Are First Time Buyers Seeing the Light?
For going on four years I’ve held a bi-weekly home buying workshop, Home Buying 101 - Demystifying the Home Buying Process. For most of that time I could pretty much guarantee that a class would be held, whether there were ten participants or two. Month after month the workshop went off without a hitch. During that time I helped scores of first time homes buyers, mainly Gen X and Gen Y-ers, enter the wonderful world of home ownership. From Hawthorne to Alberta to Mississippi to Beaverton, the first time buyer market thrived. Then something very interesting happened. The classes stopped. Trust me, I was more than happy to continue holding them and, in fact, Vince Kingston, one of my favorite mortgage partners, and I showed up week after week only to find no students waiting. It didn’t tailor off. We didn’t go from a packed house to a full group to a few people to one or two. No, we went from an incredibly consistent bi-weekly program to nothing…zilch…zero. What happened? Our Craigslist ad ran every week like clockwork. Our past clients continued telling anyone and everyone what an informative class it was. But nobody called. Nobody RSVPd. Clearly the national and, to a lesser extent, local news finally convinced people that the market was “bad”.
Well I’m THRILLED to tell you that we held our first workshop again tonight. Vince texted me last week that, gasp, we had a CONFIRMED sign-up. Two days later we had a second sign up. By the end of the week we had a full group. How do we go from zero to full that quickly? I have absolutely no idea…but I couldn’t be happier. You have to understand, while the market is down a bit, it’s just an amazing time to be a buyer. Yes, it’s more difficult to get financing. You have to actually have a job, if you can believe it? Lenders would like to see a decent credit score, though we can help you improve that easily enough. Sure, there might be a few more hoops to jump through, but it’s worth it. Interest rates are still strikingly low. There are a ton of houses on the market, so the choices are unbelievable. For the first time in many years, the buyers have a bit of control and a steady foundation to negotiate from. Sounds like a killer first time buyer market to me.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the home buying workshop, give me a shout at jesse@realtynetwork.net or call or text to 971-219-4939.
In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful summer weather…uh, hmmm, huhhh…sorry.
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