Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep # 146 How Smart Tech And Lower Rates Are Reshaping Home Buying In Charlotte
A friendly voice on the line might be a bot, but the strategy behind your move should be unmistakably human. We dive into how AI is transforming first contact in real estate—think call bots and text flows—and why the smart move is a fast handoff to a real conversation when a buyer is genuinely ready. Then we open the hood on pricing: how AI-driven analysis can augment MLS comps, tax records, and price-per-square-foot to produce a sharper, faster read on fair market value without replacing expert judgment.
From there we tackle the moment buyers have been waiting for. Mortgage rates have eased from the high sevens toward the low sixes, with a credible shot at dipping below six. Pair that with abundant inventory across the Charlotte metro, and you get rare leverage: motivated sellers, bigger price cuts, and room to negotiate repairs or credits. If you’re eyeing Dilworth, SouthPark, South End, or lakefront homes, you’ll hear how seasonal patterns and school calendars shape urgency, why days on market feel longer, and how a genuinely “balanced market” changes the playbook for both sides of the table.
We also map out a needs-first path for first-time buyers who must choose between school zones and commute, condo convenience and backyard space, short-term plans and long-term equity. With more than a hundred new residents arriving in the region daily, the runway to 2026 looks busy. Our take: act before the crowd, secure a strong strike price while inventory is high, and refinance later if rates fall. Along the way we share practical scripts for navigating AI outreach, questions to stress-test pricing, and the signals that a listing is primed for negotiation.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend in the market, and leave a quick review so more neighbors can find helpful, local advice.
Carolina Realty Advisors
Mike Sposato
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Regina League:Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here in the Charlotte area, and I'm super excited to have back with us today, I think for the fifth time, Mike Sposato. He's the broker owner of Carolina Advisors, excuse me, in Charlotte. Welcome, Mike. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So uh we have covered some really fantastic topics in our last four episodes. And today there's something hot on my mind, and it's probably on everyone's mind, is AI. And I'm super curious how is that being used or what are you seeing it how in the real estate industry?
Mike Sposato:Well, there's a couple of different things I've been seeing. Um, one of them that's most like forward-facing that people that consumers are probably experiencing, maybe maybe they're not even aware they're experiencing it, but there's a lot of platforms now that have um AI bots that are actually making phone calls. So you might get a phone call from somebody who claims to be a realtor, but they're actually an AI robot, um, believe it or not. And you can tell if you really have a keen ear and you listen to what they're saying, um, but it's getting better and better and better. And I'm sure by this time next year, it's going to be harder to you know figure out that you're actually talking to a uh an AI bot versus a human being, but that's technology for you. So you got you got that, and then there's a lot of platforms that will do texting. So if you happen to engage with a real estate agent or a real estate firm about a property or any kind of interest in something, you might start texting back and forth. And a lot of times those are going to be text bots, they're not humans, they're pre-programmed to ask certain questions. And um, you know, we have it in our firm. And I and it's funny because some of the people that engage it, um the things they say, it's it's kind of comical. But um, you know, it it does work from that perspective. But the other thing that the public doesn't see is on the back end, um, one of the things we've kind of stumbled on is um being able to uh price property out. So when you're looking at listing a property, you want to try to come up with the the best you know fair market value for pricing it. And there's a lot of data points you can use from price per foot to recent sales in the neighborhood, of course, and um you know, tax record information and in and a whole bunch of other little parts. But now, um, if you know how to ask the AI chatbot um you know certain questions, the right questions, it can lead you down a pathway where you can start to figure out what the AI thinks the property is worth as well. And you can use that as a data point. I've used it a handful of times. Again, not as the primary way of doing it, but just as a data point, and it's been really accurate.
Regina League:So um, yeah, well, that's it's a time saver, I'm sure, for you, but for the consumers and how you run your business, um, what's your personal philosophy after that initial you know conversation text? Where do you go from there?
Mike Sposato:Well, um the first couple of questions it asks are very broad, general questions. But if you see that the um potential client is really engaging and they're coming back with the right kinds of answers and they don't have an agent and they're in the market, that's when we immediately call them and try to get them on the phone so we can have a conversation because nothing beats a conversation with the potential client.
Regina League:That's right. And I called a business today and I knew it was AI. I think we're all going to become wiser. And you know, working with an agent or a firm to buy and sell a home is such a big deal. So uh that makes a lot of sense. So another thing that's on the news and that we're all hearing about is interest rates. Tell us um what's going on. It seems like they're shifting again. So give us an update.
Mike Sposato:So when we did our first show, um, like you said, this is the fifth episode. So it was probably it's been a while, six, seven months ago, maybe. Um, interest rates were close to 7% back then. And um, you know, a lot of buyers are sitting on the fence waiting for the rates to drop. Well, they have dropped. Now we're at 6.125, and today's uh October 29th, 2025. So um, and from the information that we're getting, their rates will probably drop two more times before the end of this calendar year. How big a rate drop, no one knows, but I'm certain we'll get under six percent. There's those predicting that by spring or summer we might be down to you know five and a half or five and three quarters, something like that. Um, it's certainly it's really interesting because right now um there's a lot of inventory on the market. And if you were a buyer, this is one of the I've been doing this 25 years. This is one of the best times that I could ever think of to buy because rates are trending down. So you're gonna get a competitive rate, but there's so much inventory that sellers are you're seeing major, major price drops right now for people who are motivated to sell. And so you could get a good strike price on a property, get a decent rate, and you know, if they go down, you can refinance it. But it it's it's a perfect, absolutely perfect storm time to buy.
Regina League:Wow. Wow, that is fantastic. What are some of the hot areas in Charlotte right now?
Mike Sposato:Same as always, you know. Um, you know, Dilworth is always good, South Park's good. Um, South End's always, well, not always, but it has been up and coming. There's just not very much inventory there. Of course, any waterfront property on either one of the lakes, you know, because they're just people love the lakefront property, Waxhaw, Weddington, you know, those are some of the best areas. The the problem though that you have is now that schools have started, there there will be those people who need to make a move during the holidays to resituate with schools, but there are a limited amount of people. And so the big suburban markets, usually this time of year, they they tend to get slower until we hit the spring market. So just keep that in mind.
Regina League:Yeah. When I was a kid, my dad's job moved us around, and we always moved in the middle of the school year, which is not so much fun. Yeah. So um, we've tapped a little bit into the Charlotte market, but let's dive a little deeper. What is happening in our specific area?
Mike Sposato:What's that? I'm sorry, I didn't interview you.
Regina League:That just um a market update for the Charlotte metro area, because I know you're a North and South Carolina uh realtor as well.
unknown:Yep.
Mike Sposato:Well, um, like I was saying earlier, there's a lot of inventory. Um, you know, when when I guess this time last year, we still had roughly, you know, a month and a half, two months of inventory, which means from the time you listed it to the time you sold it, it would have taken you know 45 to 60 days. Now it's it's like six months of inventory, which is uh it's a it's a I'm always looking things like a pendulum. So you have this kind of big pendulum like this. You list it until you close is roughly 40 to 30 days. A balanced market is on the bottom of the pendulum where we are now, which could be around six months plus or minus to list your property, go through the whole selling process and close it. And a buyer's market is when you're way up on the other side of the pendulum where you have you know 12 months of inventory. So if you don't have that much inventory, you can be competitive on price and do everything they possibly can to sell. So right now we're actually in a balanced market. It just doesn't feel like it for a lot of people because they're not used to it. You know, if you're relatively young, you've never seen this before. You know, you're used to just properties getting listed and bam. But if you've been around and you've been in the market or you just you know bought sold homes through you know a couple of decades out throughout your whole life, then you realize that right now we're we're in a balanced market, you know. So there isn't a lot is as interest rates drop and and we get into 2026 and all of a sudden the current inventory either sellers take it off the market, which we're seeing that happen, or um the market inventory gets absorbed. I think we're gonna slowly but surely get back into more of a seller's market because there's a lot of pent up buyer demand, and especially in our area. I don't know the exact number, but they say there's over a hundred people, sort of 150 people every day moving in in here. So if there's that many people moving in, that they need a place to live that a lot of them are renting currently. But you know, that's just a big waste of money and the rent's not very cheap around here.
Regina League:So yeah, I mean I look around Charlotte, but there are a lot of uh multifamily things being built, but yeah, for sure.
Mike Sposato:I mean, it's always been a great place. So I mean ever since I've been in the business, like I said, 25 years we've been in the top three century for a variety of reasons, as we all know. So yeah, it's it's great, but um going forward, I think 2026 is gonna be a robust year buying and selling real estate. Um, I would highly advise if you're listening to this to get in on the front end of that because I could see you know, we hit March, April, May, and all of a sudden it starts to get like a chili cook-off gone wild, and rates are down, people are moving really fast. So yeah.
Regina League:For first-time home buyers, where do you advise them uh to to look? Where do you shine a light for them?
Mike Sposato:Well, uh, you know, everybody's different, you know. So it depends on what their situation is. Uh, you know, a lot of previously when we were in the COVID year, people there's a lot of younger buyers coming out trying to get into the popular areas, but now um the the first-time buyer is a little bit older. And so if they have a family, the schools could be really important. You know, if if it's more of an investment and they're coming into town for a couple of years and maybe working in uptown or close to uptown, and they want to be close to work and they want, you know, that kind of condo town home living, you know, that could be a good fit. So you just really it's a needs analysis-based approach when you just kind of learn more about each individual client, what's important for them before you can give any advice, really.
Regina League:Well, I love that the name of your business is Carolina Realty Advisors. And I know we've touched on that in some of our other conversations, but with you being uh you know such a high producer and covering this metro area and you're very community involved, so you bring a lot, a lot of knowledge and uh help and advice you know to your clients. So uh kudos to you. Glad things are going so well. Yeah. Well, Mike, it's been a pleasure. I know we're gonna do more of these, and I look forward to our next talk. Tell everybody how to reach you.
Mike Sposato:Yeah, um, it's easy. My number is 704-619-7070. That's the easiest way. Or you could email me. My email is Mike at Carolina Realty Advisors. That's the name of our company, Carolina Realty Advisors. So Mike at Carolina Realty Advisors.com.
Regina League:Perfect. All right. We'll talk soon, Mike.
Mike Sposato:All right, have a great day. Thanks for having me.
Intro/Close:You as well.com. That's gnpsouthsharlotte.com or call nine eight zero three five one five seven one nine.