No matter where you are in your home selling or buying process, I welcome all questions.

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Among the buyers I’ve successfully sold a home to, about half are married or soon-to-be married couples. The other half consist of singles who have been renting and want to enjoy the advantages of homeownership.

Out of my single home buyers, all of them over the past 2 years were female. Before you have suspicions, I have to assure you that that is NOT by design. Even with the married and engaged couples I work with, I estimate that 9 of 10 occasions I was hired by the woman in the relationship.

As  far as homeownership goes, the National Association of Realtors reports that single women account for 18 million households verses 14 million for single men.

Why do women seem to place a higher priority on homeownership? 

Of course, none of this comes from an intelligent poll and is strictly my own observations. I’m interested to hear your take on this subject in the comments section.

Women tend to view the “big picture”. Since their days as a child, women are already playing with doll houses, tea time, and playing “house” whether it’s in a play kitchen or smaller-scaled house. In contrast, young boys are playing with more simple toys such as army men, cars, or superheroes.

Women are more into “details”. I learned this first hand when my wife and I planned our wedding. Ask any married man and they’ll tell you about their limited role. Some won’t even remember what their role was because they literally showed up in a tuxedo while the venue, food, guest list, entertainment, etc were meticulously planned by their wife over countless hours.

Women are more emotional. Let me correct myself so I don’t get into trouble: Women are more in touch with their emotions than men. Unless you’re buying an investment property, the decisions and motivation to buy a home are emotionally charged. This is the very reason why buyers will pay top dollar for a fully-staged, nice smelling model home vs. a fixer upper.

Home shopping is exciting to women. When my wife and I were dating, I always wondered why she can spend an entire day at the mall and end up with one item of clothing. (Which sometimes would be returned.) She’d enter the changing room at Nordstrom’s Brass Plum with 10+ items, try them on and decide she doesn’t like any of them. On the other hand, a typical guy like me would look at something on display and bring it straight to the register without trying it on. Shopping for a home can’t happen in the latter situation I described.

I failed to mention that although all my clients I represented on the buyer’s side were female, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t try helping single men. There are 4 cases I can think of off the top of my head where a fully motivated man asked for my help. They were all pre-approved and signed an exclusive contract with me. Although I try my best to set expectations that it normally takes seeing over 20 homes and getting outbid on at least 2 homes due to the current seller’s market, many of them ended up throwing in the towel. I remember one buyer that seemed more interested in bragging to everyone that they found a “deal” rather than finding something he’d enjoy living in. Whenever he’d get a contact accepted, he’d back out after getting cold feet.

C’mon fellas…it’s time to step up. If you continue to rent, don’t panic. Your future wife will likely have a home you can move in to.

August numbers show the 5th consecutive month of increasing inventory. While it may seem like much more homes on the market when compared to March or April 2013, we are still in a very low 1.8 months of inventory.

To put things into perspective, we would need close to twice the amount of homes on the market for us to be in a “par” market, where the inventory is balanced between a seller’s and buyer’s market.

While public perception of the market will vary, there’s much more to supply and demand than labeling it a sellers, par, or buyer’s market. There are varying levels of each category and it can greatly affect the amount of showings your home attracts and eventually the proceeds from the sale.

Because of the increased inventory, adjustments need to be made on your selling strategy:

 

The table above assumes you don’t have a “niche” home. As said in another blog, different rules apply to niche homes.

Short Term Market Outlook

With rising interest rates and more homes for sale, expect values to be flat in the upcoming months. Expect appreciation to be gradual, single percentage point increases as opposed to skyrocketing conditions of early 2013.  Many forget that even the historic surge of 2000 – 2005 had it’s lulls where the market would slow down only to pick back up in a few months.