It was a good day when I felt like a true rockstar ! Walked into a builder's sales office with a buyer and another buyer signing contracts looked at me and said-"You are Rama? We read your blog all the time and really like all the great info you put out"....... yes yes, I felt GREAT.And I thought to myself- then how come you are signing contracts without me??!!
I am definitely not the best journalist in town, knowing the nuances of writing but I am passionate about what I do for a living.Today I can say I am proud that my discussions about Windemere are being noticed and read seriously.The hardest part is to find relevant things to write about and I do the best to address concerns of buyers and sellers.
Finding the inside track on homes for sale is a sleuth's job in its basic form.A realtor should know their market like the back of hand and over the years I realised that Jack of All Trades and Master of None was so true.Hence the laser focus on the community where I live and do 90% of my business.So, with no shame today, for the first time ever in my life, I gloat over the fact that I am really good at what I do !
On the same note, I am also super excited about the fact that the market is heating up. In the last few days, activity is up tremendously and buyers are out in full swing. Some may say it is seasonal acitivity, I say that buyers are realising we either in the bottm or very close to it.San Ramon, as of today, has 356 active homes; 149 are pending;165 homes have sold since Dec 1, 2008.In Windemere, there are 53 resale homes in the market; 43 pending;39 homes sold since Dec 1st, 2008.
Clear indications of a stable market.I can tell you for a fact that there are multiple offers going on right now and I am seeing a slight drag upwards.What the means for sellers is that if you are willing to acknowledge the advice of your Realtor and price your home aggressively, it will fetch multiple offers. For a buyer it means, time has flown by for you to make ridiculous offers( to test the market) and get serious. There is a point to which you can bargain and after that you either take it or move on.And those who keep waiting for the market to go down further, scroll up and look at the statistics that I have just posted- I guarantee you, you will miss the opportunity.
So cheers to my great day today and hopefully I will keep up my presence on AR !
You are really well known and your blogs are very informative . What are you seeing differently this time compared to what you saw in April , 2008 . In One of your Blog in 4/24/2008 you claimed San Ramon Real estate seems to have reached bottom at that time. Would be good to know yours thoughts , Hope you are correct this time .
Thanks so much for your kind comments !! And I really hope I am right this time because I was right in 2008 too but the way the market flipped was beyond anyone's imagination !! I was basing my statement on the facts of number of sales compared to available inventory. I can actually pull stats and find out in a 2 year range:
The Number of Properties Sold by Month for entire San Ramon:
This chart clearly indicates a pick up in sales in April last year, which sustained till Jan 09.
The Number of Properties Sold by Month.
I really wish I could be clairvoyant but who knew things would get as bad as they did and I hope these charts show what I was trying to say.
If you were right in April , 2008 about market bottoming than was there any time when you thought it is not good time to buy. I know few friends who bought around that time and now under water 70-80K and needless to say not happy with their realtors for misleading them about the market.
Like I said earlier, I make statements based on activity in the market.No one is clairvoyant on how the market will turn. Did anyone ever anticipate the crash on Wall Street? Yet all of us invested in some form or the other and all of us got hit. Do we call out the stock brokers for misleading us?? I think you are being harsh because Realtors are an easy target.. no one misleads their clients knowingly !! People make their own decisions, so putting the blame on others's shoulders is the easy way out. If your friends bought real estate for a long term investment, the current loss will become a gain many folds in the next 5-10 years.
Looks like people like yourself just want to pick a fight....I am an expert in Windemere, thats why I have sold nearly $15million in volume just in WIndemere alone,in 2008.If you choose to bash people because you don't want to hear the truth, or you are just looking for a scapegoat, then I am sorry- cannot help you. Once you miss the boat, one year from now, you will change your tune.
Yes, you are right people who didn't bought in April , 2008 following your advice about the bottom missed the bus but save at least 50-70K for themselves in bad times. I do agree with you that it is better right now compared to what it was in April , 2008.
No Market can be stable unless the fundamentals behind that is stable . With Double digit unempoyment ,mounting layoff and all time low Stock market ,it is hard to imagine how windermere can remain immune . At least Builders are not seeing it that way otherwise they wouldn't be offering so many incentives.
I agree with you about the unemployment and layoffs. WIndemere is not immune but it has a USP- people WANT to move here. Or else Windemere would have been in the same situation as Antioch or Brentwood or Oakland. Builders are giving incentives, because their MO is to get out of here. They have taken a severe beating at the hands of the market, like all of us have. For now things are stable but as I said earlier in my comments, I am not a clairvoyant, if the market tanks more, we will all go down with it.Tell me what would you say if you were a Realtor in the area who is getting beat out in multiple offers where people are bidding somewhat higher than asking, the inventory is down to less than 3 months- would you still call it a sinking market?
This post makes me laugh. I think your short-sighted and self-serving analysis speaks of your "expertise". Realtors like you mislead buyers and created this mess in the first place. I would like to learn what makes you an expert in this field.
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Hi Rama,
You are really well known and your blogs are very informative . What are you seeing differently this time compared to what you saw in April , 2008 . In One of your Blog in 4/24/2008 you claimed San Ramon Real estate seems to have reached bottom at that time. Would be good to know yours thoughts , Hope you are correct this time .
http://activerain.com/blogsview/483688/Interesting-facts-and-figures-for-San-Ramon
Regards