By Ron Barnes

President - Pickens County Board of Realtors  

My last article encouraged buyers and sellers to be aggressive in the real estate marketing process. The message was "lower the price of your home, make a corresponding lower offer when you find the home you like, and save money on interest". My example showed how to offset the loss, and save $19,916 over the next ten years in rising interest rates. Most people resist the concept of reducing the sale price to make more money (truthfully, I have a problem with it too). 

At that point, interest rates were around 5.87% for 30 year fixed. As of this morning, the average rate in the metro area is 6.42%. That is almost exactly half way between 5.87% and 7.00%. If you got a loan today for a $250,000 home, it would cost you $10, 679 more in interest over the next ten years than if you acted a month ago. If you didn't believe me the first time, hopefully this will get your attention. My mother always tried to teach me not to say "I told you so", but it never really took. 

Will the rates come back down? Maybe. Will they go up further? Why take the chance? Even 6.42% is a fantastic rate, as most people born before 1975 will confirm. If you wait for rates to go up to 7%, it will cost you another ten grand, but ten years from now someone who doesn't know what you walked away from will think you're a genius for having such a low mortgage rate!

Back to the selling side, the number of homes sold in Pickens County this year to date is 62% of the number sold during the same time frame last year. Do you really think people are going to pay you top dollar with a 32.2 month supply of homes on the market? The good news is that for those homes that are sold, the selling price is still averaging 95% of the asking price this year through May, which is not appreciably different than where that figure has been historically. If you really want to sell your home and buy a new one, you can price it aggressively and take a hit, or you can wait for someone to give you a lowball offer and take a hit. Either way you sell it for what the market will bear, but the second method takes time while the interest clock is ticking. Just remember that you will have the upper hand when you make someone else an offer, so take advantage of your position. 

The most important thing to remember is that if you stall in this real estate market, time is your enemy. If you act, time is your friend. There is an old saying that any real estate you buy today will be considered a good deal someday. I'm not certain that is always true, but having witnessed what has happened to property values in Pickens over the last several years (in what is comparatively a conservative environment), I would say it's almost always true. 

Rest assured that my mother would never approve if I came around a year from now and said "I told you so", so don't give me the opportunity! 

Ron Barnes can be reached at 678-520-6648. Prudential Georgia Realty is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential FinancialCompany. Equal Housing Opportunity. Statistics are taken from Trendgraphics.