Realty411 Magazine Featuring Missy McCall-Hammonds | Page 100

A Residential Shortage that is Not Limited By Geography Many areas of the country are suf- fering from this issue – even the big cities, such as New York. Said C. J. Hughes, at least one major obstacle is preventing a surge in residential sales in New York City: Even if buyers want to purchase homes, there aren’t many to choose from. In fact, the current inven- tory crunch, the worst in recent memory, has become the defining feature of New York’s residential mar- ket.” Areas such as New York, which are seeing strong demand for people that want to move into the city, simply cannot keep up with the demand. Hughes quoted Neil Garfinkel, a New York real estate attorney, who said, “Other factors restricting residential inventory today include continued high unemployment and tight credit, industry experts said. Homeowners who are struggling finan- cially or fear they can’t get a mortgage can’t upgrade to larger apartments. That means they’re unlikely to put their own homes on the market. If you can’t trade up, you’re probably not going to sell. Adding insult to injury — for buyers, at least — is that the lack of supply is sending prices of available homes through the roof. In a perverse way, tight credit is making housing prices rise, which is completely con- tradictory. But it is definitely keeping inventory from entering the market in a normal way. The tight market condi- tions have also led to regular bidding wars. Garfinkel estimated that one out of every three Manhattan buyers who comes to his office has engaged in a bidding war of some kind. Last year, by contrast, he might have seen that in just one in ten deals. Things have heated up significantly.” The strong demand for residential homes and the combination of the credit crunch and the banks’ unwillingness to able in plenty in the probate business and it offers a significant amount of opportunities to not only investors, but to individual homeowners who really want to purchase a new home and not wait for a change in the economy. Experts estimate that nearly 100,000 probates are filed each and every month in the United States. Each pro- bate filed nearly always has property attached to it – including everything from boats, to cars, vacation homes, businesses, commercial property and yes, residential property. This means that there is a constant flow of resi- dential properties into the market in a way that the larger economy simply isn’t seeing at this time. There are significant benefits to focus- ing on finding a residential property through probate. The process itself is guided by the courts and requires that property be distributed or liquidated in order to close the filing. In order to do that, the court empowers an Executor, who can be a family member, friend, attorney or accountant to make the decisions for the estate. This is a benefit to residential buyers because Executors know that the prop- erty they represent needs to be sold in order to pay taxes, medical bills, legal fees and funeral costs. Discounts and Quick Closings are Common sell foreclosed properties in a timely manner at a reasonable price have left homeowners with few options. Probate Properties Provide the Solution The probate industry continues to flourish despite the overarching chang- es to the residential real estate market. Residential real estate is always avail- Because of this fact, many Executors are prepared to sell residential homes for up to thirty to fifty percent below the current market value. These dis- counts are not only due to their need to sell the home, but because most Executors are quite realistic about their property. While the “bones” of the home may be good and it may be in an excellent area, their loved one may not have had the energy to take move and the credit market and resi- dential inventory so low, bidding wars and higher prices are now the norm. David Brown, a housing analyst, was quoted as saying, “I continue to hear anecdotal reports of strong demand: multiple offers on a property, prices getting bid up above the listing price, and homes selling before they official- ly hit the market. Unless more exist- ing homes get listed or builders start more homes, the housing market will remain very competitive for buyers the remainder of the year.”