It’s Monday. An anonymous ID flashes on the phone. Shannon answers in her typical way, “Hello, this is Shannon with the Katina Hunter Team. How can I help you?”

The voice of a grouchy lady asked for me, but I’m luckily not in the office at that moment. Shannon offers to take a message. The woman gets huffier as she asks the following question:

“Are the bushes on Oak Street included with the house?”

Shannon pauses. I don’t think we’ve ever been asked anything like that before. To make sure she’s understanding correctly, she requests the woman to please repeat the question.

The caller’s level of annoyance is now at a 10. “ARE THE BUSHES INCLUDED WITH THE HOUSE ON OAK STREET?!”

Shannon calmly replies, “Yes. The bushes are included.”

The woman’s snippiness continues, “Are you the listing agent?”

“No,” Shannon responds, “Katina is, but she’s not here right now. I do know, though, that the bushes at the property will be staying at the house. The owners have no intentions on removing them. If I can have your name & number, Katina will be back in just a few minutes, & I can have her call you.”

“No, thank you. You talk to her & make sure, & I’ll call back tomorrow.”

Click.

That was pretty odd. True to her promise, the woman does call back the next day.

Now, I promise that I am in the office most of each day, but I doubt that I can convince the caller of this. I had just stepped out again & Shannon kindly asked to take another message. Refusing, the testy woman wants to know if she spoke to me about the bushes on Oak Street. Shannon assured her that we indeed had discussed the bushes & confirmed that they are included.

The woman then goes off on a rampage insisting that we tell the new owners that the bushes are THEIR responsibility & that they had BETTER take care of them because the current owners don’t.

Ah, this isn’t a crazy buyer who is obsessed with shrubbery – this is a neighbor who has nothing more to do than fret over the care of her neighbors’ bushes. It all makes sense.

No, I will not be grilling the new buyers on the do’s & don’ts of lawn care, but I WILL be passing along the contact information for a good fencing company.

Katina Hunter

Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker

724-888-9020

Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

What happened to all of the foreclosures that we used to see & hear about?! Foreclosures are homes that were taken over by the bank because the owners couldn’t make their payments. When I first started in real estate in 2007 & up through the next decade – these were a substantial part of the inventory.

Then, when the housing market shifted, foreclosures became a thing of the past. If a seller got behind on their mortgage, they could easily get out from their mortgage payment by unloading the house to one of the many, many buyers willing to buy almost anything at top dollar.

Well, friends… with so many people competing for housing these last few years, so many buyers paying over asking price – I’m expecting to see foreclosures come back into the mix of our inventory.

With this in mind, I’ve revived an old email template. I would share this to buyers interested in purchasing a home that happened to be a foreclosure. There are differences, & you need to know about these things upfront before you get knee-deep into the process.

NEGOTIATING PRICE

• Negotiating on a foreclosure is very similar to negotiating with a private seller. Many buyers feel that they can get homes for pennies on the dollar. That only works on HGTV shows. You can come in lower without worrying about the offending the seller, because the bank doesn’t have any emotional ties to the property. However, the banks typically price their foreclosures around fair market value. They will absolutely negotiate, but unreasonable offers can definitely expect a counter.

• Cash offers to have more wiggle room. Banks prefer the quick closing of a cash offer, so you will have more negotiating power if you’re not getting a loan.

REPAIRS

• Once you have your inspections or appraisal done, the bank won’t negotiate on doing any repairs. They may negotiate on price, but if you want an issue corrected before settlement, or, if you can’t buy the house because it won’t pass an appraisal – repairs are unlikely to be part of the deal.

DISCLOSURES:

• Because the house is being sold by a company & not a person who has lived at the house, there will not be any information provided on the disclosures. This makes it all the more important for you to get a home inspection by a reputable company. That’s the best & only information you’re going to get when it comes to the structural & mechanical integrity of the house.

PAPERWORK

• There is substantially more paperwork involved when you purchase a foreclosure. The selling bank will sometimes have you sign a completely 2nd contract in addition to the sales agreement provided by your Realtor. This contract supersedes the documents that your Realtor is familiar with. A good Realtor will review the docs & explain them the best they can. However, each bank’s process is different & so are their forms. Make sure that you personally review them carefully as well.
• In my experience, many buyers get too frustrated at the document requirements throughout the transaction. You should know this upfront. Expect to have to sign many forms at many different times leading up to closing.

CLOSING COSTS:

• It’s very common for there to be more closing costs when purchasing a foreclosure. The selling bank pushes as many fees as possible to the buyer’s side. This may include their share of the transfer tax, document fees & may charge extra fees of their own.
• They are very unlikely to pay for a home warranty either. So, if this is coverage you’d like on your new home – the cost for it is going to come out of your pocket.

WITH ALL THAT SAID…

• I don’t deter anyone from purchasing a foreclosure. I just make sure that my buyers are very aware of the differences so we can avoid surprises during the process.
• The process IS different, but my job as a Realtor is not. I always seek to be as thorough as possible in explaining paperwork & strive to make the transition smooth for my buyers.
• I have MANY MANY buyers who have purchased a foreclosure & all went very well, & they love their new home.

Katina Hunter

Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker

724-888-9020

Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

75% is my goal this year in 2025. I would love to see a minimum of 75% of my listings go on the market with a pre-inspection report.

This means that before a home is listed, we hire an impartial 3^rd party to come evaluate the structural & mechanical integrity of the home. They provide us with a full report (often times around 50 pages) of every little nitty-gritty thing that’s wrong with the house. We then offer up this report in its entirety to prospective buyers so that they know all of the flaws upfront.

The method to this madness has so many benefits… let’s look at a few:

1. If anything comes up on the report that is surprising, this gives the sellers a chance to correct it prior to it hitting the market.
2. If the report is honest, thorough & performed by a reputable inspector, buyers don’t usually get their own inspection & they accept the information presented.
3. If the buyer decides to get their own report, their inspector has to find NEW information to be able to terminate or renegotiate.

Let’s play out some scenarios if a seller decides NOT to get their home pre-inspected.

Scenario #1: Nervous Nelly
Nervous Nelly is a first-time home buyer. She views your property & all parties negotiate an offer. When she gets her home inspection, the report is actually pretty clean! There are a few smaller items here & there, but nothing major. However, Nervous Nelly is very apprehensive & scares easily. She doesn’t even attempt to renegotiate & terminates immediately over some very insignificant items.

Now, you’ve lost your buyer. You put your house as active again on the market & other buyers see that you had an offer fall through. Some buyers see this as a red flag & don’t even request a showing.

A flighty buyer like Nervous Nelly is not a great buyer. If you would have had a pre-inspection report, she would have decided to pass on even making an offer. Then you wouldn’t have missed out on other, more reasonable buyers who were looking while the house was under contract.

Scenario #2: Normal Norman
Normal Norman is a very rational, down-to-earth buyer. You come to terms with his offer, & he gets his inspection report. There’s a lot of things on the report that would concern most buyers, but Normal Norman isn’t bothered at all by the information. It’s nothing he can’t handle.

However… towards the end of the report, the inspector notes that it looks like there’s been some shifting on the basement wall & suggests an evaluation be performed by a structural engineer.

Normal Norman is pretty forgiving, but a shifting foundation is understandably a deal-breaker for him. He terminates. You’re now left with having to disclose this information to all other potential buyers (likely deal-breakers for them, too) & drastically reducing the price of the house OR, getting a structural engineer to the property & paying for the fixes that they recommend.

But… you’ve already lost your buyer & have to now disclose to future parties that he walked because of the foundation concerns.

Scenario #3: Penny Pincher
Penny Pincher is excited to move forward with your house, & she’s also an excellent negotiator. She plays hard ball, & you come to terms 10% lower than your asking price. Then she gets her inspection report. She doesn’t terminate, but she gets bids for all of the items on the report, & is standing firm requesting an additional 15% off of the property.

You now have to decide to either risk a termination or get to the closing table at 25% lower than your original sales price.

If you would have had a pre-inspection report, the original price you negotiated would have been the sales price of the house. You would have closed on the property 15% higher if you had disclosed the report upfront.

In the hundreds upon hundreds of transactions that I’ve done, each buyer is either a Nervous Nelly, Normal Norman or Penny Pincher.

A pre-inspection prevents the Nervous Nellies from even making an offer. You want a solid buyer who is in it to get to the closing table. Nervous Nellies just derail that process.

A pre-inspection gives you a heads-up on any major issues so that you can address them beforehand. That way, when Normal Norman comes along, the house is in a very acceptable condition that is appealing to a rational buyer.

A pre-inspection takes away the buyer’s negotiating power. It doesn’t give the Penny Pinchers out there much ground to negotiate a lower sales price or repairs or additional credits.

Now, I know that it doesn’t feel good to see 50 pages of flaws on your home, but if you’re looking to be proactive… if you’re looking for ways to stave off terminations… if you’re looking for the best way to keep your initial sales price intact… the pre-inspection is the key to doing just that.

It’s a $600 insurance policy to get to the closing table efficiently & with as much cash in my pocket as possible. If I were putting my own home on the market, I wouldn’t do so without including a pre-inspection report.

I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

Ladies & gentlemen, brace yourselves for a seismic shift in the real estate world!

Across the board, in Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Allegheny & Mercer counties, our inventory numbers continue to climb.

The rate at which properties are selling is plummeting! Homes are selling muuuuch more sloooooowly, but they’re still flooding onto the market. This means we’re witnessing an unprecedented surge in backlogged inventory!

Less homes going off the market + more homes being listed = a fierce battleground for sellers & a treasure trove for buyers!

As inventory skyrockets, sellers can no longer command the top-dollar prices they once did. Overprice your property, & it risks being swallowed up in the vast ocean of all the other homes with for-sale signs in their yard.

Buyers, the current housing market is overflowing with choices, & more are coming onto the market every day! Get out there & embark on your house-hunting adventure. You’ve been waiting for this moment – seize it with both hands & relish the journey!

Katina Hunter

Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker

724-888-9020

Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

Okay, my friends… for those of you who get off on spreadsheets & statistical trends, this part of our show is just for you!

I evaluate 5 counties: Beaver, Butler, Lawrence, Allegheny & Mercer. When looking into the average sales price & median listing prices… the word I would use to describe what I’m seeing would be: spasmodic! The average sales price is up by 39% in Beaver County & down 15% in Butler. All the other counties fall somewhere in between. Likewise, the median listing prices are jumping all over the board.

There is, however, some consistent numerical markers that have been strong & steady the last several months. We’ve been waiting for the market to settle enough to provide some consistent data, & we’ve found that in our inventory numbers.

Across the board in ALL areas, the rate in which properties are selling is plummeting. When homes are selling muuuuch more sloooooowly but are still coming onto the market consistently, we – of course – are going to experience a huge influx in backlogged inventory.

Less homes going off the market + more homes being listed = more competition for sellers/more options for buyers.

Beaver is getting hit hardest. The number of properties being sold is down 66% which has pushed their months of inventory to an astonishing 250%.

When inventory increases, sellers just simply cannot go in at the top-dollar prices they’ve wanted & have been getting in the past. If you overprice your property – there’s a strong likelihood that it’ll be lost in the sea of homes that are piling up.

Buyers, if you’re looking for options – the current housing market is a buffet of options! Get out there & have fun house-hunting. There’s lots to see! You’ve been waiting for this moment – you have options & more time to make your decisions!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

Our clients need to feel that they know & like us for them to trust us with their transaction. Building this relationship can sometimes take a while, but I’m going to share some advice that I gave my own family – the ones that know, like & trust me most.

Two little disclaimers though…

Disclaimer #1:
This only works if you have a real estate agent that does a heck of a lot more than just put a sign in the yard & put your property on the multi-list. If your agent doesn’t “wow” you with their marketing plan, these tips WILL NOT give you the desired results.

Disclaimer #2:
This may not be the advice I give 10 years from now, or… maybe not even 10 months from now. These recommendations are marketing techniques in which I’m experiencing fabulous success right now in these very market conditions.

SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR MULTIPLE OFFERS:
First & foremost, I’m going to ask you to just accept the fact that the way we negotiate today is not the same as we did 10 or 20 years ago. Previously, sellers would think of the price that they’d be willing to accept on their home. Then, they would add a cushion to that acceptable price so that when an offer came in lower, you’d negotiate to the price you originally wanted – making the buyer feel like you gave them a discount.

Instead of this approach, I’m going to ask you to set your price at or even slightly below (I know, I know…. hold on! Let me explain!) I’m going to ask you to set your price at or even slightly below your acceptable price. This not only gains the most attention possible, but it’s the best approach for getting multiple offers.

I know what you’re thinking: “Well what if we underprice the house?! That would be detrimental, wouldn’t it?!” Let’s think about it… would it really be detrimental?

Let’s say you do underprice your property. There are enough buyers out there right now that are willing to take a chance on your house. When we have multiple buyers interested, we have multiple offers. When buyers compete for a property, they not only bid up the price but they clean up their terms as well!

The price is only one line item among 14 pages of other terms. Would you be willing to accept a good price but you have to make a ton of repairs, agree to a buyer with riskier financing, & now they’re asking for the lawn tractor & your grandmother’s artwork, & oh – they want to move in asap, but you were hoping for a longer closing…?! All those terms stink! Wouldn’t you rather get a great price & great terms?

The goal when you underprice the house is to push buyers to compete so that both the price as well as the terms are advantageous to YOU.

DON’T LET THEM SEE THE HOUSE… (at first):
I highly recommend delaying the showing appointments. (I know! “Katina you’re crazy! First we’re underpricing the house, & now we’re not letting buyers see the house?! People PAY you for this bullflarky?!”)

There’s a method to this madness… I recommend NOT allowing any showing until you have an open house & then you can open up the house for showings for the entire day. Not only are you creating a little bit of anticipation, but there’s something I need to reveal about the real estate business. There are some really, really bad Realtors out there. These subpar agents are sometimes working with a buyer dying to see to your house. Buyers are begging their agent to make an appointment & these Realtors are sometimes:

• Out of town & don’t want to pay another Realtor to show it for them
• Have a full-time job & communicate slowly
• Would rather sell these buyers a higher-priced home
• Are just rotten at their job.

For whatever reason, these types of agents aren’t making their buyers or your home a priority.

Let’s say that Buyer Moneypants is willing to pay $350,000 for your $300,000 house & they’re ready to go! They’ve been looking for a house just like yours! But… (Whomp! Whomp!) they’re working Realtor Mo Crappy. Even though they’ve texted, emailed & left messages, Realtor Mo Crappy isn’t getting back to Buyer Moneypants.

There’s also Buyer Mediocre who is preapproved up to $325,000. This is great for your $300,000 house but not as good as that $350,000 that Buyer Moneypants has in cash in his bank account.

Buyer Mediocre is working with a great agent with the Katina Hunter Team. Mike has already researched the house, provided Buyer Mediocre with the walkthrough video & disclosures & has preliminary docs all signed up ready to go!

If you open up showings the same day that your home hits the market on a Tuesday, Mike takes Buyer Mediocre through on the same day. Buyer Moneypants also wants to get in on Tuesday but doesn’t get a response from Realtor Mo Crappy for a day or so. Finally, Realtor Mo Crappy texts Buyer Moneypants, & the text says: “I see that there’s an open house on Saturday – why don’t you swing over then & give it a peek?”

Who is going to make the first offer? Buyer Mediocre! Mike is writing his $325,000 offer on Tuesday night – 4 days before Buyer Moneypants can even get into see it! You’re going to see an offer coming in $25,000 over your asking price & you’d rightfully jump on it.

You’re then going to lose Buyer Moneypants & his $350,000 cash offer.

However, if you list the house on a Tuesday & say “No showings until Saturday,” Mike is going to snag up the very first private appointment for Buyer Mediocre & write up that offer. However, Buyer Moneypants has a chance to see it that same day at the open house. You force the timeline to work for you & all buyers have an equal opportunity to view the property on the same day, funneling potential offers to hit at the same time.

POTENTIAL RESULTS:

That is the advice that I give all of my sellers & that’s the advice that I gave my brother who got multiple offers on his condo. That is the advice I gave my parents & aunts who sold my grandmother’s farm.

I obviously can’t guarantee these results, but… we had 48 groups through the first 2 hours of the open house at my grandmother’s. We received 10 offers in the first 48 hours after showings were allowed & accepted a cash offer that was substantially higher than the asking price.

I still have other tricks up my sleeve. That’s just a couple of ways I create an atmosphere for those types of results.

I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter

Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

My Italian salad dressing analogy is still applicable! Experienced agents usually know exactly where things lay in the market. However, the hand of election, the hand of misinformation, the hand of new real estate laws & the hand of the fluctuating inventory have all reached out & given that salad dressing a shake. The real estate trends need some time to settle for a bit for our level of predictability to be able to be where it was in the past.

Hold onto your hats, folks!

Mercer County has skyrocketed to the top of the charts with a jaw-dropping 132% increase in sales prices. It’s the biggest leap we’ve seen, leaving other counties in the dust. But don’t count out Lawrence and Allegheny. They’re also on the rise with impressive gains of 30% and 11%, respectively.

In a surprising twist, Beaver County is bucking the trend with an 18% drop in average sales prices. It’s a stark contrast not only to the booming markets elsewhere but also to what we’re used to seeing in Beaver.

When it comes to the number of properties sold, Lawrence County is the lone star with a modest 7% increase. Meanwhile, Allegheny County has seen a 14% dip in sales, which, believe it or not, is only half the decline experienced by Beaver, Butler, and Mercer Counties.

One thing that’s universally up? Inventory! Whether it’s a 40% increase or a whopping 80%, there’s more on the market all across the board. Options are opening up for buyers & competition for sellers is steadily building. It’s a wild ride in the real estate world right now!

I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

I have another radio show & podcast called THE FOLD. You can find it on Spotify. My October 2024 episode included some excerpts from my personal journal. For the full clip, search THE FOLD on Spotify. In the meantime, I wanted to share a sample of what that episode was about.
“Later today, I will see my grandmother’s farm with an unsightly blemish… a ‘for- sale’ sign… in the front yard. I’m the Realtor for the estate, & I will be conducting an open house. Envisioning strangers crawling around and poking their noses into the deepest crevices of the sacred home that was only ever my grandma’s feels like such a gross violation.

How am I to handle the inevitable negative comments?

“Ugh, there’s no AC.”

Well, you get a couple of intrusive & loud box fans, and line them up in the entryway like my grandma did!

When I was taking promotional videos of the house, the scripts seem lame and salesy… Lackluster for the real selling features that I had to suppress. “The fireplace offers a handsome focal point to the light and bright family room.” What I really want to say is, “When I was four, I pushed my cousin Josh, and he cracked his head open on that brick right there.”

Every corner of that house is deeply ingrained in my mind as special and important, you can take a picture of any spot, and I will have a story to tell – complete with smells and sounds – describing the full sensation that takes over me.

THE STAIRS…
… My cousin Josh and I play ‘superman and bunny’ – a game we made up one year circa 1987 that coincided with that year’s Halloween costumes. The game was ridiculous – an ongoing and repetitious skit of a bunny that needed constant rescuing off the stairs. That year, my cousin Tara was a baseball player. I have the iconic picture of the three of us lined up in my grandmother’s living room in front of a record player that spanned the entire wall.

THE KITCHEN…
Sitting with both my grandparents for dinner. This is one of the few clear memories I have of my grandfather who passed just before I turned 7. With the intention of getting some attention, I speak to a little invisible friend that I pretend hides in my shirt. Periodically I whisper into my shirt collar “Not now… ssshhh!… Be quiet!” And I look up apologetically at my grandparents, giving me a puzzled and almost concerning look.

THE LIVING ROOM…
… The Christmas tree placement was never up for debate or experiment. It was and always will be in front of the living room window. Every Christmas, for a far back as I can remember, has the tree tucked in just that position.
Across from it on the other wall is a perpetual location of grandma’s organ. I can ever so clearly hear in my head, the very distinct sound, the soft thud of the knobs & keys as they get flicked on or off… What they did exactly I’m still, to this day, unsure. But I enjoyed flipping them up and down into various positions & combinations & seeing if I could detect how they changed the outgoing sound. I can feel how the black foot pedal pushed back against the bottom of my foot as I maneuvered it.

THE DINING ROOM…
… My grandmother sat at her chair by the eastward window… The one where her birdfeeder stuck out of the ground. We start a birdwatching journal. This dining room table was the surface of countless Phase 10 games, puzzles, plates of homemade holiday fare – rolls with soft butter… small cubes of cheddar cheese and dill pickles cut into shortened spears.

THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOM…
… Bathing with the memorable smell of what I can identify now as caress soap. I remember the bottle of shampoo in my mind – a spring green color with a floral label. If I ever find it in a grocery store, I’ll buy it & forever keep a bottle in my bathroom just to take the occasional whiff.

I can go on and on and on… For some reason, I feel that I need to write down all my memories. Just like you can’t sleep with a growing to-do list building in your mind. The only way to be unburdened is by putting it on paper. Even after all this writing, however, I don’t feel unburdened… I feel like the selling of the farm is selling my memories.

I don’t want it sold… I could buy it myself and keep it forever. But I know… I know… Logically… Owning or not owning the farm won’t change the memories. Owning the setting won’t keep them alive in my mind and heart any more than not owning it.

Maybe keeping the farm would be a detriment to my memories … Like seeing someone in a casket after they died. Once that happens, all of your memories of their face now includes that one disturbing snapshot of them postmortem.
The next day at the farm, I’m walking through the house. I’m not a clumsy person, but I keep dropping things. My keys… my phone… it’s noticeable & distracting. I throw these words out into the universe: “Gramma! Are you trying to tell me something?! Should I keep the house? Am I supposed to buy the farm… Is this a sign? Give me a sign! “
I later told this story to my hairdresser as I was getting my hair done. I told her about constantly & uncharacteristically dropping my phone. She said my grandmother may have been telling me something. The message maybe: “I can’t hold onto everything.”
I can’t hold onto everything.

At the open house, we had 48 groups through… Not four… Not 40… Not 48 people… 48 groups through the house in two hours.

I only cried once when super kind Realtor looked at me square in the eyes and said, “Wow… Selling a family member’s home must be really hard.” Yes… It is… Very hard.

Maybe it’s best that I don’t know who buys the house… Like going to a funeral and not seeing the body one last time. If you do, it’s that version of them that sticks – the one without the laugh lines or the hair done just right. A body without a soul is almost unrecognizable as the person you once so intimately knew.
The house… stripped of the organ… stripped of the dated light that hung in the entryway that reminded me of a bug… stripped of birdfeeder outside of the dining room window… a house carcass stripped to the bones isn’t the one I was meant to see. I’m supposed to remember a different version – the one with the pineapple patterned brown couch and round table with African violets maxing out the surface space and umbrella & wooden cane propped in the corner under the light switch.

I want to… But I can’t hold onto everything… So, at the open house, I talk to the people and answer their questions. I cringe at the one buyer who asked if there are, any township regulations that would prevent him from having his butcher shop business there. “You have to check with the township” is what I said… But I wanted to say is, “No! You can’t behead pigs in a bloody apron in the same room that my grandmother stores her fragile ceramics!”
Time has moved on and now I have to catch up myself. She doesn’t store ceramics there; she stored them there.
Nine offers are submitted with more promised to come in. One offer is selected. I don’t know the buyer, but I find out that she has a horse & plans on getting a pony for her daughter. Maybe it would be a silver pony like my cousin Ashley‘s – creatively named Silver, by the way. Maybe it would be a 13-hand sorrel pony like my first horse, Cierra. It would feel good to see horses in grandma’s pasture again.

Closing is in less than 30 days. I can’t hold onto everything. I can set it down, or it will slip away but either way – I can’t hold on. The new owner may or may not paint the brick… She may or may not use the room to store ceramics… She may or may not oil the squeaky pantry door.
I don’t set it down.
Nor do I let it slip away.
Instead, I give her the keys… and my blessing to make it her own. The pony in the pasture won’t be Silver nor Cierra, but there will be horses in the pasture once again.
It will always be my grandma‘s house, but no longer for sale… No longer an empty carcass of a house, but rather a second life of a home.

EPILOGUE
Two days before my grandmother’s very first heavenly birthday, the final documents were signed removing the family farm legally from my family’s possession.
Meeting the buyer wasn’t like seeing a dead body at a funeral. On the contrary… meeting her was healing. She wore opal earrings – a likely sign of her birthstone. I ask her & confirm that she shares a birthday month with me, my mom & my grandmother.
She looks forward to meeting my family – her new neighbors – & wants to be “the type of neighbor from whom you can borrow a cup of sugar.”
She makes homemade pies & is especially proud of her crust. I tell her that my grandma made really great homemade pies.
She gets my phone number & has since shared pictures of how well her Ollie’s carpet scrubber did getting the ceramics paint out of the upstairs hallway carpet. I’m glad to hear this & show the pictures to my parents.
She also shares pictures of the new living room color – now teal. Although teal is my current favorite color, I’m not so excited to hear this & won’t be sharing those pictures with my mom.
The buyer is open & kind. She wouldn’t mind at all if I asked to sit quietly for a bit in her barn’s hayloft or maybe even recreated the Easter picture on the front porch… her front porch… with my now-grown siblings & cousins.
There will be horses in the pasture AND scents of homemade pie crust wafting from my grandmother’s kitchen once again…

I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020

I’ve been using this analogy quite a bit lately. I want you to think of a bottle of Italian salad dressing. I’ve been in the business long enough to be able to predict with some accuracy where we can find water… where you can go in to find oil & where you’re going to pull some spices. Realtors who educate themselves on market trends are good with this, that’s the benefit of using a Realtor who is experienced.
Now, the hand of the market reaches out & gives that bottle a pretty good shake. Then, the hand of the interest rates gives it a jostle as well. We have many other hands grabbing at that salad dressing: the upcoming election, misinformation, new real estate laws, fluctuating inventory… all of these things are just turning that bottle this way & that.
Now, where we’re expecting to find oil – we’re getting water. When we want some spices & go into find those, we’re pulling oil. Everything is all shaken up & the real estate trends need some time to just settle for a bit for our level of predictability to be able to be where it was in the past.
With that in mind, 2 major statistics are jumping out at me as I’m looking at recent numbers. Even though a lot of real estate trends have been wonky lately, these are stats that have been consistent in the last several months:
1. Number of properties sold is down across the board. We’re seeing about a 50% decrease in sales in all of the counties I’m monitoring.
2. Number of months of inventory in each county has skyrocketed:
• Lawrence: 95% increase
• Mercer: 128% increase
• Butler: 166% increase
• Beaver: 202% increase
• Allegheny: 348% increase
Imagine there are a lot of homes for sale, and more are being listed every day. However, people are buying these homes more slowly. Basic supply & demand coming into play right here & now making some shifts in the foundation we’ve been standing on for the last several years.
One thing remains true: you can never underprice a house. I repeat for those of you in the back: YOU CAN NEVER UNDERPRICE A HOUSE! I have a video called “The Advice that I Gave my Own Family” that speaks to this very point. If you text me at 724 888 9020, & request the video I’d be happy to share it with you – I think you’ll find it very very helpful.
I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com

Despite my many years of blogging, I realized that I’ve always thrown around the word “multi-list” but I’ve never really explained it. No time like the present!

The multi-list is the official database that Realtors use to research listings. It’s how we share information about the status of each property.
There’s not just one multi-list… there are many. Each covers a different geographical area. The West Penn Multi-List primarily services the Western part of PA from about I-80 & south. Properties in the area north of Meadville are input into the Greater Erie Board of Realtors Multi-List, or “GEBOR.”

Again: South of I-80 is serviced by the West Penn Multi-list. North of Meadville is serviced by GEBOR.
If a Realtor works primarily in Pittsburgh, they will belong to the West Penn Multi-list & have access to those houses. A Realtor who buys & sells in Edinboro will belong to GEBOR.

My savvy readers probably noticed that there is a little gap between I-80 & Meadville. To ensure that I’m covering my clients, I’m one of the rare Realtors who belongs to both of these multi-lists. To work in Western PA, you have to have access to all the information that interests your clients.
Always ask to which multi-list your Realtor belongs & ensure that it’s the predominant system used in that area.

I’m Always Here & Happy to Help!

Katina Hunter
Team Lead for the Katina Hunter Team with Coldwell Banker
724-888-9020
Katina.Hunter@PittsburghMoves.com