[Music] Hello everyone and Welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville your favorite real estate podcast here in lovely Greenville South Carolina I'm your host Stan McCune realtor here in Greenville in the greater Greenville area and yeah this is my podcast we've done this for now over a year and I thank you guys for listening in if you've never heard this before please go ahead and subscribe give us a rating give this podcast a review I'd really appreciate that well especially if you have heard it before and you've not given a rating or a review or anything I would really appreciate that go ahead and hit that subscribe Button as well download the episodes if you will and just a reminder as always my contact information is in the show notes should you need to reach me I've had some people reach out to me via there's a if you Google my name you'll find a link to me on the sedan Joiner website which is The Brokerage that I'm with here in 2021 that is fine as well that's another way to reach out to me but you can always just text or call or email me all of that is in the show notes today we're going to be talking about a little bit of a deep dive into what is currently on the market what is the current situation with our inventory we've talked about this a lot but I want wanted to take a little bit of a deep dive we're not going to spend a lot of time I think this is going to be a short episode once it's all said and done but what exactly is on the market and what is the current situation there so let's Dive Right In in the Greenville MLS these are all statistics that I took directly out of it just so that you guys know and by the way when we talk about the Greenville MLS it also includes homes that are in Anderson County homes that are in Spartanburg County homes that are in Kens County and a few other counties as well so because the Greenville MLS so you know we've got all these different mls's in the area we've got a Spartanburg one an Anderson one a Western Upstate MLS which which is the Anderson one that I've already mentioned we've got a Greenwood one we've got a bunch of different mls's in the area and ultimately Greenville is the biggest one by far now that being said sometimes a house will list in in Spartanburg but not in Greenville that's kind of the most common thing that we see less common is it for something to be listed in Western Upstate which is kind of like the Anderson Pickins one as opposed to being listed in Greenville but often times things that aren't directly in Greenville homes that aren't directly in Greenville will end up still in the Greenville MLS because it is the biggest one it's the one with with the most exposure and so we get a lot of listings from some of these other counties in the Greenville MLS so you just need to understand that that's why we refer to it as a greater Greenville area because Greenville kind of consumes all of these other little markets to a certain extent so not all of these numbers that you hear are just going to be Greenville some of these quite a few of them actually are going to include other markets so that honestly makes the data a little bit more even shocking when you think about it but here we go we have currently as of this podcast I'm recording this on April 13th and of course these numbers will change as the day goes on but this is April 13th 2021 I pulled up the number of active listings in the Greenville MLS active listings means these are not under contract I only focused on actual houses now when I say houses it's some type of structure that's non-commercial typically every once in a while a commercial property will kind of find its way in there non-commercial also non- multif family there there's really not a whole lot of multif family on the market right now so I'm not even spending my time with that at the moment but just looking at General single family housing which includes you know your your standard what we would call a detached house a single family house includes condos Town Homes apartments that are for sale it would include mobile homes and modular homes and the other SL miixed use category which is there's not a whole lot for sale among those I'm not going to get too far into that but those are kind of generally speaking what we're looking at I'm not looking at multif Family commercial Lots or land I will say I didn't filter out some the just the way this is structured some of these might have properties that are for rent I I just so that you know it's kind of a bit challenging to filter those out just the way the Paragon software that we have to use is structured that our MLS here is built on so all of that to be said I come up with the number of 1241 active listings now what does that mean right well here's what that means on a good day on a busy day typically like a Friday maybe even a Saturday maybe even a Thursday we might get anywhere from like a 100 to 150 new properties that come on the market now I say properties because that could include lots and land and and some other things like that but generally speaking that's predominantly going to be houses condos town homes mobile homes what we're talking about right now so on a busy day during the week we might get 100 120 150 new listings and currently there are 1241 that are actively for sale that means that on any given day we could up that number by just 10% or or more possibly and so what that means is that that's like nothing like 1,41 you think that there are more than 1241 active buyers in the market right now I listed a home recently that just in the MLS okay there are some statistics I can look at in the MLS once once I list a house and it will tell me like how many people in the MLS it hits so if I set up a search for my clients in the MLS then when a new listing comes on the market it will basically be connected to the clients that it fits their criteria for so if I set up a criteria for a client you know three-bedroom two-bedroom house in Greenville County below $300,000 when a home that fits that criteria comes on the market it will basically link that house to them and it will you know the way I have it set up actually send them that listing for them to look at well the listing agent can can look at they can't see which client those are getting sent to but they they can see the metadata on like how many clients it was sent to how many people it hit etc etc etc it's not uncommon for me to list a property that has over 200 people maybe even as many as 300 people that that property is linked to well that's just one property with very specific criteria and there are 1241 active listings I I can't even them how many active buyers there are in the market right now I mean thousands and thousands of active buyers right now and only 1241 active listings this is what we talk about we talk about the supply issues the inventory issues in the Greenville area you can't even fathom it you cannot fathom how much of an issue this is and this is why everything it feels like at least has multiple offers on it as soon as things hit the market we can also look at how many are under contract this is really shocking as well there are currently 3232 3,232 of these Residential Properties that are under contract that's almost three times the number of those that are currently active for sale 3,000 that are uh 3,232 that are under contract 1,241 that are for sale absolutely crazy the past 24 hours alone 1,497 homes went pending now pending is a weird status that we have here in Greenville we have two statuses that refer to homes that are under contract and it's I I don't fully understand why we do it this way but it is what it is we have a contingent and if you're on realtor.com which I always recommend people if you're going to use like a a a website such as Zillow or redin or Trulia or whatever use realtor.com it's much clearer it's easier to see if if a property is contingent or pending or whatever but it'll say on there what that status is so we have contingent is one of them that just means there is a contingency on the property that could be a variety of things financing repairs inspections appraisal etc etc and then there's pending well pending doesn't necessarily mean that there's no contingencies but it can mean that means different things to different people some Realtors as soon as a property goes under contract they automatically change it to pending some of them automatically change it to contingent and then keep it as contingent until it sells and then they change it to sold others will start it when goes under contract if it has contingencies under contingent as contingent and then at some point in the process we'll change it to pending that's that's what I tend to do I feel like that's the most accurate thing to do usually once we're kind of past the main milestones in the process of the listing U such as the inspections and repairs and all of that that at that point I will switch it over from contingent to pending so all that to say 1,497 homes the past 24 hours got switched to pending that could be new homes that went under contract that could be homes that got switched from another status over to pending there's a lot of different things that could happen the point is that in the past 24 hours more homes went to pending than we have homes on the market and that is absolutely insane absolutely insane again I've got I've got no category for that I'm not happy about that by the way a lot of people are like this must be a great time to be a realtor no it's a terrible time to be a realtor are you kidding me having to every buyer client I'm having to do three four five times the work I normally do to get them to closing you know we have to to show how many houses put in how many offers it's discouraging it's def it's defeating for a lot of them it's a very difficult time to be a realtor in many respects it's not as difficult I'm sure as it was in 2008 2009 from the stories I've heard from others when you know we were in a major major housing recession but it's hard it's it's not the easiest time to be a realtor we would pref prer that the market eases up a little bit those that only do listings that don't represent buyers okay they're having a great time right now as long as they can get the listings but those of us that do both like myself I represent buyers and sellers yeah for my sellers it's it's great for my buyers which is a lot of my clients it's pretty difficult and so that's just something to keep in mind if you're thinking about becoming a a realtor I would wait this one out bit okay let the let the dust settle a little bit you might be able to poach you know a buyer client here or there but you're going to be spending a lot of time with those buyer clients just FYI now we've got 1,241 active listings in the Greenville MLS here's a little breakdown of what these are 912 of those so about what 34s of those are regular houses single family houses okay 3002 of them so about the roughly the other quarter of them are condos Town Homes apartment types of properties and then only 27 of them kind of the the table scraps are Mobile Homes modular or other types of property so the basic breakdown we don't have a whole lot for sale 3/4 of what we do have for sale is basically regular homes mobile homes Modell Etc and about one quarter of them are condos Town Homes some type of De of attached property that is attached to another Unit A multi-unit type of property not multif family not like a duplex again I'm not including those there's not very many of those for sales as I already said but homes that are individual homes that that are for sale but that are attached those are what are deemed condos town home H Etc so if you're looking for a condo or a town home you only have 300 to choose from that is not very much not a whole lot to to choose from here if you're looking for a normal house a single family house 900 to choose from that's also not a whole lot gets worse though I hate to say it so of all of these so again 1241 active listings almost half of those are new construction 610 of those are new construction now I mention that because most of the market is not looking for new construction what I find myself doing is I find myself not pushing my buyer clients towards new construction but but focusing more on that than I have in the past and and helping them to see okay it's crazy out there right now if you're looking to move and you you have some flexibility in terms of your time frame new construction might be the way to go Now reminder as a buyer's agent I represent clients on new construction I highly recommend you know you don't have to use me but but get representation the the Builder is okay with you having an agent they're not going to reduce the cost of of the house that you purchase that you have built with them because you don't have an agent get someone on your side that can actually represent you all right that aside basically half of our inventory is new construction and of that 610 new construction 534 of those either have not been built yet or they've been started but haven't been completed and again that's not for everyone some a lot of people they're looking to move they're looking to move now they don't want to get you know into this whole new construction thing so here your the numbers are even lower now we're talking about out of everything that is on the market only a little more than 600 of the things of the of the houses that are currently on the market are actually like you could move in today in theory if you bought it today or you can get it under contract and potentially close in 30 to 45 days we're talking about some somewhere between 6 and 700 listings total that are on the market that fit that criteria that's crazy it's crazy there's no other way to put it and and one thing that we keep seeing over and over again in in recent weeks is Builders now be what's happening as people do start to go towards these Builders now they're becoming overwhelmed and now they have to pull back and say you know what we're so far behind and and construction costs keep going up there's volatility with building costs and so there a lot of these Builders Meritage SK I think Enchanted variety of of them actually aren't accepting new contracts so it's actually making it even worse I hate to say it because now the builders are having this influx of buyers that normally would not be looking at new construction but are because they don't want to be out there in the marketplace where it's just crazy they'd rather just go ahead and just build a home and just you know go that route the builders are getting overwhelmed and so that's just going to create more issues I I hate to say it it it's just making it more difficult but we need to just be honest about the situation here all right let's break this down a little bit more all right of those active listings 19 of them are less than or equal to $100,000 so obviously we've known this for a while there's not a whole lot on the market below $100,000 and like I said some of those would be properties that are for rent rather than properties that are for sale the point is there's not there's basically nothing on the market below $100,000 between1 and $200,000 we have 160 for sale also not very much almost all of those I shouldn't say almost all of those but a lot of those are going to be fixed or uppers and the ones that aren't going to be fixed or uppers are going to go under contract very quickly very quickly between 200 and 300,000 so this is the sweet spot right this is kind of Greenville the greater Greenville area sweet spot is the 2 to 300,000 range that's where the most demand is that would be 535 homes that are for sale in that range 220 between 300 and 400,000 and then everything else 400,000 above is the equivalent of 466 active listings so over a third of the active listings are homes that are over $400,000 this is why and and over half are over $300,000 remember the median price point in greater Greenville area is like I say 250,000 it's probably closer to like 240 but but generally speaking you can think of the average home that gets sold in this area as being about a $250,000 home right now well less than half of the homes that are for sale are even close to that over half the homes that are for sale are above 300,000 so that's the problem so here we go this is the way the market is now we've talked about this before but I just want to mention real quick this is why it's important to have a good buyer agent just a Shameless plug cuz I am a realtor I don't just do this just for fun I do enjoy doing this podcast but I don't just do this podcast just for fun this is a way for me to promote myself and so just a Shameless plug I have gotten a lot of clients under contract over the years in multiple offer situations and I also understand what the balance is between going way above what a home is listed for which we have to do sometimes right now or how much wiggle room for negotiation do you have now at the end of the day I I'm not pushy so I won't push my clients to go way above the list price at the end of the day it's up to you how what is this house if you're looking at a house what's it worth to you is it worth it to you to go 10 $15,000 above what it's listed for is is is it worth it to you is this a very unique house you don't think that you're going to find another house like this then you you should probably consider going above the list price if it's a house that you're like I like it but I'd be okay if I lost it then you don't have to to take that strategy so there's not a one-sized fits-all strategy it really just depends on what you do but I try to be very honest and very forthright in terms of okay here's what I think you would need to do to get it that it might not be worth it to you to do that and I'll submit your offer even if it's not an offer I think will be accepted but here is what I'm what I'm seeing in the market and right now I don't really see anything that sells below what it's listed for it's just it's just not happening unless the house is on the market for a really long time and then if it's on the market for a really long time you have an opportunity to go and potentially to get the price down a little bit unless it's a builder if if it's a builder you're not going to get them to come down too much on their price a big production Builder don't even think about it there it's like going to a store and buying something you you don't go to Walmart and start haggling them on the price that's the way the the big production Builders are around here in terms of the homes that they have for sale so all that to say it is a difficult Market to be a buyer in but if you have someone doesn't need to be me just make sure you have a realtor on your side that understands how to get homes under contract in this market that doesn't push you every time to go way above the list price because that's not the right way to do it either you there's a lot more that goes into that than just saying well we got to go above the list price we got to go above the list price you might need to go above the list price to get the house but you also might not feel good about it and if you don't feel good about it then you shouldn't do it so there's a lot to consider there but it it is a it is a challenging Market but we can persevere I've got a lot of buyer clients right now and I'm getting a lot of them under contract if you're looking to get into the market looking to buy you need to make sure you've got a buyer agent that understands how to get you under contract in these difficult times I've talked about this a little bit in my previous podcast so I'm not going to get into the weeds I'm also not going to tell you all my secrets and have all those other agents that are listening to this seal all my secrets all right let's just be honest here but we've talked about this a little bit in the past we' talked about escalation Clauses and and how to word contingencies and how to make your offer a tight offer something that's attractive and appealing to the seller etc etc you can go back and listen to past podcast where I talk about that right now I just wanted to give you guys a quick snapshot of the market yes it is still a very crazy sellers Market but don't let that discourage you from buying it's not like prices are going to go down anytime soon it's not like mortgage rates are going to go down I don't anticipate mortgage rates are going to are going to go below what they were in 2020 they're they're going to keep going up almost certainly almost certainly and so really you have two choices right if you're looking to buy you can either choose to take advantage of the lower mortgage rates and all of that But realize that it's a difficult market right now or you can wait it out knowing that you're going to have homes that continue to go up in price and probably mortgage rates that continue to go up as well so you're going to be spending more you might have less competition it might be a little bit of a more pleasant process of buying but you're going to end up spending more in the long run all right that's all I've got for you guys I hope you guys have a great week we have a little cold front coming in the weather's been great we're going to have a little cold front coming in is what I understand I think it'll still be nice weather I'm looking forward to it trying to get outside as much as possible but I love you guys I hope you have a great rest of the week and stay safe [Music]