Bob Nelson – Real Estate Seasonality

Let’s look at real estate seasonality.

Featuring:
Bob Nelson, Eugene real estate investment broker
Marcia Edwards, Eugene residential real estate broker

Marcia Edwards: And I’m Marcia Edwards, Residential Broker with Windermere Real Estate. A lot of the clients of mine, sellers and buyers are saying, “Have we missed the window to buy or sell real estate?” And that’s a fascinating conversation that’s annual. Every year we get the conversation, is real estate seasonal?

Bob Nelson: Well, and it’s interesting, but by seasonal, I assume you’re referring to a calendar that spring, summer, fall and winter. Is it more valuable in the spring than in the winter and so forth? My answer from an investment standpoint, it’s absolutely not. But from your standpoint, what’s it look like?

Marcia Edwards: Well, it’s actually counter-intuitive. What you’re looking for is a window in time as a buyer when there is the most opportunity, the most homes available, and the least competition, other buyers in the marketplace.

Bob Nelson: Right.

Marcia Edwards: Which is not early spring when you’d perceive you’d have the best opportunities. For sellers, you’re looking for the most demand and the least supplier, least competition for those buyers. So that’s also counterintuitive. So early spring is the perception, but it is fascinating because the inventory shoots up, the buyers don’t shoot up on that date. So you’ve got high inventory and you’ve got the same demand. So that’s not the optimum time for the seller to list a property for sale. So I would say it is cyclical. It is seasonal to some degree, but not like it is implied or suggested by perception of when the flowers come out, I’ll sell my house.

Bob Nelson: Well and it’s interesting from an income property standpoint the seasonality is more oriented towards mortgage lenders. Do they have a absolute surplus of loanable funds and their interest rates then start to drop in order to get the money into production. If that’s the case, you can kind of focus around the lender and how willing they are to make loans. But frankly to me, it’s more along the lines of employment tenants. Do they have the capacity to pay rent? Are there other issues that would adversely impact the tenants opportunity to pay rent? If that’s the case, be very careful. At least budget in enough cash reserve to get you over the bumpy spot if there is to be an increase in vacancy factor.

Marcia Edwards: And as we spoke previously, it is more about your calendar, your plan, your schedule as an individual investor or homeowner, more so than the trends in the marketplace. Don’t let them be the drivers.

Bob Nelson: Absolutely agree.

Join Eugene, Oregon, real estate experts: Bob Nelson, Real Estate Investment Broker with Pacwest Real Estate Investments, and Marcia Edwards, Residential Real Estate Broker with Windermere Real Estate, daily at 5:30pm on KPNW for the “Real Estate Today” radio show.