by Buz Wolfe
SO, YOU’VE GOT CASH…
BIG DEAL!
Really, it’s not that big of a deal. You just think it is.
Cash sales accounted for 36% of all home sales in Pennsylvania during the month of December. This is pretty consistent with what we are seeing in the Greater Carlisle Area where approximately 1/3 of all transactions have been cash transactions since the market crash of 2007. Prior to the housing crisis, cash sales averaged about 25% across the United States.
I frequently see cash buyers and buyer agents making ridiculous, low ball offers on our listings simply because they have CASH. Well, the truth of the matter is that cash will have some impact on the seller, but it is not going to allow you to buy the property for 80 cents on the dollar. Remember, it’s all cash to the seller – be it your’s, the bank’s, or the mortgage company’s!
The ratio of list price to actual sales price here in the Greater Carlisle Area remains at 98%. This, too, is consistent with what we have experienced here in our “micro-market” for many, many years. When the market is slower, this percentage changes very little, but Days On Market tends to increase. We are currently seeing Days On Market actually decline as more and more listing inventory is absorbed.
Anecdotally, I can tell you that we have recently sold four or five properties that were on the market for periods of up to a year or more. In three of these instances, we actually received multiple or competing offers and were able to sell the properties at or near their full asking price. It is very clear to me that the market is improving dramatically and that 2015 will likely be the best year in residential real estate since 2006.
So, you’ve got cash? The best thing that you can do is to make the seller a reasonable offer on their property so that you will, in turn, get their attention. Far too often, I see low ball offers that offend, antagonize or insult the seller. In turn, the seller often does not offer a counter proposal at all or, at a minimum, does not respond with their “bottom line number”. If you want to make effective use of your cash, make the seller an offer that they will take seriously and you will benefit from getting their best counter proposal.
Perhaps you have seen some of our local billboards touting our continued campaign of No Fees, No Teams, No Nonsense. To the best of my knowledge, we are the only real estate agency in the Greater Carlisle Area that charges NO FEES to our buyer clients and NO ADDITIONAL FEES (other than commission) to our selling clients. If you are paying additional fees, you are paying too much! We not only provide the highest level of professional real estate service available in Carlisle – – we also provide the best VALUE available for real estate services in the Greater Carlisle Area.
EXPERIENCE MATTERS!
*Ray L. “Buz” Wolfe, CRS has been Broker/Owner of his own firm since 1986. In 2014, he was again the Carlisle Area’s Top Producing Broker with $10,000,000 in settled transactions.
**All information believed to be accurate but not guaranteed.