So some interesting things have gone on in the market. Let me see if I can explain what’s happening to you.

The most interesting thing that has happened is that interest rates seem to have affected sellers instead of buyers. Allow me to explain. My typical business is around 75% listings and 25% buyers. That has actually just about flipped in 2023.

Right now I have a huge list of buyers looking for a property to purchase. What I don’t have is listings. I believe the reason for this is interest rates. If you owned a home in the last five years, whether you just bought or you have owned for a while and refinanced, you have a ridiculously low interest rate. Now when you look out at the market, you see completely normal interest rates like 6-7% that are twice as high as the rate you have on your mortgage right now.

So, people aren’t selling.

What this means is that even though interest rates are back to normal, that is all they are: normal. There are still a ton of buyers out there wanting to buy with normal interest rates. However, all the people who could sell are sitting on their mortgages remembering how they got so lucky to have such an incredible interest rate.

So, it is still a seller’s market. There are still a ton of buyers, and not that many sellers. If you are looking to sell, use a realtor and get that money. If you are looking to buy, get that realtor or good luck.

As always, 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

Seriously. I am sitting on buyers 10 to 1 with sellers. I have more buyers than I have ever had in my career. And the number one reason is that inventory is so low. People are out looking for houses right now. And sellers are sitting back. It is driving up prices.

Talking with other realtors, they are seeing the same thing. Lots of buyers, not many sellers, and houses selling for more money.

If you, or anyone you know is looking to sell. Give me a call. We need houses.

As always, 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

I keep getting asked the same question: So, how’s the market doing? And I keep getting asked it in the same way, with true fear for my livelihood. I think that sellers in particular are afraid that the market is just simply dead because of the dreaded INTEREST RATES!!! (I don’t know how to type something spooky, so bear with me.)

However, they are all completely wrong. We so badly need listings right now. Cold hard facts:

Currently there are 2,462 houses under contract, meaning someone is buying them.

At the same time, we only have 2,417 houses currently active on the market.

There are more houses going through the process of being sold right now than there are houses for sale. To add fuel to this fire, it typically only takes 30-45 days for a house to go from being under contract to being sold. So more houses have sold in the past two months than there are currently houses available to buy. And this is the busiest time of the year.

Quite frankly, if you have been thinking about selling, this is a golden time to do it. I have so many buyers just waiting for the right house to come along. One hundred percent of the sellers I have worked with in 2023 have their house either completely sold, or under contract right now.

If you are looking to buy, interest rates are still at historically low levels. If you are looking to sell, we need inventory. Give me a call.

As always, 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

Well, I just received my new assessment, and it looks like my property value went up 20%. Except, it didn’t. If you are in the same boat, here is a simple step by step process to protest it. I can’t guarantee it will work. In most cases, it is worth a shot.

First off, here is the full process: http://web.assess.co.polk.ia.us/cgi-bin/web/tt/infoqry.cgi?tt=aboutus/protest

Within that process you need one thing I can give you: proof. If you are looking to protest your new assessment, just let me know and I will run numbers for you. I will caveat that a lot of houses have gone up in value by quite a bit. So you might find out your house really is worth that amount on the open market. I will give you what your house is really worth.

I am also happy to do this any time. If you have been thinking about selling, the market needs inventory. We are still very low on houses to sell. That is actually what is continuing to push prices up.

If you are looking to buy, things have become much more normal. No more competing with 20 other people for one property.

Let me know how I can help.

As always, 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

Well, we have officially hit the beginning of the Spring Market. In fact, I think we have been in it for a bit. (Yay, weak winters!!!) For myself, I currently have every single listing I have put up in 2023 sold or under contract. Do you know anyone that is thinking about selling? I have buyers that are just sitting and waiting for the right one to come along.

And it is not just me. 2023 is already doing better than 2022. New listings for Feb. 2022 were at 565. New Listings for Feb. 2023 were 597. What were they saying about interest rates screwing everything up again? At the end of February 2022 we had sold just over 2,000 houses in the Des Moines Multiple Listing Service (MLS). So far in 2023, we are at 3,214 sold.

If you are looking to buy or sell, I would love to talk to you. The Des Moines market is still very strong. I will completely admit that we are out of the crazy times. No longer am I seeing multiple offer scenarios with ten different buyers. Still seeing houses sell. It might take a little longer. That means buyers get more time, and sellers still get sold.

Let me know how I can help you.

As always, 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