Des Moines House Selling Specialists

Real Estate Consultants in Central Iowa

We Need Houses to Sell!

If you have been thinking about selling your home, or know someone who has, I would love to talk to you. Currently there are only 2,751 houses for sale in the Des Moines Multiple Listing Service, as of the time of this writing.

In February, before all of this craziness hit, we were over 4,200 active houses for sale. That is an almost 35% drop in inventory.

With interest rates so incredibly low, buyers are out and wanting to take advantage of ridiculously cheap money. (If you are a buyer, I would love to help you as well.)

Currently, every single one of the listings I have on the market are under contract. Many of them went through multiple offer situations within 48 hours of listing with me.

If you have been thinking about buying or selling, this is an incredible time. Very low interest rates on the buy side. Very low competition on the sell side.

If you are simply wondering, feel free to ask me to run numbers on your house and let you know what I think it could sell for. I am happy to do so with absolutely no cost or obligation.

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

Des Moines Area Real Estate Needs More Listings

Good morning my friends. Short and sweet this morning. We badly need listings. Here are the numbers:

Normal levels of Active Listings for Central Iowa: 5,000-6,000

Active Listings before COVID – 4,200-4,300

Active Listings as of this writing – 2,963

Buyers are out in force because interest rates are the lowest they have EVER been. Yesterday we added 53 new listings to the market, and sold 110. ON A TUESDAY!

If you know anyone thinking of listing, it is a very good time to do so. Please give me a call to discuss.

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

Two Different Markets for Buyers and Sellers

COVID has had a very strange effect on the Des Moines area real estate market. Basically there are two different things happening depending on if you are a buyer or a seller.

Sellers have been waiting. Active houses for sale have fallen almost 25% since the beginning of lock-downs. We were over 4,200 houses for sale. Currently there are 3,216 houses for sale as of this writing. That is a huge drop!

However, buyers have been taking advantage of historically low interest rates. 1,362 houses went under contract in April. In fact 369 more houses have sold than in 2019, and median sale price went from $205,000 in 2019 to $215,000 in 2020.

What this means if you are a seller is your competition has left the market by 25%. You have a quarter less competitors to compete against. If you have been thinking about selling, these numbers are incredibly low.

What this means if you are a buyer is money is cheaper than it has ever been and I would highly recommend making hay while the sun shines with these low interest rates. If you have been thinking about buying, you will probably never see cheaper interest rates than this.

I happen to know a great realtor that can help you do both!

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

What I am Hearing You Say and Where is the Market

I thought I would start this post out by reporting on what I am hearing from you. I have built my business around creating long term relationships with my clients. I do that by calling every single one of you each quarter and seeing how you are doing and if there is anything I can do to help you.

Right now people have time on their hands. My calls have been longer than they normally are because many people just like having someone to talk to and take their mind off of what is going on.

In the hopes of not sugar coating what is happening, I have had people tell me about rough situations they are in. I have even made deliveries to clients that can’t go out. I want to focus on what the vast majority of people I am talking to are saying.

Over and over again, I am hearing people tell me about how nice it is to slow down, spend time with family, and not be bothered by drama at the workplace. Almost no one ever plans to take 4-6 weeks off of work in their life. It turns out, that much of a break can shift your perspective.

This terrible situation that we are in is giving me extreme hope. So many of the people I speak with are telling me they are using this time to reconnect, de-stress, and find a happier set point. I absolutely wish this situation we are in had never happened. If we can come out of it happier and less focused on petty grievances, I think that would be amazing.

On to the market:

Frankly, this is unexpected. Many of the numbers for March are better for 2020 than for 2019. In a way this does make sense. We basically got Spring in March, and almost no snow. Interest rates are at historic lows. People are ready to buy.

There were 150 more homes for sale in March 2020 than March 2019. The average days on market across all of DMAAR (Des Moines Area Association of Realtors) was only 38. Single family and condo resales have been in, and still are in Seller’s Markets. Through March, single family resale homes only had 1.7 months of inventory. Condo/town homes resales had 2.2 months of inventory.

This means that if everything stayed consistent, all of the current homes for sale would sell in 1.7 months, or 2.2 months for condo/town homes. For reference, up to 4 months is still a Seller’s Market.

The big news is that New Construction Single Family homes were in a Seller’s Market in March (just barely) at 3.9 months of inventory.

Basically, people are taking advantage of what could be the lowest interest rates on mortgages ever. By ever, I mean looking into the future as well. There were points in March where a 30 year mortgage was below 3%. To quote The Princess Bride: “Inconceivable!”

If you are a buyer, you can get the cheapest money there has ever been for a mortgage. If you are a seller, March 2020 sold more houses than March 2019.

April has absolutely seen a slow down in showings. Houses are still selling every single day, though. It will be very interesting to see what April’s final numbers are. I have already seen an uptick in showings just this week. I will keep you posted!

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people that I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

More Good News

I really like to help people. I enjoy helping others feel better. I think that is one of the things that makes me a realtor worth referring. Last time I wrote about some good news in all of the doom and gloom that is happening right now. I received an outpouring of positive feedback. I thought I would continue that trend. If you were hoping for market news I can tell you that as well at the end.

First, here are links to a lot of good people doing good things (Warning, there could be some language in here. It is all feel good news.):

https://cheezburger.com/11032837/feel-good-posts-because-we-know-you-need-em

https://cheezburger.com/10978565/twenty-wholesome-memes-to-lift-those-spirits-up

https://cheezburger.com/10952453/hopeful-twitter-thread-highlights-some-of-the-good-news-surrounding-coronavirus

https://cheezburger.com/102295041/college-acapella-group-performs-somewhere-over-the-rainbow-online-after-being-quarantined

https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1650-heroic-celebrity-moves-that-are-what-we-need-right-now/

https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1643-tell-us-now-what-makes-you-hopeful-humanity/

https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1642-tell-us-now-what-has-been-your-source-inspiration/

Here are two links to a doctor answering questions about COVID-19 that I did not know I even had, and yet still made me feel better:

https://cheezburger.com/10908165/doctors-twitter-thread-debunks-common-coronavirus-myths?fbclid=IwAR28ex-F9FRZEi2zACgIaKMUclxba-gXHcZtyFpOXQarRtmUGC00FLN7VdI

https://cheezburger.com/10972421/doctor-clears-up-some-more-coronavirus-misconceptions-on-twitter?fbclid=IwAR1vH8ZVXi4j0I1a1-IAa5kCeoMnXS2nkb_zpTb8ZRC9meW5smr78UjBgJY

My final link will be to a podcast with Jack Kornfield. He has been studying mindfulness for at least four decades and he is discussing how to feel better in the time of COVID-19. This is two hours long and I found it really helpful. You can also listen to it on any app which allows you to listen to podcasts:

Jack Kornfield — How to Find Peace Amidst COVID-19, How to Cultivate Calm in Chaos (#414)

Finally, some news on central Iowa’s real estate market. It still exists! I personally have put together four deals since everything started with COVID-19. Yesterday (Tuesday, March 31st) there were 68 new listings on the market, 60 deals put under contract, and 48 closings. Those numbers are for a Tuesday. And those numbers have been steady over the last few weeks.

In fact, numbers are up over this time last year. In March, 2019 there were 3,280 homes for sale. In March, 2020 there were 3,447 homes for sale.

The big difference between now and the crash of 2008 is that banks are still lending. In fact, if you have a mortgage of any type, I would highly recommend looking at what refinancing can do for you with how low rates are. The same goes if you are looking to buy. I want to take a lot more precautions in the showing of homes. I still want to show you homes. Rates might never be this low again.

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people that I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

Help Sell (and Buy) Houses

I have had something happen occasionally throughout my time selling houses that I thought was important enough to point out. People tend to think of me as a house seller. I am. I am also a house buyer. A few times throughout the years I have had people (usually when looking to buy new construction) use me to sell their home, and then use the builder’s realtor to help them buy their new construction home. Almost every time, they have said they wished they had used me to help them buy.

First off, I cost nothing when you buy a home. Sellers pay both sides for a realtor. That means that people paid both sides to have me help them sell a home, and then didn’t use me when it would have cost them zero dollars.

Second, and most importantly, a builder’s realtor typically cares more about the builder than the buyer. Normally I don’t have any issue with a realtor helping both the buyer and seller in a transaction. In many cases I think it is much simpler to have one person who understands what both sides want, and can help them both come out winners. The issue is with builder’s realtors, there can be an imbalance. This is not true all of the time. It has just been true in several transactions that I have been told about. Think about it this way: if you got most of your income from one side of the transaction, versus a one time deal, which side are you going to favor? My experience has been that you want your own representation when buying new construction that is independent of the builder you are buying from.

Now, onto the market:

The market is already ahead of 2019, which is saying a lot. At the end of January, 2020 we had 989 houses under contract, versus 859 at the end of January, 2019. That is 15% higher than last year. On the flip side of this, the median list price was down $20,000 from last year. This can be seen in buyers being much more picky right now and much tougher negotiators.

Buyers are in an interesting position right now. Interest rates are basically giving money away at this point. There is more and more inventory for them to choose from. AND prices are still up in general. If you are looking to move, it would be hard to find a cheaper environment for purchasing homes with credit. Really there is nothing that is indicating that a market fall is coming in 2020. To me, that means take advantage of cheap money if you are looking to buy.

If you are looking to sell, the market keeps pushing your price up, which is helpful. I would recommend getting on the market sooner rather than later, as the Spring Market will be here before we know it. That is true especially if we keep this sunny, snow-free weather.

I love doing what I do. I love looking at the market, and I love building relationships with the people that I get to help. Let me know how I can help you. Call me today. You can reach me at 515.639.0047 or RyanLynch@KW.com. I am good at what I do, and I want to help you.

~Ryan Lynch

Find Us On:

Office Location:

House Selling Specialists
Keller Williams Greater Des Moines
4001 Westown Parkway
West Des Moines, IA 50266

We Help You Sell Your House and Find Your Dream Home

Our goal is to help you get your current house sold in less time, for more money, and without all the hassles. This will allow you to get into your next home as soon as possible.