The Expert Podcast

In our video today we're going to take a look at why it might be important right now just to buy anything you can for real estate why the prices are going to continue to rise and look at four examples of houses under 200,000 in a nice southern town with a nice little downtown area.
So here's an article from a local newspaper in Palm Beach County in Florida talking about how the real estate market is making it impossible to buy a house for millennials. This couple says it's scary when you look at the prices because they're going up and this isn't going to end any time soon. A lot of people have been waiting for a year or more to try to see if they can get into the housing market but the higher it is the closer you get to where everybody's going and they lost out on a lot of houses they put offers in getting priced out and pushed out which is a growing trend.
This is not exclusive to Palm Beach County. If you're a millennial right now getting a mortgage is challenging because the market is hot and you're up against cash buyers so we're going to talk about how to maybe target homes that maybe cash buyers aren't going after that you can get into. They looked at a house that had 14 offers and they lost out on the house. If you're a millennial and see a home that's been sitting for 10 days don't assume it's overpriced and not a great house and it can be frustrating trying to get into a house or trying to start making ourselves feel bad.
So here's a way that you can maybe get into a house that puts you into the homeowner market rather than renting own a home for the first time in their lives. These people are talking about they're realizing each day is unrealistic when you're competing in one of the most aggressive housing markets and why is that well the lumber prices is part of it. New houses are priced higher because the lumber prices are nineteen thousand dollars more and it's not just raising the price nineteen thousand it's also raising it a multiple of that for profit for delays and also for labor shortages. Our building division we own a general contracting business we're finding that even things like garage doors are in short supply.
So let's take a look at a couple houses you can buy. Here's an area of South Carolina in the town of Sumter and Sumter is a really nice small town has a beautiful little downtown with shops and restaurants they have all kind of events they have a concert series they have a full calendar of events throughout the year it shows what all their planned development of the area is for the master plan to make it a walkable downtown.
And in Sumter there's a lot of great houses. Here is a three bedroom two bath 1600 square foot house nice brick ranch beautiful neighborhood looks like it's 180 right hardwood floors we'll look through a couple of the pictures open floor plan looks like it's recent paint not a brand new house but it also is not outdated nice large backyard front yard is kind of private with this little driveway going to the back detached garage looks like there's also a carport a nice garage for storage and that's one example.
Another example in Sumter is this really nice kind of historic brick little bungalow 2700 square feet five bedroom so it's not a small house it's got a second story you can see the little dormer windows upstairs and this is a lot of house for 189 on a half an acre lot so the lot isn't that small. Let's take a look at a couple pictures of this house and see what it looks like inside looks like a nice little den with a fireplace open kitchen this one's not as updated it looks like it has some of the original pine hardwood floors maybe a little pantry over here on the side very livable but not quite as updated as the other house but it's probably in a more in-town location than the first house. And again these houses are just examples by the time you watch this video these particular houses might be sold but it just goes to show that there are houses available in that price range.
Here's another one this is a big house this house is 2600 square feet about a half an acre a 4-3 for 170. So let's take a look and see if there's other photos that give us an idea almost looks like the home alone house in Chicago two-story these photos aren't really that great they're kind of blurry now this one needs a little more updating but again if you're renting and you rather own a house than rent you buy this house your mortgage with tax and insurance is probably going to be about 1100-1200 bucks a month and now you're a homeowner and now you can participate in the rise of property values because of inflation and because of the hot market and you can do some sweat equity to fix some of these things you know maybe replace these curtains maybe paint some walls maybe take off the wallpaper you know put in new light fixtures in the meantime have a nice little house that you can live in.
Last one on the list this is a newer house this is also in Sumter and it has a kind of a subdivision look and feel to it probably maybe in the 90s 1800 square feet a 3-3 one car garage you know it's gonna be a little newer it's not a brand new house but again something you can be in for you know well below what you'd be paying for rent and have a house that you own and ride the wave of increased property values until maybe you want to jump up to something bigger.
It just goes to show that there are options based on what's happening in the housing market with people that are you know sleeping on people's couches because they can't find a place to live this is a better option right at least you're a homeowner jump on anything you know it's very unlikely you're going to lose money on 193,000 house right that house is probably going to always be worth that. Is it exactly what you want right now probably not I bet you wish you had granite countertops and hardwood floors but at least it's a way to get into the housing market and own something without having to spend four hundred thousand dollars and still be priced out because there's cash buyers beating you.
So as usual we show some homes that are available in the 200,000 or under range it shows you what opportunities you have and maybe a way you can jump into being a homeowner without having to continue to rent and move up later to a second home when that time comes.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.