Fear, less

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

“Scary times don’t call for fearless leaders. We don’t need a gladiator jumping into an arena with the hungry tiger.  Instead, times of fear and uncertainty call for leaders to become fear(less) — aware of and consciously able to sort through what is truly scary and deserves careful consideration and what is causing undue stress and anxiety without being a real threat.”

That quote came out of a quick article I read, here in this link .   For the sake of this discussion, replace the word “leaders” with people.  After all, leaders are just people, individual persons.  You are also a person.

What does this have to do with real estate?  Well, if I’m being philosophical, real estate is about people’s lives.  A person can’t live their life in a constant state of fear, and really, there is no hungry tiger to defeat in this story, it’s real estate.  What’s there to defeat?  What is there even to fear?

If you care about real estate, the enemy is misinformation, uncertainty and the fear it drives.

It makes you question everything, and end up doing nothing.  It’s not enough for me to say “be fear(less)” if you’re jumping into this real estate market.  You have to actually be able to fear less things.  Your ability to be “aware of and consciously able to sort through what is truly scary and deserves careful consideration and what is causing undue stress and anxiety without being a real threat” is important when you’re thinking about making a purchase or sale that will change your life and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

See, if you’ve been on the internet, or listen to the radio, or watch tv, you find pretty quickly we live in a world full of threats, real and imaginary.  Fear.  BE AFRAID.  But mostly, the fear is imaginary. Clickbait. Lots of somebody’s hot take bullshit out there masquerading as news so you click and share.  Sorry for the language, but it’s true.

Not only are we bombarded by headlines full of fear, but most of them are full of misinformation, missing pieces, things that are flat out incorrect analysis and bullshit.  Take these statements for example:

• The market is going to crash!
• Investors are buying all the affordable homes with cash
• Higher interest rates mean people can’t buy.
• Multiple offers are gone! 
• Foreclosures are coming! 

Fear, sensationalism and wrong information in each bullet point.   Why do I say that?  Because we don’t write headlines, we sell real estate.  We actually are working in the market every day, with buyers buying and sellers selling, not writing clickbait for ad revenue.  Here’s the answer to each of those bullet points.

• The market is going to crash!  No, it isn’t, 2023 is on track to mirror prior years in many ways when it comes to closed sales, people are still buying.
• Investors are buying all the affordable homes with cash.  No, cash sales were only 26% of recent sales, and investors were less than 20% of sales in PA, some areas lower than 10%.  Sure, there are cash buyers.  But not all of them.
• Higher interest rates mean people can’t buy!  No, not true, people are buying all the time, like I said, we are pretty similar to last year.  Interest rates have absolutely affected affordability and made payments higher, but it has not stopped the prices from rising.
• Multiple offers are gone!  No, there are fewer, but they are still there.
• Foreclosures are coming!  No, they aren’t, distressed homes are still less than 1% of home sales nationwide.

That’s the best part of working with us.  You don’t have to figure out what’s true, and what’s not, in the headlines.  There isn’t anything to be afraid of.  You’re either wanting to buy a property or you aren’t.  You’re either wanting to sell a property or you aren’t.  If you are thinking about jumping into this, selling or buying, we can help you.

We know how to look at it all critically, and we’ll help you make sense of it.  We have sellers selling each week with multiple offers over list price.  We also have buyers winning multiple offer situations, buyers getting contracts signed with the ability to do home inspections, buyers getting contracts signed with offers that include seller help with closing costs, and buyer’s buying homes for list price or less.

We are not confused, we are not afraid and we’re ready to help you too.  Call us at 717-371-0557, let’s talk! – Jason

Your Friends in Real Estate,

Jason Burkholder Real Estate Team

Jason Burkholder

Kelly Burkholder

Adam High

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Welcome Home Real Estate

717-298-8040 office

57 E Main St

Lititz, Pa 17543