George Real Estate Group Radio Broadcast

Winter Sellers, Serious Buyers

• George Real Estate Group

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Ready for a contrarian take that actually works in your favor? We dig into the local housing data and show why listing in winter can be a strategic play: less competition, more motivated buyers, and a clearer path to the right offer. With sales up year over year, prices holding, and inventory still tight, your home can stand out now rather than get lost in the spring rush.

We unpack the numbers behind days on market, compare today with the hard-learned lessons of 2011, and explain how to turn timing into leverage. If you’re thinking about selling before buying, this is your roadmap: prepare during winter, go under contract with confidence, and walk into spring ready to act on the best listings. We also talk through the hidden power of equity—how years of appreciation and principal paydown can offset higher rates, strengthen your down payment, or even let you make a cash offer. Plus, we share practical tax notes like the homeowner capital gains exclusion so you can estimate your net with clarity.

Our conversation goes beyond primary homes to include estate properties, inherited land, and investment strategy. And because the season invites reflection, we share the origin of the Salvation Army kettle—one small act that grew into a tradition of hope—along with highlights from our Hometown Hero series celebrating quiet community leaders. It’s a reminder that big change often starts with a single step, and the same is true for your next chapter in real estate.

Want a confidential market analysis or a simple net sheet to see your options? Call 828-393-0134 or visit realestatebygreg.com. If this conversation helped you think differently about timing and strategy, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others find it.

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning and welcome to the Door Drill Estate Group Radio broadcast here on WHKP every Thursday morning, right after the 10 o'clock news. Thank you so much for joining in this morning. I trust you're doing well. I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas season. Time is flying. Here we are, just a few weeks away from Christmas, and so much to be thankful for. If you're tuning in for the first time ever, the George Real Estate Group's located in Flat Rock. We serve all of Western North Carolina and the upstate South Carolina. We have an incredible group of agents and staff, and more importantly, we have incredible clients. We're so thankful for our clients. We've had the privilege of helping uh over 1,600 families throughout the years. And at the George Real Estate Group, we are passionate and enthusiastic about helping our clients navigate through real estate. If you're tuning in for the first time ever, you can find us online at realestatebygreg.com. We also have our radio show website, George Real Estate Groupradio.com, and we also podcast all of our radio shows. You can find us on your favorite podcast platform. Be sure to follow us on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram, and we'd love to connect with you. We post about our new listings. You can see about our open houses and things going on in the community. And again, we'd love to connect with you. We've been doing this radio program here since 2011. I've also had my real estate broker's license for 20 years and just grateful to serve the community through real estate. We have incredible agents, we have incredible staff, and like I said earlier, we have incredible clients. It's ultimately our clients that ultimately make it all possible. So everybody's curious about what's going on in the real estate market. Well, in the last 12 months, we're averaging about 135 single family homes a month selling. That's up some 10% from the previous 12 months to the current 12 months. And guess what? Our prices? The prices are holding. We've had about a 1.5% drop, which is remarkable considering, you know, over the last, I mean, last year, a year ago, and a month and so we had Helene. But it's wild to think that we've had a 10% increase in the number of single-family home homes sold in the last 12 months versus the previous 12 months. So the demand has has increased. Inventory levels are still remaining low. As of this morning, there's only some 573 active single-family homes on the market. And so inventory levels are low. Demand is is actually up compared to last year. And then prices are holding. Now, the thing that a lot of people are noticing is days on market are increasing. It's taking closer to two months. I remember, I mean, of course, everybody remembers, you know, uh, you know, two weeks when things were selling in two weeks, you know, just a couple years ago on average, but now we are two months. I and I also remember, again, I've had my broker's license for 20 years in 2010 and 2011 and 2012 when things were really challenging, and we had a two-year supply of homes. And again, days on market were closer to, if you were even able to sell it, you know, you're closer to uh six months in the market. So, you know, it's all about context and it's all about perspective, and and we try to provide clarity and information for clients. So our clients can make a decision. We know real estate happens around life, and therefore life happens, therefore real estate happens. And we see this every single day in the conversations we have with our clients. It doesn't matter what the interest rates are, it doesn't matter what the economy is doing, it doesn't matter what's happening politically, it doesn't matter, you know, the the thing is, and and we saw that again, life happens, therefore real estate happens, and this has been true uh in in my career over the last 20 years, but you know, and regardless of the time of year, you know, the time of year, you know, people think you know, winter, you know, well, first off, we hear all the time, people say spring is the best time to sell. But you might consider why winter could be the the smartest actual actual time to sell your home, because even though the spring, everybody says spring is the best time, and of course spring is busy, there's there's no question about that. You know, more buyers come out of the as the weather warms up, but the piece most people never think about is spring also brings out more sellers, so your home suddenly has more competition. Winter, on the other hand, winter is a totally different story. One of the most consistent patterns in real estate is that the number of homes for sale drops in the winter months. You know, every year sellers take their properties off the market for the holidays or wait for until the spring to relist. And because of that, there's simply fewer homes available during the winter. And based on current housing data heading into you know, heading in into this next year, we're already seeing inventory tighten up again as the year winds down. And so, even though we have more homes for sale now than during the pandemic years, overall inventory is still well below what we consider a normal market, like when we had in 2017, 2018, 2019. And so this is where the opportunity lies with fewer homes for buyers to choose from, your home immediately becomes more noticeable, and you're not competing with the big wave of new listings that always hits in March and April. And so if you list in the winter, you get in front of buyers early, you avoid being lost in the noise of the spring inventory, and then your home naturally attracts more attention. So I've always said to sellers, it it's only right, the time is only right when it's right for you. It's not about the interest rate, it's not about the time of year. You know, again, the crowd is gonna wait till the spring to go in the market, so get ahead of it instead of joining it. So another major advantage of to selling in the winter, the buyers who are looking right now aren't casual shoppers. I actually had a buyer call us and said, I have to buy something before the end of the year. Again, his life situation, uh, it was uh, you know, you know, the you're again, life happens, therefore, real estate happens. People, there's different reasons why people buy and sell. People who go out in the cold weather or around the holidays or in the middle, middle of the winter storms aren't just browsing. You don't know someone's reason of why they're buying, and so they're typically moving because they have to, not because they feel like it. There was a recent quote from U.S. News that said buyers who are trudging through wintery weather often have a good reason for being out in the cold. They need to move, and so these buyers are often relocating for a new job. They could be facing the end of a lease, it could be a major life change. Um, they could be preparing for a growing family, a new baby. They could just be ready to move quickly, and so they're motivated, they're serious, they're qualified. And since we know that winter inventory is usually lower, they have fewer homes to choose from. And so if your home is priced right and shows well, it could easily be one of the ones that stands out, the one that checks the boxes, the one they move on right away. So, winter may not have the springtime buzz, but it has something even better: less competition, more motivated buyers, and a better chance for your home to shine. So, for a lot of homeowners, that combination leads to stronger interests and a smoother selling experience. So, even so, if so, if you're even thinking about selling, winter might offer you a strategic advantage. We'd love to connect, we'd love to provide a market analysis. There's no pressure, there's no cost, there's no obligation. You can have a confidential consultation, and we can take a look at your home, take a look at your neighborhood, and tell you what it might look like listing your property. And so the other piece of this puzzle is a lot of people want and choose to sell before buying. And so, what a great setup to go ahead and get your home in the market, get your home under contract. So when the increased inventory does happen this spring, you can be set up, you can be ready, you can have your home under contract in order to make the next move. And again, a lot of people choose to sell before buying. But your your unique situation, your unique story, your unique home, it's an it's an honor and privilege for us to sit at the dining room table. If that's possible, we do phone call consultations, we do Zoom consultations, we have clients that come into the office. Again, whatever your situation is, we'd love to have the conversation. And it doesn't just have to be about your personal home. We're having conversations all the time about investment properties, about estate properties, about estate planning in regards to real estate, about tax strategies in regards to real estate. You know, you're in in it could be uh land that you own that you've just been paying taxes on. Maybe it's land that you've inherited. There's a lot of different scenarios that we're talking to our clients, not just about the personal home, which is again something we've been doing. We've been in this, I've been in this industry for 20 years. Uh our comp we have a combined experience of over 100 years at the George Real Estate Group. And so if we'd if if you'd love to have the conversation or just curious, and there's of course never pressure, there's no obligation, and it's a confidential consultation we can have about your situation. We'd love to hear your story. You can call us directly at 828-393-0134-828-393-0134. Uh, this time of year, I always love looking and I love the inspirational Christmas stories, different stories. It could be, I mean, one uh there's a number of them, but one that recently came across uh, you know, my my uh my my desk was the story, and I don't know if you've heard the story of the first Salvation Army kettle. So let's actually go back to San Francisco in 1891. It was a booming port city filled with sailors, immigrants, and working families trying to survive tough times. And in the middle of it all was a Salvation Army captain named Joseph Joseph McPhee, and it was a man with a heart full of compassion and a head filled with worry. Christmas was approaching, and he felt a deep responsibility to feed the thousands of hungry, jobless men and women wandering the waterfront, and he wanted to serve a Christmas dinner for the poor, something warm and dignifying, a moment of hope for people who were feeling forgotten. But there was a a major one major problem. He had no money to do it. He had the vision, but he did not have the money to do it. He prayed and he paced and he tried to think of ideas, and then one memory surfaced. When McPhee was younger, living in England, he had seen a large iron kettle hanging at the stage landing in Liverpool, and passerby would drop coins inside to help the poor. He remembered the clinging of the coins, the simple honesty of it, the way people slowed down and even for a moment to give what they could. And suddenly he had his answer. He found an old crab pot, placed it out on the busy San Francisco wharf with a handwritten sign that read, Keep the pot boiling. He rang the bell, he greeted strangers, he shared his vision. People stopped, people listened, people gave. That battered iron pot filled up nickels, dimes, even pennies from children. Marine workers gave the loose chains from their pockets, businesses gave small amounts, immigrants gave what they could, remembering their own hunger. By Christmas Day, McPhee had enough had more than enough money to feed the hungry. He didn't just serve a meal, he restored dignity. And so word traveled quickly. Within a few years, Salvation Army kettles popped up in Oakland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Boston. And by the early 1900s, the red kettle became a symbol of hope during the coldest months of the year. During the Great Depression, those kettles fed millions who had absolutely nothing. During the Second World War, donations helped support US soldiers, prisoners of war, and displaced families in Europe. The sound of the bell became part of the American Christmas soundtrack right up there with carols, church bells, and the rustle of wrapping paper. So that single crab pot on a windy pier eventually grew into one of the largest charitable traditions in the world. Today, the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign serves serves families facing eviction, seniors who can't afford heat, hungry children, victims of disasters, veterans in crisis, people overcoming addiction. One petal one kettle can help feed thousands, one handful of coins can provide a warm bed, and one dollar can become hope. It all started with one man who refused to look away from need, and that one simple idea that anyone, no matter how little they have, can give something. And so Christmas reminds us that miracles often start with simple acts a pot, a bell, a few coins, a little courage, and suddenly thousands are fed. So Captain McPhee didn't wait for the perfect plan, he worked with what he had. The community didn't need to give much, just whatever they could spare. And so together they performed a quiet Christmas miracle. And so now every time we hear that bell outside a grocery store, we're hearing the echo of one man's decision to take action instead of despair. Again, just what a reminder uh in a story. You know, every Friday morning at 8 45, the George Real Estate Group, we sponsor the Hometown Hero series. And it is such a privilege to come around the mic uh with Randy every Friday morning at 8 45, and we hear stories. We hear people giving back. We heal, we hear people like Joseph McPhee that started the the kettlebell tradition. We hear about stories, people that have started movements here in in Hendersonville and in Western North Carolina. I mean, if you've hadn't had a chance to listen to some of them, certainly tune in every Friday morning at 8 45 for the Hometown Hero Hero series. We also podcast uh them as well, and there's there was a remarkable story just last Friday. Every Friday's pretty remarkable. Um, and we hear stories. There was a a student that started her compassion for animals, and this and and she started uh Kennel kindness, and and that's an amazing story. This high school student started her own non-profit, and it profit, and again, anybody can make a difference with that one decision, with that one action. And again, and you don't have and again, you don't have to have you think, I how am I gonna do this? I don't have money, I don't have the resources, but if you have a vision, and again, you take action and show up, and she did, and you can go back and listen to that on our podcast. We have coming up for our Christmas show. Uh Christmas this this year is on a Thursday. We Randy and I are gonna be reviewing the top 10. Uh, and when I say top 10, they're all amazing. Every single one of our hometown heroes are amazing. When I say top 10 by downloads, because we podcast all of our radio shows and we podcast all of our hometown heroes. And so by downloads, we've identified uh the top 10 downloads of our hometown hero stories, and we're gonna be recapping the year with those 10 stories, and we're gonna be doing that show on Christmas. We're gonna be uh broadcasting that show on Christmas. We're also gonna replay it again Friday morning like our normal Hometown Heroes series, instead of 15 minutes like we normally do. We're gonna do an expanded 30-minute show that that Friday. But on Christmas, we're gonna be doing uh a review of some of the most compelling stories, and and they're all amazing. And again, it's this it's amazing when people people show up. And we certainly saw with Helene neighbors helping neighbors, the community showing up, people and and and that's happening every single day. And we love putting a spotlight on that. And so every Friday morning at 8 45, we have our hometown hero series. You are welcome. If you know somebody making a silent hero in the community that's making a difference, reach out to WHKP, nominate them, tell us their story. We'll reach out to them and invite them to come in. And so many of these uh heroes just are they're they're so humble. And again, that's what makes them amazing, too. The work that they're doing uh you know, behind the scenes, unnoticed, quietly, and they're they're making a difference in our community. That's why we love putting a spotlight and having the Hometown Hero series uh where we can have conversations and share amazing stories with our community about the amazing work being done in the community. And so it's it is truly a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Hero series here on WHKP every Friday morning at 8 45. And again, we will be broadcasting uh the top 10 downloads of the Hometown Hero series from our podcast. That will be running on Christmas morning, and it will also run also Friday morning as well. So you can you can catch that Thursday right at the 10 o'clock news. Uh, we're here every Thursday live, but this Christmas we're gonna be broadcasting that show that Randy and I are putting together. And again, grateful for uh the opportunity to just it's it's sharing stories. Everybody has a story, right? Everybody and and it take a moment to hear and to ask questions and to to learn. You might never know unless you engage and and reach out and and when you're you know meeting with a neighbor, meeting with a family member, it's it's so you know ask the questions, you know, or or find out what's they're passionate about, or find out where they're volunteering, or just cu be curious and and come with curiosity. And and so again, we love love sharing the story. Of what's going on. We still have some time left. You're here at the George Real Estate Group radio broadcast here on WHKP. We've been actually, I've been doing this radio program. It's so fascinating. I started this radio program in 2011. You can imagine the news with the real estate market in 2011 was not very positive. And so that was actually my tagline positive news about the real estate market. I mean, here we're averaging some 132 single-family homes a month selling. Just for context, in 2011, we were only averaging some 70 to 75 single-family homes a month selling. We had a two-year supply of homes. Now, here's a fascinating things thing. Homes were still selling. Actually, was it pretty? No. Was it still happening? Yes. And we we navigated through that. We learned a lot. And what we one of the big some of the biggest lessons we learned, again, is real estate was gonna happen in there in regardless of the the economy, regardless of the market. And we still saw home selling. And so we had to have some very candid conversations. There were some very challenging conversations. And and it was not uh again, if you didn't have to sell, again, when you own your real estate and you live there, you're enjoying it. It's a place for your home, it's a safe place, it's where you can um you know come home after work, or maybe it's your retirement home, you enjoy it. And and the thing about the real estate market, there's always an ebb and flow of pricing, there's always an ebb and flow ups and down of what homes are worth. If you look at though the historical data of homes over the last 50, 60 years, there's been this like three to four percent appreciation line. And and guess what? Sometimes it goes above that, sometimes it goes below that. And so, you know, the timing of it, and it's not when you buy and sell real estate, it's not always about the timing. It is interesting, though. People that did sell in in 2010 and 2011, most times they were buying as well. And so it's interesting when you bought and sold in the same market, maybe you took a lot less than what you wanted to, but when you bought in, guess what? You were still in the market and you recovered. And so the people that and then maybe first-time home homeowner homeowners, first-time buyers, they were getting into the market. That was significant, and and it can be life-changing. And and you can buy when you can buy, you can when it's affordable for you. If you can afford the payment and the interest rates or the interest rates, you can always refinance later. Uh and and guess what? You can participate in the appreciation of homes long term. And guess what? At some point, prices will probably go down again, and that's okay. There's just this ebb and flow of home price appreciation uh historically. And so when you're living in the home, enjoying the home, using the home, again, you're not necessarily paying attention to what the prices of the home. Of course, when the market did what it did in 2010 and 2011, it was a very challenging time. And and some people and and frankly, there was a lot of distressed sales. There was some 40% of the market was distressed. It was a combination of foreclosures and a combination of short sales. It's a very challenging time, and we walked through that with so many of our clients. We helped them, we were advocating for them, and we were finding a way. And then a lot of our clients were say, hey, yeah, we'd love to sell, but guess what? When we were honest with them about the what the home would sell for in that market, they made a decision not to sell, and that's okay too. You you know, you can decide you, and this is even today, we're providing clarity and numbers and information for our clients to understand you know what's what's right for you. And and when you have information and you have the understanding of what the market's doing and homes are selling, the sky is not falling. I mean, the question a lot of people are asking right now, is it even a good time to sell? And and and if it's right for you, the market's actually it's still a great time to sell because one of the biggest factors right now for a lot of our sellers is the amount of equity that you have in your home. If you've the chances are, if you've lived in your home for a while, you you know you have significant equity. And so the no the equity is the the amount is really here's a dip, here's a this is the hidden wealth of home ownership. The the um then the amount of equity you have might actually change and give you more options than you realize. And so when you own a home, you build up something called equity, and every time you make a mortgage payment, you're chipping away at the loan balance, and that helps your ownership stake in your home grow. And so at the same time, your your home, and especially in the last five, ten years, the home values typically rise, and which drives up the overall value of your home. And so when you combine paying down your mortgage and the appreciation in your home is experienced, you're building wealth automatically, month after month, year after year. And so that adds that combination can add up to real dollars that can make a big difference in your move. One of the things we've shared before is if you're if you've lived in your home two out of a five-year period, as an individual, the first two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of profit. I'm not talking about what you paid for the home or what you put in to improve it, the improvements, but what you paid plus the improvements plus the first two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is you do not pay capital gains tax. If you're married, that's five hundred thousand dollars. That's two hundred and fifty thousand per person. You can actually have up to four people on your deed and up to a million dollars of not paying the capital gains, two hundred fifty thousand dollars per person if you've lived in the home two out of a five-year period. This is so fascinating. Nearly forty five percent, excuse me, nearly half. So forty-five percent of today's homeowners have lived in their home for more than fifteen years, and one in four for over twenty-five years. So, if that's you, if you had a mortgage, imagine what 15 to 25 years of paying making payments plus the study appreciation have done to your bottom line. And so if you're curious, this is we can find we can we can provide you information, and if you're curious about what your home is worth, you can find out you know what kind of equity you're sitting on. And so it depends on what you paid for the home, it depends on how much you've been paying your mortgage, and so all these different factors go into play, and so a lot of homeowners are sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity without even realizing. So, these this equity, the amount that you that your home is worth minus what you owe on it, that can offset nearly every concern you have about moving right now. If you're concerned about taking on a higher mortgage rate, well, your equity could cover significant down payment. And the more money you put down, the less you need to finance. Unsure if you can compete in today's market, you know. Thanks to your equity, you can you may this is so fascinating. 30% of our sales in Henderson County are purchased with cash. So thanks to your equity, you may be able to purchase your next home in cash. And so an all-cash offer is something that is going to appeal to a lot of sellers right now, so they don't have to worry about the buyers financing uh as a as one of the challenges. So you know, if now's a great time of year to look at your home and what your what you uh what your equity is in your home. And this doesn't mean you have to sell it, but it could provide clarity and information and and and and give you a some information so you can make plans. Maybe their plan is for next year, maybe it's in two years, maybe it's in five years. You know, life happens quickly, life can change in a day, and again, real estate happens around life. So if you're just curious what your home is worth, if you're curious what kind of equity you have, uh, you know, after paying off your mortgage, if you want what's called a net sheet, we can provide that. Ultimately, all this information is so you can decide what to do for what's right for you. It's not about timing the market, it's not about timing the interest rate, it's about what the what is right for you and your story and your life. And so at the George Real Estate Group, we provide a no pressure, no cost, no obligation consultation, confidential consultation. We talk, we are talking with sellers every single day. We work with buyers every single day, and it's fascinating. This time of year, even though we're a couple weeks away from Christmas, we're just as busy as we've been all year, and we're so grateful. We've actually helped more people this year, uh, significantly more people this year than we did last year. And we're continuing to grow, and we love helping and love serving our community, and we'd love to help you if that's something this this could be helpful for. You can call us directly at 828-3930134. You can find us online at realestatebygreg.com. We also podcast all of our radio shows. You can find it on your favorite podcast platform, whether it's Apple, Amazon, Spotify, wherever you listen. If you have a smartphone, you can type in podcasts, and then you can look up George Real Estate Group uh radio podcasts. We'd love to connect with you there. You can follow us in and like I mentioned earlier in the show, the Hometown Hero Series. We have that every Friday morning at 8 45. We'll be here tomorrow morning. And like I said, for Christmas, and then the Friday after Christmas, we'll be doing a uh top 10 uh podcast downloads of our Hometown Hero series and reviewing that. Randy and I will be doing that together and looking forward to that. Again, so much to be thankful for and grateful for this time of year. I just hope you'd continue to be kind to yourself and take care of yourself. Check on a neighbor, make that phone call to that family member you haven't talked to in a while. And again, perspective is everything. And again, we're so grateful and so much to be thankful for uh this time of year and every every day throughout the year. Thank you so much for tuning in. This is the Door Drill Estate Group Radio Broadcast here on WHKP. Have a wonderful day, have a wonderful week, and we'll see you tomorrow morning. You've built a lifetime of strength, wisdom, and independence. And here's the best part: you still have it. Every decision, every step, every next chapter is yours to choose. Selling your home isn't about letting go, it's about opening the door to more freedom, more time for what you love, more energy for the people and passions that matter most. At the George Real Estate Group, we believe independence isn't behind you. It's right here, right now. Our team goes beyond buying and selling. We're here to help you protect your wealth, preserve your legacy, and make sure Uncle Sam doesn't become your biggest benefactor. We'll guide you every step of the way towards your next chapter, your next opportunity, and your freedom on your terms. Call us at 828 393 0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com.