Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Unlocking Real Estate Success: CPO Listings, Market Trends, and Building Insights

August 17, 2024 • Rowena Patton

Share episode

Send us a text

Can you really close a home sale by Thanksgiving? Discover why certified pre-owned (CPO) listings might be your secret weapon. We start off with some fun banter about radio quirks and grocery store labels before diving into key insights that could transform your real estate strategy. From navigating price cuts to the advantages of CPO listings in Austin's 73301 and Sunset Valley's 78745 zip codes, you'll gain practical tips on leveraging pre-inspections and appraisals to secure that sale.

Next, we tackle the pressing issue of skyrocketing housing prices, from Austin, Texas, to Asheville, North Carolina. Housing affordability has become a critical concern, and we break down the numbers to show just how dramatic these price hikes have been. By comparing different neighborhoods, we highlight the growing challenges potential homeowners face amidst stagnant wages and rising costs. This discussion provides a sobering look at market trends and their implications for living conditions.

Finally, don't miss our chat with Joseph, a seasoned builder, as we dissect the financial complexities of constructing a new home. From the costs of wells and septic systems to the allure of homes with acreage, Joseph provides invaluable insights into the market for second residences and short-term rentals. We also explore strategic decisions for older homeowners contemplating whether to sell or hold onto their properties in a fluctuating market. Packed with historical data and practical advice, this episode is your roadmap to navigating the unpredictable real estate landscape.

Speaker 1:

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:

Good morning and welcome to the show. This is rowena patton in asheville, north carolina. You can listen anywhere in the country realestatenewsradiocom. Realestatenewsradiocom. Click on the link to listen live, because we like to be live. Well, you might be listening to the post podcast and then we're not live. I guess.

Speaker 3:

Does that mean we're dead, randy, we ain't dead yet, is the thing we always have a joke in radio I got to go do a live remote as opposed to a dead one. Yeah, really.

Speaker 2:

You know I love those descriptors. So what I love about them is when I go into a grocery store and it says fresh fish as opposed to stinky old fish or fresh meat. That's another way, instead of the rancid meats on the left. You know it's like OK, the best meat in town is always a good one.

Speaker 2:

Favorite grocery store uses and we're measuring that. How exactly Did they win more awards? Or Did the goats eat more stuff out of the yard? Best meat in town Is it cheaper? Does it taste better? Best meat in town I like things I can measure is all I'm saying.

Speaker 3:

You can't manage anything, you can't measure.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, exactly. There's no accountability, there's no consequences. Wow, we've got quite a show for you today, haven't we? We're going to look at some zip codes today Really exciting. If you would like to know what's going on in your market, you can give us a call Live on the show 800-570-9962. That's, 800-570-9962. 570-9962. Just remember the 800. I'm not very good at remembering phone. Do you remember? We used to remember everybody's phone number? Randy, I used to remember 100 people. I'm not very good at remembering phone. Do you remember we used to remember everybody's phone number? Randy, I used to remember 100 people. I'm not kidding. I was known as the phone directory in my first business throughout my 20s and I used to remember 100 phone numbers, and now I can barely remember my own. Same here. It's a cell phone thing, though it's not an aging thing. I think that's my story and I'm sticking to it right.

Speaker 3:

It's out of practice, man, we don't do it anymore.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, practice makes perfect right. So if you would like me to check on your zip code, I've already had a text in saying check on 73301. I don't know where that is, so tell me where they are. You can do it on the Facebook page or just give us a call, 800-570-9962. You can say that you're calling for a friend. It doesn't have to be your zip code. So the first one is 73301. Maybe you can win awards for where that is.

Speaker 2:

I think it's Texas, 3301. I sort of reckon, oh, it's Austin, that's why I recognise it. I've been to Austin probably 23 times. Okay, two, 73301, seven see, I've forgotten already 73301, it's okay. So the uh, seven, eight, I'm gonna, just for the heck of it, I'm going to do the second one on. There was 7, 8, 7, 4, 5, which is coming up, which is Sunset Valley. So I can give you all kinds of price points and or data points, excuse me, and give you like 30 data points on every zip code in the country. So think about what you want to know on it.

Speaker 2:

If you've been listening the last few weeks, I've been telling you what I like to do is look at price cuts. Why? Because if you list a house in most markets. This is the Northeast is a little bit protected right now. It's a little bit behind the curve of the rest of the country where most of us have crested already, however. So if you list a house tomorrow without CPO forget cash CPO but unless you certify pre-own it, you're going to get a check 67% of the time at Thanksgiving. It sounds really exciting, doesn't it? And you'll be really ticked off because 33% of the time your house has fallen out because you haven't pre-inspected it. So you all know about certified pre-owned. If you're just tuning in and maybe you're listening for the first time, you can go to cpoexpertscom. It's a network I've run around the country since 2007. So the other thing you can do is a cash cpo where you get a cash cpo offer and you don't have to list it or do any of that. But if you go with a conventional listing and you list it tomorrow with the average times for sale in most parts of the country and I can give you accurately what that looks like, northeast, if you're listening you generally are hopping along quite nicely right now, but that is going to shift too. It just it comes later to some places. So we're looking at the, the first zip code I was given, to dive deep on 78745, that is by saint david's south austin medical center, if anybody knows where that is. Or sunset valley.

Speaker 2:

If we list a house tomorrow, you're going to get the money 67 of the time at thanksgiving. If you CPO it ie if you at least get the inspection. And also good to get the appraisal, but at least get the inspection you're going to get a check 93% of the time at Thanksgiving. Which one do you want to choose, for the sake of six, seven, 800 bucks up front to get all these things out of the way? I know which one I'd choose. If you don't know what I'm talking about and you want more information, go to realestatenewsradiocom. Realestatenewsradiocom, click on podcasts and look at last week's show. I did an entire listing presentation that goes through all of these in detail. So with a cash CPO, you're getting the majority of your money in 14 days. So there's your three choices Conventional get your check On average, of course, 67% of time at Thanksgiving. Or CPO it, always CPO it. Please don't do the conventional. I mean, I never say, put it on a credit card, but this time it's worth putting it on a credit card because it saves you so much money.

Speaker 2:

People are going to come in. They're going to have a repair request, especially if they feel like they've overpaid or the market's nervous, which the market is nervous right now. Buyers are nervous like oh, we can see prices going down, maybe we'll wait. So if they've paid a decent amount or all this awful news continues, then chances are they're going to try and get some money off by having a repair request. They're often fifteen, twenty000. You can pretty much take that off the table by doing the inspection up front. So it's going to bring you a check, you know, a whole 93% of the time instead of 67% of the time.

Speaker 2:

So why is that important in terms of Thanksgiving? Because here's why. So we're going back to 78745 zip code. It is in Austin, texas. I'm going to click on it and I'm going to tell you different pieces around there. So interestingly wow.

Speaker 2:

So it compares it over the years, right. So it compares it over the years, right against all different things that are happening, we have a 50% price cut percentage. Now what does that mean? It means of the homes that are on the market, 50% of them are cutting their price. That's a lot, guys. So the average would be much lower than that, especially in peak season, which we're in now. And it compares it to the last few years. So it's not comparing it to, you know, asheville, north Carolina. It's comparing it to itself.

Speaker 2:

How has this happened? It's Austin, round Rock, georgetown, texas. So we had 55.3% last year and we've got 49.3%. That's a lot. It's about half the listings have price cuts.

Speaker 2:

Now is that going to affect the prices right away? Not really. They might have had a $5,000 price cut or something. So this isn't really for buyers right now, although obviously price cuts help that. But with half of those active listings having price cuts, obviously they're going to close around thanksgiving we just went through the timeline, or a lot of them are and they're going to have reduced their price numerous times at this point. So if they've reduced their price numerous times, then when it closes, my phone's been overtaken by advertisements, randy. So Randy was about to beat me then and there's nothing Verizon can do about it. It's the craziest thing. They just come on. It doesn't matter when I'm silent or anything else.

Speaker 2:

So when the house closes, when all these houses close, we're talking about an inventory. This is a big inventory, guys. This is 332. Sometimes you're looking at 16 houses and half of them have had price cuts. No, this is 332 homes, 164 have had price cuts. So those 164 homes are going to close lower right.

Speaker 2:

So the comparable, when it closes, that closes, that gets filed at the courthouse, wherever else it gets filed. And now the appraiser that goes into a new sale has a different appraisal. So that's called a comparable. That's how we look at prices. When we list houses, we look at what has the market told us? What prices are out there, what houses are selling that are similar to yours? And listen, many of you. I come out to see you in a neighborhood and you say, well, that one down there sold for 650. And I have to say, well, that one down there is two bedrooms smaller and yes, I know you see the price per square foot, but it's also smaller. And yes, I know you see the price per square foot, but it's also, you know, 500 square feet smaller. It's not comparable. It's got to be as comparable as possible. Here's the other secret smaller homes go for more per square foot. I'd love to hear from any builders today, and so they can really go into detail, as to why that would be.

Speaker 2:

My take on. It is always, let's say, you've got a quarter of an acre. That quarter of an acre has already got value in it. So you've got that quarter of an acre, whether you've got a 3,000 square foot house or a 1,000 square foot house. So the price of that land is going to affect the per square feet. Um, and you know, you've, you've still got to lay a foundation. You've still and it doesn't cost half as much, I'm sure to lay a foundation. That's half the size of the house. It's a lot more. You got to get the guys out there. You got to get the equipment out there. That that fixed price doesn't change. So if we've got any business builders listening, give me a call 828-240-9962. I'm getting the number right, randy. Yeah, I'm getting the number right. So any builders out there, give us a call. Tell me why smaller houses cost more per square foot. Um, I think I did a half decent job there. So, with these price cuts in this particular zip code in Austin, texas, 78745, obviously that tells us a lot.

Speaker 2:

Let's look at days on market. Ooh, days on market are going up In 2021, 13 days on market two weeks. Now it's 48, so it's more like um a month and a half. So we went from two weeks to a month and a half. And what I always like to say days on market is always about houses that are nicely finished, don't have a whole lot of problems. You know, um, they are standing out above the others, which is what yours does. By the way, when it's certified CPO, certified pre-owned, there's a reason why all of the dealerships CPO their cars. There's a reason why CarMax, carvana, all of these car people. That is a CPO car, 156 point inspection. It offers a black book value, not a blue book. It is a black book I get corrected by the car guys on that all the time it's a black book value and it offers a dealership warranty. So obviously you know that is going to work for a house.

Speaker 2:

If we can do that for the twenty thousand dollar car, why on earth would we just take a five hundred thousand dollar or a million dollar house, throw it on the market and hope for the best? It's it it's always just confounds me. I don't know why we don't, um, uh, inspect them everywhere. In fact we do, are doing that pretty much across california now, and I'm not I don't usually hold cal, hold California as a beacon of what we should do. However, it is true, in this case, we definitely want it inspected. Does it cost a little bit of money? Yes, however, you know it's okay because, honestly, I don't remember the last repair request that came back under $15,000.

Speaker 2:

So what we do when we have the inspection in is, when somebody comes in with an offer, we say you know, we've got the inspection, let's send this over and we'd like you to take a look at it, which I know sounds counterintuitive and scary. We'd like you to take a look at it before we actually go into contract. And in all my time of doing this, I'm over 3,500 transactions. That's a lot. By the way, in all those numbers of transactions, nobody's ever said oh, I don't want it now because of the inspection. It creates trust. It creates eyes wide open for everyone. Half the time they get their own inspections, which is just fine, but they're only going to find a few things at that point and their buyer's agent if they have one, is going to say my gosh, this is the cleanest inspection I've ever seen. So it creates a trust and a sort of eyes wide open for everyone. Let's look at some more data on this one. Don't forget. Give me a call 800-570-9962.

Speaker 2:

If you'd like me to do a deep dive into your zip, I've got one so far it'll get very I'm sorry. Austin round rock I know you're a lovely, lovely place, but I'll get a little boring if we're talking about you for the whole hour. Median listing price this tells you where we cursed. So July 2022, which is most of the country, right? So it's about two years ago now. So it's so interesting when you look back because these timelines aren't very long ago. So if we go back to 2016, the median listing price in 78745 Austin around $1. Austin, round Rock, georgetown there I got it. Texas, sorry.

Speaker 2:

In July 2016, the median listing price was $307,904. So basically, $308,000. A lot of people can afford $308,000. In fact, it's probably 80% of the population can afford up to that $300,000 mark. And then 2017, we skipped up a little bit until in 2021, which is only five years later, and this has happened to all over the country. What goes up must come down. It's all got overblown. Remember we were at 308. I'm just rounding it up we went to 549. It's a very similar story here 307 to 549. It's a very similar story here 307 to 549. So did people's wages increase in those house price $307,000, $308,000 in 2016. Obviously, the wages didn't go up by that much.

Speaker 2:

Do you want to have a look here, Randy? What zip code do you want to have a look at?

Speaker 3:

Oh gosh, which zip code do we take a look at 28803. 0-3, that's a goodie so that is a section Of South Asheville and Biltmore Ooh 28804 is looking interesting.

Speaker 2:

That's very red, so it's only pink in 28803. So the average price point median listing price sorry, not average price point $637,000.

Speaker 3:

That includes a bit more forest of course it does.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but when you look at 28801, which is downtown, it's even more $684,500. Isn't that crazy it is. And wait for this 28804, which is North Asheville a lot of expensive houses $853,500. Isn't that crazy it is. And wait for this 2-8-8-0-4, which is North Asheville A lot of expensive houses $853. $750. That's the average price point.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that insane, I believe they include the Grove Park Inn in that one, but that's the red section. And then we go west and some of these areas are 5, 10 minutes away from each other, are five, ten minutes away from each other. Then we go west and we're 525 at malvern hills, starting to go towards candler. Uh, west asheville 525 look at the difference 525 to 684 in downtown asheville. And then we go um east, like sherwood, follis, swananoa, 480. And then we go what's Black Mountain? I'm fascinated by Black Mountain. What have we got in Black Mountain? $7.50. No, that's 28711. $7.56. It's almost as much as North Asheville Black Mountain. I lived in Black Mountain for 16 years, so for many, many years Black Mountain was the highest dollar per square foot in Buncombe County.

Speaker 3:

Lovely place.

Speaker 2:

And it's the second highest median price point after North Asheville $4.21 in Mars Hill. So it's still affordable. So no wonder people are going further out. I have a good friend actually that lives out in the boonies up by the Mitchell County line and it's't even give, it's not even daring to give, prices there. That's funny. Let me see if I can find it in Leicester. Let's find some less expensive areas to live. So 28754, 421. I mean, compare that to Black Mountain, which is what did we say? It was 750, $300,000 more. It's twice the price for the same size home, for the median home. It's insane. But even Marshall wait for this. So what would you? You know? I've told you 421, mars Hill, 479, over here, 28743. So the other side of Marshall, basically, what would you think Marshall would be? So we've got 479, we've got 421.

Speaker 3:

400.

Speaker 2:

513. Whoa, yeah, it's some of the neighborhoods up there that kick the price up because, of course, when you're looking at median, that's going to kick some of them up. But it's amazing what's happening in some of these prices. Okay, here's a crazy one for you. Uh, mills river is nearly 900 000. That's insane. Right next door to mills river um 28742 a million dollars it's. I mean, what happened to our prices? That's the median. So that's like by the North Mills River campground. There's not a whole lot up there basically. So that's probably something to do with that.

Speaker 3:

Acreage. It's beautiful up there.

Speaker 2:

Million dollars.

Speaker 3:

It's amazing.

Speaker 2:

If I had me a million dollars.

Speaker 4:

We have to get that song out now for the break.

Speaker 2:

Do you know that one? I'd buy me a fur coat, but not a real fur coat, because that's cruel. It's bare naked. Bare naked ladies, okay, um. So yeah, prices are going absolutely nuts. And when you, when you look at the overblown ones so let's have a look at wood fin, for example there's an overblown, it's all in red, and median list price has come down from 880 a year ago to 853, and there's a lot of you sitting out there going well, I ain't buying an 800 000 house anyway, which I totally understand.

Speaker 2:

Back in 2016, 2016, 2016, guys, isn't that long ago. It's eight years ago. Salaries haven't changed much of anything. People are earning less now in real terms because of inflation and everything else. Back in 2016, it was 550. We're now 850. That's insane. That's insane, you know.

Speaker 2:

So my point in all of this is good old Clément Jugler, back in 1860, said it's a 7 to 11 year cycle with the economy. Well, guess what? The economy follows housing. I think housing drives it all, quite honestly. That's why we have one of the contenders for president standing up and saying new home buyers are going to get $25, five thousand dollars. Have you seen that one yet? So where is this twenty five thousand dollars coming from. I mean, it's great for me because I'm in real estate, right, so that's going to release a whole bunch of people being able to buy a house.

Speaker 2:

But where is this twenty five thousand coming from? Have you, have you been listening to the news, randy? Have you got any ideas on that? Randy's like yeah, I, I'm not getting into politics, I ain't talking about that. Like, where is this, where's all this money that they're all spending coming from? Can we just fire them all and start again?

Speaker 2:

Anybody like to be president? Give me a call 828-240-9962. Because I don't know what's going on right now, but if you're anything like me, you think the world's gone crazy. Um, I mean, 25 000 would be nice. Right, we'd all like to be first-time home buyers and just know that there are plenty of first-time home buyer programs out there right now where the rate is less. You don't have to put very much money down, if anything at all, and usually the rules are such that you you can't have owned, uh bought, a house in the last five years. In the bank terms, that puts you into that first time home buyer category. So make sure you ask about that If you're buying a home and you haven't bought one in a while. Make sure you ask about that, because we already have those first time home buyer programs out there.

Speaker 2:

Well, you probably know how I feel about giving money away too. I mean, we've given almost. My team alone has given almost a million dollars away to veterans and first responders, and now we are endorsed by Tenorter Towers, t2torg through the Cash CPO program. So you can find everything about that at heroes mlscom. Heroes mlscom we can do anything of your choice for t2torg. We can do a donation to them.

Speaker 2:

It's an amazing organization. If you haven't seen them, they modify homes. They actually build homes for veterans, often, you know, with missing limbs and they and they're often in wheelchairs and they they make the home with, obviously with wide enough doorways and all that stuff, but with, um, cooktops that are lower and showers that they can get into and all that good stuff. Um, they're also they also pay off mortgages for uh responders. So with a policeman or a firefighter that's fallen, they pay off the mortgage, which is pretty amazing. They're also building an entire village in Florida I believe it's just outside Tampa for veterans, veterans housing, and that's what they're turning to now, like building these places where veterans can actually have a home. They're not part-time homes, they're actual homes, which is amazing. So, yeah, if you know anybody in any of those fields or you know, we'll give something on your behalf when you are a first responder, because we love to do that.

Speaker 2:

Well, we don't have any more zip codes in, so we're going to dig in some of our local ones, if you'd like yours. If you're listening anywhere else, go ahead and send me one in. I'll have a quick look on our Facebook page at All Star Powerhouse. This is Rowena Patton. By the way, all Star Powerhouse, you can give us a call 24-7-828-333-4483. If you're thinking about listing your home, I can talk you through the process there. 828-333-4483. We've got people sending by 24-7 to take your call. So even if you work the night shift, then we'll be able to get you there. We have another zip code over here that's been sent in to me let's have a look at. Don't forget, guys, put your towns on, because then I don't have to look them up and I'm lazy and I don't want to have to go and look them up. No, we've only got an hour, so that's very helpful when you do that. So let's have a look.

Speaker 2:

And, by the way, the cash offer now is available in Canada as well. So anywhere in the country and Canada as well. Full market value cash offer. You get up to 70% within the first 14 days. We go in, we do the HGTV magic and then we resell it and you get the majority of the profit and two thirds of our sellers get more than with a conventional sale. Very happy to do a conventional sale for you as well. It's all fine.

Speaker 2:

84017. 84017. Let's see where that is. 84017. I feel like I'm having a children's show. Now. It is Colville, utah. How about that, sandy? Thank you for sending that in. So 84017. Got it? Oh, that's beautiful. It's got a lake there called Echo Resort. Yeah, here we go. Ooh, 940 is the median list price. Who knew? Hmm, we'll have a look at that in a second. We've got Joseph on the line. Good morning, joseph. How are you today? Did I press the wrong button? Oh, I'm sorry, joseph, hang on there for a second, because I'm a doofus this morning and I pressed the wrong button. Did I mess it all up?

Speaker 3:

Maybe he'll call back.

Speaker 2:

Oh, did I. It's still, maybe if I just press another button. Joe, can you hear me now? Joseph, can you hear me now?

Speaker 3:

I don't think it's going to work. Can I pick it up? No, oh.

Speaker 2:

I'm so sorry, joseph. Can you call back in? I messed it up so I'll leave the buttons alone next time. Randy, okay, while we're waiting for Joseph to call back in, we have that Hennifer and it's all around Echo Lake at 940. It's amazing when these prices are at 940. This is in Utah. I'm not touching anything on the buttons now because Joseph is on the air. Good, good morning, joseph. How are you this morning?

Speaker 4:

Good morning, I'm doing great.

Speaker 2:

Apparently, I have all kinds of technology challenges today. I think I didn't sleep very well, so it's like, oh my gosh, there's buttons to press and things to do.

Speaker 4:

How are you doing this morning? What's your day going like it's? Going pretty good, you're not the only one that's challenged With that type of thing. I wanted to ask.

Speaker 2:

Good Friday night, Joseph. Did you have a good Friday night? Did you have anything fun?

Speaker 4:

I did Spectacular Nice, so what's your opinion On starting a house to sell right now? Is it a bad time locally for like the $400,000, probably plus neighborhood? Oh what do you mean?

Speaker 2:

starting one. Do you mean starting to? Buy one or build one.

Speaker 4:

Building one to sell.

Speaker 2:

Oh, gotcha, okay. So are you a builder or a flipper, or what do you do, joseph? A builder oh a builder, we should talk Okay, so 400,000, great price point, that's what most people can afford. I started off talking about that at the top of the hour. Actually, so many of our prices have gone so crazy that the average person can't reach it. Even 400 is a push, honestly, but you're capturing about 70% of the market if you keep it below that 400. How big is it?

Speaker 4:

This house is between 800 and 900, the low 8s actually, but it does have a chunk of land with it. It has like almost eight acres.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, can you build another house on the acreage, or it won't support another one.

Speaker 4:

It wouldn't support another one. It's got some right-of-way issues on the back part of the property but it's a really nice overlooking a pond, you know, it's kind of unique. That's lovely, so a lot of people want acreage.

Speaker 2:

So many times People are called. You know it's kind of unique, that's lovely. So a lot of people want acreage. So many times people are caught. You know we have people coming here from texas, from california, from new york, from dc all over the place and most people want at least well, definitely florida. Most people want acreage for bragging rights. So when you can say I live on acres, nobody says how big's your house? Right, so you got a little bitty house. I'm sure you're going to make a little jewel box out of. How many bedrooms does it have?

Speaker 2:

um, it's hopefully going to have two perfect okay, two is fine if you can do a two, two or even a, a 2-1, but definitely a 2-2. Most people want that privacy, you know. Even especially if it's a smaller house, on that acreage it might be, what are you thinking are the most likely kind of people that would move into it? Is it a second home? Is it a couple? Is it a single Like? What's your thoughts on that?

Speaker 4:

Because I'm not even allowed to say that as a realtor. But you are Right. Right, I'm thinking it's going to be a second home or possibly like a VRBO. A lot of people in that area there is three houses right next door where there are, two of the three are VRBOs part time, and then the people live there who own the house come in here and there and stay.

Speaker 2:

You know that's how people are buying second homes now, and it's very hard to see figures on that, because when you get an STR, a short-term rental investor, you know they don't say, oh, this is also going to be my second home, and they do to us, but nobody tracks those figures. That I found, at least, and we've always dealt with a lot of second homes in this market and the question almost always now is I'd like to find something that I can rent out when I'm not here, which makes perfect sense, right? So do you have some kind of storage closet in it where someone can lock up all the goodies when they go away? I guess you could put an out out building for that, actually, almost there's definitely enough room for an outbuilding.

Speaker 4:

We were going to put um small outbuilding and have a jacuzzi under it, but I think we're going to put a little jacuzzi under the back porch, so we have room for outbuilding that sounds wonderful, I can.

Speaker 2:

I can see the ad now. Does it have any? So you said it's got a pond there. Does it have any views or anything like that?

Speaker 4:

um nothing really long range.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you got ridgeline.

Speaker 4:

It's a little hill overlooking the pond and so you can see. You know, I guess medium length views, but not super long.

Speaker 2:

That doesn't matter, as long as you've got views, that's killer. And you've got a pond. I mean it's always nice to have a pond right. Is the pond big enough to put a little boat on or something a little tiny boat?

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, it's got a little john boat on it right now.

Speaker 2:

Oh, what's a john boat?

Speaker 4:

A small like approximately 14-foot long boat. Oh, and you know there's fish in there and and deer every morning around it oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Actually I just saw a deer coming into the radio show this morning. Did you see the doe on the way in randy?

Speaker 3:

it was so cool there's turkeys on my way in. I love that. I see the turkeys every time, but the doe's just standing there looking at me.

Speaker 2:

I'm like I've got a show to go and do, um, so yeah, imagine now somebody from Florida. I'm seeing the pictures now and I haven't even seen your property, but you've got views. It's on a little hill by the pond. Even that sounds like Beatrix Potter, you know. If you know who that is, it's got a little John Boat down there. Can we spray the John Boat red or something, or put a little red flag on it or something, and then we've got.

Speaker 4:

You're not going to believe this, but it's already red.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, that is so funny. And we'll go and steal some bulrushes, some cattails to put at the side of it. And it's a new home. It's a 2-2. It's an 8-20. So if you're interested in buying this home, give us a call, 828-333-4483, or you can call in on the show and we'll get joe talking about it as well. Sorry, joseph, I'm calling you joe.

Speaker 2:

Um, so yeah that that sounds like a a good thing to build. It's always a good time to build because people want new houses and you've got something that's unique. You've got those eight acres, um, it will be suitable for a vrbo because, um, I'm guessing, as a builder, you know the regulations that we can't do str in in the city of ashville and that may push out a bit further as well. We have to be a little bit careful with that because my my guess is that at some point that will push out a bit further than the city. But the other thing we can think of is mtr medium term rental. I made that term up this week.

Speaker 2:

A lot of traveling nurses and a lot of people who are building a house or maybe moving into the area want something for three or four months, you know, or even six months. So, while the rents aren't going to be as high as an STR, the six month rental is obviously going to be a lot higher than a year's rental. But people will pay a little bit more not to be locked into a year's lease and not to be locked into one of these apartment buildings which there are so many now but you know they might have dogs or something like that. Do you have any animals, joseph?

Speaker 4:

I do. I have a couple of dogs. Yeah, I think Woodfin has actually put a stop to the VRBO thing, short term rental as well. I built a house for a client and they actually sold it right off the bat and the guy who bought it was from California. He bought it sight unseen, wow, and turned it into a VRBO and they got grandfathered in. But after that it's not happening over there anymore.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's really sad when you think that people have bought things thinking that they can do that and sometimes they're not grandfathered in, which can be very tricky. You can actually do it in Asheville, but it has to be homesteaded and you have to get all kinds of permits and they make it very, very difficult. In other has to be homesteaded and you have to get all kinds of permits and you know they make it very, very difficult. In other words, the homesteading piece just means that you've got to live in the house and you can rent out a portion of your house but there's all kinds of rules like you can't have a full-size range in there, because then they think you might do a long-term rental, which you know makes it.

Speaker 4:

There's a certain amount of officials that want to keep your property values down, basically.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, you know the worst people it hits I mean we could have a whole show on SDRs but it hits the hardest for people that have maybe just inherited a property and they don't want to let it go. You know it's their parents' property, they don't want to let it go and they're like, oh, we'll just short term rental it and then they find out they can't. Or what I saw the last time around, actually, when we went into this period of price reductions, which is what we're seeing now that's going to lead to lower prices. It's going to go on for quite a long time.

Speaker 2:

What I saw last time, particularly in condo buildings, is that people lose their job or they have to move to a different part of their country. Maybe one of their parents gets sick or something like that and they move out, but they're not allowed to rent out their condo. That's very common in condo buildings, which means that that really depresses prices because the amount of foreclosures we saw because of that happening because they weren't allowed to rent them out, which is terrible right Now, of course, you can rent houses out in Asheville. It just has to be. I don't know how they could ever stop you renting houses out, but at the end of the day I don't know it's our property. We should be able to do what we want with it, right?

Speaker 4:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

That's kind of the way I feel about it. And there's all the the you know. They claim that airbnbs really hit affordable housing, but a lot of the people that I find are buying airbnbs are not wealthy people. These are mom and pops or people that you know inherit a home and don't want to let it go. They're not big wealth. Everybody thinks of strs of being these groups of big wealthy investors that are buying up all these homes and in the main, that's not what it is, at least not what I see of people coming in. So I think you you know you've got a red john boat with, which is perfect, we're going to get some. Is the pond pretty?

Speaker 4:

do you have some nice cattails in there, and that kind of thing it's got some nice little trees coming up around um weak willows and stuff like that oh good, what kind of fish is in there?

Speaker 2:

um, mostly largemouth bass you better tell very large, you better send me directions so I can come up and catch some fish and I know what I'm having for dinner tonight there you go but yeah, I think if your question is are you safe building it? I think you are um go for you know. Do high level on a budget. You know what that means as a builder. I'm guessing you've built a few before. This is not your first foray into building a few yes okay.

Speaker 2:

Well, if you've done a few, you know what you're doing and, um, you know people expect higher end now. So, for example, you probably don't want to put granite in, you probably want to put quartz or salstone in, and at that size of square footage you're probably talking about the difference of a thousand dollars it is worth investing. That. That makes a big difference, especially when, as we know oh, I should ask you about that. So can you give me some reasoning why smaller houses are twice as much per square foot? This is often what it is. They're normally 40%, 50% more, and people are always confused by it. I had my theory. I don't know if you heard it earlier.

Speaker 4:

Well, I don't know Some of the reasons why. You would think it would be cheaper in a lot of ways, but you still have a lot of the same components the well and the driveway and all that stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly, and that's exactly what I was saying. So, whether you build, you know. So let's talk about the fact. You pour it. Let's say you're pouring the foundation, whether you you know, if you're pouring a foundation, that's for an 800 square or 1,600-square-foot house, if it's going up, the foundation still costs the same right.

Speaker 4:

Roughly to a certain point. Yes.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, if you're going up on the house, the foundation, if the footprint is 820, and then you're going up at 1640 because you're building on the second floor, your footprint's still the same. So that, how much does it cost to? I mean, just just throw out a figure, wild figure of pouring a concrete slab to put your house on. Oh, it's probably not a concrete slab, whatever you call it um, let's just say the average price was ten thousand ten thousand dollars.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so it's going to cost you ten thousand dollars. That ten thousand dollars is now you've got 820 square feet divided by $10,000 or 1,600 and whatever. That is 40 square feet divided by $10,000. So that's a lot more per square foot right there just for the concrete. And then if you've got your, let's say you've got a long driveway, you've got eight acres. So let's say you've got 100 feet of driveway. Let's say you've got 200 feet of driveway and we want to put tarmac on it, want to put asphalt on it. How much is that going to cost?

Speaker 4:

Probably 200 feet, which is in my case. So that would in asphalt it would probably be, I don't know. Let's say 15, 20 grand at least.

Speaker 2:

I love this no, I love this. You're doing really well. So thank you, because I'm really putting you on the spot. So you've got another $20,000. So, matt, when you're selling a house, right, if you look on any of our sites, go to mountainhomehuntcom, you'll see it's all the same. That house isn't going to say, oh well, it will tell you it's got more acreage and it will tell you that it's got a, you know, asphalt driveway and a pond and everything else, but all those costs. So that twenty thousand dollars now is spread over 820 or 1640 square feet, right? So obviously $20,000 spread over 1640 is going to be half the price per square foot of the. I'm not explaining it very well, am I, joseph Can?

Speaker 4:

you do a better job than me. No, you're doing fine, I am Okay. You're doing fine, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I mean, it's just a numbers game that if you have more square feet, then I think you said it really well in the beginning. You said a lot of the components are the same, so your well could easily be twenty thousand dollars, right? Sometimes they're less than that.

Speaker 4:

Um, just depending you're gonna have 15 in your septic, about right it's right, you're probably going to hit 10 20 grand on a well, depending on how deep, of course. But yeah um, it's better to go ahead and figure at least 10,000.

Speaker 2:

Can you name this song, Joseph? How deep is your well?

Speaker 4:

No, I cannot.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you can't. That's a shame. If you want to call in, you can win a trivia prize 828-517-9962. It was the Bee Gees, Never mind.

Speaker 4:

Ah, that's why.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's oh. You don't like the Bee Gees, joseph.

Speaker 4:

I'm not a Bee Gee fan, oh well in that case I'm not. I used to hear them on the radio when I was a kid, but I definitely was not a Bee Gee album owner.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, I'm not sure if I can help you sell your house. I album owner. Oh well, I'm not sure if I can help you sell your house.

Speaker 2:

I'm just kidding. So we're at, we're at 35, okay, so we're at 35 000 for the well and the septic. And you know, we don't know, because we don't know how far we're going to drill and everything else. We have to guess these things. Um, we're at 20 000 for the driveway, we're at 10 000 for the concrete. I'm surprised. It's not more than that. Honestly, what else is in the fixed components that you can think of? So we've got a well septic. We've got a driveway, we've got the concrete. What else?

Speaker 4:

I mean, those are the main ones right off the bat.

Speaker 2:

But I guess land you didn't say anything about the land, but you're still going be, right the same size a lot it's got to be 50,000 in the land right for a decent piece of land. So now we're at 50, 60, 70, 80, 115 I think I'm at. So now you've got 115,000 spread out over the 820 square feet or the 1640 square feet, obviously over the extra square footage.

Speaker 4:

It's, it's half the price you know and you have the time component. So the houses are roughly going to take, you know, they're going to roughly be the same amount of time to build it. Obviously a small one will be a little less, but somebody wants to make roughly the same profit as they do on one that's a few hundred square feet bigger. Oh, that's interesting.

Speaker 2:

I'd never thought of it that way. Yeah, so it's that. You know it's like oh, I'll build it in half. So obviously an 820 square foot house doesn't take six months and the 1640 takes a year. It doesn work like that, right. Right, it's that puzzle piece again. Anyway, I've taken up your whole Saturday morning, joseph. Thank you so much. I will be in touch. Well, I hope so. I hope I got your questions answered and, yes, I think you're pretty safe at that 400,000 mark. You've got the pond, you've got the views. Just make sure you get those two bedrooms in two baths, whatever it takes, because you do not want a one bedroom in this market at 400,000. That would not be good. Got you, alright, you have a great day.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for calling in. It's very fun talking to you.

Speaker 2:

Alright, thanks for having me. Thanks so much, wasn't he awesome, awesome. He knew the price on everything and I put him right on the spot. That was very cool. So thank you for that, joseph. That was very helpful. We should get you on.

Speaker 2:

We love having builders on the show to really go through the components that people need to think about, so I hope you're all having a great sat out there. We're talking about zip codes and building, and we jumped about all over the place today. We had Joseph call in on whether it's a good idea to build his $400,000 house. There are still spec houses going on and, of course, you know there are plenty of people out there that want to build houses as well, because whatever the market is doing, yes, it's a 7 to 11 year cycle, but whatever the market is doing, if it's the right time for you to build a house, it's the right time for you to build a house you might be in your 50.

Speaker 2:

I actually talked to me who I'm listing the other day and talk to them about the cycle and it's 7 to 11 years, and they said we're 80 years old, they're almost 80 years old. And they said we're 80 years old, they're almost 80 years old and I said listen, you can. You know you can throw it out there right now at a high price and hope for the best. Or we can get aggressive with the price now so we're not chasing the market down. Or you can hold the property and maybe one day your kids will want it. And they said kids will never want it. They've not shown any interest so far and the grandkids haven't shown any interest, which unfortunately is often the case, especially with country properties, and these kids just don't know what they can put their hands on and often they want the cash out of it instead. Maybe we were all the same and things haven't changed. I don't know. But really really think about what you're doing right now.

Speaker 2:

If you have property and you know, even if you're 50. So let's say you're 55 years old, in 10 years you're going to be 65 years old. If you're in that four, five bedroom house property right now and you don't need all of that property, how comfortable are you going to be in 10 years time packing up and moving out Now? The good news is, your house is likely to be worth more. So you know, even though we've got imagine mountain humps, they go up, they go down, they go up, they go down, they go up, they go down. Just like the economy, it follows the economy. So, even though you've got those humps going up and down, imagine a straight line starting at eight o'clock, going up to two o'clock you have to look at the clock now if anybody's got one on the wall or maybe more like eight o'clock to three o'clock. Honestly, in other words, it's a slanted line going up. It's a if remember the um we need joseph on the line for this because he's got the pictures of the roofs but it's a. It's a, uh, fairly low pitched roof going upwards. I'm making this way too difficult. In other words, your house will be worth more most likely it always has been in 10 years than it was worth now. So so you know, keep hold of it and rent it out. We'll help you rent it out too, or just keep hold of it and live in it if you want to.

Speaker 2:

I just want you to be very aware that don't think oh, oh, I just can't face it now. This is what many of us think and I've been there and I suffered from it. Actually, I've suffered, once in real estate, twice actually in I don't know 43, 44 personal sales. Twice I've suffered, and both are because I didn't listen to my gut feeling. I was just tired and I couldn't be bothered and it's like, oh, I'll try it in a couple of years, and I knew I was doing the wrong thing. Both are the times it bit me. So don't think, oh, I'll just get around to it in a couple of years. I'm too busy now, or I'm not busy enough or not feeling too great, and I'll try it again next year, because chances are it's going to be worth less.

Speaker 2:

The most we ever went down I think I'm getting this figure right nationally is 0.8% a month. So the good news is it doesn't happen very quickly, but 0.8 is quite a lot. Do you have a big fat calculator over there, randy, or are you doing what I'm doing and opening up? You know, what I love to do is I love to have a big fat, old-fashioned calculator on my desk. You know what I'm talking about with those big buttons on. And they're cheap as well, and kids think you're like an old person or something if you have them. Old persons, all relative these days. So the average price point here is $600,000, which blows me away, frankly, times .08. That's $48,000.

Speaker 4:

Ooh, that can't be right. That must be $48,000.

Speaker 2:

Ooh, that can't be right. That must be $4,800. I'm doing it incorrectly. It's $4,800. I'm doing it incorrectly, but nonetheless. You times that by 10 months, it's $48,000. Right, so that's quite a decrease on a $600,000 house. Obviously, yeah, no, I know I'm right, even though I didn't do the. I just got the comma in the wrong place. So we went down over 30% last time around.

Speaker 2:

And there's a lot of agents out there and a lot of people saying, oh, you know, I don't it. Just honestly, it blows me away. There's a lot of people talking about how they don't think there'll be a price reduction. Guys, it's already happening. I can show you. In fact, we were looking at this one in Utah, although maybe Utah's different. We've got somebody who'd asked about 84033, herber. I hope I'm pronouncing that right, sorry if you're in Utah. H-e-b-e-r. Is that Herber? Ever heard of Herber? It's by a lake. Ever heard of Erba? It's by a lake. So we've got Okay. So in 2021, we had crazy Median listing price 1.8 million. Basically, I'm rounding it to make the fact 1.8 million. Who can afford 1.8 million? And then it's gone down to only 940,000 now.

Speaker 3:

Half.

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh, you're right. Yeah, it's nearly halved in only three years. How does this happen? Like it's a real struggle to see where the prices are going now. The forecast is a very strong downward price, so they take 30 data points to work on all of these. It's really interesting. This is Summit County, utah, one of the zip codes somebody had sent in to me, and the thing we need to look at here is that let's look at the price cut to see if that's where it's getting it from. Very interesting 50% price cuts. It's a very small number of inventory, though, so I never really trust these. Last year it was 50%. Most of the time it's zero. No price cuts at all. Isn't that crazy? They just don't reduce their price, but it's a very strong indicator that the prices are going down, which is interesting.

Speaker 2:

Let's go back to one here. We've got another minute, randy, almost a minute. Where do you want to look at here? I know you already gave me one already 28803. And then I think our caller was it Joe called in Joseph, 28803. All right, this one's for all you locals in 28803. 28805, 28801, 28806, 28803, biltmore Forest 28.8% is the price cut, so about a third of them are cutting their price. Let's see how that compares. That's what I like to look at. So back in 2020, 18.6 had price cuts. Now we've got 28.8. That's about a third of them are having price cuts. That's above the norm. This is where all the trend is going and for most of the counties we have five months of data. See you on the radio next week, guys.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening. 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.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Rowena Patton

Host