One of the questions I get asked most often as a global real estate advisor is, “How’s the market?”
The second most common question is, “What’s my house worth?”
The funny thing is that people ask that question as if I have some magical number stored in my head that updates every thirty seconds like the stock ticker on Wall Street. Actually, maybe I do. I love both questions!
Being a global luxury real estate advisor means constantly trying to keep a pulse on values. It’s a little like being a doctor, except instead of monitoring heartbeats, I am monitoring price per square foot.
Every morning starts with coffee and checking the market. New listings. Price reductions. Properties under contract. Sold properties. Expired listings. Withdrawn listings. Sometimes I know more about my neighbors’ homes than they do.
A homeowner will stop me in the grocery store. “Hey Liz, what do you think my house is worth?”
I excitedly ask, which house? The one before the remodel? After the remodel? Before your husband decided to turn the guest room into a golf simulator? Or after your teenage son painted the basement black and called it a media room? Details matter.
The other challenge is that everyone knows someone who sold something. “My friend’s cousin’s brother-in-law sold his condo for a fortune!”
Wonderful.
Was it the same size? Same location? Same condition?
“Not exactly.”
I politely advise them ‘Of course not.’
People also love Zillow. I have nothing against Zillow, but sometimes homeowners quote their Zestimate with the same confidence people quote medical advice they found on the Internet.
However with the AI tools we now have I guess I need to reconsider Zestimate.
“My house is worth exactly $4.3 million.”
Interesting. Zillow has never seen your kitchen with the avocado-green appliances from 1987. Nor has it witnessed the family of raccoons living under the deck.
Values are funny things. They’re not based on what you paid, what you need, what your neighbor got, or what your spouse thinks the house is worth because of all the memories attached to it. A home’s value is simply what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept on a particular day. And that particular day can change everything.
One week buyers are fighting over properties. The next week they’re worried about interest rates, the economy, inflation, the election, or whether Mercury is in retrograde.
I sometimes feel like a market psychologist more than a luxury real estate advisor.
The luxury market adds another layer of entertainment. A seller asks, “How often do you check values?”
The answer?
Constantly. I check values more than my teenagers checked social media. More than my generation checks the weather. More than my dog checks the kitchen floor for dropped food. Because in our business, values aren’t static. They’re alive. They’re moving with every sale, every showing, every buyer who falls in love with a view, and every seller who decides it’s time for a new chapter.
So if you happen to see me staring at my phone while standing in line at the coffee shop, don’t worry. I’m not scrolling social media. I’m checking values. Again. Because somewhere, someone is about to ask me, “How’s the market?” And somehow, they expect me to know the answer. And, I do.