Freshening Up Your Home and Real Estate Market Insights

Ever wondered if your home’s scent could make or break a sale? On this episode of the Plain English Real Estate Show, we kick things off with a hilarious story about a Febreze mishap in the studio. You’ll laugh and learn why strong scents might not be your best friend when trying to impress potential buyers. We then dive into some creative alternatives for freshening up your home naturally, like using citrus fruits and a microwave cleaning hack with lemon or lime slices. Plus, we tackle listeners George and Sam’s concerns about the stress of moving, offering practical tips and highlighting the benefits of air purifiers over artificial air fresheners.

Breathe easy, quite literally, as we explore the importance of indoor air quality, especially for those with respiratory conditions like COPD. Hear the inspiring story of a woman who saw significant health improvements after investing in a larger air purifier. Alongside this, we discuss the challenges of maintaining comfort during warmer weather and provide solutions like blackout curtains and ceiling fans. The conversation then shifts to examining the real estate landscape in Asheville and Buncombe County, shedding light on current trends, increased inventory, and the impact of economic cycles on home prices.

Thinking about selling your home? Now might be the perfect time. We discuss the pressing need to sell before a market correction leads to further price drops, and how downsizing can be both financially and emotionally rewarding. For those navigating the real estate market in Buncombe County and beyond, we offer personalized support services—from packing to storage—aimed at making your move as smooth as possible. We wrap up with a look at regional market trends, emphasizing the importance of working with experienced real estate agents to secure the best deals. Tune in to equip yourself with the knowledge and confidence to make informed real estate decisions!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

This is the Plain English Real Estate Show with your host, rowena Patton, a show that focuses on the real estate market in terms you can easily understand. Call Rowena now. The number is 240-9962 or 1-800-570-9962. Now here's the English girl in the mountains, the agent that I would trust, rowena Patton.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Good morning and welcome to the show. This Rowena Patton. Good morning and welcome to the show. This is Rowena Patton. We had a little Febreze debacle in our studio this morning, or over the weekend, or last weekend or something, we're not really sure, and I'm deadly allergic to it.

Speaker 2: 0:41

I saw that, I witnessed that we're gonna have some funny breathing going on today, because we can't we can't really dip into another studio that quickly. So if I sound like I'm about to expire, that's why just thought I'd warn you all there. So, actually, a lot of people are allergic to the plugins, and you'll know I'm talking about. You know, especially when you're selling your house, often you're putting these plugins in and many of them have got the fake oils in which a lot of people are allergic to Heck. A lot of people are allergic to just scents. You know whether it's perfumes. You know how some people will go and eat in a restaurant and there's somebody sitting next door with a lot of perfume on and it just puts you off your meal. That kind of thing. A lot of people have those allergies.

Speaker 2: 1:29

Um, for some reason, those uh air freshener ones I'm particularly susceptible to. However, so are a lot of people who are going to come and see your home, and obviously we're in peak selling season right now. So be really careful, putting those air fresheners out first of all. It looks like you're trying to hide some of the smell. So, um, yeah, no, you, you really uh, just just leave them out, just open your windows and air it out a little bit really doesn't help, if you really, you know, maybe get some oranges on sale, you know, or lemons on sale and put them down your waste disposal or something like that. Or what I used to do is take a pot of hot water and chop them up and put them in that and just boil them up a little bit Makes it smell really nice. Or you can even put them in the microwave. In fact, here's another little tip, household tip If you take half a lemon or a lime, and not even half, just a slice, you know, those hard ones you've got in your fridge because you've never got around to using them, yeah, ones you've got in your fridge because you've never got around to using them, those ones, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah, I'm going to have those limes because I want to make those fancy cocktails and then they just sit in there, those ones. So go ahead and take those and slice them, not too hard. If they're too hard, just leave them whole. Put them in a bowl of water or a cup of water in the microwave, set it on for a minute or two and then you'll find everything just wipes off the inside of your microwave. It's amazing and it smells really good too, and if you don't want to use the lime for anything else, just put a drop of dish soap in there. You don't really don't have to do that, though. It's amazing. The hot steam will clean everything in your microwave and then, of course, you won't have any soap or anything else in it too. It's really nice, really worthwhile doing.

Speaker 2: 3:07

We've had a couple of callers this week and I want to apologize, so I'm doing all these market reports that I'm putting out there on YouTube. You can see them on YouTube at realestatenewsradiocom, or you can click on the YouTube link at realestatenewsradiocom. I made a landing page for you so you can find all these links that we talk about. You can find all the old, old, old podcasts on there, too, or look at the topics that you're interested in on there. So, and on YouTube, we have this channel of all the market reports that we're doing. We're doing them for all around the country. We can do a zip code anywhere in the country to 30 points of data. So both George and Sam so we've got George who lives in Asheville and we've got Sam who lives in Hendersonville. I'm both kind of a little nervous. I got comments from them on the channel and then I reached out to them and we we recorded a little chit chat with them earlier on. So can we play George Randy awesome hi Ro George here.

Speaker 1: 4:17

I couldn't sleep last night and was scrolling through your videos on YouTube. I found the market reports and heard the one about price drops breaking records. I thought we were protected in Asheville. I want to sell. However, I'm overwhelmed at the thought of packing up and moving.

Speaker 2: 4:32

Oh, george, it's okay. No, you know what. I really get it because I've moved a number of times myself. Randa, you just moved. How overwhelming is that.

Speaker 2: 4:41

Jeez, I don't know where the last month has gone in my life just now beginning to feel back to normal and I know I've promised to help you, but you're killing me with all these air fresheners here, so once I can breathe again, I might be able to to come and help you I don't have those at my house oh, thank goodness you don't have those plugins sticky things nope, nope nope, oh, and people love them and and I get why.

Speaker 2: 5:04

You know it gives this nice you can buy very inexpensive. Oh, here's a quick tip. Actually they have them on. I need to start putting these links for you on realestatenewsradiocom so you can find the links On Amazon. Right now they have all kinds of sales on air purifiers and they're inexpensive and they're about the size of a little portable speaker right now and you can get them for about 25 bucks, 29 bucks, something like that, but most of them now have a little section in them for putting air freshener. So what you can do then is get the organic, all-natural oils. They're're very inexpensive For like $10, you can buy three or four of them and put something natural in there, not something that smells like your traditional air freshener, like no pine, nothing like that. Citrus is very nice, especially in the summer.

Speaker 3: 5:56

Lavender in the bedroom.

Speaker 2: 5:57

Lavender, there you go. That would be nice.

Speaker 3: 6:00

Sleep-inducing yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:01

But make sure that you use the natural ones and make sure you're not allergic to them too. But these air purifiers have a little portion to put the oil on, so not only do they purify your air.

Speaker 3: 6:11

By your bedside, breathing clean air all night. It's been yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:15

So I actually ordered two and I'll let you know how it goes. Cool, and this is obviously great if you're selling your house again. It can really rid it off those musty smells. I didn't realize it got rid of the mustiness too. That's even without the scent. But I met somebody the other night who said that, um, you know, their, their mother-in-law, had actually copd and was struggling with, with, you know, obviously struggling at this time of year with breathing, with, with the heat and everything else. It's like me right now. Oh my gosh, maybe she's got too much air freshener in there too, but she bought one of these bigger machines and has literally gone from being not being able to walk around with no energy to the opposite. I mean, isn't that amazing? And she notices the difference overnight. She also notices if she stops using it and this is from a good friend who's? It's their mother-in-law. They're not, you know, selling on Instagram or something. So I thought that was very interesting.

Speaker 3: 7:15

The indoor air quality is becoming more and more on our minds, and it should be in the building industry and homes and offices Indoor air quality matters.

Speaker 2: 7:21

And if you're selling your home, obviously you know you can take them with you. That's the great thing but now it's going to make it feel much cleaner and we might just get addicted to them. I was kind of shocked when I started reading reviews on machines like oh, my life is totally different since I started using one of these, so that's a good thing you know to use as well to just clean everything up and make everything smell well, so smell well, smell well.

Speaker 2: 7:45

Smellwellcom. Oh, we have a new business idea. So back to George. He couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep last night either. Do you have that going on, Randy, when it gets warmer?

Speaker 3: 7:56

No, this new place I got it's got the darkest back bedroom with the curtains that I bought that really add to that. Block out, oh my gosh. And a ceiling fan. I'd forgotten how I miss a ceiling fan with a bedroom on low.

Speaker 2: 8:14

Yes.

Speaker 3: 8:15

And what a nice sleeping place that is.

Speaker 2: 8:18

And those are. So I put mine on low too and it just keeps it circling, because you can wake up in the middle of the night, even when you gone to bed cold, thinking oh it's getting hot, you know, for whatever reason. Because you know, if we're not 19, our body temperatures go a little nutty during the night maybe, I'm not sure. Back to george. See, this is this is why it's so great to record poor george, because he'd have to sit here on the back of the phone now listening, and you know we had so many problems with phones dropping because we're in the mountains and all that good stuff. So I love this and george was.

Speaker 3: 8:50

George hasn't had a good night's sleep. Remember.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Yeah, remember that yeah so he thought that we were protected in ashville. So they said this in 2007 too, when I got into real estate oh, nothing will happen in Asheville, and we went down over 30% in terms of the value. Now again, everybody around the country the agents around the country at least are saying oh, yeah, no, you know, it was different last time. Listen, there are cycles. You're all bored of me saying Clément Juglar, 1860, if you haven't heard it before. Clément Juglar,60 if you haven't heard it before.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Clément Juglar, french economist, 1860, set the economic cycle seven to eleven years. That means we'll be down at the bottom in three and a half to five and a half years, statistically at least. And we crested in this housing market. You'll know I've been telling you this over a year ago and now we've got five months straight uh, four months to five months straight at price drops. So that's so. George saw my video on price drops. We've broken records all around the country and I can give you a quick recap of the top top 10 markets in in the. Would that be helpful, Randy?

Speaker 3: 10:05

Yes.

Speaker 2: 10:06

So I'll definitely go through those in a second, when I have a chance to pull them up, but meanwhile, what does it look in Buncombe County? I'm going to pull those up for you. So Buncombe County, in terms of price cuts, is now at 27.5%, and these are up-to-date figures. Obviously, I'm giving you figures as they arrive. So what does that mean? It means that there are 1100 over 1100 homes for sale. First of all, that's remarkable. The inventory has really escalated and this is what happens, right. So we go up. Imagine a roller coaster, going up a hill Right, going up the. What do you call it when it's on the roller coaster tracks? Is that called?

Speaker 3: 10:47

a hill, the incline.

Speaker 2: 10:48

The incline. The roller coaster's going up the incline or up the roller coaster hill we're going to call it rollercoasterhillcom and it gets to the top and it's fairly flat along the top. You know, it bumps up and down just a little bit because it's got a creaky old wooden track. So it's bumping up and down just a little bit and we're all getting nervous and we're all getting nervous because we know where it's going next and we're all getting nervous and then eventually it starts going down. Well, we're in that starting going down piece and we've probably got it down a little bit further where we're all putting our arms in the air now and go, go on, randy, do it with me, it's you and everybody's taking pictures. And, oh my goodness. So 1,139 homes for sale in the county, 27.5% with price cuts. Now, why is that interesting? So, george, you're right, the average or the baseline, there's always some price cuts. Some people go well, the house isn't selling, or some. You know strong listing agents and I appreciate, I love all the strong listing agents that say to you listen, we haven't had any showings in a week or two, so we need to cut the price. That's what you need to do If you haven't had a showing in a week. Cut the price. We actually do a thing called the price SERP, where we drop the price a little bit. Be happy to talk to you about that. Um, it's, it's a very low amount and it works and it gets you out there. 828-333-4483. If you'd like to get listed, book a serp.

Speaker 2: 12:18

I'm going out on listing appointments every day now because, as you can see, so many houses are coming on the market, we're getting booked up very quickly and we need to get you on. At this point we're in june, for goodness sake. You know we're already at that time where more and more houses are coming on, you're getting more and more competition and it's not like, oh, we'll just wait till next spring. You can do that. However, with what's coming down the pike right here, it looks like we're gonna definitely be listing you lower in the spring, so maybe that's okay. You just don't want the stress and you know your weight, which is, which is fine. I'm all in support of you there. Um, you may be waiting because you feel like there's some things that you know, uh, need doing to your home. People are. We're still at relatively low inventory, even though we've got over 1100 homes on the market.

Speaker 2: 13:04

That's hard to say, isn't it? We still have less than usual and there are a lot of buyers out there, so it may be that you don't have to do anything. And, of course, we also have our full market value cash offer, where you can get money out in 14 to 90 days. It's really your choice of when you move out. It's a full market value cash offer. You don't have to do anything. We'll come in. We basically flip it for you.

Speaker 2: 13:29

Um, you get your check for the majority of your equity right away, and then we give you another check when we sell it, when we flip it for you and we give you the vast majority of the profit. Two-thirds of our sellers get more than with a traditional sale. And not only that. You don't have to go through showings. Nobody's coming. You're not getting all that feedback going. The dogs is smells of dogs in there, or I wish they hadn't painted it green. Yes, they really say things like that. You don't have to get the kids and the dogs and grumpy grandpa out or anything like that. You no showings at all and you're not losing any money by doing that. It's not one of these skeezy cash offers that is trying to buy you home cheap.

Speaker 2: 14:09

So, george, you're worried about being protected in Asheville. That's what I'm reading between the lines there. One is you're worried about being protected in Asheville. The second one is you're overwhelmed at the thought of packing and moving. I totally get that. We can delve into both of those, and any good agent and we certainly do will help you with all of that. I've been doing it here since 2007, which is why I have white hair. Now, is that what happened to you, randy? Is that your excuse?

Speaker 2: 14:38

Moving will cause premature graying it really will yeah because it's obviously premature, because we're only both 26. So no idea why all this is going on.

Speaker 3: 14:51

What is that about? Always inject that word premature.

Speaker 2: 14:54

Yeah right, premature, let's not premature, not premature. And the English girl in the mountains will say premature and okay. So buncombe, county 27.5 with price cuts. That is very telling. Price cuts are a leading indicator of um, what's to come, because people are starting to cut the prices. That's a lot of people. There's an average of six percent or you know, in a sort of normal amount, if you like. It's just like unemployment. There are always some people that are unemployed. That amount is about 6% too. That's perfectly normal. It doesn't get to 0%, it's just it wouldn't. It would be very odd if it did. We'd say probably a nuclear warhead hit or something, if we were at 0% across everything, whether it's unemployment, inflation, anything, you know. It might be minus, but usually but usually there's a number on it it's not at zero, but we're all the way up to that. 27.5. It is actually one of the highest in the area.

Speaker 2: 15:53

Although McDowell get this 39.4% price drops, that's actually higher than the top 10 in the country, because they haven't updated the top 10 in the country. It's really shocking. 39.4%, that's nearly 40%. What does that mean? That means of the 142 homes for sale in McDowell, which is a very small amount, but nonetheless, there are 142 homes for sale. Four out of 10 of those 56 of them have cut their price. That's a huge amount. Obviously, you know we're climbing towards half of the people cutting their price. So why are they doing that? A they want to get out. B they're having conversations with their agent and they're realizing that they're overpriced. This is how prices start to drop. And C, what is? C they want to get out. They're having conversations that they may be overpriced. C they're seeing all of the other people dropping their prices. So the fear starts to creep in.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Now, if you're selling, you may well be saying, well, I'm not fearful, I don't need to sell. That's fine. If you don't need to sell now, I want you to have the mindset where you hold out for seven to 10 years. So if you're 68 years old, you probably don't want to hold out. And that's what I'm hearing a lot. I'm hearing people in their late 50s, early 60s and later. A lot of the boomers out there are. Finally, you've all been holding on to your houses because primarily of that interest rate, that interest rates become a curse, I think. I mean, obviously it's lovely, you know it costs us less on our mortgages. However, it's stopping you moving. But, guys, most of you are in six, seven hundred thousand dollar million dollar houses because of all the equity you've built. You're spending a fortune heating and cooling it.

Speaker 2: 17:48

You've been talking about moving out for years, since your kids are now living in Maryland or Florida or wherever they're living and they're not coming home for the holidays. And now they've got families of their own, kids of their own, and they're in their 40s and 50s themselves. So if you don't get out now and this isn't some real estate agents wanting a commission check and trying to get you out of your house it's me talking to you like you're my parent or my grandparent. This is exactly what I would say to you, randy, it's what I said to you with your mom when we were helping you get her home sold. It's really, really important. So you know, randy was a couple of years ago and we knew that we were helping you get her home sold. It's really, really important. So you know, randy was a couple of years ago and we knew that we were coming into this phase.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Then we're four, five years overdue for a market correction. Remember, it's seven to 11 years. We're four, five years overdue and Randy came in that gray area, guys, we're not in the gray area now. You've got to listen to this. So let's see if I can actually yeah the straight.

Speaker 2: 18:48

So I'm going to see if it's going up and down for the price cut for Madison County. It goes up and down. Yeah, no, it really doesn't. It's almost a straight line. Why is that important? Because we're seeing a trend Sorry, it's that air freshener Randy's trying to kill me and he'll be carrying me out today, apparently in a box. So it's a straight line all of this year, with it going up and up and up with the price cuts. That's important because it's not just a little blip on the horizon where I don't know.

Speaker 2: 19:19

Maybe you know, inflation went through the roof or we got economic figures or something and people got scared. Once that little bit of fear catches hold, it's like embers in a forest fire. It starts burning. People say you know what that? You know 20, 30, 40 of those people want to get out. They know they don't want to keep hold of their house for 10 years until it's going to be worth, and it's more net, more than it's worth now. That's what happens in an economic cycle. We're fine, but I wouldn't want to hold on to my house for 10 years now wouldn't want to be felt trapped like that well, right, exactly because chances are.

Speaker 2: 19:57

So. Let's say you're in a 500 that. So for most of the boomers, like the average in buncombe county right now, the average in is six and over six hundred thousand dollars. Right, so six hundred thousand dollars. We're going to go down right to the bottom. Let's say we go down 10, which is likely to be more than that. So we're now worth 540 at the bottom. That's three to five years. We're worth 540. Let's say we go down 20, which is much more likely, and that a lot of economists are estimating about 25%, depending on whether your market shows as overvalued or not. Ours shows as extremely overvalued, by the way. So if we add another 10% to that, that's $120,000. So $600,000, $500,000, you're now down to $480,000. So if you're thinking about selling and I hear this all the time we'll try again next year, or wait a year, or wait a year For the next three to five years. You could go from average in Buncombe County 600.

Speaker 2: 21:00

And, by the way, so many of you are coming onto my website getting your price values and again, give us a call, 828-333-4483, or go to mountainhomehuntcom. Mountainhomehuntcom. Click on contact us. We'll give you a call back, 828-333-4483. You can leave a voicemail there. I'll give you a call back this afternoon about what your value is. Now, here's the thing I can give you six different values on your home and I will then hone in on that value when I come and see your home. However, I can give you a good idea now, but you are calling in and you've got a gut feel that your home is worth 400 because you've looked at this estimate or whatever, and I'm finding values at 600. I'm commonly finding you at 600. You're undervaluing the house you're in. Therefore, you're also undervaluing the price drop that you most likely will experience. So let me put that in simple terms Do you want to sell your house now at 600? Take that money.

Speaker 2: 22:01

And, by the way, a lot of you are also saying, yeah, but there's nothing on the market. We can't find something else to right-size into. You could right-size into a $300,000, $400,000 brand new house. Right now we can find you a brand new house in the 400s, which means you could put you know especially if you own it outright a couple of hundred thousand in your back pocket or put it in your pension, or take it and travel the world or buy a house for your kids who are in college. You know you use that as income. Use it as an income home, rent it out to your college kids and their friends can rent it too, and then you can sell it in four or five years time. Or, you know, maybe they're doing a postgraduate and you can keep it a bit longer and make some money on it.

Speaker 2: 22:47

But why, and not only that, you're not keeping up with this big house. I've got a friend right now in her 40s and she got divorced and she is fed up with keeping up the big house. She's like I'm outside all the time watering. I just put so I was thinking about selling and you know the landscape has put all this stuff in. I'm so tired.

Speaker 2: 23:03

She's in her 40s, you know, and um, very able, like she's perfectly able to do this, but doesn't want want to do it. She wants to travel, she wants to spend more time with her kids are grown up and at college. Now she's got one at home Like she wants to spend more time with her kids. That makes perfect sense. So pull your money out of your big dollar houses right now. The big dollar houses. You know, if you're in a 600, 700, 800, 900 million dollar and up. Those will always be the less protected in the downturn. Not only that, they take longer to sell in an upturn, because there's a very small portion of people. Now I happen to know George and I happen to know he's at that 700,000 dollar mark and he's on his own now, sadly George, I'm sending you big hugs and I'm going to help you through this and he really wants to move into a condo or a townhouse. He doesn't mind those monthly fees. And, by the way, if you've got monthly fees of 200 a month, I've got people saying, oh, I don't want to pay those monthly fees of 200 a month. That's terrible.

Speaker 2: 24:04

Most of that is covering the insurance. When you live in a home, you're covering the insurance, not only a home, you're covering the insurance. Not only that, you're covering the maintenance of the exterior. How many of you are painting the outsides of your homes right now or doing the landscaping? I've just left some people taking weed trees out of my tiny little front yard right now. So you've got all that money going out. When, when you own a single family home, when you move into a town and, by the way, townhomes sometimes don't have anybody next door or you're just joined by the garage. Literally it can look like a single-family home, but still be classified as a townhome or a condo. Did you know that, randy?

Speaker 3: 24:41

No, I didn't.

Speaker 2: 24:42

Yeah, so you can feel like you're in a single-family home, but you're having all the outside taken care of. Does that cost money? Yes, does it cost you money now? Yes, especially if you if you're not 19 and you're in your 40s or up and you don't feel like a you want to do it anymore, or you just want to get out and do it when you want to do it. That's the difference, because you can still get out and tweak things.

Speaker 2: 25:03

Nobody's stopping you well, most cases stopping you planting the odd things or having beautiful pots or whatever it is at your townhouse or your condo. Think about those beautiful pots with herbs in and things that you can have. I just actually made a big galvanized, corrugated part of the front of my house to border off my little parking lot or parking, two parking spaces. I bought one of those big galvanized tubs for $40, eight foot long, two foot high, because I didn't have any soil to plant in, and I planted some laurel bushes in there to give me some privacy and lots of flowers at the bottom. It's really pretty, but now I just want to maintain that, nothing else. I wish I lived in a place where somebody would come and maintain it. You know it'd be awesome. So, yes, you may be.

Speaker 2: 25:47

So, george, I'm talking to you. You may be so, george, I'm talking to you. You may be moving out and paying that two hundred dollars a month, but now you don't have to pay insurance, right or not? That kind of insurance that you're paying, because that's covered by the HOA. For all the exterior. You've got your contents insurance, but that's much less and you don't have to think about bothering with the exterior. I think sometimes we're worried about giving up this previous life. You know this previous life where what are you smiling at, randy?

Speaker 3: 26:17

that's so true. That's so true. Uh, you know you, you you raised the kids there and all that and uh, but let me tell you just move, just go, just go, leave that stuff.

Speaker 2: 26:30

Yes, right, you just experienced this, my goodness.

Speaker 3: 26:33

Yeah, and no need to hang on to stuff that's been in the attic for 15 years.

Speaker 2: 26:39

How much did you get rid of? Because I know you put it again in your last attic.

Speaker 3: 26:43

I got tons of it. You know I have access to a couple of dumpsters. You know asking forgiveness rather than permission.

Speaker 2: 26:54

We won't talk about the fact that they're at the radio station.

Speaker 3: 26:57

And that 1-800-GOT-JUNK thing. Yes, oh, that's fantastic.

Speaker 2: 27:02

And of course, it all costs you money. I realize that. But, guys, most of you, the very few of you out there in Buncombe County or, frankly, anywhere in the country, if you're listening around the country because this is happening to you everywhere Call in 828-333-4483 to our people standing by and in the next few days, if not this afternoon, I will have your zip code with 30 data points. It can be anywhere in the country. It's really fascinating, and the reason I do that is because often you're moving from somewhere else to come here. So if you're moving from San Jose, I'd better be able to tell you what's going in in San Jose, or at least an idea in your price point and what that looks like. So most of you here are at that 400. In fact, in Asheville you're something like 620 right now. So chances are you own it outright or maybe you've got a $200,000 mortgage. But that means so for George, for example. Good job, I hope people don't recognize your voice from earlier. George, he does own his place outright. He's going to pull out $600,000. I can get him in a beautiful townhome brand new townhome. That's what we're looking at, and it's a three bedroom, two bath, absolutely gorgeous. That's what we're looking at and it's a three-bedroom, two-bath, absolutely gorgeous screened-in porch on the back. Less than $200 a month in HOA fees. He doesn't have to take care of anything anymore. He's got a little grassy patch. He's got a little doggie. I got a little doggie too. He's got a little grassy patch at the back. Also, he's got a door off the master bedroom. In most of those plans he can just open the door in the morning and let his little doggy out, as long as the little doggy doesn't run off onto that little grassy patch. What an easier life instead of this home. That will be just great for a new family coming in or an individual that wants a whole lot of space in five bedrooms.

Speaker 2: 28:59

I'm not steering. That's called steering. I'm not saying it should be a family home or anything like that. I'm just saying it's got five bedrooms and it's on almost an acre some flat land, some sloping land, but that you know that that's for a lot of people and with a lot of people in that younger bracket or somebody that's much more active maybe you're really active in your 60s Great and you've got a whole bunch of grandkids living with you, maybe. Whatever the situation is, it's whatever that home. You know, however, that home suits you better.

Speaker 2: 29:31

So, george, I'm going to help you get out of there, because, guess what, when you can put $600,000, even if you can put $100,000 in your pocket and again give us a call, I've got people standing by to take your call. You can leave a message. They'll get it through to me. Just leave your address. I'm going to get you a full market value and, if you want it, I'll get a full market cash offer for you too, because, by the way, whatever your value is, I can write an offer on it In most cases, as long as you qualify. So I'll do both. I'll get a value for it. Of course, we can list it the old-fashioned way too. No worries with that. But even if you've got $100,000 in your pocket, that's going to come as equity. I have teams that will work for you to pack everything up and put it in storage, and they will wait until you've got that money to you. Know you've got 100 grand in your pocket. Got that money to you. Know you've got a hundred grand in your pocket.

Speaker 2: 30:24

Even if we take 2,000 of that and have somebody, even if we take five, maybe you have been a hoarder and you've got a 3,000, 5,000 square foot house that is full of stuff and I'm not talking about you, george, I know your house is beautiful, but maybe you're in this big house that is absolutely jam-packed to the girls. You've got parents that are in that situation and you're wondering what on earth am I going to do to help my parents out of this? And sometimes the parents are going. I didn't want to leave you all this mess. You know I wanted to get it all sorted out before I'm not around anymore and get everything cleaned out for you. We can do that because you don't have to pay until you get that most of the equity out, and what that will do is we'll get some quotes for you. We're not trying to take your money, we're just trying to find that money for you. If you don't have it to pay out To do the cleanup, to do the pack up to.

Speaker 2: 31:14

Honestly, sometimes it's just hold. For me it's a hold your hand thing. I need somebody there to give me moral support and it's that moral support when, amy, I'm going to give you a shout out here, my beautiful friend is probably still at the beach. She got into real estate with me many years ago. She's just the most amazing lady. She gives me moral support when I need it. I give it to her too. She's in the process of selling her house right now. I guess I've got to do some payback on that moral support she gave me.

Speaker 2: 31:45

And sometimes it's just, you know, do you really need this piece of clothing? And going through the closet one day? And then the next weekend, or you know one night, getting a bottle of wine and a pizza, and going through you know six boxes that you haven't opened in 10 years, or just put them out in the dumpster because you obviously don't use them or haven't been through them, or just yeah, randy's sticking his thumb up there. So we can take $1,000, $3,000, $5,000, whatever it takes to move you and you don't have to pay out that money. We can get you in assisted living, if you need to go in an assisted living facility, we. If you need to go to an assisted living facility, we.

Speaker 2: 32:24

If you're getting a divorce, we can get you out into a new place so you're not surrounded by all of those memories and you don't have to pay out that money, wouldn't you like that? Like you don't have to fix anything, you don't have to pay for movers. We can get you that money out upfront, so, and get you some quotes on the movers and help you with all of that. You can get people to hold your hand to go through stuff or that will go through stuff for you, or estate sale people that will sell it off for you. It's just a case of getting it all organized and I promise we help with that. That's what you know our programs are all about. Any great agent will do it. Not many do, honestly, because you know they want to put a lockbox on and sign outside, get it sold and take the commission check, which is fine. That's just straightforward, old-fashioned real estate. We are full service. We're full service agents. All Star Powerhouse. You can give us a call at 828-333-4483. Whether you're buying or selling home, this is Rowena Patton, all Star Powerhouse, brokered by EXP.

Speaker 2: 33:19

So, george, you couldn't sleep last night. You were scrolling through the videos. You're getting nervous about pricing. I am going to come in and see you next week. We're going to write the plan down. I'm going to help you with that plan. I'm going to call you if I have to come back every couple of days and help you with that plan and put people in place like the packers for you that will pack up the boxes, like the movers that will move your stuff out that the hotel room for a couple of nights, so you can just relax somewhere lovely, maybe you want to go and see the kids for a couple of days. We're going to take care of all of that for you, get you in your new place and then we're going to domino basically that's what we call it getting you into your new place. All your stuff's going to be in there and at the same time you're going to get your check. So you don't have to worry about making an offer that's contingent or anything like that. I've got the full strategy for you. So I'm going to come see you next week and we'll go through all of that.

Speaker 2: 34:15

So quick recap for those of you that just tuned in George called in and he's nervous cat. For those of you that just tuned in George called in and he's nervous. He lives in Asheville. I've met him before. He's got a house around the $600,000 mark. It's got four. Now I'm not remembering if he's got four or five bedrooms, four or five bedrooms, but it's a big old home. It's just him in the home. He's had stuff there for 20 years. He's definitely not a hoarder. It's a beautiful home. His home will go very quickly. And he's definitely not a hoarder. It's a beautiful home, his home will go very quickly. And he's worried about finding something else.

Speaker 2: 34:45

But we have all these new homes being built and I'm going to show him how to get into a new home while, at the same time, not have any worry about making a contingent offer about the new home or anything else. We're going to concertina it all together. Um, I'm I have a. I have teams of people that uh, whereby he doesn't have to put the money out now to get help with packing, to get help with the estate sales, to make some money on the stuff in his house because he doesn't need most of it. He actually wants to buy all new furniture as well. I love that.

Speaker 2: 35:16

So let's be realistic. It's going to take if you want nice furniture, it's going to take at least ten thousand dollars to furnish entirely his new place. It's going to take, if you want nice furniture, it's going to take at least $10,000 to furnish entirely his new place. I'm going to help him with that too. I'm going to make him a wish list on Amazon I'm already working on that with him where we can just have everything arrive into the new house. We've also got a bunch of local places we go and shop at as well, when they can get it in quickly enough. And he's got an HOA fee of about 160 a month. That's good. It's more like a single home where he's going. It does have a garage. It's only connected to the next door by a garage. It's absolutely brand new and he's going to put about 250. He's going to own his new home outright. He he's going to put about 250 to $300,000 in his pocket. So, george, I know you're stressed, but when you think about that, 250 to 300 in your pocket and now you don't have to worry about selling this aging house anymore.

Speaker 2: 36:16

The house was built in the eighties. It's not aging out, but it definitely needs a little bit of love. Built in the 80s. It's not aging out, but it definitely needs a little bit of love. We definitely need to right size on all the stuff in there. You know the kids need to come and get their stuff as well. We need to take the borders down, but we are going to take all care of all of that.

Speaker 2: 36:33

George, you're going to move into your new place. I mean, did I make it sound easy? That's how it should be when you're moving, and I don't want George stressing over it and not sleeping. And he's right, because when I'm going through the figures in Buncombe County alone, we're looking at 27.5% of the latest figures 314 of those 1,139 listings have taken a price cut, and that has been three to four months straight. At this point. It's a trend, guys, and your agents are seeing that trend. Even the local agents are talking about it now.

Speaker 2: 37:10

So we're going to see a little bit of downward pressure on pricing right now. The time we're really going to see that downward pressure is September, october. So why is that? The houses that are dropping their prices are going to be the ones that sell. Right, and if it sells in two weeks, if it's, let's say, it sells in a month, where are we at now, june 22nd? So that means we, uh, we go into contract, say and we know we we get. We've got people looking at your house Now you did a price drop. Finally they're looking at it. We've got people looking at your house now you did a price drop, finally they're looking at it. We negotiate back and forward. Finally, we go into contract July 22nd.

Speaker 2: 37:50

I'm going to keep running these scenarios for you every week. Because it's important now, because we're at this peak selling season. It's important if you're a buyer too, because you've got to watch what's going on with the market. There's a lot of buyers holding out right now because they're seeing these price drops happen. So what does that do? It actually depletes the demand. Sellers are getting a little bit more nervous. Obviously and it's not just me coming up with this If you've got 27.5% of people doing price drops instead of the more usual 6%, that's obviously a big increase, a very dramatic increase. What is that? Fourfold 612? It's over fourfold increase. So you know, people are getting a little bit nervous, which is depleting the demand while at the same time, increasing the supply. That's going to help price drops too, or that's going to put downward pressure on pricing.

Speaker 2: 38:42

So, put on top of that, where were we at July 22nd? It's going to take about six weeks for that to roll through. So July 22nd, august 22nd, early September. So I keep saying September and October is the magic point. It's also when kids go back to school, when I call it it the September shoulder, when things go a bit quieter in real estate anyway. On top of that, you're gonna see those houses that are doing the price cuts now closing and they're gonna close at a lower price point. Why is that important? That then means that when you go to sell your house and an appraisal is done, those are appraisal prices are going to come in lower because appraisers look at comparables. They look at what's closed, usually on the MLS, the multiple listing service, and those houses that I just talked about that have been doing price drops all summer have finally closed and those are the comparables they're using. So that's when the major downward pressure is coming in, which is even more difficult because it's coming in September, october and what's happening in November.

Speaker 3: 39:44

The election.

Speaker 2: 39:45

The election is happening. Election always puts almost a moratorium on the real estate market because everybody's nervous. Not only that. Then what are we coming into the winter? The winter quietens down almost always the real estate market. So, guys, get it sold. It's all I can say to you. Really, you know, I know.

Speaker 2: 40:07

So, george, I'll speak to you. I know you couldn't sleep. I'm coming in to see you and we're going to. We've already got the plan down. We're going to go through the plan. I don't want you to worry about the whole plan. I just want you to worry about, or not even worry about. I want you to let me help you. Well, freudian, slip there. I want you to let me help you with step one. It's just the first domino. What have you got to lose?

Speaker 2: 40:33

Let's look at what offer you can get. In your case, I think it looks like it would be a really good idea to take the full market value cash offer. You'll get the majority of the equity. We'll use a little bit of that equity to spruce up the house, to move you out, to get the packers in. So you know you're house rich and cash poor. I don't want you to have to dig into your savings to do all this nonsense. You can, if you want to, obviously, and then we can get you into your new place, spruce up your place, get it sold and make even more money. So I've looked at it already and if you sold it as is today, you know, if we put you on the market and we got a sold, we'd probably list it at 600 and you'd probably end up with 580. That's the other thing that's happening. We're not getting these multiple offers anymore. We might have somebody come in.

Speaker 2: 41:23

Here's the most likely scenario for George, and I want you all to understand this how it happens If you've got a house that isn't perfect, we put it on the market at 600 or 599. And someone comes in and they put an offer in at 600. That's really great. And then if it's an old fashioned listing which most of the time it wouldn't be with me, which means you haven't had at least the inspection the buyers are going to do the inspection, they're going to come back with an average of 50 items on the inspection report and then they're going to ask you for about $15,000 to $25,000 off the price. Now the time's ticking, as you're under contract and when a market starts going down and the velocity gets higher, it gets faster. Then you know, as it sits, as it sits, as it sits, if we have to put it back on the market again because the buyers pull out, you're going to make less money. So, as you're going in a down market, even if they ask you for a small percentage off, you know if they ask you for 15 off, most agents are going to say take it. In fact, most agents aren't going to want to do the work again.

Speaker 2: 42:30

That's not me. I will list it all for you again, but I'll advise you against it because then you get a stigmatized listing. So why are those buyers pulling out? Because you're on to your home and you're going. I ain't giving them 15,000.

Speaker 2: 42:42

I moved into this with X, y, z and it's been fine ever since. In a declining market you want to take it. That's the other reason for the declining prices, right? So chances are and I know you're fighting me sitting at home right now saying I wouldn't take it, I just hold out for my price just know I've sold over 3,500 homes in this market. That's a lot. All over the mountains, whether it's Waynesville or Weaverville or Hendersonville, out to Black Mountain and even further around. That's a lot of homes and this has been my experience in the up market, down market, in between and everything else, I'll always get you the most money for your market. I'm just telling it as it is.

Speaker 2: 43:24

So at that, 600, they come in, they do the inspection. You're now taking 585, right, because you're like, okay, they want 25, we'll give them 15. Because they found now what are material facts on your home. What does that mean? Material facts are things that we now have to disclose. You can do non-disclosure as a client, but there's a little box that you check on your property disclosure that says that you're not disclosing. What on earth is that going to say to a buyer? If you're not disclosing, it's going to're hiding something. Right you, perfectly within your means to do that. What would you think, randy, if you were a buyer and you saw on that disclosure sheet that that these things weren't disclosed? What? What would go on in your mind?

Speaker 3: 44:14

it's an automatic suspicion, yeah automatic yeah, must be something wrong, right?

Speaker 2: 44:19

I would think that there must be something wrong with this.

Speaker 2: 44:21

It's normal nature, yeah so you so, and you're supposed to disclose those up front. And there's a lot of you out there going on. I'm just not going to disclose that and you sometimes your agents, are newer and aren't even saying that. You wouldn't believe the questions I get from agents that don't have any experiences. It's really quite shocking. So listen, if you are selling your market and I really mean this, whether it's me or anybody else I'm at 3,500 home sales. I do an awful lot of marketing. We've had a radio show for 12 years. I know the figures inside and out and we do massive amounts of marketing for you. I wrote a bestseller on selling homes. I've got different programs for you that nobody else in the market has a full market value cash offer. Now am I going to push you into that? Absolutely not. Let's sell your house on the open market. If you want to, no worries. But I also will bring you that full market value cash offer and show you how it works.

Speaker 2: 45:15

If you are thinking of selling your home, use someone with experience. Don't be bullied into, I don't know, using your friend who just got their real estate license. This is not the time to do that. Your friend can make money by getting some experience. Hey, have your friend come join the team. I'll teach them a whole lot of things about real estate and they can leave and build their own team in a year if they want to, and I'll teach them how to list homes. Talk to at least a dozen you know number one agents in this market. I've taught the top 10% in this market agents and I always wish them well. And you know a lot of people want to go off and build on their own and that's just fine and I'll always help them. So if your friend has that license, tell them to come join me In a year's time. I'll get them to the level where they're. They're amazing listing agents and and know most of it inside and out. But don't risk it at this point. Choose somebody with experience 828-333-4483.

Speaker 2: 46:12

We've got people standing by 24 7. If you do a late shift, maybe listening to this podcast um, this is a live radio show. Right now it's syndicated. Um, you can Fox. You can hear it all over the country or actually anywhere in the world. However, if you're listening on the podcast, which you can find all the previous episodes at realestatenewsradiocom, we have people standing by 24-7, 828-333-4483. Ever heard people say the real estate agent doesn't pick up the phone. We have people standing by 24-7. And even if your agent on our team is out, we can take care of that because we have people looking all the time making sure that you're attended to or people to help you in the background. So now you're taking $585,000 in a traditional sale when we could have got you out now with more money than that, basically, and I can show you how we can do that. So that's at $600,000, george doing his as-is home, you can clean it $600,000 and he's you know as-is, we haven't done anything.

Speaker 2: 47:22

He's going to take $ or 20 less. I know that George's house with a new coat of paint inside, which is going to cost us. Let's say it's a big house, so let's say it costs us 5,000. It needs some deck repairs that are going to cost us about 3,000. And I'd like to do the countertops. I know outrageous, right, they're going to cost us 5,000. I'd like to do the countertops. I know outrageous, right, they're going to cost us $5,000. I'm going to paint the cabinets, which is going to cost us about $3,000 to do it properly and put new hardware on. So we're at eight plus eight, we're at $16,000. I can spend $16,000. And that I know because I've looked at the comparables. That will put his home at comparables at $650. Comparables that will put his home at comparables at 650.

Speaker 2: 48:05

Someone's not going to pay 650 when it's got what looks like an old-fashioned kitchen and it's got Formica countertops and they don't. Most people don't want to go in and have that hassle, but they will do a mortgage of 400,000 and put 200 down or something like that, or do a full mortgage for the 650, especially in a home of that size. Heck it might be. We can even get a little bit more than 650. And we can borrow the money to spend that. And, george, I know you're all worried again. You're not going to sleep tonight. But no, we're doing a traditional sale. That's how the cash offer works and I think this is the one for you. We're going to give you the money out and then we're going to give you all the profit when we sell it at 650, and it's going to sell faster and it's not going to sit. However, meanwhile we've got you into your.

Speaker 2: 48:52

You want something with low or no maintenance. We're looking at condos and townhomes where actually you prefer a townhome single level with a garage that's only attached on the garage side, so you're never going to hear your next door neighbors, but it makes it cheaper to build. So you're saving on that. We're paying about $375 on that. So you know you're going to have a lot of money left over. You're going to have $225. We need to take some costs out of that. Let's say you've got two hundred thousand dollars that you're going to put in your pocket and then, when we sell it for that extra 50, we're going to bring you some more.

Speaker 2: 49:28

But the main thing is we get you into a new house. We've got the money, um, you know, because we've got the money out quickly, we've got the money to pay for the movers, to do all the other things we need to do to get you in there sounds. Just have me come and sit with you. I will draw you the plan out. I'll find the people to do it for you. You don't have to lift a finger if you don't want to. That's the cool thing in there. Oh my gosh, randy, how did we get through? We got through a whole hour almost Really Helping George.

Speaker 3: 49:56

Yes.

Speaker 2: 49:58

Can we do, can we play Sam and I'm going to roll up with Sam. So Sam is from Hendersonville and she thinks that Hendersonville is doing an awful lot better than Buncombe County. So I'd like to have a quick go through the figures there.

Speaker 4: 50:16

Hey Sam, hey Ro, Love your show. We are all watching the news, which seems to be constantly, about what's happening with houses. I live in Hendersonville, which is doing better than Asheville. Right, it's Sam, by the way. I'm putting the finishing touches on my house and then I will be calling you. Thanks for keeping in touch with me these last eight years since Bob died. You're one of the good ones.

Speaker 2: 50:39

Aww, really, you know it's so funny. I mean, I've been working, I've been in real estate for 17 years here now I can't believe that back when I was 19 I started and there are literally people I've been working with for 17 years because I love figures and I love to keep you up to date on what the market is doing, and I'm not one of those agents that when you say, oh, I'm not ready for two years, I'm gonna run away. So give us a call, let's get the value now, even if you're not ready for two years. I can plan that strategy out for you as well. 828-333-4483. So let's have a look at the figures between Buncombe and Hendersonville. So and I'll throw in a bone for those of you in Haywood as well that's the three main counties. Heck, we'll do all of them. Buncombe County 27.5%. Henderson is 22.4%. So it's still one in five. 124 listings got a price cut just this month. That's a lot, guys, and we are again. It's on that same scale. All of the counties around us have been on a downward path now for the last four months in terms of price cuts.

Speaker 2: 51:46

Price cuts are important. If you're listening to this on the podcast, scoot back. If you just joined in, you'll have to go to realestatenewsradiocom to find the podcast and listen to all the different figures. Haywood County 23.6. Remember, about 6% is the norm. So Henderson is 22.4, just behind Buncombe which is 27.5. Listen to this. Mcdowell is 39.4. So not the 6% which is normal in terms of price cuts. 39.4, that's really high guys. The Yancey County to the north is only 11.1. Madison to the north is only 19.1,ison to the north is only 19.1, but still 19.1 is a lot more than six. You know, we're just comparing it to buncombe right now.

Speaker 2: 52:30

Hayward hey. So hayward is uh where waynesville is. For those of you listening around the country uh, 23.6 percent. So 23.6. Hayward and henderson are about the same, haywood's a little bit lower. They've got 72 listings with price cuts. Mcdowell is really seeing the writing on the wall for some reason 39.4%. That's really high guys. That's some of the highest I'm seeing around the country where real estate is. I mean, I call it going in the toilet If you go south. By the way, if you're interested in south Transylvania so that is south west, I'm having to do my fingers here for those of you watching on YouTube. Geographically challenged Transylvania County 20%. Jackson County, to the west of that 16.5%, we go to Greenville it's 22.2. So I hope that helps. You know, pretty much around the country right now we are seeing a lot of price cuts. We're seeing a lot of inventory rise. If you're selling, get it sold now 828-333-4483. Thanks for listening.

Speaker 1: 53:35

This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at radioashvillecom or call her at 828-210-1648.