Why the Summer Real Estate Market is DEAD (And How to Profit)

Drew Hendricks00:21

Welcome to the latest episode of We Fixed Real Estate. Today we have Fred Glickon doing a deep dive into summer real estate. The pros and cons of having to buy a house in the summer, or maybe the pros of why you might be considering buying a house in the summer. And also selling a house, even though it’s June and you know that real estate market heats up in September. Now might be the right time to consider selling your house and prepping it for the market. Fred, enlighten us.

Fred Glick00:31

Okay.

Howdy everybody, so it’s in the middle of June and basically the real estate world is asleep. I just closed a couple of deals, but new people were quieter, it’s quieter. Because people are involved in graduations, Father’s Day, the Masters, the NHL, the NBA playoffs. I’m sure there’s something going on in Europe in the art world. you know, it’s starting to get nicer. so you kind of take real estate off of your mind.

And what we’ve seen over the years is it just keeps getting worse until you get to second week of September. But August, it’s like Paris here. You know, the natives go away. and the tourists come in. But no, it’s really quiet. I remember last year we had a listing that didn’t sell in the summer and

We did everything that the sellers wanted us to do and then some and we all agreed on everything and it just we told them it’s just it’s a bad time and it didn’t work. And they ended up selling it with another agent in the end of September, early October. It’s just the way it is. Obviously it depends on the market. It depends on the situation. But that’s kind of a general consensus. But that makes it good you know for some sellers who have just the right things. So there’s things that still sell. You gotta be the right thing to sell. The place has to be nice, the place has to be priced right, it’s gotta be in the right neighborhood, the right school district, et cetera, et cetera. And there’s somebody who’ll still buy it.

You know, and also investors are always out there. Always out there. You know, I’ll get a hundred texts a day from investors. So if you need to sell right away, it’s easy. you s by the way, let me interject something.

I get these texts and emails from these investors saying, hey man, I’ll give you the listing. if you find me the house is something you have off market. Off market is code word for I can get it cheap because the people are desperate. So, you know, just come out and say it. You know, somebody’s down on their luck, just willing to take a lower price, having no aggravation, no inspections, no nothing kind of kind of deal, and just taking X, because there’s land value there. 

And you can make money regardless. I mean those things happen. People get into binds. But don’t just you know what I tell them is I’m not gonna just send this listing I may have to you because you sent me a text. I get it from a bunch of you guys. So you know what? That’s why we put the house on the market. We can get a house on the market that we’re not doing anything to meaning we’re not maybe we don’t

We don’t do inspections, we don’t do fancy pictures, it’s just boom, boom, boom. We get the bare bones on there, we get it on the market right away, and we’re just gonna get a price from people. We’re gonna get these same wholesalers, and they’re all gonna be competing against each other, so at least we get the sellers more money.

That’s really the bottom line. They’re looking for off-market and on-market. So don’t be afraid of just if you got to get out of a house, boom. Do it right away. Just get it done. Don’t worry about it. Put it on the market with someone who’s a professional. You’re going to get more money, you’re going to get better guidance, and it makes more sense than selling it to a wholesaler.

Drew Hendricks05:01

If you have to, but if you’re considering selling and you have the luxury of waiting to until the fall when that market is primed, there is some advantages there, but you don’t want to wait until September first to find a listing agent.

Fred Glick05:04

Mm-hmm.

Correct. You want to get it all prepared. Like, for example, to do it right, here’s the following things that we do.

Number one, we sign a contract.

We have a flat fee of 15,750. We don’t pre-negotiate who the or what the buyer broker fee is going to be, because that’s part of the contract. So you’re negotiating against yourself if you offer a percentage or a dollar amount up front. These agents try to push that to be able to excite the other agents to bring their buyers. And it’s just crazy. It doesn’t make any sense.

So once we get it everything under contract. We then begin the due diligence. We pay for all the inspections for the property. We’re gonna go into the property and with you go over things, make recommendations, help you get people in to do the work, help arrange getting them in, get it all done after the inspections, do things possibly do things that are currently wrong. We get home inspection, termite inspection, sewer vision.

So we just make sure everything. And then we get all the pr once the prettying is done, we clean the place. We’ll talk about staging separately. These all take time to get done. And then we get the pictures, and then we can evaluate the market and then go to market. And what I mean by evaluate the market is you’re coming on as a fresh new face. You have to see who the competition is that are the other listings.

Drew Hendricks06:51

Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick07:02

So that’s why we price it at the very end because we don’t know what the market’s going to be. So that’s our process. So it takes a little bit of time. We have to arrange for the stagers or the repair people to get in. So, but you want to be ready second week of September, maybe after that, when it gets, you know, quote unquote a little colder, but it really has to do with the sun going down sooner. And the more value to the weekends, and the more focused you get on these kinds of things. And people kind of know the market is there.

Interest rates, please listen to me, have nothing to do with it in a general sense, in a busy market. Okay? so

That brings me to another thing that’s driving me crazy. Every loan officer out there now has his own TikTok channel telling you, today the Federal Reserve did this and you should lock in your interest rates because today this happened. Well, what he says is two days old. Don’t listen to you, don’t let me put it this way, let me save you some time.

You don’t need to listen to any of this or any recommendations of when to lock in. You know what? Once you’re under contract is when you can lock in. So before then, it doesn’t matter. So don’t from a buyer’s standpoint, don’t even bother listening to it because there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just gonna drive you crazy. So, you know, and then once you’re under contract, yeah, I’m sorry. I’m jumping all over the place.

Drew Hendricks08:29

And that’s from a buyer’s standpoint.

Go back to go back to the sellers, though, before you jump to buyers, going back going back to the sellers, you brought up a really good point a couple podcasts ago, in that when you’re hiring a listing agent, really what you’re hiring is a project manager and what you went through is all the steps that it takes from the day that you decide to sell your house to the day you actually put the the house on the market by pricing it at the very end after the repairs are done. And to successfully navigate that is going to ensure being able to sell for the highest price. That’s something that really you have the luxury of going through summer to get this done versus being forced to do it in like two weeks in September.

Fred Glick09:10

One hundred percent. One hundred per agents who you hire because of the price that either you want to sell it for or a number that they throw out that’s higher than you thought, and they put it on the contract, but they don’t reevaluate it before they put it on the market is just a measure of it’s gonna be a nightmare. I don’t even know how to put it. It just doesn’t make any sense to do it that way.

I mean, you know, there, believe me, sellers, there are agents out there who will tell you a number that you won’t believe. And they’ll tell you how easy it is. And they’ll tell you about comps that may look lower, but they the agents kind of stretch things that that seem to make your house better and more desirable.

Buyers don’t get and look into things that that minutiae that much. Okay? Hey, the location, I like the view, I like the pictures, like the location, let me go see it. Period. It’s that simple. It’s raw. So but it has to make sense price-wise. You know, if you’re 200,000 above everybody else and not $200,000 in pictures any better, you’ve made a big mistake.

Drew Hendricks10:40

And it’s and it’s all just not it’s not all about the pictures. It’s again about this project management for when you’re selling your house, you want to make sure that’s you have the broker that’s there that knows how to navigate the sale when things go sideways. They can project management through a difficult buyer or through a difficult transaction.

Fred Glick10:55

Sure.

We yeah, we get into the depth of project managing and that’s why I’m go off on tangents. It’s just sorry guys, my brain’s exploding. Yeah, I mean it’s the only way to do things.

Drew Hendricks11:02

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Switching over to buyers, buyers in the summer. I mean it if you there there are many compelling reasons why you may consider buying a house in the summer, less activity, lo not quite as many people looking for a house, or you might be relocating and your kids are gonna start school in a new city come September or late August and you need to make that transition.

Fred Glick11:32

Here’s the beautiful thing.

If you’re ready with your WWs, your bank statement, your photo ID, and a contract, we can get things closed in 15 days with no problem. Okay, if you’re a prepared buyer, I will spout it out again. You get a fully underwritten pre-approval, you’re done. Before you submit an offer. It’s just I re- as I reiterate weekly. yeah, so you can get in fast, number one. It is especially in the Bay in San Jose, it’s hot as hell. Okay?

Drew Hendricks12:15

Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick12:17

You know, and people are just inside or people are outside doing things. They don’t want to slap around and look at houses. So the volume of the people who are down, not as many come to open houses, especially if they have to drive. You know, neighbors, yeah, they’ll always pop in. but it’s it’s a time that you might be able to close quick get a little bit of a price reduction or get it at a price you wouldn’t be able to get it at if it were September, October, November. Okay? So you’re buying it.

Drew Hendricks12:55

That’s in the south, I’m gonna push back on San Francisco ’cause the coldest time of the year is gonna be July and August. And then come September, October, it’s too damn nice to go out. So there’s really if you gotta buy, you just need to buy.

Fred Glick12:58

Right, it’s too damn cold to go out. Everybody’s in the bars. Yeah.

Exactly. It’s perfect. 

Yeah, yeah. And it’s you know, you’re doing other stuff. We understand. So it’s not just the weather, it’s the time, you know, the schools and all that, and you got kids and whatever and things to do and and life gets in the way of buying a house. so it can be done if you need it.

Drew Hendricks13:41

Yes, I’m looking at some show notes here. I I have a a cryptic thing, the best of times and the worst of times.

Fred Glick13:50

Well that’s exactly what we were just talking about, which is the summer market. I was throwing a little Shakespeare in, you know, excuse me.

Drew Hendricks13:55

There we go. It could be the best of times and it could be the worst of times.

I would caution everyone as far as sales that it’s always easy to figure out it’s not the right time. I mean I have being in sales my whole life, I’m it’s Christmas, no one’s buying. it’s right before this day, no one’s buying. Or let’s wait until graduation season’s over. If you really drill down to it, there’s like two weeks in the entire year that you have no excuses. Last week in February.

Fred Glick14:24

Something like that. It’s about right.

Drew Hendricks14:30

Don’t buy.

No, I’m now now I’m sabotaging the show, sorry people. Very cynical today.

Fred Glick14:31

Oof.

No problem. Your cynicism is allowed. It’s what we do here. We’re old guys. But

Drew Hendricks14:44

All I’m saying is, yeah, the one compelling thing though is if you are getting ready to sell your house this fall, don’t wait to start prepping that for the sale. ‘Cause you may uncover some things that you need to address and then you have some leeway. And you also have the ability to get your finger on the pulse of the market so that can be repriced or priced right before it goes on sale.

Fred Glick15:07

Speaking of going on sale, you know how they say buy near a Starbucks, the value will go up? Well, there’s kind of a new one. T and T market. Do you know what TNT is?

Drew Hendricks15:15

Uh-huh.

I don’t. I thought it was a truck stop.

Fred Glick15:27

It could be. They’re Canada’s largest Asian supermarket. But they opened in California at Westgate Center in San Jose on Thursday. Packed to the gills. Yes. Better. They say it’s like a combination of all of them.

Drew Hendricks15:32

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Really? Is that like a Ranch ninety nine? wow.

Fred Glick15:49

Take the best of Kmart 99 Ranch and Trader Joe’s.

Drew Hendricks15:50

Wow.

Fred Glick15:55

And you got T and T.

Drew Hendricks15:55

Hmm.

Fred Glick15:56

So there you go. And we all know how many Asian people are in, especially the South Bay. and wherever they are I don’t even see where they put it, but property value may go up there. So they’re gonna have a couple others.

Drew Hendricks15:56

Maybe it’ll be in San Diego soon.

So here’s a question from a curious person. So on our street we’re finally getting sidewalks. My house was built in sixty-five and now they’re we’re finally getting sidewalks for pedestrian access. Before the the street looked nice and quaint. What is your opinion on what sidewalks will do to the property value?

Fred Glick16:35

Two answers to that question. One has to do with just keeping them sidewalks, and the other has to do with trees. If you’re gonna plant trees and have shade, it adds tremendous amount of value. If you’re just gonna leave an open sidewalk, doesn’t matter. People walk the dogs on it or something. Especially if you hadn’t had them and hadn’t had a need for them, per se for

Drew Hendricks17:05

We’ve had a need. It’s a busy street and there’s it’s very hard to walk our dogs.

Fred Glick17:09

Okay, that’s a different story. I wasn’t familiar. But yeah, take it a bit sidewalk’s a busy street. Yeah, be another reason. If it doesn’t it’s one thing that’s better. So it’ll stay in people’s minds. yeah, they have sidewalks that can walk the dog. Yeah, they won’t even realize new people coming to see the properties there won’t even realize that that was an issue. Because there’s sidewalks now.

Drew Hendricks17:33

Yeah, you’re right.

It’s all new to me. They’re not in front of our house yet, but it’s coming. I was kinda thinking about it. One house on one hand you get easier access, but on the other hand you have easier access so more people from outside your neighborhood are walking round and through it. ‘Cause it’s easier to walk through. So maybe a security issue might happen.

Fred Glick17:37

Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe, maybe not. And depends where it’s connected to. It sounds like you gotta cross a pretty big street. You kinda have to wanna walk down that street. I mean I’ve never seen a street, I have no idea what he’s talking about, so I’m just doing this off the top to my head, people. Search your own streets, but there’s some generic ideas for you.

Drew Hendricks18:06

Ha ha ha.

No one.

But so I guess our walk score will increase.

Fred Glick18:16

Yeah, there you go. So that’ll help value.

Drew Hendricks18:18

So if you’re ever interested in houses, the houses on Arriva I’ll have their walk score on there. And that’s something you can look up too, if you go to the walk whatever, wal walkscore dot com or something, and see what your neighborhood’s walking score is. Yeah.

Fred Glick18:28

Something like that. And there’s a bike score now.

That’s pretty cool. and of course a drive if you need a car or not. So you guys get it.

And one other thing that is pretty cool. It sort of works. I for years have recommended to people to go on Google Earth instead of Google Maps.

Drew Hendricks18:56

Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick18:57

Especially if they go on the computer. And now they have a new thing where it can you can basically do a flyover anywhere you kinda want kinda sorta want to. Dr. Drew kinda played with it.

Drew Hendricks19:07

That was cool. I am for a public area it was neat. From I Street I made up a bunch of houses that don’t look like anything our houses.

Fred Glick19:11

Yeah.

Yeah, but it’s still pretty cool. But it’s a great way to just see the neighborhood before you go there. I I get a lot of people say, you know what? That was the house was really nice, but you know, we just didn’t like the location.

Drew Hendricks19:19

Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick19:30

And you know what? You can evaporate that. You don’t have to waste your time going to houses. If you look on Google Earth and you use something like how loud.com, H-O-W-L-O-U-D.com, how loud.com, give you an idea of how close it is to noise. It’s generic, but it’s a good idea. And you know when that is this thing when something’s been on the market a long time or a long

There is something wrong. And you know, it was pretty obvious. It’s easy to take pretty pictures and just be selective. So, which it’s kind of a waste of time, I think, when doing a listing. You know, be honest with people. Tell them the faults. Tell that you can tell them how beautiful it is, tell them the faults. Because the people you don’t, if you don’t tell them the faults, they’re gonna come and be disappointed and pissed off.

Drew Hendricks20:17

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

Fred Glick20:26

Nobody’s gonna just say, you know, if if they Exactly, that’s why we do the disclosures, the inspections, we do everything up front. Makes life easy. Chill out. Be Californian people. Chill out, man.

Drew Hendricks20:28

You’re gonna see it eventually.

Yeah, that Google Earth I’m that’s a great tip to instead of just looking at the map, the satellite map on Google Maps, go to Google Earth and you can kinda do a little you can do your little simulated fly through. But you can also go back I to and see what the Google Earth looked five years ago. So you can see kind of take take a little pulse of the neighborhood.

Fred Glick20:47

Yeah.

It’s cool.

I did not see that.

Wow. There you go.

And tech talk from Arriva Nimbletood. Yeah, we should. We’ll we’ll throw tech stuff at you when we find stuff that’s cool. I found something stupid today. It’s kind of a cool idea. There is an app

Drew Hendricks21:10

Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick21:25

It’s called R Riva R I V A Videos. not recommending it. what they do is they charge real estate agents thirty bucks a month to put up videos about their properties and with their contact info and everything. and then it’s just videos, just like TikTok, of these agents. Here’s one, two, three, Main Street, four bedroom, five bath. I mean it’s just

Drew Hendricks21:48

Uh-huh.

Fred Glick21:55

Awful. It’s just absolutely awful. Then I thought of letting everybody put up a video or a picture of a house and let’s do it like dating, like voting yes or no. But the problem is everybody’s got different tastes. It’s just so house tender, yeah. Just just for the fun of it. And when you get access back to what’s that program? Fan yeah.

Drew Hendricks22:10

Do your own house Tinder?

That’s definitely an idea.

Fred Glick22:24

We can do it all there. We’re gonna vibe code it in five minutes.

Drew Hendricks22:27

Yeah.

We’ll least try. It’ll probably think for five minutes. Mm-hmm.

Fred Glick22:31

Yeah, just just add it to the list.

All right.

All right, kids, that’s enough. We’ve annoyed you enough.

Drew Hendricks22:38

That’s enough. It’s been a latest episode of We Fixed Real Estate. Stay tuned for some upcoming episodes, the little sneak peek. We’ve got a series of really special guests slated to be on the show.