RICH SALLA, GRI, ABR

Wow, activity really seems to be picking up with the Residential Real Estate market. The unusually mild Winter in the Baltimore area may be helping some Buyers to begin looking sooner, and Sellers to be more interested in listing their homes. Mortgage rates are still at historic lows. The Economy seems to be improving, and I'm sure this is helping some Buyers to have more confidence in moving ahead with a purchase. Hopefully, we'll have an especially good Spring Market, which will also help the Economy. Rich Salla GRI, ABR

So when does the Spring Market start in Real Estate? Is there a date? The actual beinning of Spring, some time in February, now? One things for sure it will be "Heating" up soon, and understand that it may all be a "State of Mind" for Buyers, Sellers or Agents when that is. Good Luck in 2012! Rich Salla GRI, ABR

Does anyone know what's happening with Real estate? There seem to be more questions than answers. Mortgage interest rates are at historic lows, and may drop even further. House prices ,with few exceptions, are continuing to fall. There's a wide choice of houses ,inventory, for Buyers, but many of them do not seem to recognize the great opportunities that are avaliable right now. Sellers may need to lower their list prices or consider accepting lower offers, since it seems that in the near future they will only get less money for their homes and not more. Sure the Government incentives from the past few years to help Buyers are no longer present, but again there are more reasons right now to move ahead than not. One sticking point is that Buyers ,more than ever, seem to need great credit to obtain the financing they may need. Obviously at some point mortgage interest rates will not only go up, but rise to much higher rates and stay there for an extended time. Buyers and Sellers may look back on the current times, and realize they should have acted and not waited. Thanks, Rich Salla GRI, ABR

RIGHT NOW! Right now is the best time to buy or sell real estate. There are many factiors contributing to this such as low home prices, the contininuing decline of home prices (in many or most areas), low mortgage rates, mortgage lenders continuing to increase their requirements to qualify for a mortgage, government loan programs such as FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc. also continuing to increase their costs and requirements for these types of loans, the strong possibility that mortgage rates will be significantly higher in the future, especially beyond the present period of time, the fact that surely home values and prices will increase in time, and will at least be some what higher than that what they are now, etc. These are only some of the factors within the Real Estate Industry, that should make it attractive for Buyers and Sellers to act NOW! Of course there are many economic factors that either directly or indirectly have an effect on most things that consumers are dealing with in the housing market. Rich Salla, GRI, ABR

I think if Buyers and Sellers really understood where we are in this current Real Estate Market, they would then move qucikly ahead to get their needs taken care of in Real Estate "NOW", rather than later. Mortgage rates continue to be at "Historic Lows";and although home values are "Down", it's a great time to sell an existing home and buy another. Sure there are trade-offs with what you may be able to sell the existing home for, but you probably are also going to be able to buy another home at a lower price than some later time. Maybe not in the near future, but a little further down the road. If Buyers and Sellers are not careful with making sure they really understand this current Real Estate market and "Act", then it's similar to trying to "Time" the Stock Market, which usually doesn't work. It's usually too late by the time investors realize that they should "Pull the Trigger' on whatever it is that they want to do. I hope more Buyers and Sellers understand "Better" where this Real Estate Market really stands at this time ,especially with the "Spring Market" ending soon in the coming weeks. Thanks, Rich salla, GRI, ABR