase the properties that you want. I can’t tell you how many times in the past month that we’ve run into competitive offers for our buyers, and even for our sellers, when they list a home in a hot neighborhood that’s priced right.

To sort through all of this, I have lots of tools and services available for both buyers and sellers. For buyers, you should visit, www.EasyDenverHomeSearch.com, to start searching for your home today, and sign up for the E-mail alert service that will get you all the new listings first thing in the morning or whenever during the day you’d like to see them.

For sellers, visit, www.SamWilsonGroup.com, to see some of my tools and advertising mechanisms to market your home, to get it sold quickly and attract only the most serious buyers. With the market changing almost every week and definitely every month, I also offer free consultation services either for a buyer or a seller. I’ll give you a 1-hour free consultation to help you determine the best way to market your home or the best way to find and purchase a home in the Denver Metro Area.

Contact me directly 303-526-2606 or email me at Sam [at] SamWilsonGroup.com and we’ll set up an appointment to help you sort through this quickly in the rapidly changing market.

Until next time

I get a lot of questions from my seller clients about what they should do to prepare their home and what’s the best way to sell it and position it in today’s changing market to ensure that they’re getting the best price for it. And to get it sold quickly so they can move on. So, I’ve compiled this free report, and I thought today I would just give you a few of the highlights.

As always, you can order this free report by contacting me directly.

Some of the things you need to know are:

1. Know why you’re selling your home and keep it to yourself. Make sure that you hire a Real Estate agent that’s going to keep your information confidential and knows how to negotiate on your behalf when buyer’s agents ask, ‘Well, why are they selling?’There are really good and easy answers for that that actually intrigue buyers more and bring more offers quicker.

   So, that’s my #1 tip. And I can talk to you more about how I do that. But make sure that that is something you’ve thought through before you even list.

   • Why are you selling your house?
   • What do you want to do?
   • And are you really truly motivated to sell the home?
2. Do your homework before setting a price. I can’t tell you how important this is. It is so critical to price your home right at the time of listing. There’s a lot of, I know, nervousness out there when you price your home. And you’re always wondering if you priced it too low? And if you get an offer fast, was it underpriced? And if you get a full price offer, should you have priced it higher?Those questions should run through your mind. But you won’t be so concerned about them if you do your homework upfront.

   It’s critically important for you to get with the Real Estate agent that can provide you a computerized market analysis and broker price opinion that incorporates all the competitive activity in your neighborhood along with the recent sales. You need a realtor that can look at it the way an appraisers going to look at it once you get under contract.

   It’s so important to price your home where buyers will find it and where they’ll be excited to make offers.

So, those are the 1st two tips out of my 9-step program. And for more information and the free report, you can contact me any time, both for the report or a free price opinion of your home.

You can do that by calling me at:  303-526-2606
E-mail me:  Sam [at] HomeSam.com
Or, visit my website:  www.HomeSam.com Where you can order a price opinion on your home and see more about how I sell listings there.

Until next time