Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this March 12, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here, and we're welcoming into the studio,
a good friend of ours, David Farmboro. He is a broker, associate,
realtor with Cole Banker, CEO, realtor's. David, thank you very much for being here.
Thank you very much for having me, James. It's nice to be here,
very familiar with the studio. No, you, of course, been on your show previously.
And it's nice to be following in the footsteps of my friend,
Jay, I'll see what, who was here for many years. We really enjoyed working with JR,
working with Lindsay, and getting our community so well-informed on this topic.
And we appreciated the time with them. Looking forward to a new chapter with you,
and being able to learn more about not only the industry, but about you, yourself,
and finding out your takes on the real estate and the numbers you can bring us and everything.
So it's going to be a lot of fun, David, and really appreciate you and our
friends at Cole Banker, CEO, realtor's being with us and working with our station.
If you don't mind, I think a really good place to start is the topic you suggested,
it's a really good one, David. When is the best time to sell your home?
This seems like one of those things that we talk about it right now, and it might change next
month. It may be different a month after that. Is that the way this kind of question can go sometimes?
Absolutely, and it's a conversation that realtors have all the time with people.
One of the things that you will find is that a lot of realtors, sometimes myself included,
will say, right now is the best time to sell your home. Well, of course, we would say that
wouldn't we, because we want your business. But it's worth looking at what would be the
difference if you wanted to sell in a few months time, if you wanted to sell in a year.
And to do that, we have to know a little bit about how the market is working.
But the other thing that's really important is what's going on in your own life.
So we usually find that most people's decision to move home, they're usually not just buying or selling
real estate as an investment. Most of people's decision is based on the changes in their life.
So they could be first-time buyers moving out from their parents, or they could be people
who are fed up with renting and now's the time to send that money to your mortgage instead of to
your landlord. You could be having another baby, so you want to get a bigger home. You could be
downsizing because you're empty nesters, or you could be looking for something all on one level
because you've got to the age where you don't want to do the stairs anymore. So there are lots of
things that drive a decision to buy and sell, and most of them are not financial. Most of them
are life changes. Yeah, I've never really thought about that before. Even though I've been
privy to it with my parents in such, in my grandparents, my Nana Papa, they have a beautiful house
in Rome. They love they were going to die in that house, and then they got a little older and
realized I don't like two floors. And so they moved the Grand Rapids. And so I've seen and experienced
some of this, but I've never thought about that before how integral that is to this. I wonder if
some people out there listening hear that and start thinking why I didn't really wasn't thinking
about selling maybe now is a good time because I don't think a lot of people might think of that
stuff from time to time. Right. And we will talk about the financial bit in a moment. But one of the
things that people sometimes do is they put off a house sale or a house move because they think
that something will be different in a year's time. And sometimes all that changes in a year's time
is that your need to move becomes more urgent because you've had that baby and now you really need
that extra bedroom or because you now can't manage the stairs at all and you've had to put a bed in
one of the downstairs rooms. So sometimes when those life changes happen, you need to make the decision
sooner rather than later. Yeah, it's something to time waits for nobody. So things happen that often
more than often when we're not planning on them. And maybe that bum hip gets even worse a year
from now, something like that as far as being on a one floor or any of the references you made there,
it's a really good point about being certainly taking your time, going by your speed to this,
but also being on point with it and being aware of it and how quickly you should act on these things.
Right. And when you do decide to sell your home, you have to take into account things like
how long it's going to take to get the home prepared for sale and also how long it's going to be
on the market. There are various things that you have to do to prepare so you might be downsizing
your possessions. In some cases, you might want to do a little bit of work on your home just to
make sure you maximize the potential of it. Sometimes you want to do staging. And there are ways that
if you talk with your realtor, your realtor can help you facilitate that and can help you get
the maximum result for your efforts. So many people out there are hearing this in our
in-situations where maybe they are not, they are not at a top point where they're going to sell
their home, but they may be looking at it and thinking, well, I don't know if I'm going to,
this is the last home I'm ever going to own. I don't know if this is the home I'm going to die
and if I could be blunt. So when it comes to that, you are immediately thinking of how
if I do sell it, how can I make a better investment out of this? And some of the things that you've
touched on there about improvements or things, I think those are good notes even to somebody who may
not thinking of selling right now, they may be eventually. And that's a really good point to make.
One of the few investments we have in our lives that is so versatile, you know, where we buy
a home for this and if we do this and this with it, it can oftentimes be sold for even more.
Yeah, and there are a lot of ways that your realtor can help you do that. So, for example,
getting an accurate valuation, that is really important. And we've all been online and see
seen what the value of our home might be on Zillow or something like that. And to a certain
extent, those digital tools are really useful because they are very comprehensive in scraping data
from all sorts of sources. So they look at how the how many bedrooms the tax record or how many
bedrooms the previous sale record shows that house has. They look at the tax records. They look at
maybe the amount it sold for previously and how much the that how the homes in the area have
gone up in value. But what those online estimates don't do is go into your house and have a look
around. So really, if you want to know what potential there is in your home, you need to get a
realtor in to give you a valuation and a market analysis. Your realtor will see the condition
of your home and they will be able to say how that compares with homes that are currently on the
market. So it might be that your home maybe needs a bit of updating and sometimes they can give
you advice as to ways to do that updating that aren't going to cost you an arm and a leg.
The other thing that realtors can do when they look around a home is they can see
how the house is actually presented. So on paper it might be a three bedroom home but when they
go there they see that actually there's a fourth bedroom in the basement. Obviously they'll be
able to advise on whether that is legally able to be described as a bedroom or whether we have to
call it a bonus room as we do sometimes when there's there's no egress window. But it would be
something that would not necessarily be reflected in the documents. So all of that will be missed out
of any online digital valuation. So if you get a realtor in there the realtor can look at the home
can give you a good idea of what the value is likely to be. Maybe give you some suggestions on
how you can best present it for sale. That may involve only a few minor tweaks just to make it
look more contemporary and can also often put you in touch with a home stager and with other
contractors who can do the work at a minimal cost and maximize your return. There's so many things
to David that seem to come up in the spur of the moment or you're not thinking of it going into
it but you have another person there you get talking and oh I thought of this or oh I meant to
bring this up and you can't do that with a computer you can't do that with a lot of online stuff
but when you have it actual broker or realtor in the bill in your home with you and you're able to
talk these things out and they're able to kind of shine a light on certain things for you that
you may not know this is their game this is their industry they know this inside and out. Then
there's no way that we as you know just as homeowners can know half of what you guys do. So
bringing that in giving that opportunity not only is going to help you but it may give you more
information than you even realize you need it. Absolutely right and sometimes also a realtor is
able to take a step back from something that you are very emotionally vested in. Sometimes when
it's the home that you've brought up your family in or it might be your family home your parents
home you will be able to see it only in that way but what your realtor is thinking is this is
something that I want to make appeal to somebody new. People will want to put their own stamp on it
the intention usually is to try and depersonalize it to some extent. You want it still to feel
like a home but maybe you don't want to have all the family photos up so that when a potential
buyer comes in they think of it as somebody else's home rather than the potential home they could
be living in. It seems like a tricky part to navigate it be really helpful and it is really
helpful. I imagine having a realtor there having somebody who's done this before understands that
kind of thing. It's a down get lined up balance I would imagine and you bring up I think a really
important point here David there's something that I've I've thought about in years past and I've
never really had an opportunity to bring up and ask before but when it comes to your home value
I imagine it for some for most people if you've been living in it for a long time you built
it feels like an extension of you to feels an appendage almost it's a part of you and you love
your home so your value your personal value of your home might be higher than it actually is
or it could be at the opposite of that. Well this old thing I've lived here for years this
couldn't be a thing and then you find no actually you got some really nice property there you're
on some good land and you're in a good location there's so many factors that can play into this
I imagine just being able to go to you guys alone with the question like that and you get a real
answer yes that's right and sometimes the value isn't what people expect because the sources
for information sometimes people do go online sometimes they look at the house next door which
sold but in almost all cases the house next door is not identical to yours they may have an extra
bedroom or you may have an extra bedroom or one thing that makes a big difference in value
is an extra bathroom or an extra garage stall all those things can make significant differences
even though the house may look the same from the outside what we find with values generally
is that they are going up they're going up in the city of Wisconsin Rapids and in all of the
surrounding municipalities and I did prepare a few stats before I came here I said we'd come
to the financial side so in 2022 I'm actually looking year on year from March 2022 to 2023
we actually saw an 11% increase in home prices the average home price in the city of Wisconsin
Rapids now you you think that's really great that's a great return of investment but you have
to compare that with the 8.3% inflation that we had during that year if we look at the last
financial year say March 23 to 24 we've got a 6% increase in value now you might think oh that's
come down quite a lot but actually again we've got 3.4% inflation so you're still looking at
just about 3% above the rate of inflation so what this means is two things your homes are still
going up in value so there's no crash as far as anyone's concerned coming there's no big risk
in investing in real estate but your homes are not going up maybe as much as people think
so sometimes people are saying wow 11% increase in year that means that it's a terrific
investment the reality is it's just a little bit more of an inflation which is probably what
you want so when it comes to interest rates right now I'm thinking of selling
I know that we see a number of national stories and everything I always like to make sure to
mention this when it comes to that that's nothing against those reports but always keep in mind that
locate that when it comes to real estate it's all a local business it's all local industry and
the numbers are going to vary from county from city and all of that so to your point about
interest rates right now does seem like a very good time in this area to be selling
absolutely right yes interest rates are still fluctuating we haven't seen big swings in the
last few months and when you talk to forecasters some will tell you that they're expecting slight
increases or slight reductions so the question that people sometimes ask is whether we need a
big drop in interest rates to stimulate the housing market we don't we have a lot more buyers
than we have sellers there we don't need any additional buyers so the extra buyers that we're
going to get from an interest interest rate reduction will not help to sell your own
sell your home it's an important note to mention that's really good to know we're speaking again
with David Farmer from Cole Banker CEO realtors and David we're getting close to wrapping up
here towards the end one of the things that I wanted to get into with you if you had anything
else you wanted to cover will go to it certainly but the common misconceptions that you do run into
in this in this position well there's there's probably three that I see a lot and the first one is
that property prices have been doing well therefore a big crash must be coming
we did see a boom in the 80s and 90s and they're what that was followed by a crash but that was
really for reasons that don't apply now we had a lot of sub prime mortgage lenders really giving
people too much money to spend on houses and that really created an artificial price increase
that later the air was let out of that and then we had the crash we're not going to see any crash
now unless we have something really unexpected like a pandemic so crash is the first one the other
one is people are looking for a big interest rate downturn again I don't see that coming maybe
minor interest rate changes certainly up to the end of the year and the other thing is huge price
increases some people are saying let's hold on to my house because next year it could go up
11 percent well the predictions are now that we're looking to have a similar increase this year
to what we had last year so if you sell your house next year you're going to get a little bit more
money for it but it's not going to be a great deal you know one thing that I I feel like I learned
from JR and in talking to him and I'm hearing an echoed in what you're saying here David
is so much as we don't mean this in a rushing sense or oh you got to act right this second
as I'm speaking kind of thing but it really does feel like when it comes to selling your home
it is a you got to hit on the moment you really this is the right time do it at this point
this time hit when when it feels right for you as a home owner and you are comfortable with that
and the industry is telling you that this is a good time that feels like all things are all
checked boxes yes and if you're kind of on the fence about that just reach out to the
the good team at Colo Baker there's no there's no harm in in asking questions there's no harm in
asking you know hey I'm kind of curious I'm on the fence about maybe selling reach out
ask those questions they love answering them absolutely right and a realtor's will give you
evaluation and a market analysis free of charge you don't then have to put your house up for sale
you don't have to sign a contract to get that evaluation it's something that we like doing
and hopefully it'll help you in your decision making process David is there anything you want
to touch on before we let you go I think we've covered everything thank you very much very good
I do want to mention again how much we've appreciated our relationship with Colo Baker see
your realtor's and over the years being able to work with JR and Lindsay Lee recently and now
we're going to get a chance to work with you we're really appreciated while there's a business
relationship between us and everything and Colo Baker and WFHR keep in mind that neither of our
industries serve we're both in reputation industries and the reason the WFHR has been around 80
plus years the reason Colo Manger's been in this area for decades and everything is because they
treat this community right the reputation is right David and I aren't here without that so I
greatly appreciate that and respect that out of the you and your team and everybody over there
Colo Manger the work that JR and his father did and we certainly want to continue that and looking
forward to it so appreciate the time David if people have followed questions they want to know more
about some what we talked about today how can they reach you well they can certainly contact me on
my Facebook page I have a special Facebook page David Farnborough realtor they can contact me on
there or they can just go to the cobalt banker website and look me out there or they can give me a
cool excellent colo Baker dot com's that website be sure to check that out everybody and David
looking forward to talking again real soon thanks very much James thank you well a more midday
magazine for you tomorrow right here on 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WFHR locally grown radio
