So… it’s been over a year…

Word Press was nice enough to remind me last week that it has been over a year since I wrote a blog post. Ironically that last post was We Need You(r House)!! and we still do, but I’ll get to that later. First I want to apologize, I didn’t really mean to abandon you!

Let’s do a quick recap of 2016. Overall its been a great year for real estate in central Iowa. Personally I’m on track to have my best year yet. Sales are up, prices are holding steady, days on market are down but we are really short on listings.

There was a time early this summer in the Ames market when we were referring to “hours on market” and I overheard one agent in our office say… “I was a little disappointed, we only had 3 offers over asking price.” I think it is safe to say we’ve been spoiled. I’ve found myself saying to listing clients “We need to think about a price reduction, your property has been on the market a week with no offers…” It’s crazy. It’s different. It’s just a phase.

Like I said, personally I’m on track to have my best year yet and The Brandi Nelson Real Estate Team is on a roll!  I’ve got two great “buyer agents” to back me up, Nicole Haberkorn and Karissa Elgersma who are doing a wonderful job. I’ve got them running all over central Iowa, writing offers, competing in multiple offer situations, and winning deals which allows me to focus on listings. David Whitaker, Whitaker Marketing Group has had some great auctions this year.

Now we’re already in September and people are talking about how much we will slow down. I don’t think we’ll slow down as much as usual. There are still a lot of buyers who haven’t found properties yet. The smart buyers will keep looking in Fall and into Winter, they’ll gobble (like my T-Day reference?) up properties that weren’t on the market during the crazy season. They’ll choose to move in less than ideal weather so that they can buy that perfect property. Sellers will realize that although there won’t be as many showings as a Spring/Summer listing, the showings will be better quality buyers.

That’s my quick synopsis. I don’t have a super clear agenda on where I’m taking this blog yet but I’ll cover hot topics that come up, go in depth on explaining common practices, discuss tools/marketing strategies and I’m always open to questions or ideas from you too!