Be Ready For When The Market Gets Active

Happy New Year! I hope that you enjoyed the holiday season and that you’ll have a prosperous 2016.

In the real estate industry, January is a time of contemplation and preparation. The contemplation occurs mostly when people start to think about how they might want to participate in the real estate space in the coming year. Is this the year to buy, or to sell, or to invest? Maybe this is the year to buy after years of saving. Maybe this is the year to sell and take advantage of the run up in value over the past few years. Maybe there’s room in the budget for that rental property you’ve been thinking about.

Whatever your interest, once curiosity is piqued, you’ll want to explore the possibilities. That’s where research and consultation become the next logical steps.

The research centers mainly on the data. The good news is that there’s more data than you need and it’s all easily accessible online with a few easy point and clicks.

The consultation comes next as you’ll probably want help in the interpretation of the data. In my view, there are two stages of consultation.

The first stage is having informal conversations with people whom you are familiar and trust. At this point, it’s not important that they are professionally affiliated with the real estate industry. Just some intelligent conversation with someone you trust and respect is good enough.

Once your confidants give general guidance and input, you’ll enter the “preparation” stage of consultation. This stage is formal and normally includes a trained professional who can understand your goals and can help develop an action plan to achieve them based on your specific situation.

Finding such a professional can be found through personal referral, direct marketing, research, etc. Regardless of method, your goal is to find someone who’s not only qualified, but someone you can trust. (Of course, I’m hoping your search leads you to me.)

The first part of winter is the perfect time to develop your real estate strategy. By the time the market becomes very active (typically in late February) you’ll be in a great position to execute effectively.