A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from a prospect in NC. He found me on the Internet, so I was already happy. I answered, he called and we discussed a lot of things. I forwarded him information, listings, wrote crazy long e-mails answering endless questions. I get e-mails quite often, send people information and usually never hear from them again but to my surprise, Mike sent me an e-mail on Friday and asked to plan showing him some condo-hotel units on Sunday. I already scheduled a business meeting with a bright young investor in Gainesville, who wanted to talk to us regarding selling the condo units he owned on the beach. I combined it with a visit a friend who just 2 weeks ago suffered a massive heart attack (and he is not even 50), so I asked my son, who is licensed and works for me, to meet Mike and show him the properties, which he did.
Besides just viewing the condo resorts and the units, Mike stayed 3 nights in the area, but every night in a different condo-hotel. He liked what we suggested as the best deals, and told us he would come on Monday and write an offer for one or another unit.
He came in the afternoon, all hesitant, started the whole new round of questions. For an hour and a half I was talking ot him, he understood everything I was saying, and he agreed with me... but he could not commit. It was very frustrating, the price was unbeatable, the rentals were good, the equity in the property was very substantial. We do not BS, we know condo-hotels and the specifics of this niche.
This is a terrific market for a cautious buyer. This is like a time machine, where you can go 4-5 years back, while you already know what the values were. You know that there is at least that equity in the units, even if the market only gets to where it has already been. How can you be more conservative and more safe?
I remembered 2002-2003 in Daytona, when I was joking that buyers would not buy even if the Seller pays them $5K to take their units over. I remember these buyers coming to us in 2005 and laugh at themselves that they could buy for chicken feed, but they missed on the opportunity. Looks like we went the full circle, and now it does not matter what the price is, what the equity is in the units, how stable the rentals are, nothing... All what matters is when the market starts heating up, they start rushing and buying at increasing prices, and then pay over the asking price, and then buy not seen....
It reminds me village dogs. When the car is not moving, they are lying on the ground,. The moves moves, they are up and running and barking and trying to bite it. Well, our buyers are waiting for the car (real estate market) to start moving. Why is that we enjoy running after the locomotive? By the time we get there, all the seats are taken and it is already called a slow market. Go figure...
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