The Truth: The Seasonality of Albuquerque’s Real Estate Market

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

One last thing I wanted to hit on Tracy is the seasonality of our market. Um, I know we’re just about out of time, but I wanted to just say there’s been a lot of conversations out there about, oh, the market is slowing down. There’s, you know, there’s more homes coming on the market. There’s um, you know, it’s well, let’s, let’s not put more into that. Yeah. Let’s not put the truth. It is not the truth. There’s been some national stories that, that show that, but here locally, Albuquerque, that’s not happening right now. We’re actually a hundred less homes in the market this week than just last week. So we’re actually declining in a number of homes in the market. We’re at historically low level of homes on the market. We still have strong buyer demand. And so, you know, the, the so-called slowdown that we’re seeing, um, even though it, it, it’s not the franticness that we had earlier in the year.

Tego:

Um, there’s still a lot of buyers out there and I’ll just say, one last thing is it’s very common that we do see a little bit less activity, a little less by buyer activity this time of year. It’s very common and there’s nothing unusual about it at all. Exactly. And so, you know, the people that are thinking, okay, here it comes, the market’s shifting. It’s like, no, this is, this is pretty much normal seasonal trends. Um, one thing I, you know, that, that we see year after year is that home prices tend to kind of peak out this time of year. What, what people are, what they’re selling for. They kind of, they kind of level off through the fall and into the winter and then usually go roaring back in the spring. So we’ll see if that, that historic trend stays.

Seller Question: Should I renovate my Albuquerque home before selling it?

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:

Sellers questions. They ask a lot. Should I renovate my house before I sell it? Tego?

Tego:

Yeah. That’s uh, that one comes up a lot and, and I think the, the answer, unfortunately, I’m going to take the cop-out answer is the answer depends. And the, the, the real answer is ask your realtor, ask your agent for advice, because it really is going to vary house to house to house. I will say, uh, just to make one broad statement is that major renovations usually do not pay for themselves, uh, if you’re going to do them and then just sell immediately for the most part, again, very generalized. It does not major renovations do not pay off. And when I’m saying major vendor renovations, I’m saying, you know, redoing the kitchen, redoing all the flooring, redoing stuff now, and I’m talking about, you know, updating stuff. Now renovations very different than taking care of deferred maintenance. That’s a different conversation, right? And so deferred maintenance is things like, um, your soffit in facia, you know, under your overhangs of your roof, you know, the paint is appealing and it looks dry and tired.

Tego:

Your roof, your roof shingles are worn out. Um, para pits are cracking, which we get a lot of times here in New Mexico. You know? So it’s, it’s the deferred maintenance stuff. Those things we’ll, we’ll, we’ll definitely distract from the sale of your house. Now, with that said, can I finish in today’s market right now? You know, we have such a low supply of homes on the market compared to the number of buyers, buyers. We have seen buyers, Tracy, and you can tell me if I’m right or wrong in this. We do see buyers, you know, maybe overlooking, you know, some condition issues with a property that maybe they didn’t five years ago.

Tracy:

I believe that’s true, but I would still say, if you have deferred maintenance, getting that taken care of before you put your house on the market is going to affect your sale price. And a lot of times buyers are going to ask it to be fixed once they go under contract on your house anyway. So it might be best to get the maximum dollar out of it, major renovations, um, you know, that’s what house slippers are doing, right? They’re trying to find a house that hasn’t been updated. That’s in a neighborhood that can justify a much better price if it gets updated, but still has plenty of room above what they’re going to spend. And they typically as a flipper, right? They have their go-to people, or they do the work themselves. They have trusted contractors and trusted resources. They do this all the time for us as realtors to recommend somebody to do 150,000 update on their house to get it sold is most, most sellers are just not able to even facilitate that, let alone,

Tego:

But many times it is possible. And in many times you will net more. It just really depends on where you’re starting. What is the condition of the home that you’re starting at? Cause that really is going to dictate if those remodels make sense or not.

Tracy:

I would say the best advice on the answer to this question, besides what you said and talk to your realtor and look at all of the implications are best thing you can do is just plan to really clean purge your house, get it staged properly and take care of the visual things, whether it’s smells, sights and what people are going to see when they see your house. And those are the things that most sellers are doing and make sense. Yeah.

Tego:

And, and, you know, merchandising it, you know, that’s gonna, you know, it’s going to net you the most when you’re getting ready to sell is have it cleaned beautiful, you know, and it, if it looks like a model home, you’re going to get the top dollar for.

Buyer Question: How much cash do you need to buy a home in the Albuquerque area?

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:

Question a buyer question of the week and a seller question the week. Want to get that in?

Tego:

So one of the most common questions, and I think, I think, let me, let me preface it this way. I think it’s the most common question that buyers don’t like, I’m embarrassed to ask maybe. And they don’t, you know, they don’t want to feel like they don’t know this answer because it feels like they should know. But the question, but the question is how much money, how much cash do I need to buy a home? How much money out of pocket is it going to take me to buy

Tracy:

How much money do I need to save before I talk about exact to a realtor about buying a home?

Tego:

The thing that’s interesting, there’s been a lot of surveys over the years that, you know, ask people and do they think how much do they think? And it’s, it’s interesting how many people think that they need at least 20% down to buy a home. Now, you know, there’s a whole debate is like, okay, should you, should you do 20% down? You know, or should you save up 20%? And a lot of people think you should, but, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. That what we’re talking about here is what does it actually take? Out-of-pocket so Tracy, for, for down payment, right? This is the amount of money you’re putting in toward the home to get your loan. What are, what are your options there?

Tracy:

So it could be anywhere from zero, okay. Up to whatever you want, right? No upper limit or you pay cash, right? So the V a veteran who qualifies for a VA loan, they have zero out of pocket loans for veterans. There may still be a few closing costs, but there are some options. So maybe the closing costs could be up to $3,000 depending on the price of the home. But it could be zero out of pocket.

Tego:

So far for that zero down program, it’s a dependent that it’s a veteran, right?

Tracy:

But he was served and left in good standing and qualifies to use the VA.

Tego:

And that’s the best program out there. The other zero down program that’s out there, that’s kind of not very well known is

Tracy:

The USDA loan. So this is for more rural areas to provide better financing options for people that are out of the metropolitan areas. So even some parts of Bernie, Leo, Placedus Edgewood, east mountains, south end, Valencia county, Sandoval county, different areas do qualify for a USDA zero down program. So there still could be some closing costs. So we’re talking about down payment is one portion of what it costs to buy.

Tego:

Well, let’s just finish up with the down payment conversation. So other than other than the zero down, we talked about USDA, VA, what other, what other down payment like tiers are there as we go through?

Tracy:

Sure. So then there’s the New Mexico mortgage finance authority that has a down payment assistance program that have to, um, qualify for, to have an income limit. And the limits are very high. I I’m surprised. So the mortgage finance authority, we call it the MFA.

Tego:

Oh, hi. What’s you’re saying though, is there’s a limit. So if somebody makes a million dollars a year, they’re not going to qualify for a down payment assistance program. Right. Right.

Tracy:

However, if it’s a two person household, you know, the income in, in Bernalillo county or Albuquerque, you can make up to, I think it’s about 70,000 a year and qualify for a down payment assistance program to help you get into a home.

Tego:

Um, and th those are great programs, $500 out of pocket, right.

Tracy:

And in Santa Fe, the limit is much higher, still like 80,000. And if it’s a three person family, it’s actually higher than that. So that’s a down payment assistance program which helps cover the closing costs. And the down payment, you have to have at least 500 out of your own pocket to put into it. There’s a couple different programs within the MFA, so it could be first home or next home. Okay. So if you have owned a home, there might still be a program for you. And first home is actually only having owned in three years. Not never been a homeowner. And then it goes to FHA.

Tego:

So let’s go to the next. So,

Tracy:

So then we’re at FHA, which is three and a half percent down payment. So let’s talk about a $300,000 house, right?

Tego:

Let’s talk about a $250,000 house. Cause I just did the math.

Tracy:

So down payment three and a half percent

Tego:

Is 87,

Tracy:

8,750. So when somebody says, how much down payment do I need to buy a $250,000 house, most people would be FHA financing.

Tego:

Well, okay. I’m going to contradict that because that’s actually not the most popular loan program right now. FHA is not actually conventional loans are more popular right now, but

Tracy:

So anyway, FHA

Tego:

FHA is a very popular, really good program, three and a half percent down. So next there’s actually these conventional loan programs

Tracy:

That might start at 3% down, 5%, 10%, 20%. So conventions.

Tego:

And in the, in the thing with those is you don’t have to know exactly what the best program for you is. You’re going to, you’re going to work with a mortgage lender, a mortgage broker, mortgage officer, whatever you wanna call it that is, you know, can look at your financial situation, look at how much money you’re able to put down and then, you know, gear the program and, and, and put the, put you in the best loan program for your situation. Right? I think that the takeaway we want to get here is that, you know, people can get into a home for, you know, $10,000 or less in down payment when they’re thinking about, okay, how much money do I need to save? Um, the next part of this conversation other than the down payment is the actual closing costs. So other than the down payment, which is your skin in the game, if you will, on equity in the house, right? What, what other costs is a buyer going to have getting to get into a home?

Tracy:

You’ve got the down payment and then you’ve got some other costs in today’s climate of being a home buyer. Typically the home buyers are paying for their own inspections. So that might be a home inspection for, let’s say around $350 give or take plus tax

Tego:

These days, aren’t they? Nope,

Tracy:

Three 50 is most of them, some of them are as high as five or more

Tego:

Plus tax,

Tracy:

A termite, dry rod inspection, you know, 80, 80 to $90. And, um, sometimes there’s a sewer line. Sometimes you’re looking at Wells and septics and things like that. So those are things to look at, but we have a whole chart of what things typically cost and who typically pays for them when you’re buying a house. And then there’s things like your first year of homeowner’s insurance, that’s paid up front at closing. So if you’re buying a $250,000 house, typically, you know, you’re going to get a quote from a home insurance company and maybe it’s 800 to $1,200. They’re going to collect that upfront for the first year.

Tego:

So I just wanna, I don’t wanna break this out here because I think it’s important distinction here when you buy a home, you know, let’s say, let’s say you’re buying a home with cash, right? You’re still going to have home inspections. You’re still going to have a termite or dry rot or any other inspections you want to have. You’re going to have those costs. You’re going to obviously pay for your, you know, pay for your insurance. Usually it’s a year in advance, but if you’re, if you’re getting a loan on the home, which we were just talking about, you’re going to have some, some expenses that are very specific to the loan. And so what would those be?

Tracy:

The loan fees. So to the lender, they’re going to charge a fee for underwriting. They’re going to charge a, an origination type fee, kind of a transaction fee. And, um, and there’ll be a few other fees, like a small one to check your credit and a couple of, um, mortgage endorsements. Because when you close on the home, they want to be on that loan as well as you at for ownership. But you know, those are, um, the lender fees vary a lot. So it’s really important. A lot of times people call a lender and they go, what’s your interest rate? And they’re trying to compare interest rates when choosing a lender. But what they don’t think about is how much does the lender also

Tego:

That is a big, big buyer tip, right? There is don’t just look at interest rate, look at the other expenses or other costs that a lender may be charging to do your loan.

Tracy:

So when you take both down-payment and other fees to buy a house, you can figure that, you know, the down payment is one portion and like Tigo just set on a lot of properties. It could be less than $10,000. And then the closing costs could be a couple thousand dollars depending on the price of the home and the types of inspections and what insurance costs and what the lender charges. So

Tego:

W you missed one, can I call you out the

Tracy:

Appraisal and the appraisal?

Tego:

Yeah. So the appraisal, you know, that, that is the, basically the, the valuation, uh, that has to be done by a third party for the bank, the lender that’s loaning you the money to buy this home, to verify that the value of the home is what it is, and that they’re making a safe loan on this property.

Tracy:

Basically, the praiser is basically the eyes and ears of the lender, right. Because the lender doesn’t actually go look at the house and they’re lending a lot of money. So they rely on an appraiser to say, yeah, you’re making a good loan. Yeah.

Tego:

Yeah. W one of the myths in our business, as the appraisers determine what a home is worth, no appraiser just verifies what the home is worth based on what the buyer’s willing to pay for it.

Tracy:

Right. So there you go. So if you’re wondering what, what kind of money you need to have saved to buy a home? There’s the quick thumbnail, but it’s always the best.

Tego:

Yeah. I hate to hear the long version, and these are the conversations you need to have with your realtor. If you’re, especially if you’re first time home buyer and, and, you know, really delve into these, and don’t be embarrassed to ask any of these questions. Right. You know, we don’t know. We know we don’t, if we don’t do something very often, we just don’t know. We do this every day.

Featured Community: North Valley – The heart of the Albuquerque area

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

All right, Tracy, let’s talk about our featured community this week, which, um, you and I were talking about it and I just said, you know what, let’s do the north valley because the north valley is the heart, if you will, kind of, of the Albuquerque area. Um, and, and, you know, we hear the term a lot. And so when somebody says north valley, Tracy, what, what exactly is the north valley?

Tracy:

So the north valley, uh, technically in our multiple listing service, but, but what we really know it to be too, is everything from the river to [inaudible] north of I 40 all the way up, you know, past tramway where it becomes Sandia reservation. Um, so everything between I 25, the river down to [inaudible]. Yeah. So we’re thinking about the east valley, not the west river valley, because there is some valley on the west side of the river between cores and the river as well. But we’re talking about the north valley. So the north valley encompasses Los Ranchos, right? Rancho stay Albuquerque, right? They’re their own, um, village within Albuquerque.

Tego:

Yeah. Well, not within Albuquerque, but within the greater Albuquerque area, but yes. I

Tracy:

Mean, it’s its own municipality.

Tego:

Absolutely. And the thing, the thing that’s interesting, when we say north valley, a lot of times people will say, well, you mean Los Ranchos? Well, yeah, Los Ranchos is part of it, but the, the w we kind of broadly call the north valley encompasses some parts of Albuquerque proper, right. Albuquerque city limits, but also unincorporated Bernalillo county is a good portion of the north valley as well. So there’s really three municipalities that kind of overlap throughout the north valley. For sure.

Tracy:

Right. And so when people are building in the north valley, it could be one of three different municipalities or a combination thereof, because sometimes you need county and city or village, or, you know, different implications.

Tego:

So Tracy, What type of homes are you going to find in the north valley?

Tracy:

Wow. Such a big mix, right. To go. We know that when people think of the north valley, they think of the big estates on lots of grass and horses and livestock and things. But I mean, there’s all sorts of neighborhoods that are either subdivided, like a Thomas village, Rio Grande compound, um, El Caballero [inaudible] well, I will call by our north tale. I was horses L cubby arrow set itself does not, but, you know, tenant farms is there, but there’s lots of neighborhoods like Griegos 12th street that are just like Northeast Heights only they happen to be in the north valley. Right. Yeah. What we do know though, is there are a lot of high priced estate properties in the north valley that tend to have an acre or more, um, which brings up average price in the north valley.

Tego:

Yeah. So the thing that, that, that we find, if we look at just the statistics north valley average price, when we’re recording this right now is, uh, $370,000 average in the entire Metro is 320,000 right now, again, at the time of this recording. And so it’s, it’s, it’s generally higher. One of the things that I found interesting when I was pulling the statistics together, Tracy is the north valley, or, you know, certain areas of the north valley holds a distinction of having the highest priced home sale, or actually a couple of the highest price home sales in the greater Albuquerque area ever in history. And so, you know, some of them are the, uh, the biggest state. So th so the one that’s the highest price sale ever is the, the biggest state that’s up across from El Pinto on north fourth, the reason that one was so expensive was it also included, uh, 13 acres of the north valley, which really, really helped with the

Tracy:

Luxurious state properties can definitely be found in the valley. And they tend to be lush, lots of trees, perhaps equestrian, or other type of, um, livestock and animal.

Tego:

So the interesting thing is though, so, you know, I said the average price is 370,000 more or less. We’ve had a $3 million, a couple, $3 million sales into north alley. However, you know, there’s homes that have sold for under $150,000 in the north valley of Albuquerque this year. So it is a broad range. Um, it is really the, again, I, I kind of call it the heart. I mean, obviously it’s north of old town where, you know, really Albuquerque started. Um, however, there’s, you know, there are some very old properties in the north valley that have been here a very, very long time and right.

Tracy:

Well, we have the sake. Yes. The, the irrigation ditches that flow through lots of parts of the north valley. And so w w original farmland, right. Went up the river. Um, you know, some of the notable things in the north valley, of course we have El Pinto restaurant, which is a staple this week with balloon Fiesta. I can only imagine how busy they’ve been, um, because all those out of area people are in town getting their chili fix right now, we’ve been staying away from the new Mexican restaurants this week. Right. Because we figured they’re very busy. Um, you know, also, um, the whole fourth street corridor, second street corridor, some of our favorite things. So, um, Rio Grande, just driving Rio Grande, going out for a Sunday drive and, and following the Rio Grande all the way up to Alameda and seeing the bigger estates and just feeling that, that feel of that low speed limit and just the relaxing nature of driving through the valley.

Tego:

So there’s a property that I’ve had a reason to go to a few times on Guadalupe trail in the north valley. And I thought, gosh, if I just ever just want to take a chill, chill out, it’s just go drive Guadalupe trail for a little bit. And it just it’s, it’s, you know, slows you down a little bit. It’s not quite as frantic. And it’s a nice part. So anyway, so that’s, yeah. Anything else

Tracy:

You want to say? The Indian prevalent cultural center is also a part of the north valley and, um, you know, that’s, that’s a great place if you haven’t been there to see, you know, the 18 pueblos is at 18 New Mexico pueblos, and just kind of what each one is all about, as well as the restaurant there. So I could go on and on about the north valley, because it’s kind of my neck of the woods. So

Tego:

Yeah. So north valley, the interesting part, people should check it out. If you’ve got any questions or, you know, really want to dig into the area, give us a shout.

Affordability: The big move in Albuquerque’s Real Estate Market

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

Just one last thing I just wanted to hit on one of the big conversations out in the real estate world. These days is affordability. That’s kind of the new, the new bubble, right? That’s the new housing bubble thing. It’s the affordability bubble now. Right. And, uh, you know, it doesn’t look like we’re going to have a price bubble, but, um, there is, uh, there is concern about, you know, affordability that, that, you know, home prices have gone up nationally anywhere from 10 to 20% in a year or more depending on the market here locally. I think we’re, we’re probably in this 15% range, something like that again, and just, you know, it, it, it really depends, but we’re somewhere, I mean that that’s a big move, right? I mean, that is a big move. And, um, and policy makers, basically politicians are, are, you know, I’ve, I’ve seen a flurry of stories about affordability programs, um, in the pipeline, different ways to help folks, especially folks that are first generation, uh, homeowners.

Tego:

Um, you know, they’ve never been able to participate in the American dream that as a, as a family, as a generational family, and there’s some interesting programs out there. I saw one the other day, a proposal that says that that was saying, okay, instead of, um, um, a 20 year, instead of as a standard 30 year mortgage, they would make it a 20 year mortgage, but they would make the payments the same as a 30 year mortgage, um, and subsidize the interest so that that person could have built equity much faster than, you know, if you’re doing an a on a 30 year program, but this was for, this was targeted for people that would be first-generation, um, uh, you know, in their family homeowners interesting, interesting program. There’s a lot more of that going on. I’ve been talking to some lenders and there’s more first-time home buyer programs, uh, in the pipeline as well,

Tracy:

News. And honestly, when you talk about affordability because of the low interest rates, homes are very affordable as relation to incomes. Well,

Tego:

Historically as well,

Tracy:

Historically as well. So even though our home prices have jumped up quite a bit, the interest rates being so low are keeping it very affordable. So last year, somebody might’ve called us and said, yeah, I’m thinking I need to buy a house around 230,000 or a few years ago, right? This year they might be able to afford 2 75 or 300. And they may not know that that because of the lower interest rates that they can afford the houses that are here, uh, the higher prices right now. So

Tego:

Yeah, for sure.

Parade of Homes: Get to know more about Albuquerque’s builders

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

So parade of homes, Tracy, fall 2021

Tracy:

Is this central New Mexico builder home builders association puts this on spring and fall. So this is the fall event. And I think the hours are till five Saturday, Sunday. I know we have the brochure right in front of us, but, um, you know, you can get online and Google it and get the list of homes and things. It’s in the SU Casa magazine. It was in third Thursday’s Albuquerque journal, but you know, the, the parade of homes is really geared towards new construction, uh, custom builders, production builders, as well as a few remodelers who liked to put there what they can do in, in the show. So w what we love, and we’ve always loved the parade of homes is seeing trends, right? And visiting these houses and just seeing what, what features are hot, what colors, what finishes those types of things,

Tego:

Design trend. And the thing that I always find interesting is some of the new tech, if you will in home. Right. And when I say tech, I’m not talking about electronics, I’m talking about, um, let’s talk about courts, right? So a few years ago, you know, we started to see the courts material versus granted, right. It’s been around for a while, but now it’s very commonplace to see courts countertop so that when I talk about tech, that’s what I mean. Or, you know, remember at one time, you know, no cabinet would have the soft, close drawers. Now just very, very common that all cabinets have SaaS soft-close drawers and doors. So when I’m talking about tech, that’s what I mean, it’s, you know, there there’s, there’s always upgrades. And then of course, you know, we get into efficiency stuff and, and as well. So yeah, get out there and check out these homes. There’s some beautiful homes out there.

Tracy:

So even if you’re not planning to build a custom home someday, you know, there’s just anytime you’re thinking of remodeling or updating, or just, you know, how to put together some design things or staging your home, you know, great stuff. But if you’re right, if you are thinking of buying land or you have land, and you’re thinking of building what a great opportunity to meet some builders, because the builders are usually onsite, ready to talk to you about how they build and what their philosophies are, and you can see their finished work. So, yeah.

Tego:

Yeah. So go check it out. Some, something nice to do on a nice Saturday after the balloon Fiesta and, uh, you know, go, go see some nice homes. And there’s not as many this year as there have been years past. And he kind of needless to say, I think just because of the way, uh, you know, it’s been difficult to build homes this year, so yeah.

Tracy:

So good.

Work from home: Zoom Towns in the Albuquerque area

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

Speaking of which Tracy something else. It was, uh, on my list for topics this week. Although I didn’t, I didn’t, uh, give it into summary to Eddie was there’s been a lot of research around work from home work from home, obviously after, you know, the last year and a half has become much more prominent. And there’s a lot of, uh, you know, uh, HR type companies like Upwork and different entities that deal with, uh, hiring and employees. And they feel like a lot of the research is pointing to that. The work from home thing is, is here to stay. It’s going to be much more common and much more viable going forward.

Tracy:

I think not only is it here to stay that they’re expected it continuing to expand, right? Obviously there’s lots of professions where you have to go in. Right? Think about all the places we visit during the day, whether it’s a store or a restaurant or a hospital or a medical facility, or, I mean, they need people in the office, but so many businesses have adapted and adapted really well that they’re expanding it. Long-term.

Tego:

Yeah. And I, I, you know, honestly, and this is just me speculating, but I think it bodes well for communities like Albuquerque. Um, there was a term floating around last year. It’s still out there called zoom towns. So zoom towns where we’re, where people that lived in crowded cities in like the west let’s say, and they just, they don’t, they, they can work from wherever. They don’t need to go into an office. And so some of these towns like Boise, Idaho is kinda like the, the, the prime example of where they’re calling it a zoom town where, where people can go the Fort, you know, it’s a lot less affordable or excuse me, much more affordable than let’s say San Francisco in that example to go to Boise. And, um, I think we’re seeing some of that here. I don’t think it’s huge, but I do. I do think we see some people coming into Albuquerque. It’s affordable to own a home here compared to other Western cities and they can work from anywhere. They love the climate, they love the balloons. Right. You know, so it’s, I think we’re going to see more of that where people live here, but don’t necessarily work here. If that makes sense.

Tracy:

I think that’s true. We’ve seen several of those in our real estate business this past year.

Tego:

I have no data to back that up. I’m just speculating how’s that I always got to put those caveats in there. Cause I like to be honest with,

Tracy:

We, haven’t had a few, uh, a few clients we’ve worked with who are that way that they’re choosing, you know, I can think of a few right off the top of my head who have bought here, but are remote working now. And you know, you think about our son he’s in the Phoenix area and he chose his employer out of college because he wanted that experience to be at their headquarters, even though a lot of his coworkers were all over the world. And so he had his first year they’re in, in the office and getting to see what that was like being a business person, going to work. And now he’s worked from home. And I think, you know, we had this conversation, um, with somebody, uh, this week and they were saying that the workplaces of the future for those people, that companies that have huge facilities that are sitting empty mostly right now that they’re converting spaces to be more like the coffee shop, the meeting space so that they will still have some, in-person get togethers just for the social interaction of it. But yeah, but nobody’s probably ever going to work in those offices again, like they had. And that’s, this is a really big company we were talking about. They have a lot of, uh, hard space, right. A lot of

Tego:

Hi, very high dollar space in very high dollar city was too. Yeah. I rent city. So yeah. It’s interesting. So yeah, we’re going to see how that shakes out. Um, I wouldn’t want to be a huge a holder of, uh, office commercial real estate right now, but I’m sure, you know, it’s, it depends on the market, I would guess.

Tracy:

And you know, you, you see the national news about New York city and how business services are moving back in there. So who knows we could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first,

Tego:

It would not, it would definitely not.

What is a bedroom? The specifics on this part of your Albuquerque home

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

Let’s do a fun, a little bit more of a fun story. Okay. Let’s, let’s transition to this. Uh, Tracy, what is a bedroom? I think this is an interesting one and it comes up all the time. Even in the realtor community is what is the definition of a bedroom?

Tracy:

Yeah, so, you know, years ago I went to a class that was done by an appraiser who went through and talked about what their rules are for certain things. And everyone says that, um, you can’t count it as a bedroom, if it doesn’t have a closet. Well, she said very clearly that wasn’t in the ANSI rules or whatever the rules that they have to go by the guidelines. I know that the requirements generally, and you’ll, I’m sure fill in the rest, the room has to be a certain size. It has to have two forms of egress, which means it cannot be a landlocked interior room. In case of fire, there has to be out exterior access. That’s acceptable. So if it’s a basement, the window, whatever you have to be able to get out. And I know that it has to be a certain size and that when the ceilings are angled. Yep. There’s some sort of how high it has to be.

Tego:

I think, I don’t think I need to add anything to that. I mean, you pretty much covered it all. It’s like the closet is not a defining factor to make something a bedroom.

Tracy:

Does it have to have a bathroom nearby? I always heard that too. And I don’t recall. No, it doesn’t have anything to do.

Tego:

No, it doesn’t. Well, think about the homes we grew up in Tracy, right? One, one bathroom with, you know, seven people in the family, right? Yeah.

Tracy:

Yeah. The downstairs bathroom, all the bedrooms for us kids were up. Yeah.

Tego:

Basically it needs to be, you know, heated, uh, you know that that’s obviously

Tracy:

Pooling. Isn’t a requirement though. Cause cooling isn’t required in any way.

Tego:

No, no. Um, but yeah, the, you know, the egress, meaning uh, you know, a way to escape the house on an exterior wall, that’s a big deal and it has to be,

Tracy:

Yeah, you have to be able to get out whatever it is. It can’t be a six by six.

Tego:

It can’t be a little portal. Right. It needs to be a certain, a certain size there. But again, you rise room size dimension. Um, it, I think seven foot, if it’s narrower than, or wider than, or less than seven foot in any dimension, you can’t really call it a bedroom. That’s a closet.

Tracy:

Well, I I’m sure there’s some areas where like Chicago or New York where people are living in closet says bedrooms. But I think, you know, when, when the ceiling is angled that there’s, I don’t know if it was seven feet, something about how high it has to be to start where it goes up to a peak, but obviously people can use bedrooms. However they want, they can use rooms, however they want. It’s just what we have to classify them as, as realtors.

Tego:

Correct. And what we see a lot, Tracy is we’ll have a house where it has three bedrooms and an office, right. Where, you know, really the home was designed to have an office space. Maybe it has double doors, but it still has a closet. It still has an exterior window or some, you know, window that’s large enough to be countered as aggressive. So you could technically count that as a bedroom, right. Even though it’s, you know, the original intent of the design was as an office.

Rental Scam: Things you need to be aware of when looking for your Albuquerque home

(Transcript Snippet): “Tracy:

Okay, so we’re going to talk about something else. Okay. We’re going to talk about rental scams. So we’ve had two of our rental houses come up, um, and be available lately. And we know this happens regularly, but boy rampant, rental scams out there. Right? Well,

Tego:

We hear about it all the time. We’ve seen our homes that are for sale. Let me just kind of explain what the scam is. The scam is somebody they’re probably not even in the United States, right? They take the photos that are posted for either a home for rent or a home for sale. They post it on a website, like a Craigslist, or like a Facebook marketplace, you know, somebody someplace where you can just post a free, you know, ad right. A home for rent. And, and what they’ll do is they’ll get some sort of, you know, phone number. That’s not a real number. It’s just some like a

Tracy:

Google number, like a Google voice number. But if they get

Tego:

A real number, it might even be a local number. Sometimes it’s not a local number, but a lot of times it’s local number. So it’s just, you know, it doesn’t matter. And then they, they start, uh, you know, you reach out to them, they start communicating with you and telling you they’re the owner. And then they say, oh, I’m in the hospital. Or, you know, all, I had to leave town right away. And I just need somebody to take care of my home. They give you some sob story. And, and the scam is they’re trying to get you to send the, you know, the deposit

Tracy:

Deposit in first month or whatever. I’ve

Tego:

Had some, some people pro prospective tenants say that they actually send an application, you know, to fill out and it’s, it’s a total scam. And so if you know anybody that’s, you know, renting or looking to rent or going to be renting or looking for rental properties, tell them to please, please, please, please be careful. And please, you know, have your, your senses up because it is rampant it’s happening on all on all the time. It’s just all the time. And I would guess that half of the homes that are listed for rent on Craigslist end up being scams.

Tracy:

So let’s talk about where, where do people find rental property? So as realtors, generally, generally, we don’t work with rentals, right? Our MLS, a few of them end up in our MLS. They’re reliable, right? Yeah. Um, Google Albuquerque, property management, you’ll find Tyson properties, AME property management, Maddix and company, uh, sky management, all these different companies that are real property managers. And you go to their website specifically and see what’s available, right. Or get, get with one of those folks that literally works with rental properties. And then, you know, you’re safe, right? Yeah. Um, unfortunately our MLS isn’t heavily used by the rental market. So we don’t have one great database just to go to, to find a lot of rentals. You, you would really have to just find property managers, you know, by Googling Albuquerque, property management or Rio Rancho property management, and going directly to their sites or giving them,

Tego:

I will say this, but I want to put a caveat on it because you know, scams are scams and scammers always figure out ways to trick people, but websites like Zillow websites, like apartment.com, you’re going to have a better chance of them not being scammed because for a landlord to post on those websites, they have to do some more verification. They may even have to pay a feed to post it there. So most of the scammers use again, free posting websites like like Craigslist or Facebook market, Facebook marketplace rampant. These days, it is rampant. Uh, my, the one that, that I’m actually renting right now, or, you know, uh, have, have listed to rent light right now, it’s gone on and off both of those websites, probably four times it keeps, they keep putting it back up. I flag it as a scam a day later, it goes back up again and it’s, it’s just, oh, it’s so frustrating.

Tracy:

One of the things that’s pretty typical besides them having some sort of story about why they can’t be meet you. I’ve had scammers though who do meet. So be careful, um, is oftentimes the rent price is a little below market or a lot below market. So if the price seems too low, that’s a really good indicator. So just be careful

Tego:

If it sounds too good to be true in the story is sounds off to you. It’s probably a scam. Yeah. Yeah. So just be careful, spread the word, tell all your friends to watch out for scams on rentals. We just really need to shut these people down because they’re just, they’re really just awful people. I’m sorry. They’re just awful.

The Stats are in: Albuquerque’s September Real Estate Market Data

(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:

Uh, we we’ve got the first look at some of the September data and September. Um, the, the short of it is, is, was very strong home sales month in Albuquerque. Our pending sales were actually above, um, September, 2020, which is, which was a, you know, obviously last year was a big year, especially, especially late in the year. Last year was very strong. Um, the thing that’s going to be interesting though, and when you actually look at close sales, it’s actually going to show that it was negative versus last year 2020, but comparing any market data to things, especially in late 2020 is a bad idea because we had that, you know, basically pause March, April, and let’s say into may. And then after that, you know, all that pent up demand just kind of took off. So everything got pushed from, you know, middle year to the end of the year.

Tego:

So be careful when you see those headlines that say home sales decrease versus last year for September. Well, yeah, that’s no surprise, right? Um, a couple of other things, you know, home prices continue to go, uh, go up, um, you know, pretty, pretty much what we expected, um, price per square foot pulled back slightly from last month, but it’s still, you know, very, very much ahead of, of what we seen in years past. If you look at the 12 month average price per square foot, it’s increased about 16% over, over the year. So, you know, home prices continue to increase. And, uh, the number of homes on the market’s still very, very slim compared to the type of demand that’s out there. You know, supply demand ratios are very tight, so that’s just a real quick kind of summary of our market. And, um, and right now we don’t see any, anything that’s going to suddenly, you know, bring this flood of homes onto the market. And we’re not going to get into the four, four Barron’s foreclosure thing. Not, not this time, you know, I’ve been following it very closely and I’ll just say it doesn’t look like we’re going to get this big flood of home.