We only believe in telling the truth about what is happening in the Jacksonville Real Estate market. And we know the Jacksonville real estate market. We spend hours every day following market activity and accumulating and analyzing Jacksonville real estate statistics and well as showing, selling and negotiating deals. We have been doing this for years and know what the trends are and the direction we are headed. A random statistic by itself is somewhat useless. To know what that statistic means, you must be able to watch the trend. This is what we do.
Do we get every listing because we always tell the truth? No. We have found that many sellers really don't want the truth, they just want someone to feed them a version of the story that they are comfortable with. And there will always be someone there willing to do this....just not us.
Whether you are a buyer or seller you can always depend on us to tell the truth about the Jacksonville real estate market and you can count on us to know.
Every day we hear those that say "things have really picked up" and we think that the ones saying this probably really believe it. But the truth is that while there do seem to be more buyers looking, that seems to be all they are doing. January 2009 sales are lower than we have ever seen. BUT WE DO NOT THINK THIS IS A BAD MARKET. Yes, we did just say that. You see, it's all relative.
If you are a seller wanting to get out of your home without selling short, it is a bad real estate market. If you are a buyer wanting to get a good deal, now is the best time we have ever seen to buy a home. It is a phenomenal market for you!
From 2004 through 2006 we saw a buyer frenzy taking place in the Jacksonville real estate market. This was a market that was truly incredible for sellers. For sellers it was an awesome real estate market. They could turn down offers because they knew that the next one would be better. At the same time, it was not a good market for buyers. Buyers were paying full price, and many times over full price, to secure a home. Looking back it was a terrible real estate market for buyers. But when the media and the industry talks about this time, it was a "great" real estate market. But this is a generalization that can not be applied to all aspects of the market, particularly to the buyers.
Times have changed and it has become just as much of a buyer's market as it was a seller's market back then. So it is amazing to see how many buyers are still sitting on the sidelines not taking advantage of it when a couple of years ago you couldn't have talked them out of it.
We think that buyers are waiting for the "bottom." The bottom seems to have more star power at this moment than Brad and Angelina. The bottom, however, is stealthy, sneaky and will come in disguise. You will NOT know the bottom when you see it because it will look like every other real estate day. Here's an important tidbit for you...we don't think you'll know that the bottom has already breezed in and out without so much as a wave in your direction until six to twelve months after it's cleared out of the area. Only history proves a bottom and it takes several months of a trend to know that the bottom was hit. After that, we really think that it will take months to get the message out because it will not be a message of doom and gloom. If you are waiting on the bottom you will most likely miss it.
