Will March be Mad with New Listings in Marin? Or Will the Fish Swim Elsewhere…

March is here, but the listings are not. Not yet, anyway. If you follow this blog, you’ll know that March and April tend to be our two biggest months for new inventory added to MLS. The past four years have seen a steady drop in those new listings, however, and it’s too soon to tell if this late winter / early spring season will be an exception. I help run the online and off-market network group for the top 100 in Marin and I have to tell you, there are a few new properties coming that I’ve heard of, but certainly not a ton. But again, not so far and that could easily change.

I was talking with a client today and she asked me why there “just aren’t a lot of houses for sale” here. The honest answer is, I don’t really know. But one thought is, if you owned a successful business that was making you money with little or no effort, why would you sell that business? If you get transferred or want to trade up and buy a bigger business, I get it. But with home prices set to slowly gravitate up here in the near future (or beyond) you better have a pretty good reason to sell. And when you do sell, you better have a place to buy immediately as prices are slowly creeping up all over, at least in California.

Or maybe you want to move because your spouse talked you into this “hot new color” of kitchen cabinets I just saw. Yes, those are black.

The new kitchen cabinet color for 2015. So black is the new white?

That said, like you the public, we also sometimes have to wait and see what happens with the market, often with little or no warning as to what’s going to happen next. Home buyers and sellers are like two separate schools of fish: each has their own agenda and each moves in unison, often turning or accelerating without any visual communication between them. Remember those National Geographic films we saw in school? They all just turn left, right, left, straight–all without so much as a nod, let alone a little fish bubble word to each other. I can just imagine the lead fish sending out the vibe though, “Annnnnd left turnnnnnn…NOW! Now right! Now left again! Hey, is that a shark? Kidding! Back to the right!” All of a sudden, one Tuesday or Wednesday (the big listing days) you’ll see 3-4 dozen new listings. The following week, maybe only 1 dozen.

And it’s not always weather-dependent, either, as you would think it would be with the buyers, who have the same herd mentality. It’s like they all get together online Sunday at noon and one person sends out a broadcast email: “Everybody go tour Open Houses today! On your mark, get set….” and we get slammed at the Opens. Or the opposite happens, with no Super Bowl or Rainstorm on any given Sunday. You could have 5 people or 55, hard to gauge, let alone predict, so I always prepare for a big crowd.

Anyway, busy agents like me tend to get some heads up on a smattering of what may be coming on the market, but not always. Let’s see what March brings, but so far, a little more rain would help. The reservoirs are all full with our drinking water, but the ground could sure use it. Tahoe too.

So enjoy March and all of 2015, wherever you are. As always, I’m here to help with any questions you may have. Feel free to text, email or just call me up the old fashion way. I’m always around.

Ted

415.377.5222 c
ted@gomarin.com

Filed under: Marin Real Estate Blog by Ted Strodder