Buying and Selling Ski Properties and where is the bottom of the market, anyhow?

Are you still trying to decide whether today is the best time to buy a ski resort property, to live in it full, or part time?  How about an investment, so that you’re able to get some income while you wait out the rat race, hoping to retire or get that dream job at the slopes? 

With the market trends happening across the country, there’s a lot of uncertainty in deciding when to buy or when to sell.  I have many clients who own condos, townhomes or ski resort single family homes who will be taking them temporarily off the market until the springtime, simply because they don’t want to have their home go stale in a market where they may not receive showings.  Historically, fall/beginning of winter in a ski resort is when there’s an abundance of inventory of townhomes and condos on the market to choose from because visitors are looking to get settled in to their ski chalet before the holidays, so they can invite their extended families to join them and have a reunion.

This year may or may not be different.  As of today, I’ve been seeing single family homes that are still going under contract, because people have been reluctant to move on a purchase until now, not knowing if they’d be making a good decision because their broker can’t tell them if we’ve hit bottom – or if there is still a ways to go.  But people’s lifestyles often dictate their decisions.  Folks still get relocated, a spouse passes on, children go to college, people get divorced, and some want to just go surfing all year instead of skiing, kayaking, or hunting.

Lifestyle choices are only granted to those who see the value in making a change because they realize they have only so many years to live, in an environment that makes them happy.  They are willing to excuse themselves from a location, a habit, a routine that they see as detrimental to where they might end up – to instead making a change because they’ve finally realized that unless they do, misery sets in.  If you asked why most people have come to Steamboat to live in a ski town year round, they’ll say that they traded in a high density residence for a friendly, mountain town so that they’d be close to the slopes.  They made a lifestyle decision to make their commute 5 minutes instead of a 5 hour plane ride to experience their dreams and live a life that could enrich their soul. They wanted their kids to become Olympic athletes – or brush shoulders with some.  They wanted to feel safe and secure in a town that fosters community.

So the big question that keeps coming up is, when do I decide to buy or sell, and where is the bottom anyhow?

I don’t know where the bottom is, any more than when Jacques Cousteau set on his first adventure in his sea explorations.  I can, however,  safely say that bottom is a term that’s been floating around for the last 6 – 8 months, and all the incentives that are being published aren’t necessarily being heard. In the last several transactions that I’ve handled in the $475,000 - $1.2 million range, they have all been extraordinarily different, yet they have one thing in common.  Buyers are in control.  This has been particularly evident across all channels of real estate transactions – whether Sellers are financially capable of making decisions based on solvency, or not, buyers are taking advantage of every opportunity in the sales process to gain control of getting the most for their purchase possible.

In today’s market, keep in mind that when the negotiation takes place in a purchase, securing a signed agreement between two parties is only the beginning.  Title objections, survey concerns, inspection items, loan approvals and appraisals are only half the story as the adventure unfolds in getting two people to agree to keep a contract alive.  Buyers are becoming more saavy in their “back pocket” requests that surface in each stage of the transaction.  The Sellers are now faced with compromises that in years past, never existed.

On a recent transation, I’ve seen two parties compromise in an agreement, through difficult negotiations, and then finally agree - only to find that as the next objection surfaces Buyers are revisiting the monetary amount they lost in the previous round.  If Sellers have come down in price by $50,000, and the Buyers were hoping for $80,000 but didn’t get it – don’t be surprised if the $30,000 resurfaces in inspection items before the transaction is over with.  And, Sellers are in many cases forced to succumb to these amounts because of delays, emotional upheaval, and yes, lifestyle changes.

Whether you are contemplating selling or buying, make sure you hire a full time (that’s 50 hours a week, not 20!) professional realtor who has the experience in today’s market, who is familiar with all aspects of the most current negotiation skills in order to represent you properly.  They could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run, simply by preparing you for what could happen in this unpredictable market. Only those realtors who have done multiple transactions this year – 2009 - will be able to prepare you for the unexpected.

Contact me at any time to discuss your options – timing and market conditions can make or break your only opportunity to move on your dreams in having that property you’ve been wanting in Steamboat Springs, or making sure that when you decide to sell that you are on top of all possible obstacles that might come your way.