[theme music] REPORTER: The following program is a production of Ozarks Public television.

Welcome to Sense of Community, I'm Jennifer Moore.

Tonight's guest is walking us through the unique trends we're seeing in the housing market right now.

Bud Jones, president of the greater Springfield board of Realtors says, buying or selling a house right now after a year of the coronavirus pandemic, is a different ballgame than he and other realtors have ever seen.

Join us for some tips for buyers and sellers alike.

REPORTER: Welcome to a Sense of Community.

Sense of community is a public affairs presentation of Ozarks Public television.

Thanks for joining us this evening.

We're glad to have you with us.

We're talking about trends in the local housing market.

And before we get started, I just want to remind our viewers once again, because we are still in a pandemic, the guests tonight are seated farther apart than usual due to social distancing requirements and the whole crew in our studio has been masked.

I want to thank you Bud Jones for joining us.

My pleasure, thank you.

First talking about the housing market in the Ozarks region.

If you could sum it up, what stands out about where we are right now?

It's pretty dynamic, isn't it?

It really is, it changes almost daily, Jennifer.

But I think if I could sum it up, I'd have to say in all caps, supply and demand.

We have a limited supply of homes for various numbers of reasons that people think and people still want to buy homes.

Interest rates are low, consumers are looking they're out there and it's terribly active market right now.

So you are in the thick of it as a realtor.

Can you share with us a story or two about some examples of just how dynamic it is right now?

How much of a frenzy it is to try to secure a house if you're a buyer in particular.

Absolutely.

I'll share a couple of stories, anecdotes from agents that have happened in the last couple of weeks actually.

And when a consumer makes an offer on a piece of property, they make the best offer they can.

Based on what they feel the home is worth and their budget of course.

Well, right now last week, a home in one of our neighboring communities to Springfield, within a day had 42 offers.

42 offers on one home?

On one home.

Wow.

You can imagine the fray of getting those in within a limited amount of time but can you imagine as a seller sitting down and thinking I've got to go through 42 offers.

Luckily the agents there to help them and to put them in the just one manner, so they can look through them.

The next day, I personally had one that had over 50 and that is not the norm for our area.

We've heard those horror stories of a lot of larger communities.

A lot more urban areas over the years, but we're in the middle of experiencing it now.

And just to clarify, this is unique.

I mean, have you ever seen anything like this in your career?

I haven't in our area.

I have not, no, and that's why we're struggling to know how to manage it best for the consumers.

That's the real publicity, it's doing.

Well, what impact has the pandemic had on all of this?

Well, I have to say that it's had an impact.

I have not heard from the experts that are supposed to be able to tell us that exactly what marginal impact it had.

But one thing I know it's changed the way you buy real estate.

That years ago you would call an agent, if you had an agent and you'd go around and you tour 10 or 15 homes and you would make a decision what was best for your family.

You'd submit an offer.

Now you look at one or two homes online, you look at the pictures, typical to call your agent and say, I'll offer this much.

And right now, very typical to look at the asking price and say, well, I'll offer this much over the asking price.

And then the components within your offer have changed as well.

Now, just a follow up to that.

Is this something that's happening across the country or is it unique to certain parts of the country?

I mean, the housing market is seeing like severe [coughing] this demand across the country.

You know it is.

Of course, my world is the Springfield Metro area here.

But in talking to other agents and dialoguing with the National Association of Realtors, things of that across the nation all areas and all markets are experiencing very similar markets as we are.

And you mentioned that there may be other reasons as well like the interest rates are super low at this point and so people are still very eager to buy.

Oh, absolutely.

We've got some dynamics that have all came together that we don't always experience historically.

We've got good interest rates.

We've got a lot of people wanting to buy and even though home prices have went up, obviously.

It's okay.

It seems like a very palatable increase in prices as much as they are higher, appraisals are staying up and it feels a little less like a house of cards and maybe in 2008 might have felt.

For those that remember that.

Yeah, sure.

What advice do you have for anyone in our community, our region here in the Ozarks, who might be considering buying a home right now?

I think number one is preparation, know that if you're going to finance a home, you have that approval process from your lender.

So that when you submit your offer, it's a credible offer.

A seller needs to know with many offers, that every offer the seller can perform.

And you know the complexity of buying a home has always been a challenge for the consumer, that's before now.

So I would really recommend you get a good licensed experienced realtor that can help you navigate through the process.

There's not too many consumers right now that wouldn't know what an escalation clause is.

But it's a major component in almost every offer that happens on a marketable home right now.

Now, I have to ask you to explain an escalation for our viewers.

Well, it's probably a term that has came into being with the market quite honestly.

Let's say you have a home and someone is actually $200,000 for it.

Refer back to my 42 offers.

42 offers at full asking price that's even more complex.

So right now it's very typical for us to submit an offer and say well, we will pay you $200,000 and this is just a for instance.

But we will also pay x number of dollars over the next written offer up to a ceiling price.

And of course, the consumer has got to worry again about budget, got to worry about the value of the home.

But I would say a large lion's share of the offers that come into our homes include escalation clauses.

That's what I'm hearing from brokers across our area.

In relation to that, are you hearing any stories of when buyers make an offer over the asking price, then the appraisal comes in and says, actually the house isn't quite worth that.

Are there any situations where the appraisal is coming in lower than the agreed price?

That's always a concern, and I have to tell you I have heard that.

I wouldn't say that it's a large percentage though because property prices have gone up.

And as some of your viewers may know, your home is worth what the last few homes just like it or close to it have sold for within a certain proximity of time.

Appraisers are struggling to be legitimate and give good values and of course, banks have to lean on those values.

But homes are still being purchased, loans are being made.

So part of your advice for anyone thinking of selling their home would be, be prepared, have a plan have a realtor.

What about preparing their own home to sell themselves?

If they are wanting to buy a house, are there just pretty standard things that a home owner can do to prepare their home to sell well?

Well, certainly there are always things that you want to consider when you going to market your home.

Of course, presentation, staging sometimes it's called and that's where a licensed realtor can help too.

In staging, in knowing what you might want to consider regarding some overview of repairs, realtors are not contractors.

But sometimes you just know there's certain things you need to consider.

Depending on where you live, the type of home you have, your home is going to be marketed and part of the buying public may have a certain type of financing, that would require a certain standard with your home.

But by and large, it's being ready to know where you're going to go.

If you're selling your home and you're retiring and you've got your RV and you're ready to go, that's perfect.

But if you have to find another home to live in, many of my personal clients and I know a lot of my colleagues they're going out and looking for a home where they want to go first because again, they know that their home is going to sell remarkably quickly once they put it on the market.

Yeah, I'm wondering if you are noticing any trends in what types of houses are in extremely high demand or what price range are these higher end houses, lower budget houses or is it just across the board that there is just demand regardless of what price range you're looking at?

Certainly, we know across the board there is a demand.

But what I hear from realtors, builders, loan officers, things of that nature, is our first time home-buyer market.

You know with interest rates being low, that qualify as a lot more families thankfully that might have not been able to consider buying a home because now you can buy a little more home because you're paying a little less interest.

So I know our builders are struggling to get those homes up.

And many of our communities are doing what they can to help with the first time home buyers and get those homes developed.

I'm wondering if you think also with those first time home buyers, if the recent round of stimulus checks may have made a difference in people being ready to put down some money on a down payment.

Have you heard anything around about that?

I have and it certainly depends upon where you're at and what you need is.

I mean, the stimulus checks are there to help families that have been impacted by COVID, by possible job losses, things of that nature.

But by the same token, on a certain type of loan for instance, a USDA loan which is very popular in our area.

It's 100% financing loan, which is very attractive if you think about it.

A lot of times the money you've got to have in your pocket in your savings, that's liquid to do that, if you've got a few stimulus checks that's going to take care of the lion's share of that money.

So it definitely helps people get into those types of financing.

Some people are turning to the idea of building a home.

But you've said that has some challenges as well right now because of the market.

So what are you seeing in terms of challenges to building a home as well?

Well there are challenges, there's lumber costs.

There's as we just saw on one of the local TV channels, there's also a shortage of labor.

One of my friends that's a major builder in the area was interviewed and he was saying you know it's really hard to find framer's, carpenter's, because they're all busy.

There's only so many, yet our housing supply we're trying to increase.

So what do you get those people, those tradesmen to do that that's difficult.

So the timing on building a home could certainly a consumer could expect it to be a little longer than maybe if it was 90 days, a year ago.

It might be five, six months now.

It depends whether you materials, things of that nature.

But you know they're there and they're appraising and which is good for our public.

Do you anticipate that the market will slow down any time soon?

I mean, supply and demand and the nature of the market would indicate that at some point it has to slow down.

Do you have any idea of a timeline?

I know you don't have a crystal ball, but could you give us your best guess?

I can give you my best guess based on what I hear.

For instance, the interest rates there was a three year commitment for interest rates not to be raised, that has been honored and just came out with the people that make those decisions.

That just came out with the fact that they feel for two more years.

We're not looking at a large increase in interest.

That's probably the driving factor.

I think people are still going to be able to afford to buy.

I do believe that the nature of lumber, the different Lumber Mills and things that unfortunately had to be closed down during the onset of COVID, is going to continue to make a lumber supply difficult.

Again, I don't have a crystal ball, I don't own a lumber company.

But I do see and hear those things.

So I think it would be wise to say that at some point those two dynamics are going to collide.

And it's going to be I'd love to buy a home Mr builder, would you build me home.

Oh I'd love to build your home but I have to have lumber to do it and I have to have employees that are freed up enough.

Many of them are very backed up right now.

Wow.

So one of your tips for home buyers is to get a good realtor.

This is your bread and butter.

This is your area for sure.

What do you advise people look for in a good realtor?

Experience.

Every realtor that gets a license has went through some stringent testing and been given a plethora of knowledge to help them serve their public.

Experience still, I think is very important.

And we have some very good realtors, we have probably the largest amount of Realtors we've had in years licensed right now and ready, willing, and able to help.

And if anyone would ever want to check and see, hey, is this realtor a good realtor.

You can call the broker for the company, the broker can tell you whether they're qualified they're educated they're trained and they're ready to help you.

And so that's pretty standard or pretty expected that you could call a broker and ask those questions.

Just ask basically what's their experience.

Absolutely, every agent in order to operate and do business has to be under a broker of every brokerage you're going to find in the Springfield Metro area the outlying areas as well.

That brokers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their agent and what we call the fiduciary responsibility, which that agent has to their clients.

So that's where you go, you wonder, you don't think you're getting the right communication from an agent, you call that agent's broker.

Very easy to find those names and numbers.

Are there any red flags, I guess, to look out for or something that just might make a buyer think twice about signing or working with a particular realtor?

There could be a lot but I think I would mention one thing if I may.

There's one thing that's floating around that's a bit of a scam.

And I think it bears speaking about on your show.

It has to do a little bit with the rental market and unfortunately there's been a lot of people that have been taking pictures of homes that are listed.

And this has happened over the decades when there's a driving force in the housing market like this and scamming and putting pictures of homes up.

And purporting themselves to be either the owners of those properties primarily in the rental market and taking advantage of some folks that are desperate to find a rental.

Rentals are hard too.

Yeah, just so I understand.

People are taking, scammers are taking pictures of a rental home and trying to profit off of that as if they are selling that property.

Or a home that's for sale.

Oh I see.

Homes that are for sale to you tend to have some pretty nice pictures.

That's what we do.

So let's take a picture of it and you know when we have a supply and demand issue they put out their own ad.

The agent is oblivious because the agent would never be looking to buy that home.

But the consumers are out there looking and they're preparing as well.

And we've had stories of them showing up at homes, where the homes are sold.

The people still live in the homes thinking they're meeting the landlord to rent the home for someone to look at to even to buy the home I've heard.

It's terrible and consumers need to take a deep breath, slow down and really do their due diligence.

We can help before approach but if the questions aren't asked we can't help to legitimize things.

Yeah, so what are some things that buyers can ask or really just look into to make sure that everything is on the up and up?

With a realtor?

Yes.

Well, the Missouri realtors has a website.

It's very easy to find.

The consumers can go on there and search for any name and find out that they're actively licensed.

They can even call the greater Springfield Border Realtors the office, with which I work out of in our board and our MLS board.

They could check there and we'd be more than happy to legitimize a name for them.

Great.

What if anything is unique about the Ozarks region?

We talked we touched on it just a little bit earlier as opposed to other parts of the state or the Midwest, in terms of the housing market.

For example, any demographics of people moving here or moving away.

Anything that jumps out at you that you can think of.

Well, the Ozarks for years and I was raised here and then I lived on one of the coasts for a while.

So I have a perspective both ways.

It's always been the best kept secret.

I do not like the term flyover state but there are those that consider Missouri that.

The people are finding out I think that our quality of life, our values, the beauty of the Ozarks.

And even though our prices are going up, there's still a good bargain in comparison to many areas.

I think that's driving people here and it continues that people from some of the larger states, the coastal states, some of the larger states maybe to our southern border, they come to Missouri for retirement.

Obviously, they come to Missouri because their dollar will go further and the quality of life and the people.

I literally chant that over and over again.

What is one of the most rewarding things about being a realtor here for you?

Knowing that you're helping a family realize part of the American dream.

And right now, that happens more than it ever has because younger people are being able to step up and buy homes make an investment and have an asset, which is the largest asset most people ever own is a home.

And it's rewarding when you have that young couple with their first little baby and you see they're moving into their new home or that couple also that maybe is retiring from another state and their retirement is going to be a lot easier on them because they're going to go a lot further in the Ozarks.

Right.

Now speaking about out of state, you are seeing a lot of out-of-state investors buy up properties here in the Ozarks.

Tell me about that.

What's the reason behind that and how frequently is that happening now?

Well, it's always happened, when investors will find out again it's a price thing.

The return is essentially the same.

But they're getting out of other states.

I don't know honestly, Jennifer, if it's regulations, if it's laws.

There are a lot of rumors as to why but what we're doing is we're just seeing more and more come.

They're coming here and doing what's called an exchange.

Exchanging out of some properties they own in another area that have been very good for them from the time and they're buying properties here.

Now that may be because they're relocating here and they want to be closer to their investment.

But we are seeing that quite a bit.

But that's been going on for a long time.

Are you seeing growth in that area that you know of?

So more investors have uptaken them coming to the region?

I am but not exponentially like homeowners but there certainly is.

Can you think of any of the, going back to the anecdotes, more frustrating moments that some of your clients or even realtors that you work with have had?

Coming to you and saying this is unprecedented or listen to what just happened.

Any of those moments that were just kind of frustrating?

Well, I can and when I say they're frustrating, I don't think they're frustrating because anyone meant any harm.

It's just the nature of what we have to deal with in our industry and our market right now.

For instance, the multiple offers.

That is terribly frustrating to people not two weeks ago, personal clients of mine that I was helping.

We were out kind of on our own and for whatever reason they were just checking on things and they had lost out on six other homes.

So you imagine that you put you find a home you love, you put an offer in on it.

You envision your family in it and you find out you're one of 42.

Then they move on to the next home and the next home and they had once you that's six times.

It's very frustrating.

You just have to be ready for that kind of environment right now from sellers we're in a supply and demand environment.

So a lot of people are knocking on doors saying will you sell your home.

I'm looking for a home and I've got mine under contract and I need a home.

Would you sell your home?

I hear of notes and mailboxes, just cold calls not from salesmen but from consumers that just say I'd love to live in this neighborhood.

I'm going to call few people to see what's going on.

Even if the house is not listed for sale?

Even if the person is selling?

Yes, I know it seems odd.

I have heard that.

Wow.

Well, I'm wondering if you have seen any recent statistics that jump out at you and make you just say umh, or wow.

Anything come to mind in terms of stats and data?

Well, I do have a couple of them because they're statistics I brought notes.

Oh, great.

Because they weren't being correct and Missouri realtors puts out market statistics on a monthly basis.

But you can go on their website and check those out.

You can also go on gsbor.com to Springfield and you can see these statistics on a monthly basis too.

But just a couple for you and these are the last reports that we had that were complete, which is March of 2021.

7,001 homes in March 20, 2001 sold in the state of Missouri and that's up 12% from a year ago.

Wow.

The average home price is now $244,940 in the state of Missouri.

That's up 19.5% since a year ago.

Wow.

That's substantial.

Yeah, the median sales price is up 16.2% since 2020 to $200,400.

And the dollar volume meaning how much when you add up all the sales prices that have happened are at $1.7 billion as of the end of March 20, 2001 that's up 33.9% from a year ago.

JENNIFER MOORE: Wow.

And that's what tells you that what we have is real.

It's ongoing and things are happening.

You hear the rumors, you hear the horror stories.

But those are sales, those are finished transactions that are happening and that changes exponentially on a weekly basis every month.

Well, we're almost out of time but briefly in a few words or less your parting remarks for buyers in this market would be what?

Don't lose heart.

The right home is going to be out there.

You might love to have it today, tomorrow maybe it's going to be next week or next month, but we're all in the trades working on it to get them the home that they want for their family.

Bud Jones, President of the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

It's my pleasure.

And thank you for joining us tonight out in our viewership.

We are going to leave you with some websites and phone numbers where you can go to find more information about the housing market in our community.

I'm Jennifer Moore, Thanks for watching.

Good night.

REPORTER: Here is where you can find more information about the topics covered in this program.

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