Hear No Evil - Sal Busacca Realtor

Do I Have Your Permission to Speak Honestly?

That is the first question I ask a prospective client when we sit down at the kitchen table to discuss possibly listing their home for sale.

Have you noticed that we live in a world where we are being told not to believe our own eyes or our God given common sense? It comes at us every day from the media, NGO’s, government agencies, etc. Basically all of the sources that we’ve been told to listen to or trust our whole lives.

Don’t believe me? OK, I’ll give you a few examples.

We’re told inflation is under control and is actually falling. Anyone who’s been to the supermarket lately, knows those prices certainly haven’t come down. It isn’t just the food store either. Donna and I love to get Culvers once in a while. Two double cheeseburgers regular fries and soda, $24! Two years ago that was about $16.

We’re told that cars are piling up on the lots unsold, but despite this, car prices continue to rise. Did you know that the average car payment has been reported to be around $700/month?

Government agencies like the CDC and FDA gaslighted us during Covid in a hundred different ways, that I don’t need to elaborate on. The effects of this are yet to be fully felt.

Oh, and lets not forget the entire animal kingdom, comprised of just males or females, has got that all wrong.

I can imagine that you’re probably thinking, “Why the heck is a Realtor on this crazy rant?”

Fair Question

Lately, I’ll be watching TV or more likely on my cellphone when there is a report of “news” about the real estate market. They tell us that interest rates are going to fall (maybe, but not enough to matter), and that housing prices are stable (not for long) and that there’s still very low inventory (that’s a lie) and it’s definitely a sellers market (wrong again!). To be fair, real estate is local, so any national news story that pretends to tell you about our local home prices should be discarded out of hand.

But don’t worry campers, I am here to tell you the truth about home prices here in the Upstate of South Carolina. As a full time realtor, I’m in the trenches, usually six days a week. I mostly work with sellers, helping my clients to accurately price their home, find a buyer and negotiate terms to get them the best outcome possible.

Want to know what I see?

Up to now, prices have held up pretty well, but cracks are starting to appear.

Showings are down. Qualified buyers are getting harder and harder to find. They either don’t have the money or the income to buy, or they just refuse to pay the current prices for the homes they like. Many of our neighbors are struggling to make ends meet, actually just living week to week, even with a 3% mortgage loan! That means trading up to buy your home with a 6+ % mortgage is completely off the table. And let’s not even start on first time buyers!

I never like to get too analytical, but here’s a few statistics directly from the Greater Greenville Assn. of Realtors. These are for the first six months of 2024, compared to the last 6 months of 2023.

New Listings are UP 10%
Inventory of homes for sale is UP a whopping 54%
The number of months supply of homes is UP 50% from 2.5 months to nearly four months of home supply.

The other thing that shouldn’t be ignored, and is not reflected in these stats, is the fact that, around these parts, home prices are only beginning to adjust, if at all. I routinely see homes hit the market higher than they should. Listen, I have made mistakes too, sometimes being a bit optimistic on a homes price… but I try very hard to explain to my client if we have started too high and show them why a price reduction is in their best interest. Sooner, rather than later.

Trust me, it’s uncomfortable to tell a client you were wrong, and ask for a price reduction. However if an agent agrees to list your home too high or can’t summon the courage to tell you the truth, then he or she is gaslighting you the same as the examples at the start of this rant. Worse really, because this transaction is directly related to your family’s financial well being.

The real estate market is starting to soften here in the Upstate. I’m not saying we’re going to experience the problems Florida and Texas are right now, but let’s be honest, we had quite a price run up between 2019 and 2023. Is it really that crazy given the current interest rates, and the way folks are struggling, to maybe see prices here drop by 10-15 percent or even more over the next year or two?

Now, more than ever, the choice of a Realtor to help you price, market, negotiate, and close on your home has never been more critical. If you believe as I do, that prices are likely to trend lower, it is very important to get it right the first time.

If you are thinking about selling and do want to get it right the first time, or just want to get an idea about what your home is REALLY worth now, then….

You Better Call Sal

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