Did the Market Make A Left Turn this Summer 2026?

After years of low inventory, bidding wars, and sellers holding all the cards, Summer 2026 feels different—and both buyers and sellers are starting to notice.

In this episode of the Living You Podcast, Rich and Jessica discuss the biggest challenges facing today's real estate market, what they're seeing firsthand across Upstate New York, and the practical advice they're giving clients every day. From affordability concerns and changing buyer behavior to pricing strategies, home preparation, and negotiation tactics, they break down what today's market really looks like—and how to make smart decisions in it.

Whether you're thinking about buying your first home, preparing to sell, investing in real estate, or you're simply curious about where the market is heading, this episode is packed with honest conversation and actionable advice.

The living you podcast is a conversation about life, real estate, and the journey of living you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, just we were just thinking uh getting ready for this pod, and like we don't have our we haven't gotten our our intro like like verbiage down. Like most podcasts have something they say like, you know every time. The one I listen to is a soccer podcast, and the guy who who kind of is the moderator, he starts it every single time with the same like eight second, you know, little clip. Like, welcome to the blah blah blah. You know, so we need to get some kind of little jingle going.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Um, maybe, or maybe that's boring. Maybe we just they don't know what to expect.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We just come in hot, just randomly pop into mid mid-conversation. Oh, we gotta if you're on the video, we gotta pop in from my cat. I was just predicting this Pepper wanted to visit.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

As soon as we hit record, Pepper jumps up. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Anyway, welcome everyone to another thrilling episode of the Living You podcast with Jess and Rich. We are back with you today. Today is uh July 7, July 16th, 2026, if you are uh listening to this in a timely manner. Um, so it's mid-summer in upstate New York. And the topic for today is essentially what is the real estate market? It's a very broad topic, and we'll see where we go with it. It's it's kind of where is the real estate market locally where we are and maybe nationally, but what does it look like right now in this snapshot in time? And and basically, is it is it really a a shift in the market or what are the changes and what do the changes mean? Like what's happening this summer that's different than the last couple years, and how does it impact buyers? How does it impact sellers? And then let's just run run with it, Justin, see, see where we go.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, no, I think that's definitely the topic because um being you know now full-time back in real estate, I see a shift. I see it, I feel it. Um, so I definitely want to dive in and just you know address it. Uh again, we we don't know who listens to this thing. Is it consumers, is it sellers and buyers, is it other agents? I think we always try to speak to everybody so everybody can take a little bit away. Um, so everybody really needs to know. And again, if you're not watching the market, you know, and I know a homeowner, a buyer, like are how much do they really know about the market? Their uncle helps them, their neighbor tells them stuff, like they, you know, there's there's not really the best information at hand really easily. So we try to bring that to you guys so you can always make informed decisions. Um, and definitely now is the time to start disseminating some good information here.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, so two quick points. So sometimes we'll do, yeah, great, great, great points. Uh so sometimes we'll do like a real data subset. You know, we'll look at some numbers, we'll talk about what the market is really doing on the numbers basis, and we will do that again soon. But this is more of a just a just a more of an eagle-eye view, kind of uh a zoomed out global global view of what's happening and what the sensations are. It's more the feeling of things. Um I wanted to note just what you said, how what our audience is, it is for everyone. That's our our that's our intent, because we called this living you fundamentally because we want this to be a podcast about our experience living our lives and talking to people who are living their lives, and we want everyone to just kind of experience I don't know, that's a really weird way to put it, but I think an agent could hopefully get a lot out of this conversation, and I think uh a member of the community or public or consuming, you know, real estate niche could could get a lot out of this as well. Hopefully, anyway, that's the idea. Um, I think about this from one perspective, just so you and I are agents, and but we also own homes, right? You happen to love your home. I feel like from our conversations, you're you're you don't have any intent to change your your residence anytime soon. At least that's not seemingly on your radar, you're constantly improving and changing things for the better. I'm a little bit different. I like where I live, I own my home, I'm happy, but I'm also I have my eye on my next step. So oftentimes in real estate, even right now, not only do I think what's my agent perspective, but I think about would this be a good fit for me, or would I be motivated to purchase this? Or or like is that a deal for me, or is that a deal someone in my kind of avatar or my my subset of culture or whatever? So there's that little bit of, now I'm not ready to buy a house tomorrow, but at the same time, I'm kind of keeping an eye on the market with a consumer mindset as well, just because I'm like, ooh, if if in two years it's ready to do something, you know, have I had a short list of of things that I, you know, I'm just it's in the back of my mind. I I always think who's my nearest buyer in my in my kind of like my immediate list, my hot sheet, as it were, like who who needs properties, who needs to sell properties, but also there's that little back of the mind, does this make sense for me? Could this make sense for me? If I was buying now, would I would I want this one? And why would I want this one?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Would you would you hire an agent? Or would you represent yourself?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

I would represent myself. I think I would.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Oh, come on. That's fine. That is that is so fine. I I did.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

I mean I might even God, I don't I don't hire a buyer's agent. I might work with a listing agent and not take, you know, try not to take, I don't know, take a commission or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, I didn't take anything.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Agent-ish, but I feel like I'm well enough informed that I don't need like uh the agent advice per se.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Well, what it helps with is it kind of cushions it a little bit, it pads it a little bit where it's not you kind of I think we're so close because when I bought my house, I did I went directly to the listing agent and we're off topic, but we I went directly to the listing agent um and I did not take a commission. I was like, I want you to make all the commission because I want, you know, I want to win. Uh I wanted to make it super easy for the agent. Being an agent, I know kind of what they go through, so I just tried to be really accommodating and helpful. Um at the same time, I had no poker face, I couldn't negotiate, I threw everything at it. Like I think the market was sort of like that too, but I was like, I love it. I didn't know how to really represent myself at the highest level. So if you're emotional, which you're not.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

We went right into storytelling mode, but let's go into that. So this was what, four years ago you purchased? Because we purchased almost about the same time, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

I saw my house September on my dad's birthday, September 25th, 2021.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

2021 to five years, okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah. And then I get a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And at that time, that was that was that was a very different market than what we have today. So we'll get into that. But so that was the uh the buyer rush, the low, super low inventory crunch, multiple offers were were quite common, if not like by default, multiple offers. So do you know if you were in a highly competitive purchase scenario at that exact moment?

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Yep, there were other offers. Um, but I knew how to talk, right? Like I knew the language and what I could do and what levers I could pull because I'm an agent. So I had a slight advantage. Um, but I said, here's what is important to the seller, and because this is how I would uh I've advised sellers in the past. I waived the contingencies, like I made it super easy, like I'm still gonna have an inspection. And I and I still advocate for the buyer to have an inspection. Like in the past, we've waived the waiver, is fine, but you should still have it for informational. So I made that very clear. I'm not gonna come back and negotiate. So I said to the agent, my offer may be 10,000 less right now, but the one that's 10,000 more, I have a bridge. I'm like, they may come back with some stuff. So I'm gonna stay, I'm gonna increase. I came up 10,000 because I had there was another offer 20,000 over mine, which they're also not supposed to tell you, but she did. Um so I'm like, all right, well, here's what I'm gonna do. I'll come up another 10,000. I'm gonna waive all the things, and um I'm gonna move forward at that, you know, and that's and that's what she presented.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yep. Yeah, you anyway, we don't want to go into too many details on your specifics. I mean, that's a lot of detail. I've told you this, I've told you this multiple times. It would take a lot for me to buy your like your property is beautiful, but that that bridge, I would want like, you know, 17 engineering inspections and a 40-year use case study.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

And like anybody else would.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

What's the alloy of the steel beam and what's it's like, you know, weight rating and all this jazz.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

I mean, I just learned recently they may not be I beams, they may be H beams. Who knew that there were H beams out there in the world? I may have H's, not I's. I don't know. I don't care. When it gets wobbly, we fix it. Yeah, it's it's a monster.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

But anyway, okay, so so that puts us into uh you know what's happening right now. So uh on a on a global perspective, what is happening in the US, or let's let's f fine-tune it down to the Northeast US or maybe even upstate New York. But this summer specifically, we have seen a consistently increasing number of listings. That means more agents are putting more properties on the market, and this is across the board from all price brackets and price ranges. So more high-end homes, more mid-end homes, more low-end homes. Simultaneously, the buying pool has uh a almost historically low affordability. We are up against uh you know economic factors that are just happening to the our domestic population that is that makes every penny matter. Um the cost of goods is increasing, uh you know, it could be everywhere from geopolitical things happening to increase costs, tariffs, whatever. I don't want to we don't need to go into politics per se, but just everyone feels the pinch. And that's that's that's basically the equation, right? More houses available. Buyers have choice, but they also can't probably get exactly what they want as long as sellers remain stuck in this mindset from four or five years ago, like when we were just talking about our purchases where the seller was calling all the shots, they were naming their price, and they were pretty much getting it. Um, so is that is that a decent summary of where we're at? And so now the the dynamics are much more balanced, if not even a little bit buyer power oriented, where hey, uh do you want me to buy your house or not? Like basically.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

I mean, as soon as a buyer, in my opinion, as soon as a buyer has more than five choices, eight houses to look at, ten houses to look at, the seller is not in a strong position anymore because they can just go get another one. Um, so I've that's kind of what I've been feeling. Um buyers are quick to, the buyers at least I've been, you know, speaking to, they're quick to I don't want to say give up, but they're quick to just say, you know what, that's not gonna work for me. I'm gonna go explore this option because they can. And you know what they should. I mean, that's normal. You shouldn't just come in and have to, I have to buy this, I have to make an offer, I have to waive all these things, I have to feel rushed. No, we also don't want to put people in a situation which is not the whole story, but when we had the crash in 2009, it's because the banks were lending to people that had no business buying houses because they just wanted to close a freaking loan. Um, well, don't be that person, don't be that agent, be responsible. Let people have choice, let people have say over what's happening, let them think about it. They have to really know what things cost. They have to really know you don't just buy a house, you're also buying a bunch of repairs. Every house needs something. So if they're gonna be cash poor at the end, or they're, you know, they're house poor, they say, um, or they're, you know, they're not gonna have enough cash to fix something if they need to. I mean, you've got to be really responsible and kind of let them take the time they need to take. They may not jump on it when you want them to. Also, you know, and I think that's okay. I think that's healthier, I think that's better. If it's harder to afford something, then they have to be more discerning and they have to be more careful. So I think the minute that they have other options, we're we're in a buyer's market.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

So, I mean, I think that's the summary of what we can say is essentially so if we were to, if we were to break this down into, you know, what's one what's your one main talking point or piece of advice for a buyer right now? Is is yours, and my understanding yours is keep looking until it feels right. Is that your um your summary?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I think my summary is see enough. I don't necessarily think um keep looking because that's an endless cycle. And sometimes you can see too much. That's fine. Um, because I don't want them to get into an endless cycle of what's next, what's next, let's just wait till next week, let's just wait till next week, let's just wait till next week. You'll if you find something that feels really good that's 80, 80 to 85% perfect, that's the house. Like nothing's gonna be 100%. Um, so I would say see enough. Uh, try to see them as closely together as you can. So I like to take buyers out for like a day and see like 10 houses. And I'm like, eat your Wheaties, wear your sneakers, bring some water, like get a cooler bag. Um, and I had a buyer do that, which was amazing. And we were joking about it halfway through the day. She's like, it's a good thing you prepped me for this.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

They bring sandwiches and oh, yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

And then we went out for dinner. We were together from 9 a.m. to like six o'clock that night. Like we went out, but you know, they also don't live in the area. But I think see enough, see a lot, be able to compare on a high level, talk through all the things, see where you can make sacrifices. But I would say see enough. Um ask the questions you need to ask, know that nothing's gonna be perfect, don't wave your inspection contingency. You can say, I'm sorry, don't wave your inspection. You can waive the contingency. You can say, I'm gonna have the inspection for informational only. It won't be contingent if you need to be, if you need to, you know, sweeten the the pot for the seller. If you don't, go through your inspection, go through it. Know that there's gonna be 3,000 things on there too, but but and then just see what you can tolerate because every house is gonna throw something at you. So don't be be scared by that. Take what you can tolerate.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Yep. I like that. I like all that in terms of the buyer, the buyer side. Um, yeah, if people are listening from outside of our our general area, so we're we're fairly rural, fairly spread out. So you might find the six ideal or at least closest to ideal properties, but they might have two and a half, three hours of driving in between those properties. We're not exactly like a neighborhood, five minutes from a neighborhood, five minutes from a neighborhood. We are pretty spread out in our area. So to find that ideal, you know, you plug in your your perfect search, you might have eight properties and they're they're pretty far apart. So that makes the that buying loop an adventure.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Um Yeah, I try not to do that. So yeah, if you want, if you know your general area, you know, like I try to group them. Um, but we still have a lot of buyers that are coming up, but just a little point here. There's still a lot of investors, still a lot of buyers coming up, like I want to buy a baseball rental. Like, you know, and I want to say, listen, so I feel like, and correct me if I'm wrong, do your own research, but I feel like we're a little saturated with that. I'm starting to see pushback in the platforms, the Oneana platform. Like, there's a lot of people talking about, hey, well, half the houses on this block are, you know, just transient renters from week to week. Like, you're operating a hotel at this point. This is not a residence anymore. So some of the communities are starting to push back. Um, Milford specifically, I just listed a house with two units in it, and they and I asked right on the page, like, what's going on with baseball rentals in Milford? They're like, there's a moratorium, there's a two-year moratorium. You can't even apply for that and get you know approval anymore. So just know that that as well, like from area to area, do your due diligence, know what you can do in each area. Um, and and that's going to be really important now, too, because some of these places are shutting shutting that down.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yep. All things to be aware of. Uh, our our general coverage area has two kind of hotspots for short-term rentals. There's the this southern, southeastern Delaware County section with towns like Margaretville, Andes, Vavina, Fleischmanns, uh, kind of the the proper western Catskills. The hills are a little bit steeper, the they're a little bit more lush and green, the they're really robust valleys, really beautiful landscapes, feels mountain-ish. We're we're in really lovely rolling country where we are, open, open agricultural fields, rolling hills, broad valleys. I feel like some kind of uh uh geographical geographic like documentary in here, but um but there is a difference. But the the key thing there is that that's a two to two and a half hour drive from New York City. So for your your New York uh weekend getaway niche, which is a very robust niche, um those became ideal second homes to have. And also, oh, by the way, if I own this cool house, I might as well rent it out short term. So that was a big thing, and still is, but you're right, those towns also have some limits. You have to be a little bit careful about look, you want to be a good neighbor, right? So um first of all, know the code, know what the town is allowing before you purchase, and also just you know, if you're gonna do it, manage it well. Um, and then secondarily, the other the other nexus is this Oneta, Cooperstown, uh, these youth baseball tournaments that are happening all summer long. These these groups, these these teams come with all the the parents and I mean the the the grandparents and the siblings and the cousins and the kids stay on site, but the the the other group, the family or whatever, have to go somewhere. And there's not a lot of hotels in our area, so it turns into um a big short-term industry. Um, but yes, some of those towns are pretty saturated, and some of those towns are now in inputting moratoriums on on those permits for those short-term rentals. So just it's an evolving industry, of course. But if I was doing it right now, I would look at I'd look at some some of the the listings that are out there on those on those markets, and I would see what is their occupancy rate, what is their historical trend. And um, if you see nice places that aren't fully booked, that means there might be too many options for those as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Yes, for sure. Um I'm glad that you noted though the uh Southern Delaware kind of Airbnb uh market down there, the short-term rental market. That was actually I stayed at one. Um it was a little further down, but that's how I knew I wanted to buy a house here because I literally like left Queens, went up, like stayed at a house with a with another couple, another friends of ours. And we were just outside sitting on a deck surrounded by trees. There was a hammock, we barbecued, and I was like, I I can't function right now. Like I I lost my mind. I was like, wait a minute, this could just be my life. And that was so it was interestingly enough, it was a short-term rental stay that I was like, I could do this. It's like every time you go on vacation, you say, I could buy a house in Bermuda, right? When you go on vacation. Do you always think, oh, I could probably live here?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

The classic, I fell victim to that. I did it. Uh, no regrets.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Well, everyone, you did it. You pulled the trigger, you did it. There's a lot of context for everyone has their own life context, right? I just had a conversation. This is a small anecdote conversation with a uh a consumer yesterday inquiring on a property. Um, he and he goes into this little narrative of like, literally, look, here's my situation. I retire in two years. I'm not gonna live there right now, full time right now, but I would like this to be my my forever home, or at least my forever home area. And um right now I I live on quote unquote a postage stamp, you know, on Long Island, and taxes are are almost 20 grand a year for my little whatever it is. And and we were discussing this one property. I'm like, look, this is on, you know, basically 10 acres, log cabin house, and the taxes are for us kind of high, six thousand a year in total. But he was like, Yeah, that's a dream for him, you know. So yeah, um, it's just these are just different, it's just different contexts of life.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah, and and we have now, and I think this is what we've done. We've moved up, right? Big money from the big city has moved up. We've pushed the prices up the last few years. Um, we've priced out people in the primary market, we've made it completely unaffordable. And I'm saying we am literally taking responsibility for part of this. Um, and you know, so again, being responsible in that way, not inflating prices, but we've done that to the point that now it's just so unaffordable for a lot of people. We always talk about the affordability index, although we never know how the algorithm works. We always talk about that when we do the market, uh, the monthly market updates. It's not that affordable for people. So of course you're gonna get slammed into, you know, the other foot drops, uh, the other shoe, not foot, the other shoe drops, and it's like, oh, look, here we are now. Our buyer said, no, stop. I'm not paying that. I'm not doing that. That is ridiculous and unaffordable. The salaries don't increase at the same rate that housing increases, right? So I can't afford that now. So either now they have to buy something lesser that really doesn't fit their needs, that's gonna squeeze them a little bit in terms of space and comfortability just to be able to comfortably afford something. They're making a lot of sacrifices. And you know what? I'd be like, eh, I don't, if I don't have to move right now, I may not. I'm not messing with it. And again, where are the sellers gonna go? Now, sellers have waited all this time. Remember, we're like, where's the inventory? They waited, they waited, they waited, they waited, they waited. They all waited until 2026. And yeah, and also historically speaking, in the market, and we do have a cyclical market, right? When we say like the this the winter, it's gonna die out because no one wants to go out in February. And January, January, July, when you get to the 4th of July, like I know the market's gonna go to the end of June. And I told a lot of people, please come on now. Let's go on May, June, let's go. I'm I'm telling you, it's your last chance. Like I felt very strongly. Of July happens, you make a left turn on the market anyway. People are vacationing, they're doing their things, they're not looking now. And yeah, and I'm starting to see that was when it was literally the first week in July when things started to die down. And just know that too. That now we're in kind of a traditionally slower period while inventory's coming on. So it's this again, this bizarro mix of more inventory coming on, but buyers are like, I'm I'm gonna be away next week. I I can't look at something right now, right? And and now they're busier because they're back from vacation. And so there's just a lot of other factors through the summer as well to be aware of that I think is I'll push back on you a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Again, we didn't want to do a pure data dive, but I I don't want to like like correct you per se. But I do think our our general data in our area suggests that the the the higher number of closings are in this summer period, even all the way through September, October is actually kind of a decent spike. And then it does fall off November, December, January. But anyway, um I think this I think that's been in recent years.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, that's been in recent years.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Your point is that this year it's not gonna look like that.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

Definitely. It's not gonna look like that. I mean, to some extent it it could, but a lot of inventory and not a lot of not a lot of contracts is a completely opposite from what we're used to.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

So I I don't I I did think of a an interesting kind of a not a conflict, but a divergence. So we were literally four or five minutes ago talking about the the New York City buyer pool who want to purchase properties here. Great, that is a significant chunk of our business. However, we live here, a lot of people live here full-time. This is our life. And I think this is one of the big polarities in our area is you have a certain buyer populace that maybe have a little bit more means to purchase at a price that doesn't feel as painful to them, right? And then you're you're up against locals who are in a much more difficult situation. They are the ones that are making the local salaries, they're paying the local expenses, and and they're finding or historically for the last few years, they have found it very hard to purchase homes because they're up against that that other contrasting uh uh momentum. So and the inventory was low. So now at least they have more choice and they might have less competition, which is great. I think the the only thing left is that the affordability is still low. The asking prices are still probably elevated compared to what the property is truly worth, like truly worth in in the market. Um but I think they have more chance to find a property now because there's a lot of choice, but at the same time, it has to make economic sense for that for that buying group. So I I I'm like we work for buyers and sellers, and we have to know the market for a number of reasons, but I'm personal on like a on like a weird personal level, I'm happy that we're kind of leveling off on prices and uh you know it had to happen, right? The market is cyclical, the market has ups and downs over time, and we were way too elevated for way too long. So if you were if you were in real estate to truly just profit, then you probably should have sold a year or two ago, right? Truly.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

If you're in real estate because you own a house because you have a life and you have things happening in life, then own it. And and that is part of you sell when you have to sell, you buy when you have to buy, and that's kind of like you just don't overthink it.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Because it's always gonna be up, right? It's always gonna be up some, right? If it's up four percent or if it's up ten percent, like it's always gonna be up. I mean, the statistic always was that we should double check it, but like if you're in the house seven years at least, yeah. I mean, the market, even if it corrects a little and comes down, it's gonna continue to go up again. It's again, like we said, that's cyclical. Um, so it'll still go up, but you have to do what's best for you on your timeline. You know, if you got to move for a job, move for the job. Like it is what it is, do what you can, like liquidate, you know, but be smart. Be smart. I want to get more money. I love that you want to get more. Um, this is why talking to a few different agents, you know, some agents will be like, yeah, they're just gonna tell you that because they just want to get your listing. I don't know why. I don't want your listing if it's overpriced because it's not gonna sell. And then I'm gonna be dragging you through the mud. Let's do a reduction, let's do another reduction, let's do another reduction. Then what does that look like? Then you're chasing down the market. And now you're not gonna get anything. So don't I just I want to get more money. You need to put it up for what the market will bear. It doesn't matter what you need, it doesn't matter what you want. I love you. I say that so kindly. It matters what a buyer wants to pay for it. And right now it's difficult for them to afford things. So have just know that. Just keep that, keep that in the front of your brain. Um, if your realtor says, listen, the difference between listing at, for example, 469 versus 449, 449 might get it done. I know you want an extra 20 grand, but no one's gonna call. Maybe you need to be just south of that 450 number. So just be strategic in terms of what a buyer is really searching for, what are they looking for? Um, and the higher you go, the less buyers you have.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah. And what we've talked about as well is that uh agents that are doing proper comp analyses, they're kind of stuck on old elevated data, which is the tricky part. So if I do my job correctly, I'm probably gonna tell you what is kind of a wrong number right now. I almost have to make like a summer 2026 like adjustment on the comp. If the comp is six months old, that was a property on the market a year ago or whatever, and things were different. So again, there's a there's a lot of like, I'm not gonna say again, we we lean into agent skills all the time, but this is the conversation. It's like, hey, my my true comp base is based on you know the real estate that was on the market between you know three and six or nine months ago, depending on the the the new uniqueness of the property. That is kind of old data and things are changing. So we need to be on on the the the cusp of what's actually happening now.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Uh so that was kind of buyer-centric, and I don't want to do too much time on seller, but what is your one message, Jess, for a seller this summer?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

I mean, I may have just said it, but so I'll say something different. I think besides being real careful with pricing, um the house has to be a great option. So, for example, I just had somebody do a lot of work in a house. I love that they're doing work, I love that they're fixing it, put new floors beautiful. And then, like it came up, well, should I do new appliances too? And I'm looking at these old, dirty, disgusting, filthy, like they smell, and I'm like, yes, you've spent this much, go the extra mile, so I can say the kitchen's fully done, right? So I would say, traditionally, I don't want sellers to go in and spend a lot of money. So I don't think you should do that until you speak to a realtor. Like it's never too early to bring in your realtor. I'm selling in six months, I'm selling in nine months. Call me now. I don't listen, I'm not gonna pressure you to list it tomorrow. You're not ready. That's when you call a realtor because you need their advice. What should I do? What should I not do? Because you're gonna spend way too much money. But my message is you should probably spend something. Get it decluttered. I paid a cleaning lady because I was like, this woman did so much, I feel bad. So I actually took a cost on myself after she had it all done. It just needed to shine. So I got a cleaning lady. So do those things. Get it really decluttered, get it really organized, get a storage unit. I know you don't want to take on more cost. Get a storage unit and move stuff out of the house. The house shows really beautifully. It's gotta look great right now to be the winner. Because if I can look at eight other houses, the one that's cluttered, that doesn't smell good, that's not clean, they're gonna be pickier and they're not buying your stuff, but they're not seeing past it. So your house has to shine. I would say do everything you can, but don't do too much. We don't want you to spend a lot of money. So get with your agent now as you prepare and see what you should do. Because I had someone painting baseboards. I'm like, don't paint, don't what? Stop. Don't do that. You're hurting yourself.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Oh no, see, I was actually gonna say that's a thing that I like, actually.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Um really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, yeah, but it but but a dirty baseboard versus like the stove doesn't work well. I just want, I just you gotta wait.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

I'm surprised what pops in the in the buyer's mind though when you so anyway, so I'll tell you what I what my mine are, and I I largely agree. Um I I don't think at this point you should do any renovation or or major overhaul for the purpose of selling. Let let that next person put their own imprint on it. Um however, like you said, you don't want things that are broken, whatever, like like I think just the deferred maintenance and anything that looks like neglect or this person, like it's sort of like I don't know, man. We're we're in upstate New York real estate, so I don't have I don't necessarily dress the finest every single day, right? I'm half the time I'm out in some sweaty and some woods. So I wear like t-shirts or at least like relatively low-key, casual-ish clothing. But there are times when I think, ooh, should I have like if I'm in front of a client, should I have spruced myself up a little more? Always now I always think okay, my communication should shine through, my integrity should shine through. But some people looks matter. I think the same thing of a home, right? It's like this might be a fine home, it might have a lot of potential. But honestly, if you spend two days mopping, cleaning, dusting, vacuuming up the flies in the corners, the ladybugs, whatever it is, that kind of stuff goes so, so far. Trim the sidewalk, get rid of the weeds, that kind of stuff is so important because it looks like you care. It looks like a property someone would want to care about.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

It looks like someone maintained it.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

If it looks, if it looks unmaintained, it's like, well, this thing's already so far gone.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Right. What else have they neglected? What else wasn't done? What else has to be repaired? Thousand percent.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

It's it is, it's the it's the it's the appearance of care, is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

And the big ticket items, like the things that people always ask about, for example, like when was a septic pumped? If you haven't had your septic pumped in a little while, do it. To be able to say it was pumped last year and there was no issues.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Well, that's such a good one. Thousand percent what is it, a five hundred dollar job, Jess? You can probably make three thousand dollars just in peace of mind with being able to say I have a receipt from a septic. Yeah, yes, clean, visually inspected. This is the one that's gonna go for 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

You know, yeah, and the water, the well, and stuff like have the well, have the water flow tested, have the quality of the water tested. And then maybe you'll find something that actually is like a safety issue that you should correct anyway because you live there. Um, water and septic is huge. And then the other thing I would say is the age of cleaning the gutters, moss on the roof.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

You know, there's a million things. Moss on the roof, those are all the things dead.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

You're dead. You better get up there with a toothbrush. Um, age of mechanicals, right? So if you haven't replaced anything, it doesn't mean you have to. I'm just saying that's a big ticket item for a buyer to judge. They're gonna be like, oh, well, the water heater is 20 years old. Like, am I actually gonna get hot water out of there? Um, and then if your basement or there's any that mildewy kind of that water smell, that's a big thing. As soon as someone, something's musty or they see water damage coming down a wall, they don't care that you put a new roof on it, actually. They don't care that the windows are new. You left that cosmetic shit there. They think it's leaking today. So that those would be, I think, the top, the top things to do. Um, because if I can tell somebody you don't you don't have to do anything but the cosmetic, that is a good story. That is something I can sell because you don't have to do any of this other stuff. The big stuff is done, um, or at least well cared for, pumped, maintained, cleaned up. Um, so that that would be my those would be my things. Is there anything you would add to that, Rich?

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Well, no, I think that's those are the main ones. I I would this is maybe a little deeper in the weeds in terms of some agents and how they approach things, but so in the in the heavy seller seller power market where they called the shots, you could always say, like, I need to see your pre-approval or proof of funds before you enter my home. Oh my god, this is so how dare you look at a house. You know, I feel like that that kind of gatekeeping is is a little bit like obnoxious at this point, where if you truly want to sell, let someone look. And if it takes them uh 60 days to figure out their stuff, then let them have, you know, are you selling? Is are you getting eight offers tomorrow? No, you're not. So at the same time, like if I'm an agent, I'm not gatekeeping like that, or I'm not advising my seller to gatekeep like that. I'm like, I want eyes on your property, I want visits, I want showings, I want feedback, I want to get people interested. And I don't want to say just off the bat, well, where's your documents?

SPEAKER_01 34:57

No, I will never so yeah, I have to tell you as an agent, I will not ask for jack shit. I want them in the house because here's what I'm hearing more. They can, but I'm also going to advise them and I'm gonna walk them through a scenario. So, what happens when the buyer says to me, I just need to find the thing, the very special thing that was gonna prompt me to want to pull my credit, get documents together. Like, again, they're busy, they have things going on. So sometimes they have to find the house. I think that's okay. So the way I solve for that, I have open houses, right? And I would say to a seller, and all my sellers know I'm open house girl, and I'm gonna have open houses, so that I would say to that buyer, listen, I'm gonna do an open house on Saturday, just come then. It doesn't matter because anybody can walk in. Um, I don't gatekeep at all, and I'm very upfront about that. I mean, if a creepy neighbor comes in, I'm gonna be like, hey, dude, you gotta go. Like, don't think people are and people don't just come in. Like, I think there's this feeling, and I had someone say to me, make sure no one brings dogs in. I don't know anyone that brings dogs to open houses, but okay, I will be on the lookout for dogs. Um, your jewelry needs to be put away, right? Like your valuables and stuff, don't have just stuff out everywhere. Like, you know, clean things up, put things away. Uh, but the open house kind of solves for that a little bit. Um, but don't gatekeep. I'm so glad you said that because I see houses like there was one recently, it's on the days on markets like 265 days. And the first thing in the realtor notes is they must have a pre-approval. I was like, you're dead. You're freaking dead. 265 days. I would have had everybody and their mother if they only had two pennies to rub together. I had to show them that house because maybe they know somebody. Maybe they're gonna talk about it now. Maybe they're gonna attract the buyer, maybe it's not them. But you've gotta let everybody see uh everybody in, please, and thank you for saying that.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Those were those are whatever. Uh there was a there was a different time when that was maybe more, and and you of course you're allowed to have, you know, every every situation is unique, but uh in general that document is is secondary to getting the interest, I think.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

You know, I hate to say this too, but it it popped into my head and I don't have a filter. There are some agents that I feel like weaponize that. I hate to say that, but I think there's agents that maybe don't want to work with an agent or don't want to work with you specifically, so they they put up more roadblocks so that you can't show it, so that maybe they're gonna let a direct buyer in that doesn't have an agent. I know I hate to, I hate to even go there, but you know, I've I felt like sometimes like you can see people's history like in the MLS. Like you know the ones that quote and you know the ones that don't.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

We could talk about this for days. The more that you interact with people out in in the sphere of doing business, you'll hear all these stories about how they've been mistreated by agents in the past, or the last time I bought and sold, this happened and I couldn't believe this. And you're like, they did what now? Like just for everything from like taking people's furniture to like I just you're like, what is happening? What is happening what was happening, or what is happening?

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Dug up. The flowers dug up the flowers, I've been told recently, came back after closing and dug up his flowers.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

What? Like, I shouldn't say this. I have multiple properties right now that are either in contract or soon will be or soon will sell, and they're kind of selling like as is, meaning a lot of the stuff will stay. Um, there's a lot of cool stuff there. I'm not like taking inventory and grabbing stuff. And if I were to do that, I would keep permission to sell her specifically and take foot. Can I these are two cool things? Can I have these? Whatever. I would like I've never done it yet, but there's a lot of cool stuff in some of these properties, but I would never just like like like oh, they said it all goes, it doesn't matter. Like, no way, no way, zero chance that I'm just taking someone's stuff.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

No, when they tell me that, I tell them, well, I actually really like that couch, so they're like, Yeah, take it. Like, I will ask, but I have an Amish barn full of furniture from many different properties that you had permission to. I had a conversation, yeah. And a lot of times, like I sell, you know, a lot of times we get vacant houses, right? So I have a house right now that the seller's actually in out of state. Um, so I'm doing a lot of stuff like for them and meeting contractors and doing all these things. And and the first thing they said was, we got to get all this furniture out of here. I said, no, don't do that. We're gonna stage it with the furniture that's here. I'm gonna make it better because also walking into a a naked house, it's harder for people to see stuff. So I've stopped people from like decluttering and getting rid of stuff. I'm like, let's declutter to a certain extent, but keep the home staged, I think now is a really good um piece of advice because it's good to see the dimensions and spaces. It's good to see the dimensions because I'm telling you that that living room, if you were to take they have a big couch in this particular listing. If you were to take that couch out, the living room is gonna shrink to like half the size. It just is. I just know that living room is gonna shrink. So we have a little sitting area, we have like a little bookshelf. Like I was like, leave it, leave it, leave it. And when we're in contract, then we can start scraping things out. And I said, Don't worry, I can help you with that if you want. And she laughed. She's like, You take whatever you want, honey. I said, when we're in contract, I'll take whatever, whatever the buyer doesn't want, because the buyer may want stuff, and that's huge value to a buyer, too. If you can sell a house fully furnished so they don't have to buy stuff, that's a great selling point for my seller. That makes that house that much better. Um, again, everything we can do to make it super comfortable for a buyer, we should do.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Yep. That's those are the I think that's a good endpoint for that that summary of the seller topic because that is true. Now, I'm not saying you should automatically include a bunch of stuff, but acquiring things is hard, right? Acquiring furniture, acquiring lawn equipment, whatever it is. And if you have stuff that's in good order and and it's desirable, that's uh that does help sweeten that pot a little bit as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

And if they don't want it, that's okay too. But you don't know who's gonna buy it. The day you sign a listing agreement, you don't know who's gonna buy it. So we're not gonna make decisions ahead of time. We're gonna leave options. Don't make decisions for the buyer, leave options for the buyer. That's also that's probably the best advice I could give you.

unknown 41:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

I like that. So I think that that wraps up my uh my my intent to cover kind of where we feel things are at the moment in this midsummer. Uh it is it is clearly a a turning point market. Um it's it's different than it's been for the last few years. It's engaging, I think, as an agent, because there's lots more nuance to negotiations, there's lots more nuance to presentation. I like that both parties in the transaction have like things they can kind of hold on to that are important to them. Yeah, you know, rather than like conceding, just you have to concede ground left and right if you're on one side. So anyway, it's not like it's a I don't see real estate as a battle, but um it shouldn't be. You should be able to get kind of what you want.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

It shouldn't be. And I think again, the like what one of the last pods we did was like, you know, the skills-based market, what does that mean? A lot of times it means get out of your own way, right? Some agents, not a lot of them, but there are some that sort of have an ego and sort of have to insert themselves in a well this we don't do it like that. We do it this way. You gotta be wide open right now. I think you gotta like really listen because every deal's gonna be different. And it should be different. And if you're rigid in your process and what you say and what you do, you're gonna miss out. I'm telling you, don't be rigid right now in this market. There's gonna be weird stuff. Let's do it. Let's go be weird right now and get this done for my client. Um, so yeah, don't be too rigid too. And don't say, Well, we don't we don't do that. Please don't do that. Please stay out of your way. Because you might have to do it to get it done. Is my advice.

SPEAKER_00 42:50

I like that as a as a wrap-up. Uh so thanks everyone for hanging out with us on this uh mid-July Living You episode, and we'll we'll catch you on the next one. Anything else? We definitely will. Anything else, Jess?

SPEAKER_01 43:02

No, I think um I think this was great. And uh please make sure that you guys are liking, sharing, following, doing all the things. If there's something that you like or resonate with, we want to hear from you, we want to comment. Um, if you want to again suggest an episode, you want us to cover something, we we wanna know. We wanna know. So do those things. Enjoy your summer, stay in because it's smoky. Yeah, and uh we'll catch you on the next one.