Is now a good time to sell your home?

Scott Hrabcack of Columbus Realtors looks at the landscape when it comes to selling your home

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have a lot of people that listen online who
you know, go and spend summers in Florida and they
listen on the iHeartRadio app just to stay connected to
Columbus and a lot of folks, of course, have spring
break plans that go down to the golf area, you know,
whether it's Fort Myers, Naples, Tampa. And there's a problem

(00:21):
right now with restaurants serving imported farmed shrimp. But they're
calling it locally harvested golf shrimp. And it's the you
can't do that. It's it's not good. I mean, you
expect to see on the menu, you know, the side
of you know, six shrimp, you know, fresh caught golf shrimp,

(00:42):
and it's actually farmed and imported, you know, and brought
in on a Cisco truck from you know, Vietnam farm
shrimp or India or Ecuador. And it really hurts the
local fishing community, some of these small mob and pop
but you know, shrimping operations, they have a hard time
competing with the local of the imported shrimp.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So what would we call this type of.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I know what you're trying to do. I know, it's okay,
it's shrimp fraud, and it's happening at restaurants. They're they're
going through and they're testing the shrimp and they can
pretty easily identify that they're not caught in the golf
and it's cheaper for the restaurants and so forth. And uh,

(01:25):
you know, I if you I mentioned this earlier, if
you if you really want to know how they farm
shrimp in Vietnam, which you don't really want to know
how they farm shrimp in Vietnam, but go ahead and
google that, and uh, it's it's not a great process.
So yeah, fresh golf shrimp can't be beat, but it's

(01:46):
it's got to be fresh golf shrimp. So beware if
you're headed down to that area for spring break or
you're down there now and you're looking for a you know,
a little shrimp cocktail. It's a it's supposed to be
golf shrimp. It might not be so, and it is
what they call shrimp fraud, shrimp fraud. All right, we.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Got to work on our care.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yeah, the timing a little off this morning. You know,
we got better late than ever. All right, We do
have someone to bail us out here, and it is
a Scott Rabcheck past president of Columbus Realtors Association on
the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. I'm sorry
for that lead in Scott. I really do apologize.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh my god, I'm heading down there next week and
I'm just stuck on shrimp gates.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, well it's very interesting. So yeah, if you're getting that,
you know, go get that group or sandwich. But you
want a little shrimp cocktail, make sure that it is,
you know, locally sourced out of the Gulf. So wanted
to Yeah, I wanted to touch base with you. You know,
it's it's kind of the time of year where people
are thinking about you know, getting you know back into

(03:02):
the market for a new home and you know, getting
a sign in the front yard here this spring. You
certainly you'd be making some of those plans right now.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
We did talk last hour to one of our financial
guys that you know, the mortgage rate's still right around
seven percent, not ideal, not a the housing market still
a little chili.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I think that's probably fair to say. I mean,
although Columbus really had a pretty good real estate year overall.
Last year, sales were up, inventory was up a little
and you know prices rose, but not at the rate
of some other regions around the country. I think, you know,
the national story is probably a tougher one. This year

(03:44):
marked the lowest number of existing home sales since nineteen
ninety five, and only twenty four percent of those homes
were for first time home buyers. You know, the historical
average for first time home buyers has been about forty
percent since nineteen eighty one. So that's that's a pretty
sobering statistic at least in my opinion, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
You mentioned Columbus not necessarily affected. I feel like Columbus
in Central Ohio we're sort of always in a real
estate bubble, if you will, we're we don't we don't
necessarily succumb to some of the national trends.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Why is that, Yeah, I think that's a fair fair question.
I mean, I like to think that, you know, we've
got a pretty steady economy here. We don't have one
industry that I think kind of flits us upside down.
Between you know, the university, you know, banking, insurance, you know,
there's just a number of industries that, in my opinion,

(04:38):
won't flip us upside down if they if they have
a bad day. If you look at some meddictional statistics,
you know, twenty four really outperformed twenty three in central Ohio.
Like I said before, total closed sales were up a
little bit. We did just shy of twenty nine thousand units,
which is which is really pretty strong. And you know,
if that increases as we see it going into the spring,

(05:01):
in the summer continues, hopefully, I think we'll have a
pretty robust here.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
And what has a bigger impact Is it inventory or
is it interest rates?

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Oh my, that's a great question. I mean, I think
it is a supply demand curve. I think at the
end of the day, you know, if we have the
right supply and the demand can be matched, then I
think the rates have a tendency to kind of you know,
not be as you know, I think a determinant factor.
But rates are always important. I mean, you know, particularly

(05:31):
for those that are obviously working on tight budgets, every
dollar counts. So you know, hiring a realtor in my opinion,
and having them use their network to help you find
the right spot at the right time and you know,
help you through the the just the financing piece can
be just invaluable question.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
And the supply and demand equation is is tricky in
real estate, right because a lot of times you need both.
You need to not only sell, but you need to buy.
So you're on both sides of that. You're on both
sides of that equation.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, you do. And I think you know, the reality
is is there's just a shortfall of home inventory. We've
talked about it several times, and I don't see that
changing soon unless we can really really get after some
inventory growth. And you know that that basically new home builds.
Anything we can do to try to provide new opportunity

(06:25):
for home buyers is just going to ease that inventory
challenge that we all are are kind of staring at.
So I think that's a critical critical component as we
move into not only the buying and selling season this year,
but future years.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, Scott Rapjack, past president Columbus Realtors Association. All right, Scott,
So I've decided to take the plunge. I want to
put my house on the market. You know, in the spring,
which is the typical time to do it. People are
getting outside and you know, the flowers starting to bud.
The house looks good from the curb, you know, the
timing is right, people are outside going to open houses
and things. What should people do to get their house

(07:02):
ready for sale?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well, first consulted realtor. Right start there. Get somebody who
can help you define the best way to take your
product to market or your home to market. D clutter boy,
I'll say, I talked to some of my colleagues, and
you know, they say, the first thing you can do
is declutter your residence. Make it look as you know,

(07:24):
obviously clean and comfortable as you possibly can. And then
you know, frankly, you know, ultimately see what the market
will bear. Now the realtor is going to give you
a very good indication of what the market will bear.
And I would be frankly excited. If I'm a home seller,
I think you're a You're in a great spot. I

(07:45):
think if you're a home buyer, there is opportunity out there,
so go chase it, you know, go find yours and
chase it.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
As a as a realtor, you kind of have to
be part interior designer too, don't you. When you go
into a home and you know people are worried that
their kitchens outdated, and you know they need to they
want to do a full kitchen remodel before they put
their house on the market. And he's like, no, no, no,
let somebody else handle that. It's going to be too
expensive and you won't get your money back out of that.
But what are some of the trends that you've seen

(08:12):
in the last three to five years? What are people
looking for when they're looking at and buying a new home.
Are we still looking for, you know, the three thousand,
thirty five hundred square foot larger home or people starting
to downsize a little bit?

Speaker 2 (08:26):
What? You know?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
What kind of kitchens are people looking for? Are people
looking for a you know, a four or five bedroom?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
What?

Speaker 1 (08:32):
What are some of the trends that you've spotted in
the last few years when it comes to Columbus real estate.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
That's a great question. Let me start with the with
the home Day core piece. First, I am terrible at that.
I am not your I am not your God. You're
gonna have to call somebody else in that respect, you
know what I'll say? It is really a kind of
all over the board. I mean, it just depends on
your position in life. Right If you are somebody who
is you know, maybe an empty master who may be

(08:56):
downsizing the reality of the size of the residents, or
your property becomes you know, really important. Maybe it's a
single level so you're not going up and down steps.
If you're a growing family, yeah sure. Maybe you're looking
for four bedrooms, two and a half back, open floor plan,
excuse me, finish basement, those kinds of things, close to schools,

(09:16):
close to entertainment activity. All of that weighs in, but
it really just depends on your you know, your position
in life, where are you, and you know, candidly, what's
the next chapter look like for you.