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We look forward to helping you make your dreams of the mountains become a reality!

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Buyers Page

Top 10 Reasons It's a Great Time To Buy:

Hazy Oberski and the Asheville Realty Team were founded on the belief that all buyers deserve an agent who will work as their educator, personal consultant, and a source of information through the entire buying process. The process goes beyond just finding our clients a house to live in. Our goal is to find them their dream home and that requires us getting to know them as a person. We need to understand their lifestyle, family needs, favorite things to do and what their vision is of their future. The greatest reward we as Realtors™ can receive is the personal relationships that we develop with our clients.

We take our buyers through the entire buying process. From introducing them to local resources, finding the right loan, home inspector, insurance agent and closing attorney.

“It is a rare person who can take care of hearts while taking care of business, but Hazy and the Asheville Realty Team have proven that it can be done”.
Quoted by Hubbell's

1. Selection, selection, selection.
Regardless of price range, there are plenty of houses from which to choose. There's a great selection of attached homes, condos and townhouses. You can find large lots, small lots, and a lot that will accommodate your boat or RV. You have many options. When resale inventories are low, buyers are forced to make compromises. Not today.

2. No bidding wars.
In 2005, we knew one family who made offers on 10 homes. They lost the first nine to the feeding frenzy that existed in the market - other buyers bid the properties up substantially from the original listing prices. There were even escalation clauses where buyers authorized their agents to outbid other offers by thousands of dollars. There's no competitive bidding in the buyer's market of today.

3. You can make an offer.
A few years ago when you made an offer, the only question was how high above the list price you should reach in hopes of being the best offer on the table. Today the sell price vs. list price ratio is about 96 percent. Sellers won't be insulted if you "make them an offer they can't refuse."

4. Patience is tolerated.
In the hot seller's market, everything was rushed. You had to find a house before other buyers did, then hurry up and make the offer. Today, buyers can take their time. They can look at several homes and think about their decision for a while.

5. Due diligence is welcomed.
In this market, a buyer is encouraged to obtain a home inspection, termite inspection and appraisal. In 2005, many buyers waived these contingencies in order to gain an advantage.

6. Plenty of specs.
Buyers sometimes had to play games if they wanted a newly built home. There were lotteries and waiting lists. Some buyers even slept in their cars in order to get to the head of the line.

7. Repair requests are accepted.
After buyers complete a home inspection, they're allowed to submit a repair request to the sellers. But in the past, sellers often insisted the home be sold as-is. Many times, there were back-up buyers waiting for the primary buyers to upset the sellers, whose home was increasing in value almost daily.

8. Few, if any investors.
It's estimated that one third of all sales in 2005 were to investors. These buyers caused the market to inflate and affordability to decline. Mortgage fraud became commonplace. It's a great time to buy without having to compete with hundreds of prospective landlords.

9. Location, location, location.
Today's buyers can find homes closer to work. In this market, reasonably priced homes are within biking or walking distance to schools, rapid transit lines and relatives.

10. Real financing is available.
The "wink, wink" zero-down, no-doc, adjustable, sub-prime loans are gone. Fixed rates are back. FHA financing, first-time homeowner bond programs, and special loans for teachers or police officers are back in business. The bottom line: It's a great time to buy real estate!

Copyright © 2008 RE/MAX International Inc. 1/22/08

N.C. industries eyeing the economic climate

By: Jake Ratliff, Staff Writer
Posted: 2/5/08

North Carolina is ahead of the economic curve. Despite slow growth on the national level, the state's largest industries are still growing, albeit more slowly than in the past.

And the industries might be getting an extra boost with the Federal Reserve Board's Jan. 30 interest rate cut of half of a percent, the second radical rate cut in recent weeks.

John Akin, chairman of the UNC Department of Economics, said that the significant cuts will most likely help boost the national economy and that North Carolina would be no exception.

"The three-quarter of a percent cut is very big," Akin said, referring to the first of the rate drops. "I expect the Fed's cuts will help the whole country."

For North Carolina, the Fed's interest rate cuts will foster growth in the state's already-healthy industries such as health services and technically skilled jobs, Akin said.

"We have a lot of people working in parts of the economy that haven't slowed down," he said.

Akin also cited university-generated jobs as a key to North Carolina's growth and the state's resistance to the slump in the national economy.

Some say the Triangle area will fare well because of its concentration of three large universities.

"Knowledge works are less impacted than services and manufacturing in an economic downturn," said UNC economics professor Buck Goldstein.

North Carolina's economic growth has led to a population boom, which Akin said has led to gains in the housing sector, as well.

In 2007 the average price of real estate in North Carolina increased by 4 percent, said Julie Woodson, director of public affairs for the N.C. Association of Realtors™.

"Homes in the state are worth more now than they were a few years ago," Woodson said.

She added that the housing market will see even more gains as the state's population continues to increase - projections call for a population increase of about 400,000 by 2010. "Those people will need a place to live," Woodson said. However, the state still has room for improvement.

Although most sectors of the state's economy have seen job growth in the past year, the manufacturing sector has lost jobs, said Larry Parker, spokesman for the N.C. Employment Security Commission. While the state's economy is growing, Parker added, it is not growing as much as it has in the past four to five years.

Economic growth is unequally distributed throughout the state. According to the 2007 report from Appalachian State University's Western North Carolina Economic Index, western North Carolina experienced economic declines throughout September and October. And while the country as a whole might be going through a period of slow growth, some scholars hesitate to call it a recession.

"I don't think (a recession) is a foregone conclusion," Goldstein said. "It's still up in the air."

It could be some time before the Fed's rate cuts filter down to the consumer, he said, adding that homeowners with an adjustable-rate mortgage will see the benefits of the interest rates decrease sooner.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

© Copyright 2008 Daily Tar Heel

Market Forecast

'Existing Home Sales to Trend Upward in 2008'
By Blanche Evans, Realty Times Columnist
Posted: 12/19/07

The National Association of Realtors™ has suffered some ridicule for its perpetually sunny housing forecasts, even while some markets have been drenched in bad news. But the outlook for 2008 is optimistic for several good reasons.

Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, says the worst part of the credit crunch is over.

"The unusual mortgage disruptions that peaked in August were clearly seen in lower home sales that were finalized in September and October, so the market was underperforming," he says. "Now that mortgage conditions have improved, some postponed activity should turn up in existing-home sales over the next couple of months, and I expect sales at fairly stable to slightly higher levels."

NAR's recent Pending Home Sales Index was up slightly - with two months of consecutive gains in homes under contract, but that's still nearly 25 percent below a year ago. Lows are as unsustainable as highs in real estate, and many communities have been low for a long time. Yun is particularly encouraged by a pick up of pending sales in the depressed Northeast.

Prices are also on the increase in nearly two-thirds of U.S. metro areas, and not just in certain areas of the Sunbelt. Prices are up in Gary, Indiana, Binghamton, New York, and Spokane, Washington, as well as Corpus Christi, Texas.

"We can't emphasis enough how much local conditions vary, even within a given area, so it's important for consumers to make decisions based on local market conditions," Yun says. Two factors that may impact housing in many areas are not so positive - jobs and interest rates. NAR expects jobless claims to rise to 5 percent next year, up from 4.5 percent. Mortgage interest rates will go back to 6.5 percent, but let's remember that is still near historical lows. Inflation will rise, but only slightly and will remain under 3 percent. So the housing recovery will be gradual. Existing home sales for 2008 will be under 1 million.

Copyright © 2007 Realty Times. All rights reserved.