Have you noticed the matchmaker campaign we have kicked off? It starts with matchmaker, matchmaker sell my house, matchmaker, matchmaker find me a house! Right now, our team has the unique ability to play matchmaker if you will let us! If you want to buy or sell in this market, here’s why this concept is critical:
The biggest challenge facing the housing market today is how few homes there are for sale. According to Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for First American, the root causes of today’s low supply are rate-locked existing homeowners and their fear of not finding something to buy.
What is a rate-locked homeowner? It is someone with a low-interest rate who does not want to trade their current interest rate for today’s higher rates which equate to much higher borrowing costs. In fact, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the average interest rate for current homeowners with mortgages is 3.8%. When so many homeowners are rate-locked, they are also reluctant to sell, causing inventory challenges. This is exactly what we are seeing in the Lamorinda marketplace, where inventory is currently lower than pre-pandemic levels.
In terms of the fear of being unable to find something to buy, this is also a real problem! Many would-be-sellers are worrying about where they’ll go if they do sell. This has left them on the sidelines waiting for more homes to come to market. This just creates pent-up buyer demand for sought-after houses and ensures that our values are not dropping.
This is where we come in! Think of us as your matchmakers. We have buyers who want to buy and are willing to pay fair prices. We have sellers who want to sell but would like to sell while living in their houses and may request a small rent-back of up to 60 days to locate a new property. We plan to share your wants and needs in any way we can while abiding by the rules of our real estate board. We are lucky to have the experience, industry track record, and long-standing connections that enable us to do this for our clients.
If you want to join this matchmaker pool of inventory as a seller, we will help you come up with your sales price and strategy. We think you will be pleasantly surprised to learn the value of your house.
If you are a buyer, we are already doing all we can to find the right house for you. We will also have you consult with the right lender to understand interest rates and rate buy-down strategies. We think you will be pleasantly surprised at your lending options.
If you are simply a supporter of our team and/or past clients, please call us if you know of anyone who could benefit from our services. As you know, we are not ones to simply sit back and watch the market. We are in an amazing position to make the market!
Cheers to matchmaking and being market makers! All we need to make this happen is your trust and commitment to our team. Thanks in advance for your help.
Dana & Team