A lot of my past clients are asking me is it is a good time to sell in San Antonio, TX. The only answer I have is another question: Why do you need to sell your home here in the San Antonio area? If you are selling a home hear in San Antonio, Boerne, Helotes, Converse, Schertz, Cibolo, Alamo Heights or Universal City, then you have to take advantage of the buying market as well.

A market forecast for San Antonio was given to my office that stated we as a whole (San Antonio and surrounding areas) appreciated at about 8% in 2007. This means unlike the rest of the US, San Antonio is still one of the strongest markets in the country. What we are seeing is a "hit" in concessions to sell a home. Concessions are the natural costs to sell a home. These costs may be and are not limited to: commissions, home warranties, buyer closing cost assistance, surveys, title policy, renovations, repairs, pre-inspections, pre-appraisals, etc. New home builders are feeling a dramatic drop in sales from the years past. They still have a tremendous amount of inventory and land. What they are doing to subsidize this loss is they are giving away a record amount of "incentives" to buyers who will build on their land or buy pre-existing inventory homes. "Incentives" are just what they sound like. They are bonuses or concessions to entice buyers to build or buy. I have 6 listing from a local/national builder that is giving away an average of $17,000 in incentives with an average home listed amount of about $170,000. That is roughly a 10% incentive for every buyer. Because we have to compete with these builders in the pre-existing market, we as sellers also have to take into account our own concessions/incentives to sell our homes.

If you are going to sell you are going to take a hit on the sale of your home but you can make it up in one of two ways. One you can buy an inventory home or build on a lot from a builder that has at least two to three times the incentives that you are giving away. Or two, buy another bigger more expensive pre-existing home in a better neighborhood that should be giving away the same percentage of concessions that you are. Let me give you a couple of examples: I had a client that sold his house for $114,500. It appraised at $120,000. He bought a pre-existing home for $189,000 that appraised for $201,000. Percentage wise he got the same deal that the buyers of his home got. He just made more money because he was buying bigger. The second example is with a new home buy. Another client of mine is building a brand new home with $6,000 in upgrades and a guaranteed fixed rate of 4.99%. They are going to probably end up selling their for about $155,000 but is really worth $160,000. They make up the difference but aquire an outstanding interest rate in return. All in all. If you are buying and buying a bigger more expensive home you win!! For more info on how to take advantage of this shifting market call me direct at 210-367-6024.

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