It's a Good Time to Buy? What that means when we say that!

Not Everything on our South Lake Tahoe Market is a Good Deal... but there is a Good Deal on a house Right Now for You!

(LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) This one was inspired by Bryant Tutas, of Tutas Town Realty in Poinciana, Florida. Bryant is a trusted online friend, one we talk to from time to time, and one of the top real estate bloggers in the country.

He asks a terrific question about a recent request from his local real estate association that asks all of their members to put a line in their advertising that says “now is a good time to buy.” He wonders if such a request from a real estate board is market manipulative? If it’s truthful?

We're going to explore how this relates to your South Lake Tahoe real estate market, and us, for you here.

• 1. We think it is appropriate to to add depth to what we mean when we say “Now is a Good Time to Buy.” We'll do that here in this post.
• 2. We are going to add an additional monthly real estate market update to our blog called “The Buyers Report”. (We do 5 major market-wide monthly updates for each State in our market presently, and this will make it 6.)
• 3. We are also going to add a feature to The Buyers Report that highlights specific houses that are great deals on the market right now... regardless of whose listing it is. It will be called "The Best Deal on the Market Right Now".
• 4. We are going to do an article called “The Truth about Featured Listings”. (We'll tie that into a "smoke and mirrors" aspect of usual real estate practice so as to build further credibility to our new best deals feature.)

 A Bit About Real Estate News :
Our success is based on rigorous honesty. And 100% truthful reporting of your South Lake Tahoe real estate market numbers and statistics. The news media has been relentless for some time now with “bad new” about the housing industry. But like our friend Bryant, we also don’t believe that things are as bad as the media says. And we constantly report to you about it.

We most often compare major national real estate news releases with current South Lake Tahoe market trends and conditions. This helps separate hysteria and media hype from market reality. It also substantiates that all real estate is local, and most often demonstrates that things are often much better, or at least different here in South Lake Tahoe than they are nationally. Here are our two most recent news comparison articles:

• What the New Home Sales Report Means for South Lake Tahoe (here).
• What the Existing Housing Sales Report Means for South Lake Tahoe (here).

Our basic tenet about real estate news is that it is neither good, nor bad. It just is. But national news about the housing industry often comes with opinion from reporters... who are not real estate agents, nor experts in any market. But that makes sense if one thinks about it. The News media is selling ratings. Advertisers are their clients.

But we have a calling to a higher order, and that is You. Home Buyers and Sellers are our clients, and we are not in the ratings business. We are in the people business; what we are selling is Trust.

As reporters of South Lake Tahoe real estate news for you, we can not have, and do not have an agenda. We have done numerous articles on this subject, most all with the central focus of lambasting the media for taking the position that the trends and conditions that constitute a Buyers market is “bad news.” Here is our most recent:

• Real Estate News: It's Not Bad, it's Not Good; it just Is! (here). 

More about the focus of this Blog :
Like Bryant says in his article, we realize that the consumer is very smart. One can easily say that we are betting our livelihood on it... because we are! The information we provide in the detailed market conditions and statistics found in our left sidebar has been said by some of our colleagues to be “too much for the public” , that it's just going to confuse you, that nobody is going to waste their time looking at numbers.  We think not.  And the truth is the feedback we constantly get from our readers is particularly supportive of the data and our efforts here.

The central idea of this blog is “All of the Information, All of the Time”. We believe in giving you the facts in a form that you can study privately, at your leisure,  to best help you with your own decisions... whenever, and if that time might come.

 More about why “Now is a good time to Buy” :
It is not a good time to buy every home on our market. Many are not good buys right now at all. There are, however, homes in virtually every real estate market that are good buys right now. There are a number of factors that determine that; price in most all cases being the most important.

In fact 35% of our South Lake Tahoe home sales in 2007 closed within 90 days of being listed... at 95% of their original listing price. We think all of these 121 houses was a good buy, but more importantly, so do the Buyers who are enjoying them now.

What determines a good buy in any market right now is a sellers motivation. And right now we have many sellers who are expressly motivated. Unfortunately, there are 133 or so homes in South Lake Tahoe that are facing foreclosure. This represents a family in crisis, which breaks our hearts, and we hope every one of them the greatest good fortune. Some of these homes are good buys right now. So are the 64 homes that are bank owned and for sale right now! (See REO's in our forthcoming "The Buyers Report".)

In review, there are four types of buying opportunities right now to be aware of: ("The Buyers Report" will have the details, and our upcoming "The Best Deal in the Market Right Now!" will have specific houses.)

• 1. homes that are priced right (we like this one best)
• 2. homes in foreclosure (we like this one least because of what it represents)
• 3. homes in a trustee sale (auction)
• 4. homes owned by a bank that are for sale (REO’s, and every one of these has significant potential of being a great buying opportunity.)

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