A study at Harvard University by the Joint Center of Housing Studies released their housing study of 2017 so far and this jumped out at me:

“For the fourth year in a row, the inventory of homes for sale across the US not only failed to recover, but dropped yet again. At the end of 2016 there were historically low 1.65 million homes for sale nationwide, which at the current sales rate was just 3.6 months of supply – almost half of the 6.0 months level that is considered a balanced market.”

I have been shouting from the mountaintops for years now that we are in the strongest Seller’s Market in a long time. I wrote about it last year and the year before. 2016 was stronger than 2015, which was stronger than 2014. 2017 is putting them all to shame. I have buyers that are just waiting for the right house to come along and they are ready to pull the trigger. If you are thinking about selling, you are going to be hard pressed to find a better time than now. I said that in 2015 and 2016, and it is actually more true today in 2017.

If you or someone you know is interested in selling (or buying), I want to help! You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. Let me help.

~Ryan Lynch

I have had many conversations lately where people were asking me about whether they should sell their home or turn it into a rental. My advice might not be expected, since my job is to sell houses. I pretty much always tell people that owning rentals is a great way to financial independence. (Here is why I say that.) There are a few thoughts I would talk about before anyone goes down that path.

The first and most important is that you should get a property manager or property management company to take care of it for you. It is not an investment if it is your job. Depending on the tenant, it can be a full time job. Also, if anything goes awry and you do not follow the letter of the law, the tenant gets all of the power, since it it the home that they live in. Paying someone who knows exactly what to do in that situation is well worth it. (I am very happy to refer the one that I use if anyone wants a great referral.)

Second, you need to understand that this is someone’s home. Trying to squeeze every last dollar out of a property can make someone a terrible landlord. No one is looking for terrible landlords. Be prepared to put money into the investment when needed.

Third, hands off is the best approach in my mind. If you have a good property manager and you are fixing the things that a tenant wants you to fix, don’t micromanage. For some people that can be a very hard challenge, since it is THEIR property. Unless you are just adding on tons of value, let people live in their home.

If you can handle those three things, than I say turning your home into a rental property is a great thing to do for all the reasons that I wrote about previously. If you think any of the three above things disqualifies you, and you know that selling is the way to go, then I am the realtor for you. You can reach me anytime at 515-639-0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com.

~Ryan Lynch

One thing was sure at the beginning of this year: interest rates were going to go up. The Fed said so. Banks said so. Pundits said so. They were all wrong. As of June 1st, interest rates were below 4% on average according to Freddie Mac. As of today (June 14th, 2017), BankRate.com has the average at 4.04% for a 30 year fixed mortgage.

So what does this mean to you? It means that if you are looking to buy than you are still getting historically low interest rates. A simple example of what this means. Say that you wanted to buy a home for $200,000 with a 30 year fixed mortgage. Here are what different interest rates would do to your payment (principal and interest only):

8.12% – $1,484

6.29% – $1,237

4.01% – $956

A change in interest rates can save you (or lose you) $100s of dollars a month or thousands of dollars a year. The Fed, banks, and pundits are all still saying interest rates should go up. Going out and utilizing these low rates is absolutely in your financial interest. If you or someone you know are interested in buying a home, selling a home, or investing in real estate; I am here to help.

~Ryan Lynch

Are you thinking about selling your home? Here are two very simple numbers to look at that are saying it is a great time to sell:

Number of Active Homes on the Market (As of 5/16/2017): 3006

Number of Homes that are Currently Under Contract (As of 5/16/2017): 3056

This is insanity!!! Right now there are more homes under contract then there are homes for sale. To put that in perspective, the average number of days that a house is under contract is 30-45 days. 30 is the norm. That means that at least half of those homes have sold in the last 30 days (1564 have sold in the last 30 days to be exact). Buyers are out and they are hungry.

Here is why you should use a Realtor: right now people are selling their homes for sale by owner because they think they will save the realtor fees. I have repeatedly talked to for sale by owners in the $150,000 to $250,000 range in the last month whose house sold for more than $20,000 less than their neighbor who used a realtor. Here is some simple math:

Realtor fees: 6%-7%
Realtor fees on a $250,000 property: $15,000 to $17,500

If you had sold using a realtor that means that you would have made at least $2,500 more than you would selling by yourself. ($20,000 minus $17,500) That is not to mention the negotiation abilities in the sale and in the inspection negotiation, let alone the protection of having someone there to guide you through the many possible landmines that can show up in a real estate deal.

Get your house on the market. Use me! You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com.

~Ryan Lynch

I have had several people come to me because they were thinking about going For Sale By Owner (FSBO) and they wanted a second opinion. They have all been very happy that they did. The reason for this is dealing with a mass market instead of a segmented market. Please allow me to explain.

Right now I coach my sellers to tell absolutely no one that they are selling their home. That seems very counter intuitive. The reason is that right now there are far more buyers out than there are houses for them to buy. Houses are getting multiple offers, and buyers that are offering above list price are still missing out on getting the deal. So if you put your house up For Sale By Owner, and one of those buyers notices your sign, there is a good chance that you are going to get your house under contract. The problem is that all of the other buyers who would have been interested in your property never get a chance to compete against this buyer. You leave money on the table.

On top of that, all of this is just step one. Negotiating the inspection addendum, dealing with all of the issues that can and will come up in this emotional time, and things that you would not believe happen in a real estate transaction, make leaving money on the table a minor issue in some instances.

My advice is to hire someone who knows what they are doing. I have already spent more on my education and training to be a realtor than I spent on four years of college. Call me. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. Let me help!

~Ryan Lynch

I have already written about how horrible Zillow is at pricing your home. Now you should know about how bad Zillow is at telling you what homes are for sale when you are buying a home. I am working with a lot of buyers right now. At least a few times a week I am asked about a house that someone saw on Zillow. Zillow is incredibly bad at telling anyone what is currently on the market. I can only think of one time in 2017 so far where a client has sent me a listing on Zillow that was actually still for sale. Many times I am sent houses that were sold in 2015. Zillow lists houses as pre-foreclosure, which means absolutely nothing. 99% of the time, these houses are not for sale.

On top of that, Zillow feeds off of local Multiple Listing Services. The only thing is that Zillow is typically 1-3 days behind the Multiple Listing Service. Right now, the houses that are the most popular and that you are most likely to want are highly unlikely to be on the market for more than 24 hours. I have already had several of my listings sold before they ever even hit Zillow in 2017.

What this means to you is that working with me gets you one very important advantage over Zillow: a professional who knows what they are doing and knows what is going on in the market. Frankly, do you think Zillow cares about what is happening in Central Iowa? This is only one very basic part of what I do. A very simple solution to this is that I can set you up with your own website that is tied directly to the Multiple Listing Service. Most of the time I work as a profiler for my clients, where I look through every listing that matches their criteria and only show them the ones that really match their criteria, because a computer can only do so much. Some clients just want an uninterrupted feed, and I can do that too. On top of that they get my experience with negotiations, pricing, and simply being a 3rd party who can help them stay safe instead of impulsive.

On top of all of that, the services of a realtor for a buyer ARE FREE!!!

Here are your options:

Zillow will give you houses that are not even for sale for free.

Ryan will give you direct access to houses the second they hit the market, all of his experience and training, and I am pretty fun to be out and about looking at houses with if I do say so myself (for free!).

That choice should be obvious! You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I would love to help you and anyone you know. I love this work and I love helping people. Let me help you.

~Ryan Lynch