Curious to hear from our power users on this one!

​@Peter Osmanski ​@Zoerene ​@Dispomoneymike ​@Cory Boatright ​@Tom_Williford ​@Ruben Jimenez - you’ve all been active in different parts of the country. Are you seeing buyers pause or pounce with these rate drops? Any creative seller terms popping up lately?
 

Would love to get your take on how these shifts are hitting your local markets!

I have been pretty heads down and focusing on renovating existing projects and dialing in on quick and accurate renovation delivery over the summer vs. interacting with wholesalers or sellers so I will quickly touch on what I’ve seen on the listing side of my flips and let others talk about what it has been like to buy from sellers/wholesalers over the past few months. 

If you are renovated well to match or beat comps and priced well, I am still seeing properly executed deals sell in 3 weeks or less with most going in 8-14 days. Quality product in a sea of rising inventory is still reaching buyers and flip quality product that is genuinely renovated well and priced at a slight deal is moving without issue in NC in the under 500k market in Raleigh and the under 300k market in the surrounding smaller towns. I am taking a $5,000-10,000 haircut on the ARV for every $100,000 of house I am buying. The value of a deal with a solid ARV and a quick sale timeline is more appealing to me now vs. the early 2020s where it was just a different market. I don’t want to take any chances on main roads or rural towns or whatever oddball play may exist. 

Although we’d be dumb to ignore how much inventory is rising, there is a difference between inventory that is comprised of sellers priced too high for their as is but still well kept house vs. fully renovated product priced appealingly. Deals that are risky buys (I’ve made them previously and others certainly have too - bad neighbors, rural road, etc) are sitting and underperforming. 

Really appreciate you sharing that perspective ​@Tom_Williford, especially the detail about where buyers are still moving quickly in NC. 

Quick question for you: when you mention taking a $5K–$10K haircut per $100K on ARV, do you see that as a temporary adjustment because of rising inventory, or do you think this will be the new normal for flips in the next 12–18 months?

Also curious, since you’re steering clear of rural plays for now, do you think the current surge in off-grid/rural demand is more of a retail buyer trend vs. an investor play?

• In your market, are buyers pushing harder for discounts, or are they chasing rental holds?

Buyers are broken down into categories

1. cash buyers/investors/landlords
2. retail buyers

Cash investors are needing to buy deeper because they either wholesale or flip. The interest rates need to drop to get some relief from the 10-15% extra money they want off buying their deals

Retail Buyers are still paying 85-100% especially first time homeowners. They are using VA or FHA Loans so they don’t have to put that much so they look for MORE house than MONEY they can afford. You can appease these buyers with concessions and other things to help them with the sale. RBP (Retail Buyer Program | http://www.rbprofits.com ( a real estate education program I created a while back and launched with my friend Sean) has been critical to wholesale houses to retail buyers that require seasoning on their deals. It’s similar to Novations, but you are not the buyer in the transaction. You are the RBP Manager.

• Are you seeing sellers dig in on pricing like Denver - or are they more willing to negotiate?

We just sold a condo in Denver and it wasn’t easy. The condo market is taking a big hit. Sellers are always willing to negotiate if you find our their real desire to sell. Most of the time it isn’t money.

• Is rural/off-grid demand showing up in your dispo pipeline, or is your buyer base still focused on metro deals?

We use RBP for rural on pretty houses. Rural market can be good as long as it’s near 45 minutes to a major metro or it has moutains, lakes, parks, or oceans near it. You always want to look at buyer demand in any area considering wholesaling there.

• For those in cooling Sun Belt markets — are you adjusting how you pitch deals?

Phoenix is the therostat for real estate. It starts there and spreads. Phoenix is down on sales and slumping on buyer demand. We should see some rate cuts and hopefully that affects mortgage ones. That will give a prime in the pump for more buyers to look for houses. We need the rate under 6%.

Appreciate the depth here ​@Cory Boatright,  especially the segmentation of buyer behavior and the tactical use of RBP. That kind of adaptability is exactly what this market demands. Your point about sellers’ true motivations beyond price is a powerful reminder that negotiation starts with discovery, not numbers.

On the rural side, your 45-minute metro radius filter makes a lot of sense. Are you seeing any data shifts in DOM or price stability in those fringe markets compared to core metros?

Also, given the retail buyer trend you noted, are you adjusting how you structure your exit strategies, or seeing more success with certain loan products?

Would love to hear more on what’s actually converting right now.

Longer days on market so we adjust to list the property aggressively to sell in 2-3 weeks or less. This means looking at pending Ana active comps not just solds.

on the retail side, we are working with “pretty houses” that need 10-20k rehab max and will qualify for loans. This way agents can add concessions to help them get the house and the retail buyers are not as sensitive to price like investors. You always are willing to pay more for a house you’re going to live in. 

Thanks for breaking that down and sharing your expertise,  great insights on both the retail side and dispo strategy. Appreciate you adding real-world perspective here!