Last Sunday morning I was flying to New York for a two day real estate conference and I miscalculated my time.  I’m not sure how I did this, but my flight was leaving Savannah at 6am.  Luckily, I caught every stoplight between here and the Savannah airport on green.

I started thinking how lucky I was because I was able to get to the airport on time and make my flight. 

That is how I look at what is going on in the real estate market from a buyer’s perspective.  There are many stoplights that normally prevent people from buying.

Stoplight #1 would be prices.  Everyone knows that prices are down anywhere from 25%-35% from the high of June of 2005.  According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, nationally, real estate values are down 32.2%.  In other words – prices are very good.

Stoplight #2 would be availability.  Wow – we have tons of inventory so whatever a person wants – we have three or four to choose from.

Stoplight #3 would be motivation of the seller.  We have a lot of very motivated sellers a number of bank foreclosures that are willing to be sold at very reasonable prices.

Stoplight #4 would be interest rates.  Interest Rates are basically at an all-time low.  Who would have ever dreamed in the 80s that a person would be able to get a 5% loan. 

Stoplight #5 would be property condition.  So many of my sellers today are doing everything they can to fix their properties up.  I have had clients re carpeting, repainting and remodeling kitchens in order to make their homes more saleable.  The advantage here is that the buyer does not have to spend any money when they purchase a property because it is ready to roll.

There are a lot of stoplights and they all seem to be green.  Smart money is buying now.

If any of your friends have considered purchasing property on Hilton Head Island, I would encourage them to do so now.