Alabama's Morning News with JT
Gusty Gulas joins us to talk the housing situation
because he goes joins us now from the gusty goes group, so kind of you to take a little time with us, you know, you're on vacation with the family of the beach. So first of all, be careful down there. And how are the red flags a flying where you are? No, yeah, we're in St. George Island. There's a there's been some red flags up, but we're, you know, anytime at the beach, we're always a little cautious. Yeah, I agree with you there. Alright, I wanted to get your thoughts on what's happening here. I saw this article where it says sellers are spending more than 50 grand to sell their home, like staging it and getting it ready. A lot of hidden costs that people don't take into consideration. You know, first of all, the commissions and the repairs and closing costs. And then you've got some concessions to make here and there throughout the process, maybe moving expenses, marketing, staging. I mean, wow, when you think about it, is it really that much? You know, it must have been a slow news day for them to come up with this article because there's a lot. I mean, obviously there's costs in selling a home, but you know, everything is really negotiable. And you know, commissions are negotiable, repairs are negotiable. I think, you know, a part of repairs is how are you, when you're selling a house, you've got to prepare to be on the market. But what have you been doing while you've owned the home? There are people that are out there that take good care of their home. And then there are people that literally do nothing until they're about their until the house is about to go on the market. So, you know, that might be where you see some, you know, financial pain and repairs to get on the market. But it's probably something that you should have been doing like all along. Well, that's a great point. You know, I've walked into homes just to see them because Judy should really have her own HGTV show. She's always working on some sort of project doing something. So, she likes to go look at houses that are for sale and take a tour just for design ideas and things like that. And I can't tell you how many times you walk into homes that are on the market for sale. And it looks like you're walking into the Brady Bunch home from 1975. I mean, it's a lot of people don't do any upgrades or anything. Are the expectations high for buyers these days to really, if I'm going to buy a home and move along, you got to, you know, you'll want something that's been updated, right? You know, I mean, I think homes that have been updated are going to fetch, you know, the highest price per square foot for the market. But there are also people that are that want a little bit of sweat equity and are willing to do things like put in quartz countertops or, you know, put in some different things to gain in some of the equity. But most home buyers right now are busy with work. They're busy with, you know, life and they don't necessarily want to do all that work. Right. And so, and I think we've also grown up, you know, at least my age, I didn't grow up really, you know, working, you know, as a carpenter or doing a lot of stuff. It's like I can barely hang a picture on a wall. So, you know, I'm not going to be that guy that's going to be doing all the work. So I think people just we rather have something already finished. Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about where we are this week in a snapshot of real estate, home values still holding their ground rates, not back to near where we want them inventory. How are we generally speaking in the state of the state when it comes to the market? I tell you inventory inventory is going up a little bit. It's nothing crazy, but we're seeing, you know, 5% to 10% increases in inventory. We're seeing rates hovering around 7%. That's really where, you know, if we see rates under 7%, I see the market move a little bit quicker. When I see rates go above 7%, it slows down a little bit. So that's kind of where that, you know, tier is. And as far as the market goes, I mean, we're going to close out and have in our best month for the whole year in June and July. It looks like we're having some really good numbers. I expect a good July, but it's really seasonal. And in the summertime, June, people are going in and out of town like me. I'm out of town right now. And so, you know, some weeks are hot, some weeks are not, but there's still buyers that are out there. Yeah. And this is the time of the year families are moving because of jobs or making moves. And when kids are out of school, it usually picks up noverses during the fall and winter rain. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's, it's, we've got probably about another, you know, three or four weeks where people are trying to get in before school starts. I've got to get their kids registered. So, um, there it is. There it is. The first mention of back to school, Gusty Goulas. Thank you so much. We're not even here until I fourth week yet.