Louisville, KY Real Estate Podcast with JP Pirtle

Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of escalation clauses in our market. But, what is in an escalation clause?

An escalation clause is a buyer’s best and final offer. People have been making these kinds of offers for years, but recently they have become a lot more important. This is largely thanks to our being in seller’s market where competition is hot. 

Buyers right now don’t want to lose out on the right home, but they also don’t want to have to make excessively high offers. 

An escalation clause allows buyers to stipulate that they will pay up to a certain amount limit in order to beat out other offers. As an example, an escalation clause might state that a buyer will pay up to $1,000 over any other offer that is made. 

This cap means that buyers don’t need to be as worried about overpaying. Setting a limit will help ensure that a buyer doesn’t pay a ridiculous amount. 

Buyers must also be careful, though, to compare offers by the net sale price. In your escalation clause, ask to see the best and highest offer. 

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

We’re coming to you today from a great home here on Duker Street. This property has an awesome story behind it that we’d like to share with you today.

The owner of the property was a really nice lady who once gave us a call because she needed help: She didn’t know if she wanted to list the house on the market or sell it outright. Of course, the Dream J.P. Pirtle Realtors team always offers our sellers both options.

In the end, she didn’t want to list the home, so we ended up buying it from her. We were actually able to give her a lot more for it than she had even asked for in the first place, which made her very happy. This Duker Street home is in a great area right across from a school, and (even in the video above) you can even hear how happy the children here are. We may decide to rent it out, but that decision isn’t final. If you’d like to learn more about it, feel free to contact us!

The moral of this story is that right now is a great time to sell your home—our spring inventory is very low, which means your home is in high demand, and interest rates are still historically low as well, meaning you’ll probably get more money for your home this year than you would have in any of the previous 10 years. The market is hot.

If you need advice about selling your home or would like us to do a no-obligation, free comparative market analysis to help you find out what your home would be worth, reach out to us. We can either help you list your home on the market or make you an offer for it ourselves. I hope to hear from you soon!

As we head into the summer, I wanted to bring you some of the latest numbers from the Louisville real estate market in April and compare them to what we saw at this time last year.

Here are some of the statistics I’ve been keeping my eye on:

• Home sales are down from 1,583 to 1,442
• Our average sale price is up to $223,000 from $220,000
• The average days on market stayed relatively flat, going up slightly to 64 from 62
• The absorption rate sits at 2.48 months, which is up from the 2.33 months we saw last year
• Active listings are low, but they’re slowly creeping up. They sit at 3,687 currently, which is up from 3,554 last year
• The average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage has dropped back below 5% and now sits at 4.5%

Thanks to my great friends at Statewide Mortgage for providing me with the interest rate update.

Last but not least, it’s time for our monthly quote. This month’s quote is:

“If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” -Ronald Reagan.

If you have any questions for me in the meantime or need any real estate help at all, don’t hesitate to reach out and give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

The latest numbers are in for February’s real estate market, so today we’ll be comparing our 2019 stats with those of 2018. Things are looking good, but let’s put a magnifying glass on the metrics:

• There were 1,166 homes sold in February 2018 and 1,055 sold in February 2019.
• The average sales price was $204,500 in February 2018 and $216,500 in February 2019.
• The average days on market was 69 in February 2018 and 71 in February 2019.
• There was 2.26 months’ worth of inventory in February 2018 and 2.41 months’ worth in February 2019.
• There were 3,449 active listings in February 2018 and 3,601 in 2019.

As you know, I always love a good quote. With springtime around the corner, I feel like this one fits well:

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful weather!

Our team has already been very successful so far this year in helping people like you achieve their real estate goals. With that in mind, today’s message is simple: It’s time to take action. Whatever your aspirations are for 2019, now is the time to seize the opportunities available in our market. There are a lot of great things going on now, so don’t miss your chance to make the most of current conditions. Life is too short to put your dreams off for another day. Whether your dream is to run your own business and get involved in real estate or to own your own home, we can help. Please reach out to us today. To learn more, watch this short video.