They are still on their way down!
 

Played golf last Sunday at a medium size course in MA. Starter was a very talkative white haired man. He has sold his house, and all the furniture is in storage in pods. He has a Brownwood villa rented for the month of august, and he and his wife are determined to buy a house in the villages by the end of the month. Asked him a few questions, and he had some quirky answers, though his wife is the major decider. Didn't quite grasp the MLS sales concept as he wanted to buy a pre-owned home, and he has a "TV" sales rep. . .
Friends of ours in MA sold their $650K house this week near us to a young couple from CA. CA couple did the virtual tour and bought the house without leaving CA. The couple was pre-approved for $700 K mortgage.

The current problem in real estate is that there is not enough supply away from the urban centers. Of course the builders did not have time to create rural /suburbia supply for an urban pandemic. There are anecdotal evidence from national home builders' employees that houses are going like wildfire at the moment. People now want open space for their kids and family..

Urban cities will trend towards lower income and will take another several decades to recover, in the northeast, where the cities are the oldest

sportsguy

I wouldn't bet the farm on that information...

The ongoing pandemic and continuing social unrest is causing many people to consider moving out of some urban areas. Technology now allows Zoom meetings and many can work from home most of the time. People want to feel safe and happy in their surroundings. Changes are coming.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

what source do you have that has a different point of view dave?

Microsoft teams beats Zoom, Slack and Webex hands down. Many corporations moving to teams, microsoft will have a few great quarters coming up. . .

Not sure why you'd even comment on this bit. We bought a pre-owned home, and we had a TV sales rep representing us throughout the experience, from the initial call to the seller's agent to let them know we're interested, to arranging a ride for me when I flew down to see the place and put down a deposit, to helping us arrange all the utility stuff and various other contract things we needed to deal with, to the final closing.

He was there every step of the way and we couldn't have done it without him.

Just making sure he considered independent options, versus TV sales, which may not represent all inventory options. He already "fired" one TV sales rep.

That should not have any reflection on your personal history, not sure why you compare your personal situation to anyone else's personal situation. We are all different, and if it worked for you great! if whatever works out for him, great!

I am sure that whatever he decides will work out fine for him, he expects to decide in 30 days, that should be enough. We decided in two days.

sportsguy

When we bought our home 3 years ago we used both a MLS and TV agent. Although we ended up buying a new home, the TV agent took us to multiple homes that met our criteria whereas the MLS agent showed us only one home. I would stick with TV agents.

vintageoguage, sample size 1, each person has to find what's best for themselves. We didn't use a sales rep to find what we wanted, but then again, i tend to do my own research and investigations. last year is different than this year, listing selection will be different, just like a golf lie, each person situation and options are unique

sportsguy

It’s is simple. If you use only a villages rep or only a mls rep you only get to see about 50% of the preowned homes. Use two reps and you have access to about 98%. About 2 percent are For Sale By Owner. It make sense to use two agents. But that is just me.

My first TV agent was worse than worthless as he evaded showing me resale homes, taking me only to a few new spec homes.

These people should pick their TV agent carefully if they want to look at resales as well as new homes.

They should also find a good MLS Realtor. In my experience it pays to turn over every rock as you never know where you will find "the one".

Has anybody spoken with Lyle Gant lately? Just wondering.

I was thinking about giving him a call but I really don't want to take up his time. He did put up some very helpful information on TOTV for a long time and now NOTHING!

I believe he retired.

Real Estate
 

Commercial real estate as we know it will change in the future due to this pandemic.

Businesses are discovering now their employees can be productive and safe working from home. I believe in the demand commercial real estate will decrease.

You are "right on" with this email ... look at the price of Lennar currently ... over $70 per share last I looked. Probably a good time to sell that stock but it makes your point.

When we were shopping for a home in 2018 it was suggested to use an MLS realtor and a Village realtor. We never did use MLS and used VLS. We found exactly what we wanted at the price we wanted. We worked with Leigh Ebersole and she was great!

Real Estate sales in the rural part of VA along the Chesapeake Bay are the best ever.

I highly recommend Judy Dressendorfer! She is a TV rep and will show you what you want. Not pushy, very professional and knows the ins and outs of the villages.

These comments are if you're are buying. What if we are selling? We have purchased our second home in The Villages and presently have listed it FSBO. On Silverlake Golf course and water. Had a few calls first week, only realtors this week. Go with villages at 6% or MLS at lower rate? Do not have to be in hurry to sell. Help please. Thanks in advance

I believe, but have only hearsay, that TV people push the new houses, of which there are many now, as they have been building during the pandemic. This is also where they make the most money, so that make sense. I have also heard that their people get paid more for selling new versus resale. I have had no luck with TV In the selling aspect and did buy through them, however, their realtor was just standing in the right place. My husband did all the footwork. I believe you are foolish to not use an inside and an outside agent to widen the search. Tammy Freilich of Remax in Wildwood was great.

What happen when all the boomers are gone? I know my kids have no aspirations towards a Villages type community or even a 55 or older. They want to be be close to where the action Is - but not in DC or LA or CHI or PHL proper. Cities are nice to go in and grab dinner but you don’t want to live in them.

Life and needs and wants change as you get older.

What works now for our 40 something kids and grandkids will probably not work as well 20 or so years from now.

When we were that age we had no aspiration toward a 55 and older community and that sure changed.

Most people who live in cities can’t work from home, of course, but you are right that a lot who can are trying to leave the cities. It’s pretty amazing. My girlfriend lives in beautiful western New Jersey. Hardly any high end housing had sold in the area for two years. Now, suddenly, everything from $500,000 to a million in the area is sold, to people who lived in New York.

A friend of ours who has had a nice rent-controlled apartment in New York for twenty-five years, at $4,000 a month, and a good job at a big investment company, and is 63, has been told she can work from home for the rest of her career, so she gave up her apartment and her five mile walk to work and now lives in her weekend cottage in Millbrook, New York, a two hour train ride from the city.

Last night we had dinner (outside) with a couple who has a big place at Golden Ocala. One of their sons is a real estate agent who is supposed to keep five Manhattan apartment houses full and usually has long waiting lists for each. Now he has over a hundred empty apartments.

So, yes, there is a big demand for suburbia, but also for places farther out. Vacation cottages. The Villages. People tell me Manhattan today isn’t much like it was last year. You can stroll down streets without having to stop and dodge every few feet. The energy has been turned way down.

Six weeks ago, we bought a small property outside TV, for our daughter. We were in the ~130K range.

Property after property was sold, or under contract. Available in the morning, gone by afternoon. We were astonished ~ if it was solid and cute, it was sold.

Young families looking to get out of apartments?

We got a phone call yesterday from a Properties of the Villages agent. A homebuyer had driven past our house and were interested in buying it because they liked the lot and location. The house is not for sale, so we politely declined. But this tells me demand for certain types of properties in TV is higher than supply and people are getting creative.

Prices in well run cities down I think not
 

median rent 1 bedroom , $2,600 if you can find one, condos starting at $500, in the less popular neighborhoods, to over 1, million in better neighborhoods, and the median price of a 1family home at $800,, also the surrounding cities are seeing record jumps in rents and sale of houses the future is not in the burbs , but places where you may not need a car , where you can easily get to top flight medical care, expose your self to the arts a lively city and experience, sure there a virus but it will pass ,in some way the villages itself is what retirement will look like it the future lots to do , able to get around , unlike many of the dreary retirement placesvscattered all across America with there one golfcourse or none,

Village home sales reps do not co-broke w MLS agents, thus the need to work w 2 sales people to look for a pre-owned home.

Yes they do not play well together. Worked at first with mls agent and when she didnt have anything else to show us worked with village sales agent and purchased house quickly.

I'm not surprised that "she didn't have anything else to show", as MLS represents less than 20% of the real estate market. Yet, the "real estate expert" claimed, "It's a sellers market right now. There is only enough inventory to last 2-1/2 months." Such a misleading and unethical post. I'll probably get flagged for that comment.

My employer is only allowing Microsoft Teams and Skype for meetings. I use Zoom only for personal video meetings.

Agree, been looking for place with acreage outside of urban area but either too big, too much, or small, old, and not interested.

Agents will push there listing, not much in it for them To split commission.

The Villages sales reps have many preowned homes but they are pushing everyone to buy new south of 44. Outside realtors have homes but can’t show or sell TV listings, they need to connect with TV sales rep. I know this because I have a villa for sale in Buttonwood using ReMax. The market is so so. Things are selling but not as fast as it normally would at this time of year, which is slow anyway.

She is a remax realtor and she probably showed us about 10 houses of which only two belonged to her and her partner.

We did give her a good idea of what we wanted and where we wanted it to be so that limited what she could show us.

She seems to be a good agent and we thought we would be buying thru her. However it was not to be.

You absolutely need both MLS and Village realtors unless you are only buying brand new. We had both show us several houses and chose one that was MLS. We are still here 12 years later.

I’m on 5th new house in villages , my agent showed my home to many people, I never had to wait more then 3 weeks and I got top dollar for all of them and if you use villages agent and but another preowned or new you get back 1% of the new home price back , there are many good agents here they can’t push you if you don’t want to be pushed , they want to sell your home and they want you to buy , it’s all up to you