There is something brewing in today’s real estate market. It is the sign of hungry sellers who are poised to act. “To sell or not to sell?” is the major question in everybody’s minds. The decision is hindered by the uncertainty of the future, but bold sellers move forward to collect their increased equity in such a great market. What we can say, however, is that now is a great time to sell in Fremont. Below, we look at some factors that point to this conclusion:

1. As I write this article, 70 homes are active in Fremont. 21 of these homes are condos and townhomes while the rest are single family homes. The market is low on inventory and we need more listings.
2. Prices are up 22% since January 2013 (Evidence: AND Type=DE AND Date Range=01/01/2013-01/31/2014 AND Area=3700 AND Grouping Selector=3; As Of: 1/17/2014)
3. Any well-priced home in the area gets at least several offers and spends on average 2 weeks on the market.

What does it mean to have 70 homes on the market? It means that if you are a seller, you are king/queen. If you are a buyer, you are begging. Some people call this a seller’s market. But buyers will not generally overpay. They will overbid, but they will not overpay. So out of 214,089 residents, only 70 homes are available for sale. Only .0003% of the homes are available for sale. That seems dismal. Pathetic. We need more sellers to list! What are they waiting for?

Let’s look at the second piece of information: prices are 22% higher than last year. Any seller knowing this seems like a motivating factor to cash out. But why have they not done anything?

Perhaps there is still an apprehension to act since we just finished coming out of the mortgage meltdown. To go through various downturns in the price of homes and with the stock market climbing up and down are enough to take a few years off of anyone’s life. Making a financial mistake now could resonate in one’s financial wallet for decades to come. That is why people have been holding onto their houses for so long, hesitating to sell.

So what are some of the ways to reduce the uncertainty of selling a house?

1. Consult a Realtor: a Realtor will research your property and tell you how much you can sell your house for.
2. Ask for Seller Net Proceeds: A realtor will consider relevant transaction costs and will present to you your “bottom line”, i.e.: that is, how much will you take home after everything is done?
3. Ask a tax professional: Based on how much you take home, how much capital gains will you be expected to pay? Consult a CPA or legal professional for this.
4. Think about your next investment: What are you doing with the money you earned? Will you reinvest it other property? Will you invest it in tomorrow’s next stock? The decision is yours

Sellers need reassurance. Sellers need explanations and data to justify a decision. Sometimes, sellers even need to see that everybody else is selling their house so that they are comfortable in selling their own home. Whatever it may be, the more you know, the more power you have. With prices climbing and with inventory scarce, the perfect storm is brewing for sellers to make a killing in today’s market.

Lastly, as promised, what are our predictions for the real estate market this 2014?

1. We see an slowly increasing inventory as summer months are coming along and sellers gain confidence in the stability of the market.
2. We see the stock market showing positive unrealized returns for patient investors holding their position, a sign that people are in it for the long term and not selling off sporadically- another sign of stability.
3. We see sellers of condos and townhouses trading up to larger homes in order to accommodate their needs of the extended family.
4. We see savvy buyers using their mobile device to track the homes they like in the area they want, who will call us for the showing and will most likely write an above-asking offer price to stay competitive with other savvy buyers doing the exact same thing.
5. We see short sales and REOs dropping out tremendously and we see equity sales dominating the inventory (i.e. seller will get money from the sale, as it should be).

We hope you enjoyed our predictions. They are as described and we hope you take it with a grain of salt and add to the conversation if you have opinions.