I Hope You Didn't Miss Them!
I hope you didn't miss the wonderful articles in the St. Petersburg Times' Homes section for Saturday, August 19, 2006. Judy Stark, the Times Homes Editor, had an outstanding series of stories about buying and selling real estate in today's marketplace. If you missed the paper on Saturday, go on-line and read it. It's absolutely worth the effort.
If you're trying to sell a home now, Judy's stories will give you some good advice and will make you think about what you want to accomplish and how you can get there. Incentives are becoming key issues in selling today in this new buyer's market. And remember, Mr. Seller, the market you're in today is about 180-degress different than the market of 18 months ago. Today, buyers call the tune.
If you're buying, your time has finally come. But you have to be realistic about things. Low-ball offers may be tempting, but they put everybody on edge and you won't be making any friends -- and quite often you won't be getting the house either. Get used to high prices, high taxes and high insurance -- Judy calls this the "new normal" in Florida real estate. I love that term, although I hate what it means.
The other new normal that I've discovered recently is negotiating. Buyers are trying to purchase property as low as they can, and sellers still want as much as they can get. This leads to offer-counteroffer negotiating that was rare a year or so ago when houses sold at asking price (or more) and low offers were rarely accepted or even considered. That's a big change.
My only criticism is that since Judy writes for the St. Petersburg Times, she might have obtained a few quotes from real estate agents and developers in Pinellas County, rather than only interviewing agents in Hillsborough. Hey, Judy, we're up on market conditions and like to see our names and opinions in print from time to time too!
Anyway, it's a well-done set of articles and I sure hope you take the time to read them.
For more infomation about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at www.thestpeterealestatesite.com.
If you're trying to sell a home now, Judy's stories will give you some good advice and will make you think about what you want to accomplish and how you can get there. Incentives are becoming key issues in selling today in this new buyer's market. And remember, Mr. Seller, the market you're in today is about 180-degress different than the market of 18 months ago. Today, buyers call the tune.
If you're buying, your time has finally come. But you have to be realistic about things. Low-ball offers may be tempting, but they put everybody on edge and you won't be making any friends -- and quite often you won't be getting the house either. Get used to high prices, high taxes and high insurance -- Judy calls this the "new normal" in Florida real estate. I love that term, although I hate what it means.
The other new normal that I've discovered recently is negotiating. Buyers are trying to purchase property as low as they can, and sellers still want as much as they can get. This leads to offer-counteroffer negotiating that was rare a year or so ago when houses sold at asking price (or more) and low offers were rarely accepted or even considered. That's a big change.
My only criticism is that since Judy writes for the St. Petersburg Times, she might have obtained a few quotes from real estate agents and developers in Pinellas County, rather than only interviewing agents in Hillsborough. Hey, Judy, we're up on market conditions and like to see our names and opinions in print from time to time too!
Anyway, it's a well-done set of articles and I sure hope you take the time to read them.
For more infomation about real estate in the Tampa Bay area, visit my website at www.thestpeterealestatesite.com.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 4:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home