Selling Orange County Real Estate

Today's market... what good is it?

If you only look at values, it's the worst time to sell in 15 years. And you knew that. But any given market is always good for someone, so who can benefit?

The luxurious dream homes have come down a lot more dollars than the less expensive ones. So this really is a great time go move up, before the interest rates skyrocket. With all the inflation building, we could easily hit double-digit interest rates in the not too distant future. A 1% increase in interest could mean an 18% increase in monthly payments, so we are now in a window of opportunity that won't last forever. In a normal market, we would have high prices and low interest rates, or low prices and high interest rates. Right now we have low prices and low interest rates. It's a buyer's market too, but the only way you can benefit from a buyer's market is to actually buy something.

Moving up requires selling, so here's the plan. I know it'll take a lot of courage to do it like this, and it's easier said than done, but let me throw some logic out there amongst all the madness.

Prices are dropping slower now, even leveling in some areas. So you should be able to sell your house now without pricing it too far below the sold comparables. Pricing it around the list price of houses now in escrow would be sensible. While your house is up for sale, talk to a lender or two about how much house you can get, realistically, with a fixed loan so you'll stay out of trouble. Have fun looking around at dream homes, but refrain from making an offer. Just get a good feel for the market, so you'll be confident in your decision when the time comes.

Once your house is sold, your position will be clear, and your offer to buy your dream home will be attractive to the seller (most likely a bank), if you don't have wait for your house to sell in this market.

If you can do all this before the interest rates jump, you win the game and 5-10 years from now everyone will call you a genius.

Let's talk! Call me direct at (714) 925-1599.