Realtor Troy McCloud shares home buying & selling tips

All right. I want to bring in our guest, Troy McLeod. He's a realtor here in Metro Atlanta. First of all, there are so many people who, you know, is it a good time to buy? Is it a good time to sell? They hear the interest rates are going up over 7 percent and they are scared to death about this. First of all, what can you tell us about the housing market and maybe what it's looking like now and what I guess we could look forward to for the beginning of next year? Thanks for joining us on this Sunday. Thank you so much, Eric. I will say just to give you a quick snapshot of the current market. It's a mix of people who are scared, who are in a gray area, who have no idea where to go, where to start. And then another mix of the people who have to move. Right. So they can't focus on interest rates because families are growing. Their grandparents are moving into the home. Parents are moving into the home. So some people have no choice but to move. So we have a mix of that right now. So what we've been focusing on in this market is getting rid of that gray area and assisting those who need to move but want to move in a smart way. So let's start with buyers, new buyers. If I'm a new buyer, a new homeowner, what should I know going into this market? I keep hearing, and I'm dipping my toe into the buyer's market, but what can we, incentives about new builds, what's going to be the best for those new home buyers and those who are just scared because they don't know what is going on? First, I'm always going to recommend know your buying power, okay? If there's things you need to tackle for stronger buying power, let's go ahead and tackle those things first before we even look at your home, right? So that means making sure credit is top tier, making sure that we have down payment. We're considering closing costs as well. Too often, often we focus on down payment. There's other costs to consider, such as closing costs, such as insurance, So, such as, um... Taxes, property taxes. So we want a firm idea of what we can afford monthly before we do any kind of search, okay? We want to go ahead and get pre-approved. It kind of makes no sense to look at something, get your heart invested, and you realize you can't afford it. So let's go ahead and get pre-approved so we can get a firm idea of what our buying power is. That way we can move forward with confidence and a strategy for our offer. So I would say, make sure you look good on paper Before we step foot into any home, okay? Outside of that, I'm going to say in terms of incentives, new bills are offering great incentives right now. We're seeing 40K plus in free money, you know, in terms of incentives, but you may not want a new build, okay? So for those looking for a resale, we're looking at not just interest rates, but we're also looking at the price of a home. Too often we focus on an interest rate, and we want to focus on a monthly cost. So 7% is something that's really not that new. We're currently around 7%. We just went down recently, but 7% really isn't that new. So I'm encouraging people to look at the overall monthly costs with insurance, with HOA, all of those things included. And if it makes sense for you, it just makes sense. So don't focus too much on the interest rate. Focus on the overall monthly number. If it works for you, it works. Okay. So let's shift to sellers. Are sellers seeing a hard time? When I've been looking at some houses, I've seen some houses on the market for almost a year, some over a year walk us through. If I'm trying to sell a home, what are some things that I might have to give into, some things to look forward to or not look forward to in their case? Right away, I'm going to say price mark. A lot of what we're seeing when it comes to 60-plus days on market, they price a little aggressively. This is not the market for aggressive pricing. Now, during COVID, you could get as aggressive as you wanted because interest rates were so low. That is not the balance that we're dealing with right now. So I'm going to say price smartly, price to sell, okay? This is not pricing below value, but pricing right at value. You also want to make sure that your home is as move-in ready as possible. This is not the market where people really want to do fixer-uppers, do projects. They kind of want something turnkey. So price smartly, make sure your home is as turnkey as possible. And turnkey means not your point of view. It means the general market point of view. So make sure your home is marketable to the public and doesn't just reflect who you are as a homeowner because you're looking to sell that home. All right. Before we go, just overall, what should people know as they are looking? Just walk us through just a tidbit of what you hope people take away from this message. I want people to focus on making sure that you purchase what you can afford. I know oftentimes we hear buy now, refinance later. I'm here. I encourage my clients to be smart purchasers. our purchasers. So even though the interest rate has gone up again. Buy what you can afford right now, okay? I will also say, I don't want people in the gray area. A lot of people aren't moving because of interest rates. They aren't moving because they don't know what to do. They don't know where to start. So I would encourage them to reach out to me on McLeod the Realtor on Instagram, All mcleodtherealtor.com. uh just to get out of that gray area so if you come up with a plan for home ownership oftentimes my clients may not be ready to buy within the next six months but we right. put them on a plan along with my lender to get them to that road so i wanted the biggest message here get rid of the gray area figure out what you want and take it from there Troy McLeod, thanks so much. We appreciate it. There's just so many different aspects that comes into this. So we wanted to have that conversation as I think people see that interest rate and then they get freaked out. But there are just other aspects and avenues going forward to home ownership. We appreciate your time on this Sunday.