Nervous Buyers and a Market Recovering

Nervousness can mean missing an opportunity

What odd times we are in right now. But it does appear things are changing again.   Some for the better, some . . . well we shall see.

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of purchasing a home.   Plenty of places where a buyer can become nervous, but that is why you work with a professional that does this for a living.   I don’t mean this to sound like a commercial but it is what we do.

For me finding someone I trust to guide me through a process whether it is buying a car or a new camera, means a lot, knowing there is someone with knowledge guiding me through the process provides piece of mind.

Purchasing a home is a process with many steps along the way.

1. The finding of a home
2. The mortgage application
3. The Appraisal
4. The Title Company
5. The Inspection period
6. The Final Walk-through
7. The Closing

All along the way there are things in the process that have changed based on what has happened in the real estate market nationally.   Some of this is governed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some by the government.   Most are closing the door after the horses have gotten out.   Unfortunately, the way it is being done is making the process of purchasing a home longer and longer.

A 30 day close used to be standard and in some cases it could be done in even less time.   Now 45 days is becoming more and more what we are seeing.   New regulations to protect the consumer are putting more of a financial burden on consumers than before.

Short Sales, hope you have 6 to 9 months to wait for those to close.   We have had two offers on one home now for almost 2 months and they don’t even have anyone assigned to them yet by the Bank.   During the weekly follow-up call we found out some have had offers on them since March and still don’t have anyone assigned to them.

The inventories across the country are shrinking, interest rates have climbed again this past week.   And sales are up again in June for the 3rd month in a row.   June sales in Tucson were even better than June 08, (remember that was before the financial system meltdown).

July is shaping up to be a very good month as well.   July of 08 there were 959 closed transactions. This morning we already have 797 in the system.   All this is pointing to an even better month in July than June.

This morning the Arizona Daily Star reported Tucson as the #1 Best Place to Live the Simple Life according to AARP Magazine.   These types of articles usually bring an influx of inquiries about Tucson.

If inventories fall much further we will have a shortage of available homes in the very near future.