Tina, tell me what's it
like this market? Have you
ever seen anything like this?
No, I have to say that honestly,
in 36 years, of course we've
seen competitive markets before,
but nothing quite like this.
There is a little bit of hysteria
that I've never seen before.
People are so anxious to get home.
Interest rates are so low and
inventory is equally low.
I mean, we're down nearly 50% on
inventory that we normally would have,
so the buyer pool is not
thinning out quickly.
And buyers are making offer after
offer after offer they are racking
their brains trying to figure out
how they can win that bidding war.
Should they waive an inspection
should they go way way over asking
price if they have financing to try
to beat out the cash or at least be
competitive with cash and we have a
lot of cash coming into the market
so there's a lot of things at play in
this market that we've never seen before.
We have people coming here
from other places in droves.
They're coming with cash because
their markets are more expensive.
Now we have job portability.
They can live wherever they want.
We never had that before where
people wanted to live in Maine.
They dreamed about living in Maine,
which is why the second home market
is so strong here because they
can spend part of the time here.
But always, the question was,
what am I going to do for work?
That questions now been answered
because of the pandemic.
I have job portability,
I can live in Maine now if I want to.
So we're seeing people migrating here
and realizing a dream of living here,
but they're bringing money coming
from more expensive markets.
And they're making it a lot more
difficult for the main buyers
who have financing that typical,
you know,
buyer,
that we've always worked with making
it so hard and they're getting beat
out time after time after time.
And it's hard.
I don't like seeing it, but it is.
It's a factor.
It's wonderful if you're a seller,
but if you're a buyer,
it's extremely trying
inventories down about 50%.
Can you put that in some context
for somebody who's not a real estate
expert like yourself and what?
What does that?
Look like to be 50% down on inventory.
Well, that just means that
our normal housing stock,
that or listings that we would
normally have this time of year,
as this is the time of year it starts
to ramp up with may being about the
top of the market when it comes
to incoming listings were down.
It's not quite 50%.
I'd say it's but it's in the
mid to high 40s that is below.
Uneducated person 50% sounds like
a significant amount to be down it
is it is a significant amount.
I'm not sure we've ever seen
it as low as it is right now,
so it's hard for people to understand
because on the opposite side we have
sales that are up prices that are up.
It seems like wow places are selling.
That's true.
Most of the places come on the market
and they are selling just like that and
they're going under with multiple offers.
They're going there, closing well over.
Asking price is just as.
It's a frenzy.
It's a frenzy right now when
you talked about a lot of people
coming in from out of state.
Is there any and we don't have
to do this on the spot right now,
but I don't know if you
know off the top your head.
Is there any metric to talk about how?
What percentage of people that are
buying in Maine now over the last?
I don't know in 2021 and then
from out of state we'll be able.
We will know that because we do
track that our main listing systems
when we put in a property is sold.
The buyers zip code goes in and
that's how we're able to track
the percentage of buyers that we
have coming from other places.
Historically, we had about 25% buyers
that came from out of State last year.
I believe it was more like 3335% what it
will be this year will be interesting to see.
In any event is still up at least
8% from your average market.
Historical consistent.
I would say main market.
It's up that's that's quite
a significant jump.
Pardon my ignorance,
remind me how many years you
been doing real estate 36 years this year, 36
years doing real estate.
Have you ever seen the
competitiveness for houses like this?
Not exactly like this.
We have seen Markets 2005,
2006 highly competitive.
You know you would see a 10 offers,
maybe on on one particular house.
Now we're seeing multiple
offers on almost everything.
I think that our number of buyers
from away and the amount of
cash offers that we're seeing is
something we've never seen before,
so that's what makes it so difficult
for those buyers that have financing
contingencies to be able to be competitive.
Because cash, it's a sure thing the
seller looks at that and say, wow,
why do I want to jump through all the
hoops that a financing clause is going
to bring me through when I have cash?
I don't need to deal with any of that.
And on top of that we have buyers that are
also saying I'm going to waive inspections.
I'm going to pay cash.
I'll close whenever you want Mr and Mrs.
Seller or miss seller.
Then the seller says, well,
This is Money in the bank, right?
They don't have to worry about anything.
They know hurdles they have
to clear in that process.
It's from contract to closing smooth sailing.
So all the other buyers that have,
even if they have 25% down 50% down,
it's still a contingency
that the cash doesn't have.
So it's very,
very tough for those buyers
to compete with that.
Have
you found that waiving inspection
truly does increase somebody's
competitiveness in their offer?
It does, however.
In certain instances, you could be
comfortable with that if you have a
client who has purchased several homes,
they understand housing they
have building expertise.
They have knowledge and experience.
OK, I could see that we know
what we're looking at.
We can talk about all these
things that are showing a first
time home buyer who knows zero?
Wow, that's a real risk for that buyer
to be offering without inspections,
but they're doing it because
they want to buy that house.
They find their dream home.
People will do anything to try to get it,
and that's the thing that's making it so
tough. This is going to sound
like a silly question with
somebody with your experience,
but why is it so risky for someone to
wave a home inspection?
Well, if they don't have
any knowledge of housing,
they probably don't even know
how the heating system works.
They don't know if their chimney is lined,
they don't know what they're.
They're breaker panel looks like without the
cover on doesn't have corrosion in there.
You can't see that unless you
actually take that cover off.
You look into the firebox of your boiler
and see if there are any cracks in there
and building Inspector is going to do that.
You're not going to do that
on a normal home tour.
You're not going to necessarily
get into the attic if it's not,
walk up or easy access where a
building inspector needs a ladder
to get up there to see if there's
any mold growing up there to see
if your fan from your bathroom
is exhausted outside properly.
Or is it just blowing into the attic
and causing humidity and causing
mold growth so those types of things
for our new home buyer to have no
idea on an experienced buyer will
understand this is a possibility?
That's a possibility.
So they can be prepared to an extent.
But also home inspectors will camera
sewer line to make sure that is clear
to make sure they know tree roots.
I mean,
we've seen sewer lines that are older up
on the Peninsula of Portland Orangeburgh,
which was a material they
used during the war,
which has more flexibility to it
and can sometimes have haven't
created bubble and burst.
Well,
you wouldn't know that unless
you had a camera in there and
know that you need to plan for at
some point in the not too distant
future to change that sewer line
out to a more modern material.
So it will last for you.
What kind of potential
costs are we talking about?
For somebody who misses 123 of
these kind of big ticket items,
right? It really depends
if the heating system has maybe
a crack in the boiler and the
seller may not even realize that
because when the boiler is working,
if there's a crack in it and he can't,
any leakage is going to evaporate
before the seller might even notice it.
So something like that is a good
example that could cost you.
Depends on what you want to do
and depends on the heating system.
But that could cost you $5000.
If you need a new sewer line,
that's going to depend on how far out it is,
where is the bad part of it?
How much has to be dug up?
The trees have to be taken down, etc.
Septic system.
Same thing that could cost fifteen.
$20,000 is just all these unknowns
that without an inspection, you truly.
You truly would
not have any idea about that.
So the state of Maine doesn't
regulate inspections.
What's your opinion on
on that? Well, they don't license inspectors,
so anyone can be an inspector.
The important thing is that
you have an inspector who has
knowledge who has experience,
who has expertise and isn't
just someone who decided to do
it because they are retired and
they want to do it because they.
It's fun and they think they know
a little bit about building.
So you do want to do your
homework as an agent,
but also as a buyer to make sure that
you are getting someone who has good
good experience and good knowledge.
There's
a bill in the legislature,
I think it went in 2019.
It's currently in Sunrise review.
Which basically they what it sounds
like if they'd like to put a licensure
of some kind on a home inspector.
One home inspector I spoke with said
he felt it really didn't have much
in terms of meat or teeth and not
enough disciplinary actions for an
inspector were to miss something.
Are you familiar with the bill at
all or you know at the main Association
of Realtors we've been working on that
for years trying to get the legislature
to pass some kind of licensing
regulation for building inspectors,
and they've been very reticent to do it.
I think for a variety of reasons.
Number one, as you said, it's hard to say.
What are the courses that
they would have to take.
What kind of action?
What kind of regulation you need,
like a whole other oversight
Department in order to to.
Keep in, keep an eye on that like
we have the real Estate Commission
Maine Real Estate Commission,
so now they would need to formulate
a whole new Department to be able to
overlook these in building inspectors.
And that's one of the reasons the
cost involved there hiring of
people to work in that Department.
So I think that's one of the
reasons that the legislature is
reticent to implement that.
But we've been working at it.
I mean,
Association Realtors for years encouraging
and trying to get that to happen.
Why encouraging
to to get it to happen?
Do you think that's something
that would be useful for?
What sellers buyers
really really beneficial
for the consumer to have some idea some
way for them to research an inspector
and to know what kind of experience
and try to at least a place that they
could go at the main.gov and get
some information about inspectors?
The consumer would be the winner for sure.
Right now it's basically just do
your homework. You know on Google reviews,
right? And I think it's depends on
your realtor. You know you need to
depend on your realtor to say you have.
I have inspectors that I know well.
That I've worked with for many
many years that I give their
names to my clients to say these
people all do a phenomenal job.
I know them well.
I've been with their at their inspections
for many many times many years.
So you can feel confident that they
know what they're talking about.
So I think that's your resource really is
where a buyer or consumer should be looking.
They should be looking to their
realtor for that kind of guidance.