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By Steve Levine,?President of Steve Levine Inc and an agent at RE/MAX Prestige

Steve Levine, President of Steve Levine Inc and an agent at RE/MAX Prestige. 508-735-4663

If you'se been keeping up with my articles the last few months, you'sl remember that the three big keywords for spring and summer have been inventory, inventory, and inventory. The huge imbalance between buyers and sellers has created one of the oddest markets I'se seen in my 25-plus years selling homes here in this area. Right in the middle of a supposed recession, we were seeing actual bidding wars on the best of the new listings just as they hit the market. This wasn's limited to only the young, perfect, cream-puff colonials, but rather spread to even the below average homes, as long as they were priced properly.

By the end of the summer and beginning of fall, we were seeing spikes in prices across the board, with some homes selling for 20-30K more than they were actually “worth” on paper based on the recent comparable sales. Now with things getting ready to quiet down for the winter, we probably have just about another six weeks of decent sales before folks start to hibernate again, so for homeowners thinking of selling now is the time to be getting ready to go – before the snow hits.

This is the time when we should be doing our “premarketing work,” which as I'se said in previous articles has been the best money-maker ever. By getting in early, rather than rushing a home onto the market, we can look towards making any minor improvements that will ultimately return five times their cost. While we'se doing pre-marketing, it's also a great time to get out and do a photo shoot on the property before the leaves fall off the trees, and use those photos to prepare the video tour.? Even if we don's use it for a few months, having nice pics like that will be a huge asset when there isn's a leaf on a tree anywhere out there and we have the only photos with some green in them.

As we get closer to the presidential elections in November, you just never know what the real estate market will look like. My guess is that we'sl still see a lot of pent up demand from the buyers out there, who are rightly concerned that the post election economy may see large spikes in interest rates which will impact their ability to get a mortgage on a home.

There is talk among the different presidential candidates that has caused many to believe that once again we may see an attack on the MID, or mortgage interest deduction, as both parties try to find ways to reduce the deficit.? Additionally, there is pressure from some to actually raise rates substantially, based on their assumption (which I don's necessarily agree with) that whether rates are 3% or 5% isn's going to matter to the consumers, but that millions of seniors who had counted on their interest income to live are being devastated by the inability to get a decent CD rate over 1%.

Whichever way things head, the one thing we know for sure is that for some this may be the very best time in the market, since winter is usually quiet, spring doesn's really start up until April or May, and that even though there are often more Buyers in the spring there are many, many more listings. As such, a fall market often favors the Sellers more than the spring. By the way, I still have a few slots left in that fall Homeowners Blend program that I mentioned, for those who were looking to make a little extra money off the sale. Those will be available through the end of October, and then we'sl put them away for the winter, so if you are thinking of selling and want one of those few slots, give me a buzz or send over an email and I'sl save it for you. Have a great fall everyone!

Steve Levine is President of Steve Levine Inc. and an agent for RE/MAX Prestige.? He has been ranked as one of the top 100 Agents in the World, and can be reached by email to [email protected] or at 508-735-HOME (4663).

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