I am a lead

As drab as the market feels, I just closed on my investment home in Portland.
Sold.
Check just came in the mail.

Granted, the sale price established though a CMA was obliterated by a Zestimate — the tool the buyer chose to trust rather than the conventional real estate pricing formula performed by my agent. It missed the important things like upgrades and improvements, specific location, view, and the overall stability within my particular neighborhood.

But these days, many out there don’t know who or what to believe. Some view the Zestimate as a mis-marked price tag. As the Blue Book for real estate. And when the cashier rings up a different price they argue on principle. Frankly, I don’t blame them a bit. I would do the very same thing.

So it goes in the wacky world of real estate. And with things so unstable, I was happy to have a buyer willing to even make an offer.

I have to hand it to my agent – he worked hard to close this sale. Dealing with a difficult buyer during a difficult time was no easy feat considering how desperate I was to make the last three years of ownership account for something more than a $20,000 loss.

I’m not bitter at all. Given the market, I’m grateful for the small things, like how the buyer qualified for a loan. And how the bank had a few bucks left in the vault in make the loan. And I’m grateful for my agent, who is a good man and did a great job.

So what now? I received a check yesterday — the deposit on the home. I’m basically back to where I started three years ago. Almost.

So anyway, I hear that now is great time to buy. That’s what I heard three years ago and that didn’t work out like we planned. But I’m willing to go at it again. After all, I’ve got some cash for a down payment, rates are low and if I can find something that flows positive with 10 or 20% down, in a market where prices have fallen and rentals are hot, and…

Well, not so fast, Davison.

Yes. I need more than a few superficial reasons to jump back into the pool.

Perhaps someone can explain to me exactly why now is a great time to buy. And where. And provide me with facts — and an analysis of those facts — to back that statement. Like many consumers out there, I’m a bit shaky and not ready to simply believe an ad campaign. But you could say I am motivated.

I suppose, when it comes right down to it, I am a lead.

– Davison