Welcome to Property Conveyors
We’re movin’ on up! If the Jefferson’s were still here, they would be. Back in 2008, the housing market took a nose dive, most of us got hit with losing our house, watching the neighbors lose their house or at the very least, heard about it every day on the news about the rise in foreclosures. 
Middle Georgia was no exception. Although Perry, Macon and the surrounding cities got a good dose of foreclosed houses, Warner Robins Georgia got hit as bad as some of the bigger cities like Houston, Atlanta and Fort Lauderdale. Warner Robins had an average of fifteen hundred (1500) houses in foreclosure each month during the worst times. Because of this, lots of people had to file bankrupt in order to keep the banks from coming after them for the delinquent balance. Now we have a stalled market looking for cheaper housing to rent because they can’t buy a house.
Shift gears to now. The housing bust was what, seven years ago? A foreclosure stays on your credit report how long, seven years? I say again, “We’re movin’ on up!”. Warner Robins and Perry Georgia in particular, have started noticing a rise in families trying to get back to the old housing life they had. I got reports of a bidding war for one property. Warner Robins rarely has a bidding war. Middle Georgia has always leaned to the buyers’ market side. But now it looks like the market is changing to the sellers’ side. Although many of the sales are for new construction homes, any newer (less than 10-15 years old) median priced home with the right layout is getting sold in less than 6 months. The main push is getting back to the standard of living they had before the housing bust.
As an investor, most of us know that when everyone is selling, we need to buy. Well now everyone is buying. Guess what. This is good for the flippers, but if you have inventory in rental, it may be time to start looking at selling and cashing in the equity of those houses you saw in the houses you picked up in 2008-2011. I’ve always liked cash flow more than capital gains myself, but in order to keep your business going, sometimes cashing in to pay off debt or replace inventory from the lesser desired houses is necessary.
If you’re a home buyer for yourself and you have a chance to move up in housing, catching the time before the interest rates climb would be a good idea. There is nothing wrong with moving into a nicer house, as long as you don’t repeat the same mistake you made seven years ago. DON’T FALL FOR ARM’S, unless you know what you’re doing. Conventional and FHA loans are the better choice for a house you live in yourself. Also, this is a good time to look for investors selling houses. Cash buyer companies often sell houses under owner financing. These terms can sometimes be better for your situation than a bank. Also, you’re dealing with a local person with a heartbeat, not a corporate machine that treats you like a mindless source of cash flow.
If you have any questions, contact us at Property Conveyors.