Is Kansas City Really Headed for a Bubble?

Is Kansas City in a bubble? To give you a short answer: I don’t think so.

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Is Kansas City in a real estate bubble right now? The short answer is no. This time last year we had about 25% more inventory than there currently is on the market.

Though this statistic varies by price point, prices are up between 5% and 7% across the metro area and buyer demand is strong. In fact, there are between five and six times more buyers in the market than there are sellers.

Baby boomers have been deciding to stay in their homes a little longer and millennials are starting to come on the market, so appreciation is likely going to slow over the next three or four years.

Assuming geopolitical influences stay calm and no major events occur, I believe our market will continue to stay in good shape. I also believe that inventory will start to balance out eventually.

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Inventory is scarce, but it is still a great time to buy.

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With between two to three months of inventory available in recent times, our market heavily favors sellers. It’s a tough time to be a buyer, but waiting out the market isn’t the answer.

If appreciation continues, there isn’t going to be a better time to buy than now. If rates go up even as much as 1%, you’ll really struggle to find as good a deal on monthly payments as is available right now.

Inventory is scarce, but it is still a great time to buy. A lot of the responsibility falls on builders right now, who need to make sure that there is plenty of new construction on the market.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

How to Handle Multiple Offers

Want to buy a Kansas City Home?  Click here to perform a full home search  Want to sell a Kansas City home?  Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation   You may also call us at 1-800-686-5088 for a FREE home buying or selling  consultation to answer any of your real estate questions. 

Right now, we're seeing a lot of multiple offers, which is great news for sellers. When we market a brand new listing, we build a lot of anticipation. Buyers will sit on the listing and wait for it to hit the market. If we price the home at a sweet spot, then that home will get multiple offers, sometimes in less than a week.

Some buyers may think that the only way to win in a multiple offer situation is to offer more money. However, nowadays contracts are 40 to 50 pages long, so there are plenty of opportunities for negotiation. For example:

• The closing date - Being flexible on the closing date is appealing to sellers who may be looking for a home themselves.
• The earnest deposit - Increasing the earnest deposit shows that you are serious about your offer, which is good news to sellers who need to close.
• Inspection dates - Being flexible with inspection dates - or even foregoing certain inspections - will also make your offer more appealing to sellers looking to close on the property.

These are just a few options, but as you can see, there are other things you can negotiate besides purchase price. However, in this market, buyers absolutely need to be pre-approved. If you're working with someone who allows you to shop without a pre-approval, then you have been set up to fail.

Other things to consider when looking for a home are your expectations for your new home, what your time frame is for purchasing, and how much your payments should be. Once you've determined those three things, you can get serious about finding a home.

If you have any questions about today's video, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Avoid These Common Kansas City Home Buying Mistakes

Want to buy a Kansas City Home?  Click here to perform a full home search  Want to sell a Kansas City home?  Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation   You may also call us at 1-800-686-5088 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions. 

Today, we want to warn you about costly mistakes that home buyers make here in Kansas City.

There are a lot of things home buyers need to be weary of in the home buying process. One of the biggest mistakes people make is going out and hiring any Realtor to find them homes, without doing their homework and finding an agent who will get the job done right. Most agents obtain their license online with no actual real estate experience. In fact, the average agent in the Kansas City area sells less than seven homes per year!

It's crucial to get an expert advisor; someone who really knows what they're doing. There are a lot of Realtors out there, but there aren't a lot of expert real estate advisors out there!

Another big mistake home buyers make is getting too emotionally attached to potential homes. When looking at homes, you need to separate facts from emotion. A good advisor will help keep you objective and really look at what the dollar value for you will be. They also make sure you are careful in crafting the terms of any offer you want to make. In other words, home buyers often fail to protect themselves and get taken advantage of in the process.

One mistake we often see buyers make is getting a lender without accountability in the process. A lot of people just jump online and get approved by a large bank and have no relationship with their actual lender. Many people don't realize how helpful personal, face-to-face service can be during the buying process.

We sit down with each and every buyer and go through the entire home buying process, covering each step along the way where decisions need to be made. This gives our buyers reasonable expectations and makes the process a whole lot smoother and stress-free. If you have questions about how we can guide you through the process, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don't hesitate to reach out. We are always here to help!