MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Why Buy Real Estate Now?
By Dan Gallagher
Back at the onset of the COVID-19 panic, I commented to an entrepreneur friend that “These are weird times.”
His response? “That’s fine with me, because when the going gets weird, the weird get going!”
As goofy as his mantra was — and as a real estate agent — it stuck with me. The people who do well in real estate investing are not the ones who follow the gradient trend, or whom we might be tempted to call “normal” investors.
Investors who buck trends don’t follow “groupthink” and the emotional waves of the market. They hold when everyone is selling; sell when everyone else says the market is in a perpetual climb; and buy when everyone says the world is coming to an end.
And the emotional waves in recent months have been large:
- As of November 2023, consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell for four straight months and household expectations of inflation are on the rise.
- We’re in the midst of a period of roiling news stories that feed a broad, growing sense of unease and instability.
- The lending landscape has changed dramatically thanks to multiple Fed hikes that have encouraged homeowners to stay with their low-rate mortgages and discourage potential buyers from taking on new debt.
Add it all up and you have the makings of a slow real estate market.
TIME TO GET ‘WEIRD’
It’s pretty easy to get sucked into the pessimism of the “normal” crowd, but it’s in exactly this kind of market environment that the shrewd (i.e. “weird”) real estate investor makes the moves that will look brilliant in retrospect.
The no-brainer move at this point would be to make low cash offers on properties lingering on the market because of buyers’ dependence on credit. And there is no shortage of these in Northern California real estate. However, this no-brainer approach requires cash reserves that many people can’t access.
So what to do if you want to take advantage of the slower market and you aren’t necessarily cash rich? Look for deals in vacant land and secure your low basis in a property now, deferring the build costs until later (i.e. until rates come back down and a construction loan becomes more affordable).
Better yet, ask for seller financing. If you are working with an agent who has experience putting these deals together it is easier than you might think.
NAKOMA HOMESITES
That strategy makes Nakoma real estate and the 1,280 resort community a worthwhile place to start your due diligence when studying Northern California land for sale.
Whether you’re searching for property for sale in Lake Tahoe or Truckee real estate, Nakoma presents an unique opportunity for resort real estate investment. Like most markets in 2023, Plumas County real estate has seen a slowing of activity, but interest is growing in Nakoma as an attainable alternative to Truckee-Tahoe.
Land in Nakoma is currently about one-tenth the price per acre as similar properties in Truckee and North Lake Tahoe. Yet ask Nakoma buyers and they’ll often tell you they’d choose to own at Nakoma even if the prices were the same.
And while the Nakoma real estate team has closed several land deals at $200,000 or more in the last year, there are a handful of lots that are lingering on the market at unusually low prices. These are ideal targets for an aggressive cash offer. Three that come to mind are:
Homesite 149
Homesite 68
Homesite 213
While those lots are an obvious value, what’s probably a greater value are the superlative Nakoma lots currently offered at low prices. These include high-acreage, epic-view lots that are simply unrivaled in any gated, amenitized Northern California community with property for sale.
Homesite 321
Homesite 362
Homesite 227
Lastly, Nakoma’s developer inventory includes the premium properties in the community, especially legacy properties curated as “the Signature Series”. Now is most definitely the time to take a look at these properties as Nakoma Land Holdings (NLH) is currently running a limited time, 4% seller-financing offer.
The best values amongst these lots (in my humble opinion) are: