Tracy
Great weekend for homes. There’s a lot of houses open this weekend, more have come on the market. I know the ones we put on the market are already under contract.

Tego
Well, let me give you some data.

Tracy
Do you have any stats for us?

Tego
Of course I do.

Tracy
My stato matic.

Tego
Of course I do. You know, 260 homes received and went under contract in the last seven days, which is pretty strong. Wrong number for this time of year. So we’re seeing I can look at the data and tell you what’s going on, but you’ve got more of a feet on the street, boots on the ground, whatever you want to call it.

Tracy
All of those terms are fine. No, we’re good.

Tego
Yeah.

Tracy
So we know that many of the houses that went into pending in the last, actually, since the first of the year have had multiple offers. And one house this week that we had a buyer for that house, had 15 offers on it. A house we listed on Thursday, overnight, by noon the next day had five offers on it. So, once again, don’t listen to national headlines that talk about doom and gloom and bad time to buy or sell a house because there’s buyers out there and houses are getting above price offers when they’re the gem, the special house that shows great and is in the right spot and the right price.

Tego
So the thing we’re still dealing with, Tracy, is just not a lot of homes on the market, you know, right from a historical standpoint. So right now we’re at, let’s say, 1200 homes on the market at any given day, which is a lot more than last year at this time. But last year was such an anomaly that you can’t really compare. So to put it in perspective, if we go back to 2019, same time.

Tracy
Of sort of normal year yeah.

Tego
Let’S put it this way, at the beginning of 2021, we’re about double the number of homes on the market from then. The thing that worries me right now, Tracy, about the housing market is there’s a lot of people out there that want to buy homes. There’s still relatively high interest rates compared to what we’ve seen over the last five years. However, the good news is rates have now come down. In the last month or so, we were up over 7% at one point, and now rates have kind of settled in at this kind of low sixes range, which is good. But we’ve also had a lot of appreciation over the last few years. So affordability is definitely a challenge for folks. And I think there’s a lot of concern that maybe, well, I might be buying at the top or the market is still going to go down or whatever. And right now, with the lack of supply and still steady demand, I don’t see a big shift in home prices other than potentially up.

Tracy
Well, all the national forecasters are predicting up, I believe, for our area during the year. And I’m sure you’ve got hard stats. I’m the feet on the streets and we know that there’s a lot of buyers and not enough houses on the market.

Tego
Well, let me give you some real time.

Tracy
I’ve been waiting data.

Tego
If I look at what closed in the first 20 days of January last year and look at the homes that closed in the first 20 days of this January now, it’s not a huge data set. It’s about 340 homes in metro Albuquerque, but median price up 5% over last year, same period. So at this point we’re still seeing year over year price appreciation now in the single digits, which is actually more healthy than what we were seeing, which was we had what, 15% there one year or 2021. So yeah, I think just data wise things are steady. The thing is there’s still people that need to buy, there’s still people that need to sell and we’re here to help them, whatever is going on in the market.

Tracy
Totally. So, you know, tigo when we have homes listed for sale, not just us, but over the holidays, a lot of times we’ve told people if your house doesn’t sell between Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, then maybe you want to take it off the market when all the kids go back to school. Because we usually see a pullback then of activity. So that’s right now kids went back to school, what, two Thursdays ago, and we did not see that pullback once the kids went to school. We’ve actually seen in the past week. It almost feels sort of frenzie ish like people that were pent up are trying to buy houses and we’ve got a few sellers who were waiting till after the holidays to put their home on the market and I don’t know, I feel some real energy and makes me think the spring market is going to be pretty strong.

Tego
Well, we did a few videos that we sent out or a few people on our team did some videos talking about that come time schools out, it’s going to be very different than market than right now. So if you are thinking of buying this year and this is a year to find a home, it’s time to start looking right now because come March it’s going to be a frenzy. I really like that is going to happen every year.

Tracy
We see that though, in March. As soon as it’s like the sun, it gets warm, it’s like everybody’s ready to buy. We know and all of our listeners know historically we’ve been saying this forever, march, April, May, that’s our busiest season of the year. Sure, yeah. So if you’re going to buy, don’t wait till then and have all the other buyers competing for the same house that you want.

Tego
Yeah, it may take time. Like it’s limited number of homes on the market. So you want to be a ready buyer, Tracy? So let’s just talk about that. What does that mean to be a ready buyer?

Tracy
Well, one of the things that’s probably not on your list that I’m going to cover first is let’s start looking at houses like you said, because we helped the first time buyer last week, and the very first home we showed him was the right home, but he didn’t know it. And so in the process of thinking and wanting to go see a few more houses to justify that, yes, that was the right home. The house sold. And so let’s go ahead and start looking earlier than you think you need the house. Just so you are educated and you know, hey, this is what I get for this much money. This is what my payment is. And when you see the right one, you’re ready. And you don’t doubt that it’s the house you should move forward on. But otherwise, the traditional things, right. Let’s make sure that if you’re paying cash, we know if those funds are readily available or if you’re borrowing from a 401, how long does your 401K take for those funds to be available to you? If you’re getting a gift, let’s make sure if you’re getting a gift for the down payment, that we have the right paperwork in order that we’ve got you with a good local lender, if you’re going to be using a loan, that we get the right loan program for you.

Tracy
There’s all sorts of different loan programs, and a lot of times folks get online and they get an online lender that’s not in our area, and they don’t really get that consultation about the local programs that we have as well as what program might be best for them.

Tego
You didn’t listen to our show last week.

Tracy
No, I didn’t. That’s right. I was off last week. You had Lee Smith here.

Tego
You were out showing home.

Tracy
I was, and I sold that house.

Tego
So Lee Smith with primary residence mortgage. If you want to go back and find that show, lee did a great job just walking through the loan process. All these different terms that you’re not familiar with, like piti, all these kind of things we throw around, we take for granted. And he did a great job on that. So you can look for that show. That was show 430, and it’s on YouTube. If somebody wants to go back 431. 431. You’re right, because we’re on 32.

Tracy
I have to keep you on this.

Tego
Well, I know you do. Well, that’s your job. But I just want to say something about that pre approval thing is going to be critical. And if you’re competing for houses, which it looks like that’s going to be the case again, I mean, we’ve already seen that. We’re already seeing January 1 in January. And so you want to make sure that you’re pre approved, you’re solid, you’re ready to go and doing it with a local lender does give your pre approval letter a little more credibility than definitely maybe a national lender.

Tracy
Even some of the big banks tigo aren’t looked as honest favorably as other local lenders that specialize in mortgages because a lot of the big companies or the big banks don’t even do the mortgage here. You’re not really working with the person that you know in the branch as soon as you apply your loan goes to their processing center somewhere. So even some of those big banks aren’t really the ones that most listing agents of properties are interested in seeing. So otherwise right. Being ready. So knowing the market, knowing what you can buy, getting a comfort of your monthly payment, as well as what are the utilities and things involved in that and having that lender in the process ready. Because a lot of times we find the house and then we start the lending process and what we know, and I’m sure your show last week talked about the process is detailed. There’s a lot of t’s to cross and I’s de Dot and I said that backwards.

Tego
No, you said it perfect.

Tracy
Yeah. So there’s a lot of paperwork involved in getting a loan. And when you’re in the process, and very often it’s only 30 days getting some of that paperwork done before you find the house. So that when you have that lender letter, it’s a pre qualified not just pre, maybe they will there’s that whole they’ve checked everything or they haven’t checked everything letter. So you want the strongest lender letter you can get, right?

Tego
For sure, Tracy. For sure. The reason we’re talking about this and kind of beating it up a little bit is that if somebody is thinking of buying, they need to be ready to go. And they don’t want to miss the opportunity because we do see, if we look at our crystal ball, that it is going to be pretty busy here in the next few months for buyers, and there’s going to be some competition for homes.

Tracy
Yeah. One of the things that I just thought of for the first time buyer that missed out on the house last week because it was just the first house they looked at. It’s interesting to me because sometimes when people miss the house that they think is the right house, they end up with a different house and they go, oh my gosh, this was really the one we were supposed to buy. You go through that grief period of missing out on the house, but then it seems like they’re always like, oh, I’m so glad that that one didn’t work out because this is the one we really were meant to be in. Speaking of all these fun things we do in real estate, I saw an article that said in 20, 22, 21,434 people joined in real estate professions last year. Over 21,000 people, we think it’s a great profession, right? It’s been great. We’ve loved it. Helping people with their financial goals in their homes, with buying, selling or investing in real estate or land. Obviously land is real estate, but year end we tend to send things out to past clients and things and seeing their names and knowing what a great financial picture some of those people are in right now because they got into homes.

Tracy
I can think of just off the top of my head, so many first time buyers who were stretching themselves in the last ten years to buy that first home and how much that has changed their lives. It’s just so heartwarming to be in this profession and know I had a little piece in that to see them or to see them on Facebook and when they were buying that house, it was them newly married, and now there’s like the Facebook photo with them with their three or four kids and things have changed. There’s a few people that I saw this week that you actually helped also, and I was like, wow, I should have showed it to you. Anyway, if you’re interested in a career in real estate, I’d be happy to chat with you about what it’s really like because a lot of people think I like houses, I like to go to open houses. It’s a profession, it’s a hard job. So if you’re interested, give me a ring, I’d be happy to sit down with you and talk about it. And I know some ways you can get real estate school paid for free.

Tego
Can I just say, when you talk to people about real estate careers and being a realtor, it’s not a sales pitch. No, you’re giving people the honest truth because nobody needs to jump into something thinking that it’s all going to be rainbows and unicorns and then realize like, oh, this is a lot of work and it is a lot of work, but it’s very gratifying, like you said. So yeah, nobody’s interested. And by the way, it’s a Venturi Realty Group with Keller Williams Realty and you can reach us at 448-8888.

Tracy
Yeah. So I talk more people out of real estate careers than into them when I actually meet with them, because when I tell them what it really is like and the start up time and things, I think it’s important so that they have best real expectations are realistic.

Tego
Sure.

Tracy
So speaking about homes, new construction homes, we’ve had guests from Pulte, DR Horton, Twilight, just different sales reps from different new home constructions in. At our weekly team meetings with Venturi Realty Group, we bring in guests and we’ve had a lot of new home sales reps in lately, and there’s a lot of really good new homes ready to go right now with some fantastic incentives. And obviously as Realtors we can help you with new construction. A lot of times people kind of are out for a drive and they see a new home sales office and stop in and kind of buy the house. They don’t realize that maybe there’s another new home builder right down the street. Or they might not know to ask for certain incentives because the new home sales rep works for the builder and they don’t have to bring up things that you should ask about. So best if you give us a ring and we can help you with new construction. But I noticed in Las Lunas right now there’s some newly built homes, energy efficient, green built homes in the mid two hundred thousand s. And one that I saw was 1484 sqft, like around 258, 259.

Tracy
The tesoro at Fiesta, which is right at I 25, right off the exit at Las Lunas. There’s one right now at 299. Most of them are in the mid threes, but there’s some great incentives with a locked interest rate in the high fours, so they’re doing that. Plus they have some other things they’re throwing in right now. So if you’re interested in new construction, give us a ring. We can do a search and talk with all sorts of different builders to find options for you. Obviously, there’s new builds everywhere. Whether it’s west side, Rio Rancho, Voltera, east side. There’s even some So we’d be happy to help you with that. I just thought the interest rate being lower and all the other incentives they’re helping with is pretty phenomenal right now.

Tego
There really is. Anyway, if you’re thinking of new construction, which if you’re thinking of a home, you should be looking at new construction. There’s a lot of options out there and navigating all those options can be a little bit much. So reach out to a realtor us and we’d be happy to help you look at a lot of different new construction neighborhoods, not just one in particular.

Tracy
Right. One of the things that I think is overlooked with new construction or newer homes is the homes that have built in about the last ten years since the Build Green initiative. Your utility bills are going to be less right, because they’re more energy efficient, but also the newer the home is, the less maintenance issues that should come up. So when we talk with first time buyers, we love to try to get them into those newer homes if it works for them, because a lot of times they’re stretched financially after they close on the house. And we don’t want that water heater or furnace or the roof to leak or things to break that are extra expenses. Right. So sometimes that’s a better route, but obviously there’s a lot of resale older homes that have been updated, the systems have been updated. So it’s good to make sure that when we’re evaluating a house, it’s not all emotional. Sometimes it’s let’s look at the mechanicals, let’s see how old the roof is, let’s make sure you’re going to be okay after you buy this really cute, updated older home. Right? Tigo, we’ve had some questions this week about 72 sold.

Tracy
I know you weren’t in on what we’re talking about today, so I’m just running with everything I knew you’d have stats ready?

Tego
Yeah, I think 72 sold is perfect. It’s a great thing to talk about because it’s unique to our real estate market. And people that have been in Phoenix maybe have heard of the 72 sold program, but we’re an area director for 72 Sold for Albuquerque and actually all of central New Mexico, and it is a home selling system. It’s a program that works very well if you follow it, and it gets people get their home sold quickly for top dollar.

Tracy
Right. It’s the new, better way to sell a home. And we’ve been running the commercial here on the station, and it’s a simple explanation of how the program works. We’d be happy to talk with you about it. Just give us a ring. We can explain it. We can get you the price of your home pretty quickly. It typically does involve the program does require us to visit the property. So 15 minutes walk through or whatever when it works. And there’s ways we can do that if we need to do it on Zoom or FaceTime or something like that, too. Anyway, we’d be happy to go into depth on it. 72 Sold is a great program. There’s over 1505 star reviews on Google. It’s got three independent studies that show that it’s 8.4% to 12% netting sellers more than the MLS’s. And we’re believers. It’s a great program, and we’re really honored to be representing it here in this area.

Tego
So, Tracy, if somebody wants to have more information on that, it’s best just to reach out to us direct at.

Tracy
The there’s a national website, but no telling who you might end up talking to if you go there. So best to call us directly or send us an email from our website, which is welcome homeabq.com.

Tego
A couple of things that happened this week just kind of in the news. In real estate, there’s been some changes in mortgage qualification rules. I don’t want to go too deep into it, but it’s actually good news for home buyers. And so that’s one thing you can talk to your lender about if you’re in the process. But it does open up some potential opportunities for folks.

Tracy
Yeah. So what I learned to go from reading an overview of some of the lending changes that it’s really good for people buying in the lower prices. Right. Not just benefiting some, but it might be a little more expensive for the higher priced loans.

Tego
The other thing that’s in the news here locally, obviously, the 60 day session at the legislature started this week, and there is a lot of housing stuff there. Really, I’m not going to go into the, you know, all the nitty gritty details because you never know what actually is going to come out in the end, right? But there is a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff on affordable housing and help for first time home buyers, some programs there, there are some rules changes, especially in the rental world, that could be very impactful on property owners that are landlords. There’s a proposed bill out there that is quite concerning for property owners. And that’s something that if you’re a property owner or landlord, you have rental properties, you probably need to look into it and understand what’s going on there. I went to a meeting with the Apartment Association of New Mexico, and it’s concerning because it’s going to affect not just the ability of landlords, but it could affect well, in most cases, it’s rent control. I should sorry, let me talk about this. Yeah, it’s rent control is what we’re talking about. And there’s some potential legislature about rent control.

Tego
There’s not much to say on it other than if you Google search and just find analysis of communities that have done rent control, it never ends well. It sounds good on the surface because you’re like, okay, well, rents can’t keep going up and going up. Well, what happens is investment just dries up and it could really, really put a damper on our entire state economy, because people that that want to develop and, you know, bring bring money into our economy would just say, yeah, no, even the idea that we’re talking about it is going to negatively bear some development away. Now, to be honest, I think there’s people in the state that don’t want development, that don’t want that money coming in, but I think most reasonable people do. So anyway, that’s out there and that’s something just to be aware.

Tracy
I’m sure we’ll be talking about this as a 60 day session, right, this period. The other thing just to bring up wasn’t on my list, but if there are people, you know, or you are in trouble with your mortgage and unable to pay and are headed to foreclosure or you’re behind, bernalio county for sure has programs to help with that. Obviously, we can help you if you need to get some advice and if you are trying to keep the home and don’t want to sell it because you probably are in a positive equity situation where you could sell it. There are some programs out there, but you need to be really careful. If you Google it, you’re probably going to have a hard time finding the legitimate programs because there’s so many people if you Google foreclosure, Bernalio or Albuquerque, Bernalio County, Albuquerque, all these other things might come up. So making sure that you’re with Bernalio County or Sandoval County, because I saw a few different things this week about some programs that are out there. Obviously with COVID there’s been some rental help for paying your rent so that you don’t get displaced.

Tracy
And I think there’s still some of that out there, too.

Tego
It’s interesting you bring this up, because I did see a story, and I don’t remember it was one of the national recognized national news sources just talking about that. All of these help programs in housing, and there’s tons of them, have become a cesspool of scams, too. People taking advantage and saying, oh, we’ve got this, we’ve got that, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, definitely you want to make sure you’re navigating that properly. So, yeah.

Tracy
Well, there we are, another half hour quickly come and gone.