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 as always Stan Mccune realtor

right here in the Greenville area of

South Carolina well I'm in Greenville

proper I used to be in Greer I bounced

around a few different places but I'm in

Greenville right near Midtown

Greenville in case you're really

wondering and you can find all of my

contact information as always in the

show notes if you need to reach out to

me for any of your local real estate

needs and just a reminder as always

please like rate review subscribe don't

miss any future episodes I've got this

podcast on a lot of platforms I actually

just added a few platforms which by

the way one of those was YouTube okay

now I've been doing video on YouTube for

over a year U but they recently added a

whole

podcast thing where you can actually

have a podcast feed to YouTube I'm still

figuring out exactly what that means

but I've gotten some questions because

the audio and the video are separated

out on my Selling Greenville pod YouTube

channel so just keep that in mind

there's going to be until unless and

until I can figure out how to not have

it this way there's going to be an audio

version and a video version on YouTube

on the same channel, I apologize for that

that's a YouTube Quirk that's not

something I can control but I

since I added this to YouTube as audio

as part of a stream the past week

holy cow a whole lot more interest in

the podcast some some good questions

that have come through on YouTube and

and I appreciate those I try to respond

to every single good question that I

get on YouTube that's not you know

some scammer or spammer or troll or

whatever the case may be so thank you

guys for watching and for listening

and please make sure you subscribe

and if you can support the show by

leaving a rating or review or a like or

whatever the case may be I would greatly

appreciate that all right I'm going to

be kind of winging this episode but

not because you know I just like to

wing things I actually like to Really

prepare these episodes out but I feel

like we are kind of at a point and

I've talked about this a few different

times on a few different episodes but I

I feel like we really need to kind of

take a step back right I can get

particularly me and some of my listeners

if you're a Real Estate Investors you

can get really really close to the

market so close that you kind of miss

the forest for the trees and and you

know as we're taking things day by day

it's easy to lose track of what's

Happening month by month and year by

year even when I go through the market

stats that come out that the great

Greenville Association of Realtors

produces each and every month it is

is still very easy for me to lose track

of like what's actually happening

and so sometimes it's helpful to just

take a step back take a deep breath and

say okay how is the market like

genuinely different than the way it's

been in the past I get a lot of

questions from people specifically

about this and I want to address

those questions and we're

going to not just going to talk about

we're not going to rehash Market stats

okay that'll probably next week's

episode where we go over the month's

Market stats we don't have them yet I'm

recording this on May 20th has

not produced those yet for the month

of April so I'm still waiting on those

but I'm just going to talk about what

I am personally seeing as a real turn I

think you guys will find it interesting

all right for starters all right we're

just going to start at the

top creative negotiation is back

okay we we went through a stretch where

there really wasn't a whole lot of

creative negotiations right if when it's

an extreme extreme Market whether an

extreme seller's Market or an extreme

buyer Market there isn't a whole lot of

creative negotiation that happens

because one of the two parties holds all

the cards basically they have all the

leverage and so they basically dictate

where the negotiation goes well as

the market has kind of you know shifted and

kind of settled and kind of you know

become what it is I'm really starting

to see really the past 6 months you want

to go back a little bit further probably

the past 12 months but really in

particular the past few months' creative

negotiation and here's where here's

here's something I really love okay

that's is actually getting in

the weeds of negotiating with other

Realtors because it really is a game and

if you guys know me well you know I love

games and and I so I was actually

playing game with my church small group

recently that was all about having a

poker face and I kept getting so

it was it was a game where you could

kind of be like it right where where

there was like one card that was like

the bad guy but you had to pretend like

you weren't the bad guy and then the

rest of the group would vote on who

they thought the bad guy was based on a

variety of answers and I kept winning

even though I kept getting that one card

that was a bad guy and that was it was

all about my poker face I'm not trying

to brag about my poker face but that

is a bigger element than you think in

real estate negotiating there is actual

bluffing in real estate negotiation

and it happens quite a bit and I've

got two examples from just recently so I

had a listing where we got an offer

that was below list price and the

home hadn't been on the market that long

it really didn't make sense for the

seller to accept the offer and the buyer

wasn't willing to counter or

entertain counters and so I talked to

the sellers they were just like yeah

we're just going to we're going to pass

on this offer we're we're not interested

in accepting

it well I didn't right away I needed

you know a little bit of time in order

to in order to get back with the

seller and discuss a few

other things with them and then

as far as the buyer agent was concerned

I wasn't in front of my computer to

immediately you know send them an

offer Rejection it was also late at

night and so I was kind of already

done with paperwork and whatnot well but

then before I was able to to send the

offer rejection I got another offer from

another from another agent and before

they sent the offer they called me and

they were just like hey do you have any

other offers on the table well even

though I'd gotten instructions from my

clients that they said that they

probably weren't going to accept the

offer I didn't have anything in writing

from them yet that said that and I

hadn't sent anything in writing yet back

to the to the other agent hadn't

discussed anything with the other agent

yet so nothing I was doing was unethical

it so the honest thing for me to

say to that agent was that yes we did

have another offer and had she asked

is the seller going to accept it are

they going to reject it how are they

going to respond to the offer then I

would have had to figure out what I was

how I was going to respond to that in an

honest and ethical way obviously we have

to be honest we have to be ethical

this agent did not ask me those questions

instead, you know tried to get as much

information you know tried to figure out

how much the offer was for tried to

figure out you know tried to feel me out

and basically I was just like I don't

have permission from the sellers to

reveal this information which I didn't

and if you guys know in a multiple offer

situation you do have to get the

seller's permission to reveal that sort

of information otherwise, you are not

representing your seller well and

so long story short is we went back and

forth a lot of you know doing a lot of

different things and this person

eventually did send me an offer and the

offer was for quite a bit above what the

home was listed for so we went from an

offer that was well below what the home

was listed for I used that offer in

order to negotiate an offer that was substantial

higher than what the home had been

listed for so that's one thing I got

a big kick out of that okay I'm not

going to get paid that much more for

getting my client that much more money

and it's substantial we're talking about

over $20,000 more than they'll be

getting versus if they had accepted

the initial offer that doesn't

translate to a to a huge additional

commission to me but it translates to a

whole lot more satisfaction for me

because I love being able to provide

that value for a

client additionally and this one

just happened recently I had

a situation where with another listening of

mine I had a buyer agent send me an

offer and the offer was a little bit low

it wasn't wasn't too crazy low but it

was lower than what I felt like

the seller should accept I talked to the

seller, it was lower than what they

you know really wanted to accept

but based on the pre-approval letter and

some other things I wasn't really sure

if the buyer could actually go up very

much on the price and one thing me as an

agent, I'm always skeptical and always

Leery and and not weary but wary that's

a that's a common thing a lot of people

will say I'm weary of something when

they're actually wary of something

I'm always very wary of a buyer

particularly like a first-time home

buyer that is right at the max of their

budget because guess what in this market

where we have these high interest rates

there's a lot of contracts falling

through a like almost right away as soon

as a buyer starts to see the numbers and

starts to see what their monthly payment

will be just back out right away during

their due diligence period that's one

of the things that has happened as this

Market has settled it's unfortunate

but people get that sticker shock when

they when they finally realize oh my

gosh I'm going to have to pay 2,000 a

month for this house or 2500 a month for

this house or whatever the case may be

and so I was I was nervous about

that and I wanted

to kind of feel that one out without

revealing my hand that my clients were

interested in in countering and so I

went back to the agent to discuss

several questions that I had and then at

the end I said you know you one of

the concern that I have here is that it

seems like based on the pre-approval

letter and some other things that maybe

the buyer is purchasing right at the top

of their price point with this offer

that you've made so I just wanted I

just want to double-check on that now

remember the offer that that that we

have in hand is less than the counter

that most likely the sellers are going

to make right I hadn't confirmed the

counter yet I was getting this

information from the buyer agent first

before we actually made a formal

counter but I wanted to not just

see can they afford I wasn't even sure

if they could afford the offer that they

made so I needed to confirm that but I

also wanted to confirm if they could

could afford more than that without

actually asking it right if I went to

the agent I was like Hey the seller

is going to counter this they want

more money can your client afford it

that puts that agent in a situation

where she might be revealing information

that is basically confidential to her

client so I had to ask it a different

way and the way I asked it was

expressing a concern which was also not

a lie it was a genuine concern that they

actually couldn't afford even the offer

that they had

made and when I asked that question I

got precisely the answer I wanted and

that was oh yeah they can afford $30 to

$40,000 more than this they they've

looked at other they've been looking at

other homes a lot more expensive than

this it's just that they feel more

comfortable closer to this price point

Bingo that gave me the information that

I needed without me even having to ask

the question that I was really thinking

in the back of my head so that is the

type of creative negotiations that are

back and I thrive in this sort of a

market so I'm very excited to see

that happening okay moving along I spent

more time on that than I than I thought

I would so moving right along here

active inventory we got to talk about

that for a second active inventory

I'm not going to spend a lot whole lot

of time here because we've talked about

it before but I want to consolidate a

lot of things into this podcast active

inventory is the highest it's been and

basically Al 5 years so buyers when

they're looking they have more options

on the market right now than what

they've had in approximately 5 years now

does that mean that there's a lot of

good options no there's still not a lot

of great options, it's still a low

inventory environment but buyers have

way way more options than they've had in

a long time that's that's generally a

very good thing right obviously if

you're a seller and if you're selling a

difficult home to sell not a good thing

but if you're if you're a buyer

and a lot of sellers are also buyers

it's a good thing in that instance let's

talk about rates for a second which

we've talked about a good bit but we've

had some movement lately so rates

started to go back up in the first

quarter of this year which we discussed

I had a bad prediction at the end of

last year that rates would stay below 7%

on Mortgage News Daily for the entire

year that didn't happen they went up

in the first quarter because the

inflation data the the jobs data the

wage data everything came in hotter than

expected and so the the expectation

of the FED cutting rates got that was

priced into the market that ended up

going away when all this data came in

hot and the FED started saying H we're

not we're not going to lower rates

anytime soon so that pushed mortgage

rates to be priced higher than what they

had been but they've come back down a

little after some data that's come out

this month has showed that things are

actually cooling off a bit so some of

this inflation jobs wage data has

started to cool off a little

bit and it's cooled off honestly a

lot in since what

2021 so it's not like it hasn't

cooled off at all during that time but

we kind of reached a point where it was

kind of stagnating where we weren't

seeing a whole lot of movement in the

inflation data well we finally got a

little bit of movement

this month that helped so now we have

seen mortgage rates come down just a

little bit and I'll mention as well that

most of the high inflation data right

now is being driven by shelter and

insurance inflation Homeowners' insurance

auto insurance inflation and so

really the the core when people think

about inflation right going to the

grocery store going to you know the

clothing stores or whatever and seeing

prices a lot higher going to fast food

seeing prices a whole lot higher in

those markets and those parts of the

economy the inflation data has really

really moderated okay right now the high

inflation is being driven by shelter and

insurance for the most part and so

really the inflation data isn't as bad

as it appears if you're just looking

at headline numbers and so all of

that has contributed to mortgage rates

not you know they've tapered off a

little bit from the high that they

hit a few weeks ago now I just want

to be clear on this because someone on

Facebook called me out on this

which was kind of silly it was more of a

troll in my opinion than anything

because I put that we had the biggest

one day drop in mortgage rates in the

entire year this past week

now that doesn't mean that they Dro they

didn't drop from 7 and 1.2% to 6 and a

half% that doesn't happen they dropped

from it was like from maybe 7.11 to 6.99

something like that well that was the

the biggest drop of the entire year the

biggest drop since December I believe if

if I remember correctly of last year

nothing was inaccurate about what I said

but a loan officer who likes to troll

some of my posts whenever I talk about

mortgages this loan officer wanted

to point out that that actually rates

have not dropped right the FED has not

dropped rates accurate it's the

pricing of mortgage rates that has

improved as a result of these Market

forces that I've already described so

just to be clear the FED has not dropped

rates mortgage rates have dropped as a

result of Market forces but they

haven't dropped tremendously right

they're still in that 7% range right now

now as far as the FED is concerned

they're expected drops rate rates

later this year but not by much we we

maybe see a September you know 25 you

know 25 basis point drop we might see

another rate drop before the end of the

year maybe we'll get to 50 basis points

I'm not expecting there to be at this

stage based on what the FED is saying a

ton of dropping of of the fed

Benchmark rates which would then impact

mortgage rates you know as a

byproduct here's something that's

interesting moving on to my fourth

thing that I'm noticing here is

the foreclosures and short sales are

back now before you get really excited

right if you're an investor or a buyer

that is like oh foreclosures and short

sales are

back yeah they're back but they're

not back a whole lot right I've shown a

couple of them the past few months I'm

not we haven't seen a ton of them but in

comparison to the past few years where

we saw none of them we're seeing a lot

more than we've seen in a long time now

what's interesting you know some people

are GNA are going to hear that probably

and what they'll hear is oh the economy

is turning the housing Market's crashing

I'm not ready to say that yet because

the foreclosures and short sales

that I'm seeing right now are not from

people that have purchased the past few

years in these in this higher interest

rate environment now it's very possible

in the next few years we'll see a bunch

of foreclosures from them as well time

will tell but right now the foreclosures

and short sales that we're seeing are

being driven by investors that didn't

know what they were doing that got in

over their head you know trying to

trying to become a real estate investor

you know flipping their first house

that sort of thing I'm seeing

foreclosures on that front or short

sales on that front I'm also seeing

it on the front of the older

population or people not in good

health that are just nor noral owner

occupants who have owned a home for a

really really long time and don't

have the higher mortgage rates they're

just not able to afford their mortgage

anymore and we might see this as the

Boomer population really starts to age

you know we're at a point where the

older Boomers which I talked about a few

episodes ago are really starting to

to get older and sometimes what happens

is they start to run out of money and

is really sad when that happens but they

could find themselves in a situation

where they're foreclosing sometimes they

you know are in in a situation

where they have been paying their

mortgage manually sending in a check

every month that sort of thing and they

get into bad Health end up you know in

the hospital or in daycare or whatever

and stop making payments

because their mind is somewhere else

right they're they're dealing with

health issues dealing perhaps dealing

with issues with their mind as well

my dad who passed away last year you

know the last couple of months of his

life he was the one paying the bills

he stopped paying them and did and you

know he had been paying bills his whole

life it was just at the end of his life

it it the the mind just no longer

prioritizes that sort of thing and it's

it's not even a consideration you you

lose track of time you you you're

disoriented and so those are the

sorts of things that I'm seeing and that

is why I'm seeing those are

kind of the categories that I'm seeing

these foreclosures and short sales not a

lot of them and nothing that I'm ready

to draw major conclusions from at this

point but stay tuned it's very

possible that we could see more

foreclosures and short sales coming back

in the market again like I said right

now the people that have purchased with

these higher rates they are not getting

foreclosed on yet and I don't

anticipate that happening because

most of them have a ton of Equity but

the people that maybe bought overspent

in like 2022 for instance they would

be the most at risk but we're only a

couple of years removed from 2022 most

people don't foreclose that quickly I

mean the foreclosure process itself

usually takes a year or two so like I

said we'll just have to keep track of

that and see if that becomes more of a

trend or if it just kind of stays

on the trajectory that it's currently

at hand and with this and

this is something that's exciting for me

I'm starting to see some retail

either on MLS or off MLS with a realtor

which remember we have a way of doing

off MLS listings that are not pocket

listings they are called brokerage

exclusive so I'm with CED and Realtors

we're one of the largest if not the

largest real estate company in

Greenville and so people can list

stay home just with sedan Jordan

Realtors it doesn't go on the Internet

or anything it is a retail

listing it's reported to the greater

Greenville Association of Realtors the

MLS and all of that but it just doesn't

appear anywhere except for in sedan

Joiner agents email inboxes and it can

only be marketed to other San Joiner

agents every company has has the option

of doing these brokerage exclusive

listings it's not just a c Dan Joiner

thing but we just have a lot of

Agents so we see this a lot more so

that combined with on MLS stuff I am

seeing properties coming on Market

retail Market you know not we're not

talking about wholesale we're not

talking about off-market truly off

Market kind of stuff I'm seeing these

things on the retail Market that are

flippable properties for the first time

in five or six years so that is a

noteworthy Trend okay now that

doesn't mean that they're easy to get

the competition is fierce for these

types of properties so that's something

to to keep in mind but that's great I

would love love love love to see the

market return back to a market where you

see one two three properties come on MLS

heck more if possible that would be

flip worthy Properties or or properties

that you could purchase and you know

have some Instant

Equity let's talk about multi-family

for a second right you guys know if you

if you know me if you've listened to

this I'm not a multi-family I'm not

a big multi-family specialist like

apartment complexes and things like that

but I have always worked in the small

multi-family space the the duplexes the

quads the you know small packages

I've got an 11 door package in

Simpsonville right now I have I have

listed that's four buildings 11 units

all on one plot one I should really

say one plat right next to

Simpsonville Elementary if you're

interested in that let me know I'll send

you the information on it but multi-family

sellers right now now there's not

a lot of multi-family on the market now

there's more than there has been but

there's still not a lot but multi-family

sellers still are not motivated

right they

are they're they're cash flowing and if

they don't get the price that they're

looking for they're simply not selling

it's that simple so it's it's a

challenging Market even though we're

seeing some flippable properties come on

the market we're still not seeing a

whole lot of major changes in the

small mult M family space we'll see if

that changes right I've discussed before

a lot of these multif Family Properties

are on 5year loans and so as those loans

start to come to maturity people have to

refinance all of a sudden they might

realize well I've got to double my

interest payment and the numbers might

not pencil for them in the way that that

they were hoping that they would so we

might start to see at some point here in

the next couple of years multi-family

be come on the market and maybe have

more motivated sellers at the moment

most multi-family sellers that I'm

communicating with they are not what I

would describe as motivated they have a

price they want to get that price if

they don't get it they're just going to

sit on the property for a few more years

and keep cash flowing and then maybe

sell it in a few years for that price

and so that's something that we'll

have to continue to keep tabs on but

the on-market multi-family

segment slim pickings at the moment and

if you're wanting to enter that space

you've got to be prepared to pay pretty

close to if not exactly what the seller

is asking for let's talk about due

diligence for a

second so if you guys are active

listeners of the show you know a couple

of years ago Greenville Chang and really

the state of South Carolina well let me

back up for a second all right I got to

explain this for those that don't know

so the South Carolina Association of

Realtors produced is real estate forms

that every realtor in the state of South

Carolina can use to do their real estate

basically all the real estate core

paperwork agreements between clients

sellers disclosures purchase agreements

addendums all of that sort of stuff

so the South Carolina Association of

Realtors does this as a member benefit

for every single realtor in South

Carolina now some local

associations also have their own

paperwork

Greenville doesn't so Greenville is one

of the markets and Spartanburg is the

same Greenville Spartanburg, Western

Upstate is the same as well basically

the entire Upstate of South Carolina

the uniform is that Realtors use the

what we call star 310 form 310 that is

the state purchase agreement that pretty

much everyone uses when it's a retail

real estate

transaction well a couple years ago

there was a big change where we changed

from repair procedure which basically

said that sellers needed to ensure that

there were nine categories of things

that were in functional condition but

there was a lot of debate over

interpreting those nine things it

changed from that to a wide open-ended

due diligence contract and under due

diligence the contract is essentially

the the way it was described to me by

one of the top people with the South

Carolina Association of Realtors

the contract is by default as is a

seller is not required to do any repairs

at all but the buyer can back out for

any reason during their due diligence

period what is the thing that keeps the

buyer from doing that well they have to

agree upfront to pay a termination fee

if they back out now it can be a z

termination fee but usually it's $500 to

$1,000 sometimes more sometimes less

just depending on the

deal well we've now had this system in

place for two years there was a lot of

growing pains at the beginning some

people didn't like it but I think

people have pretty much gotten used to

it but I heard someone complain to me

recently that the that this due

diligence system has flipped from being

very seller friendly in 2022 to now in

2024 it's very buyer friendly that was a

complaint that I heard and I just want

to say a that's true and B that's

exactly the way it works because it

doesn't take sides it is just an an

open-ended way of doing it and it ref it

mirrors the market and I said this when

this first came out I told you guys you

guys were the first ones to hear this

probably that it was going to change

whether it was buyer friendly or seller

friendly based on the market and in fact

the South Carolina Association of

Realtors said this as well when they

trained us they actually came to my

office and and they trained my office on

this and they asked people do you think

that this favors buyers some people

raise their hand do you think this

favors sellers other people raise their

hands and they then want to describe it

doesn't favor either but it depends on

the market it doesn't inherently favor

either but it depends on the market it

could favor one party or the other right

now it is tilted a little bit in my

opinion towards favoring the buyers

not a whole lot it's not like buyers can

ask for the moon and and get that

that but it is slightly favoring

buyers right now and sellers just have

to to stand their ground and understand

what leverage they may or may not have

you know if there is a repair that just

has to be done like I had a I had a

seller recently that while they're under

contract their AC went bad the the

compressor went bad and you know that's

an expensive repair and and that's a a

frustrating thing to do when you're

selling a home and you know your AC has

been working fine and you know you

thought you were going to be able to get

by with selling it and then it goes bad

that that's that's really lousy

but in this market you can't sell a home

with a with a bad AC and so they had to

agree to fix

that but obviously if buyers are

coming in asking for a bunch of ticky

Tech things and if you have a home that

for instance you got a ton of activity

maybe multiple offers on use a sell need

to stand your ground and say I don't

need to do all these Ticky teac things

you need to weigh the moment and the

environment and and all of the data and

of course me as a realtor I help my

clients assess all of these different

things and and determine how to

approach the due diligence period and

what repairs you agree to and what

repairs you don't agree to based on

that but understand it is a little

bit more buyer friendly not dramatically

but a little bit more buyer friendly on

on this front than it has been in the

past and that's just because buyers

again they have more options than

they've had so they're a little bit more

confident that if this contract falls

through they're going to be able to find

something else start contrast from 2021

when the market was at its craziest

Point When Buyers were having to wave

repairs say we won't make any repairs or

if we back out we'll pay

$10,000 to the seller things like

that that were happening that was

that was a a crazy environment that

was extremely seller

friendly it has definitely swung from

that to being more buyer friendly but

it's not as dramatic as it could be now

if we go into a true full-blown buyer

Market which I'm going to discuss here

in a second then then we could see it

where buyers are really really asking

for the moon and maybe can get it okay

but we're not there yet and it's

going to be a while if we get there

there it's going to be a while before

we get there now while we're talking

about buyers I will mention that

buyers in general are just taking long

time making up their mind and quite

frankly are being a bit difficult in

negotiations like almost no buyer is

offering a full price offer right now

even on homes that have just came on the

market I was just talking to a buyer

agent that made an offer on a listing

that I had and it was a lowball offer

and her explanation you know she sent me

a single comp and the comp was nothing

comparable at all right there was like

two things about this comp that were

similar to the house that I had

listed and I told her I was you know I

just called it out I was just like this

is not a comparable property and here's

why I mean I gave a list of like 10

things that were not comparable about

the property and I think she knows I I I

don't really know why she even was

arguing with me but it didn't

matter I got the house under contract

for substantially more for

how much more for $45,000 more

than what her client was offering anyway

so my price was a you know what I

what I believe the price that that house

was worth was a lot closer than what she

believed based on her one comp but this

is what we are running into with buyers

and buyers agents they're taking a

really long time buyers are are are not

in a rush you know it's like well maybe

something else will come on the market

you know it's I this house checks off

maybe you know six of my 10 boxes can I

get to seven or eight boxes checked off

and then like I said being difficult in

negotiations this is market-wide and I

think that this is contributing to

you know I'm I'm hearing realtor saying

that they feel like the busy season has

been slow for them it's not been slow

for me but I'm suspecting that what

they're feeling and I have felt this is

is this very Dynamic that buyers are not

super motivated they're willing to take

their time they're willing to see what

happens in the market they're willing

to see what happens with rates they're

they're just willing to take longer and

rent longer or whatever the case may be

than buyers have for for the past four

years and that's something you know if

you're a buyer or seller that's

something to keep in mind as you go

through the buying or selling

process here's one that I hoped I

wouldn't have to say but I have to say

it anyway and that is that low

appraisals are once again a concern as

appraisers start considering the way the

market is Shifting yes I just I have not

yet had a low appraisal but I'm sweating

out a few of them we'll see but I

know several agents that have had low

appraisals this year some really really

low frustratingly low this year and

even going back into last year and

that's something that we really need to

monitor because appraisers are are going

to be looking at the past 12 months and

figuring out okay and and really they

want to look at the past 6 months but

they'll they'll look back usually at the

past 12 months and if they see

that the trajectory of the market is bad

they're going to ding a house on the

basis of that and so they have a

report I went through this with you guys

a few months ago the market

conditions teendom report they will

look at that and if they see that the

market is a decreasing median price

point depending on the type of loan that

the buyer is getting that could weigh

into how they appraise a house and so be

on the lookout low appraisals are are

something that we have to be weary not

weary although they do make me weary as

well we need to be wary about low

appraisals yet again it's been a

minute appraisers have have I feel

like done a pretty good job at least the

appraisers that have have worked on my

files the past few years have done a

really good job keeping up with the

market and I'm not saying that you know

I I don't want this to sound like when

there's a low appraisal that it's the

appraiser it's the Appraiser's fault you

shouldn't have done it low that's a bad

appraisal not every low appraisal is a

bad appraisal but it's just something

to keep tabs on that it is a it is as

we've discussed on this show before a

bit of an art not strictly a science so

one appraiser will appraise something at

full price another appraiser will

appraise it $30,000 is below what

it's under contract or what it's

listed for and and and so that

arbitrariness that is just a part of the

appraisal world and the appraisal

industry that becomes that that

causes it to become things to become

more prone to low appraisals when we

have an environment like this where you

know things are a little bit iffy right

some areas are not doing as well well

I mean we talked about Lauren South

Carolina you know a a few weeks ago

that that's a market that could see a

little bit of of of depressed demand

here in the upcoming months and years

and and we've already started to see

that not not every home in lawrens again

you've got to understand that what's

happening on a meta-level doesn't

necessarily appli to every single home

but when appraiser is looking at things

they're looking at things from a meta

level

and so that can impact the way

they approach it and and and result

in low appraisals at at the end of the

day now let's let's address the

question that I keep getting and or keep

hearing people make an opinion on and

that is is it a sell's market or a

buyer's market I still contend as

someone that approaches this from the

perspective of of doing this from a

living now for eight and a half years

have having been a real estate investor

prior to that so having seen Market

fluctuations you know I would even

say I've been following the market very

very closely since 2009 when I was a

first-time home buyer that was really

what got me interested in real estate to

begin with so from that standpoint 15

years of data this is very much still a

seller's Market from that perspective

but from the perspective, and the

standpoint of people who purchased real

estate within the past four to five

years and who are now selling it doesn't

feel that way it feels like a buyer

Market and I hear that over and over

again from sellers even sellers who were

selling for dramatically more than what

they bought their home for just a few

years ago even in their mind it feels

like a sellers Market because or a buyer

Market because it's so ingrained to

their mind just how intense it was when

they bought just a few years ago and now

they're seeing it is not that intense

anymore the market say what you want

but it's it's definitely not as crazy of

a sellers Market but just because it's

not the craziest sellers Market in the

history of sellers markets which is what

it was between 2020 between mid 2020 and

mid

2022 that's not the measuring stick so

just because it's not the extreme

sellers Market doesn't mean it's a buyer

Market in my opinion so I believe what

we've done is we've moderated that

sellers market we've gone from the most

extreme sellers Market in the history of

real estate to a very very moderate

Market that is close to aflat

market right neither a buyers nor

sellers Market but to me the die out is

still turned towards sellers in that

they're still getting 98 to 99% of what

they have a home listed for it's still

going under contract within two months

inventory is still on the lower

end of the spectrum historically so all

of these things add up together to me

and tell tell me that it's it's still a

sellers Market even if recency bias

makes some people believe that it is a

buyer Market all right this has gone on

long enough let's look ahead for just

one second and let's talk about what

will impact the

market in the month of August and that

is the what we've talked a few times

since the national association of

Realtors had this compensation

settlement that they did now by agent

compensation is not going away unlike

what the headlines say by the

deceptive news media what is going away

is the offers of compensation in the

multiple listing service in MLS now

that means a few different things right

you can still offer compensation if I'm

listing a home I'm a listing agent I can

still offer to split my commission with

a buyer's agent and that is still what I

intend to do because I still see the

value in Buyer Agents but I have to

advertise that in different ways

we're still figuring out exactly how

that's going to be advertised so like

for instance, it could be on the real

estate sign right that you put in the

front yard it could say on there you

know X

commission three oranges I'm

offering a commission of four oranges to

whoever buys this house right we're not

supposed to say percentages that's a

that's a mistake I've made in the past

not going to say any percentages or any

amounts

we'll just go with the theoretical as

if we get compensated by with

oranges so I could put on on my sign

writer, I could put offering four or

oranges to a buyer agent I can put on my

personal website as long as there's not

a real estate what we call an IDX feed

to that that's coming from an MLS I can

put it on my website I can

communicate it over the phone via text

message I can communicate it via email

there's a lot of ways that I can

communicate

compensation but what's going to

happen is I suspect probably a lot of

Agents won't even call and ask what

compensation is once these changes go

into effect it's now going to be mid

August I suspect that there so we

have a compensation Form that the again

the State Association of Realtors

provides to all South Carolina Realtors

it's it's been in there for years right

and this form is typically used for for

sale by owner transactions or perhaps if

you're realtor out of market so for

instance let's say you're a North

Carolina agent you're not licensed in

South Carolina but you have a client

that wants to use you in South Carolina

and sorry I misspoke you are

licensed in South Carolina but the this

Market isn't your primary market and

maybe you're not a part of the

Greenville MLS for instance maybe you're

a part of the Columbia MLS whatever that

one's called and if you're not a part

of the MLS you have to have a

compensation agreement signed between

the listing agent and the buyer agent

and or the buyer agent and the

seller showing having your

compensation put in writing what I

suspect is that that compensation

agreement is just going to become a

standard form that's just sent in with

all offers and we might not even have

agents call up and ask buyers’ agents

call up and ask the listing agent if

they're if they're offering any

compensation they're just going to go

ahead and send that form along with

the offer

and how does that impact things well

one thing's for sure I don't think we

can guarantee that it's going to mean

commissions are going down in any

meaningful way I I don't know there's

not going to be a way for us to track it

anymore so we also won't be able to

to provide any data about it because

none of that will be trackable so

I'll have to you know come back on

later you know maybe at the end of this

year and do and anecdotally say what I

have experience with my listings

after you know we've had a few months of

the system in place after August but

we'll just have to see but I don't

think that you know the original

changes that when these changes were

announced I think we all kind of thought

okay this is this is big this is going

to like radically change a lot of things

and now that I have gotten all the

information received all the information

talked to so many different people on

the national state and local level

really the changes are not going to

be as dramatic as you might expect

for buyers and sellers of real

estate now the big one that we're not

sure about yet is VA buyers currently

that is a big sticking point because

this settlement really messes up the

way the VA has their loan structure set

up so we're working with the VA to try

to come up with a solution and I'm

pretty confident a Sol solution will

be will be provided for VA

buyers because that VA program they

they have a lot of smart people that

have really improved that program over

the years and everyone wants the VA

to get the full benefit of having served

in our

military and so I think that that will

work out the big question mark moving

forward after August is how will the

the change in how compensation are

communicated and agreed upon how will

that change here's the interesting part

right this compensation Form I

referenced it can ask for either the

listing agent or for the seller to

compensate the buyer's agent so

that's going to be interesting right

let's say that the the seller

has agreed to compensate both the

listing and well basically has

agreed to compensate the listing

agent with the understanding that the

listing agent will then share their

compensation with the buyer agent if a

compensation agreement then comes over

and says that the seller has to pay for

the buyer agent commission right

as opposed to the listing agent now

we've got to figure this out okay well

what does that mean is the seller now

double paying are they paying the

commission obviously we you know if I'm

representing the seller they're not

going to be double paying any

commissions but these are there's

going to be some growing pay the second

half of this year okay I told you guys

this when we went through the due

diligence contract in 2022 when that

changed I said there's going to be

growing pains and sure enough there were

it's going to be the same thing when

this all changes in August with

regard to buyer agent compensation we're

going to have Growing Pains but we got

through it in due diligence and guess

what in my opinion we're better off for

it and I genuinely believe we will be

better off for this as well once this

all gets finalized I didn't like it

at first now that I've gotten a

you know all this information all this

education on it I kind of like it I

kind I kind of like it that it's going

to make compensation in a lot of ways

clearer and it's going to make it you

know less focused on what's happening in

MLS and it's it's just going to I think

make it cleaner we'll see I might be

wrong about that it's going to create

more work for realtors but that's

fine

we we we can work harder that's

not that's not the worst thing in the

world and at some point, you know there

will be I'm sure there will be a

technological solution of MLS that

allows us to be able to find these

offers of compensation in

easier ways than us just having to call

and text you know listing agents to

see what the deal is so that's TBD

but I wanted to bring it up because

that's really the big the biggest

thing that I can't discuss in this

episode but that we will be discussing

in future episodes as far as how the

market is settling out so that's all I

have for you guys for this week's

episode thank you so much for watching

or listening if you like this content

please like rate review subscribe

comment all of those good things by the

way I would like to do a Q&A episode

soon so if you have Q&A questions

that you would like answered, please

send those to me you can send those to

me via my contact information in the

show notes as well as if you need a

realtor that's also where you go if you

need a realtor in South Carolina in

Greenville specifically find my contact

information there but you can shoot

me a Q&A that way or if you comment on

YouTube I will see it on there if you

have a question in there I might even

pull up some past questions that

I've gotten and bring those in I'm

not sure when the Q&A episode's going to

happen I need to see how much how

many responses I get I'd like to have

at least 10 questions so please send

those in it could be anything

anything about the local real estate

market perhaps even the national real

estate market mortgage rates anything

pertaining to that or if you have

questions about me personally right if

you want to send me a silly question

the worst thing I can do is say no I'm

not going to include that on the show

but I'm not going to take it

personally, if you guys choose to do that

so thank you guys for listening I

appreciate all of you guys like I said

like great you subscribe contact

information in the show notes and we

will talk again next time