The Nate Martinez Podcast

Here you can expect to find a variety of content designed to support you at every stage of your real estate journey.

If your buyer plans to wait out the market, here’s what you should say. I’ve been selling real estate in the Valley of the Sun for over 36 years, and in that time, I’ve helped a lot of buyers successfully purchase homes. However, in today’s market, many homebuyers say that they want to wait for the market to come down before they make a purchase. How do you respond when one of your clients says this? Today I’ll use an example to help you explain to your buyers why they can’t afford to wait. At a 5% interest rate, a buyer with a $400,000 loan would have a monthly payment of $2,147. If that same buyer waited to make a purchase and home prices rose by 10%, their monthly payment would go up to $2,362, which is $215 more per month, or $2,580 a year. Over 10 years, that adds up to $25,000 lost. Suppose the price stays the same, but interest rates increase by 1%. The buyer’s payment would go from $2,147 to $2,463. That’s $316 more per month or $3,792 more per year. Over a 10-year period, that’s $37,000. “Your clients don’t have time to wait—they need to act now.” What if the house goes up 10% in value and the interest rate rises by 1%? In that case, the monthly payment would increase by $562 per month, or an additional $6,744 per year. The bottom line is that your clients don’t have time to wait—they need to act now. If your buyers tell you they plan to wait for the market to improve, explain to them how both interest rates and home prices are set to rise, which will only negatively impact their ability to afford houses. If you need help getting your buyers off the fence or have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you.

If your buyer plans to wait out the market, here’s what you should say. I’ve been selling real estate in the Valley of the Sun for over 36 years, and in that time, I’ve helped a lot of buyers successfully purchase homes. However, in today’s market, many homebuyers say that they want to wait for the market to come down before they make a purchase. How do you respond when one of your clients says this? Today I’ll use an example to help you explain to your buyers why they can’t afford to wait. At a 5% interest rate, a buyer with a $400,000 loan would have a monthly payment of $2,147. If that same buyer waited to make a purchase and home prices rose by 10%, their monthly payment will go up to $2,362, which is $215 more per month, or $2,580 a year. Over 10 years, that adds up to $25,000 lost. Suppose the price stays the same, but interest rates increase by 1%. The buyer’s payment would go from $2,147 to $2,463. That’s $316 more per month or $3,792 more per year. Over a 10-year period, that’s $37,000. “Your clients don’t have time to wait—they need to act now.” What if the house goes up 10% in value and the interest rate rises by 1%? In that case, the monthly payment would increase by $562 per month, or an additional $6,744 per year. The bottom line is that your clients don’t have time to wait—they need to act now. If your buyers tell you they plan to wait for the market to improve, explain to them how both interest rates and home prices are set to rise, which will only negatively impact their ability to afford houses. If you need help getting your buyers off the fence or you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you.

Four reasons why our market isn’t going to crash anytime soon. Is our market going to crash? I get this question almost every day, and my answer is a hard no. The demand for real estate in our Phoenix market is unheard of, and besides that, there are four good reasons why our market is still strong: 1. Multiple offers. Even after 16 months of a competitive market, we still see multiple-offer situations, so demand is not letting up. 2. Low inventory. This goes back to supply and demand. We have a very small supply of homes and a huge demand from buyers. 3. Job creation. There are cranes and new manufacturing plants everywhere you look in Phoenix. Another 150,000 homes are supposed to be built in the north Phoenix valley soon.  4. Price appreciation. Homes increased in value by 32% last year. There is a lot of equity in the market, and it shows no signs of slowing down.  If you have any questions about the market or just want to chat, give me a call at (602) 942-7000. I’d love to hear from you.

These are the four best reasons to become a real estate investor in 2022. Real estate can be a fantastic investment vehicle. Many people have used real estate to build their wealth and diversify their portfolios. Here are the four main reasons you should invest in real estate in 2022: 1. Rent has increased by 27% year over year. Think about that. Vacancy has gone down to 3.8% in the same time. That’s the lowest vacancy figure in over 20 years. Just like the resale market, the rental market is extremely hot. If you buy a home to rent out, people will be lining up to become tenants. 2. Interest rates are still low. They’re keeping homes affordable and keeping buyers in the market. When I bought my first investment property, I got an interest rate of 11%. These days, you can still lock in a rate under 4%, but they’re on their way up. “Many people have used real estate to build their wealth and diversify their portfolios.” 3. Real estate is a great hedge against inflation. In the Phoenix market, we’re expecting about 3% inflation over the next 12 months. Last year, we had a whopping 32% appreciation in home values in the Greater Phoenix Area. 4. We have the highest job creation in the country. Cranes are in the sky, companies are coming in, and a lot of jobs are creating many more renters for you. If you have questions about investing in real estate or any other matter, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email today. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

My advice is to tune out the distractions and stay focused on the basics. Today I’ll discuss focus. In this crazy real estate market, it’s not uncommon to get daily calls from someone trying to recruit you to their company or see TV commercials from iBuyers. There is a lot of noise out there. My advice is to stay focused on the basics. For example, Tom Brady has been playing the same position for 20 years, yet he’s still excelling because he’s mastered the basics. He understands every player’s role and takes full advantage of it. What are you doing to take advantage of this marketplace? Stay focused and do your basics every single day. At the end of the year, you’ll have an amazing business. If there’s anything I can help you with regarding goal setting, business planning, or real estate in general, I’d be happy to sit down with you and share some of my 35 years of knowledge. Please reach out to me at natem@remax.net or (602) 430-5226.

Here’s everything you need to know about our real estate workbook. As some of you may know, Sarah Michelle Bliss and I recently wrote a book called Your Real Estate Journey to Abundance in 8 Steps. In this book, we wanted to revolutionize the way real estate is sold. There is nothing on the market that resembles what we’ve done with this book, and that’s because it is specifically targeted at real estate agents.  This book is really a workbook. You can track your progress and what you’re doing with your day, so the book will hold you accountable for doing the work it recommends. Whether it’s following up with clients, closing homes, or even eating right, this book will get you in the right mindset for success.  Think about it. If you start your day with three things you want to do and three people you want to talk to, it sets you up for a win. You will begin to start acting with intention rather than mindlessly trying to generate leads. “This book will get you in the right mindset for success.” If you want to know more, we recommend you check out our book as soon as possible. You can find the book on our website as well as on Amazon. If you have any questions, please reach out to us via phone or email. We are always willing to help.

We wrote a bestselling book to help fellow agents. Here’s what to know. Today I’m here with a special guest Sarah Michelle Bliss. We’ve been lucky to be friends and work together for the past 25 years, and a couple of years ago she came to me and said we needed to write a book. We’ve been working on it ever since and now we’ve had it published. It’s called “8 Ways to Dominate Any Real Estate Market,” and it became available on August 3. The book goes over eight steps to help you weather any real estate market. Together, Sarah and I have experienced both the boom and crash of the market and everything in between. Our book encompasses the tried and true basics that, no matter what the market is doing, will help you succeed. Whether you’re a new or seasoned agent, this book is designed to help you.  What’s in our book is what we’ve tried and learned along the way. Some of these things you may have heard before, but we wrote it to help fellow real estate agents. “The book goes over eight steps to help you weather any real estate market.” One thing we wrote about is the Top 50 Program. The top 50 are the people who know, like, and trust you, and if you engage with them enough, they’ll do business with you. More importantly, if they know another agent, these are the people who will do business with you, not them. The book provides a full-blown business plan to engage your top 50 and ensure you’re their top-of-mind person.  Here in Phoenix, 90,000 licensed Realtors are running around, so most people know someone in the business. One goal is to get a referral from each of those 50 people. Even if you only close half that number, that’s a pretty good year for most agents. Read the book; take action!  Please join our Facebook group and simply search “8 Ways to Dominate Any Real Estate Market”. You can visit our book’s website here, and it’s also available for purchase on Amazon. Our book made the International Best-Seller List within 24 hours of launch!  In our next video, we’ll discuss the companion product we created to go along with our book. If you have questions or we can help you in any way, just let us know via phone or email. We would love to help you.

Here’s a strategy we’ve been using to help our homebuyer clients win. Over the last 35 years, I’ve negotiated thousands of real estate deals. In the last few months, we’ve had to start using different strategies to help our homebuyer clients succeed in this extremely competitive market.  One of the most successful strategies has been our use of private financing. We’re using more hard-money loans to get offers accepted. We put down at least 20% to the lender and agree on terms (which can start at a 9.5% interest rate). We were recently working with an investor who was having loan challenges. We were able to use hard money to get the offer accepted and refinanced to a much better rate once the offer was accepted. “Every single person wins in this situation.” Here’s how the costs broke down when using the hard-money loan: 30% down payment from the buyer 70% down payment from the hard-money lender 9.5% interest rate $900 doc prep Normal closing costs $1,800 per month That 9.5% rate is high, but now we’re in the process of refinancing to a lower rate right after closing. Every single person wins in this situation. The buyer, the seller, the lender, and both agents. Why not try hard money if you’re having trouble getting your clients’ offers accepted? If you have any questions about this process, the market, or the real estate business in general, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Lumber prices are increasing, and this trend will only continue. New home prices are skyrocketing due to an increase in lumber costs. Compared to this time last year, the cost of a lumber package for an average-size house has increased by $35,000, and this cost will continue to rise. Gas prices are also going up, along with the cost of labor. Basically, everything is going up—that’s called inflation, my friends. The good news, however, is that interest rates are still in the low 3s.  If you have a client working with Fulton Homes, you may know that they recently sent out a letter to all of their homebuyers saying that they would return 100% of their earnest money if they could cancel their contract within a week due to construction delays. When I heard this, my first thought was that they wanted people to cancel their contracts because they knew they could sell those homes now for $40,000 to $60,000 more than they did a couple of months ago. I believe that with every new home that’s been sold in the past three to six months, builders are probably losing money on it due to the increase in lumber costs.  If you have questions about this topic or there’s anything I can help you with, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to be your mentor, and I hope you have a great day.

Here’s my latest full conversation with my good friend Travis Zimmerman. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Travis Zimmerman of One Guard Home Warranty to talk about several different topics.  He got a text recently from a good friend at a home warranty company who said that July 2020 was their best revenue month in the history of the company. However, it was also the lowest profit margin that they’ve ever had. Due to scarcity, the frequency of claims is up, replace versus repair is up, and the average cost per claim is up. “Travis continues to help me and my clients achieve our goals.” I know great service, and Travis Zimmerman is a great service provider. I remember back when he was doing repairs in Sun City, got into the property management world, and how he continues to help me and our clients to this day. If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Freon is being phased out of the HVAC industry; what does this mean for us? Three to five years ago people began discussing the phasing out of freon in the HVAC industry. Today, Travis Zimmerman and I are discussing this topic in more detail. We’re exploring the implications of this, the cost to homeowners, whether or not to update your system, and more. Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch the full message, or use these timestamps to browse specific topics at your leisure:  0:00: Introduction to today’s topic 0:25: What should we know about our current AC units? 3:00: Should people be asking what type of system is in a house when shopping for a home? 5:15: Does this mean that eventually the supply of freon will be gone? 6:15: Wrapping up today’s topic If you have any questions about freon or real estate in general, reach out via phone or email. I would be glad to help you.

Just like all industries, the home warranty business has adapted to COVID. COVID has affected every facet of our lives, and real estate is no different. What about the home warranty business, though? With more and more people working from home, home warranty providers are experiencing an unprecedented number of claims. Today I’m joined by my friend and home warranty specialist Travis Zimmerman to explain how they’ve adapted to the situation.  Cited below for your convenience are timestamps that will direct you to various points in the video. Feel free to watch it in its entirety, or use these timestamps to browse specific points at your leisure:  1:07—COVID’s impact on Travis’ business from a people perspective  2:07—COVID’s impact from a service/delivery perspective  3:24—How much higher has demand been for home warranties and service contractors?  5:23—How Stream has helped them performed diagnostic work  As always, if you have questions about this or any real estate topic, or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.

Here’s what you need to help your clients understand about forbearance. The C.A.R.E.S Act provides all homeowners who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 with the ability to apply for forbearance. In short, forbearance is an agreement between a borrower and their mortgage provider that states the borrower will reduce or delay your mortgage payments for up to 12 months. To pay back the reduced or delayed payments, the mortgage provider could add them back to each of your monthly payments until the deficit is covered, or it could be added to the back end of the loan, extending the loan period. “Your client will need to explain their hardship and provide paperwork showing that they’ve lost income, but overall, it’s a simple process.” If one of your clients is applying for forbearance, advise them to contact their mortgage company, who should already have information packets, and help guide them through the process.  One great thing is that the C.A.R.E.S Act states that it won’t affect your clients’ credit scores, but I’d recommend that your clients start checking their credit as soon as they get their forbearance agreement. Right now, through Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, you can get a free annual credit report, or you can also visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com to sign up for a weekly credit report up until April 2021. For more useful information to pass on to your clients regarding forbearance, click here. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

Interest rates are vital in real estate. Here’s why. Interest rate fluctuations are always a necessary topic in real estate. In June, interest rates reached the low to mid-threes, but in June of last year, they were still up around 4.5%. This April, interest rates were the lowest they’ve been in 30 years at 3.5%.  One of our lenders recently quoted rates as low as 2.5% on a 30-year fixed mortgage. For comparison, when I bought my first house about 40 years ago, I paid approximately an 11% interest rate.  Let’s say a property costs $430,000 with a 3.5% interest rate; the payment would be $1,931 per month, not including taxes or insurance. Last year, with interest rates around 4.5%, the payment for that same property would be $2,179— $248 more per month than the lower interest rate, which is almost $3,000 more per year. Compared to a year ago, this gives buyers $50,000 more in buying power. Those are great savings for people buying today. “Interest rates are currently around 3.5%; when I bought my first home around 40 years ago, I paid roughly 11%.” Hopefully, this information was helpful, and you can sit down with your clients and either raise the price of their home or help them enter the marketplace with more knowledge.  If you have questions about this or I can help you in any way, call or email me. I’d be happy to speak with you.

Interest rates are vital in real estate. Here’s why. Interest rate fluctuations are always a necessary topic in real estate. Last August, interest rates reached the low to mid-threes, but in June of last year, they were still up around 4.5%. This April, interest rates were the lowest they’ve been in 30 years at 3.5%.  One of our lenders recently quoted rates as low as 2.5% on a 30-year fixed mortgage. For comparison, when I bought my first house about 40 years ago, I paid approximately an 11% interest rate.  Let’s say a property costs $430,000 with a 3.5% interest rate; the payment would be $1,931 per month, not including taxes or insurance. Last year, with interest rates around 4.5%, the payment for that same property would be $2,179— $248 more per month than the lower interest rate, which is almost $3,000 more per year. Compared to a year ago, this gives buyers $50,000 more in buying power. Those are great savings for people buying today. “Interest rates are currently around 3.5%; when I bought my first home around 40 years ago, I paid roughly 11%.” Hopefully, this information was helpful, and you can sit down with your clients and either raise the price of their home or help them enter the marketplace with more knowledge.  If you have questions about this or I can help you in any way, call or email me. I’d be happy to speak with you.

This is how we show homes during and after lockdown. Lockdowns are easing, but the coronavirus is still making people sick, so how can you show listings during and post-lockdown?  When the pandemic hit the U.S., we stepped up our marketing game. For higher-end homes, we hire professional photographers who take daylight, evening, and sunset photos. We wanted to give people the option of walking through a house without physically being there, and make them feel comfortable. As an example of what we do, we had a seller contact us because they were canceling their listing with their previous real estate agent, as they weren’t providing good enough service. We got together in a Zoom call, and I gave them a complete listing presentation and showed them examples of our Matterport videos. We decided to price the property at $675,000 and luckily were able to host a physical open house because restrictions had been eased by then. “In today’s market, we need to go the extra mile for our sellers.” We took all precautions including masks, gloves, antiseptic wipes, and kept all doors open. We also did a lot of digital marketing for the open house. One of the buyers that came made a full-price offer, and now we’re in escrow. That home was on the market for less than a week. Today we also received a backup offer on the house.  The right property, price, location, and marketing will get a home sold. In today’s market, we need to go the extra mile for our sellers.  If there’s anything I can do to help you, including showing you how to use Zoom or showing you some of our marketing, I’d be glad to do so. I have 34 years of real estate experience, and my goal is to help other agents get better.  If you have questions about marketing or anything else, call or email me. I’d be happy to speak with you.

Here’s a breakdown of which industries were most affected by job losses due to coronavirus. Last week, I discussed how the Raging River housing market will explode within the next month or two. Today, I’ll walk you through a breakdown of which industries were affected by 15% of the people who became unemployed in the last two months due to the coronavirus. When you consider these numbers, bear in mind that while 15% is a lot of jobs lost, that still means 85% are gainfully employed: 59.5% of this group were in the food service industry 7.1% were in temporary help services 6.6% were in retail 6.1% were healthcare office workers 4.1% were construction workers 4.1% were also in the accommodation industry 3.7% were child daycare workers “Those who are unemployed due to COVID-19-related job losses will soon be able to rejoin the workforce.” Just last week, it was announced that all surgical teams will be allowed to go back to work and focus on elective surgeries once more. The bottom line: Those who are unemployed due to COVID-19-related job losses will soon be able to rejoin the workforce, and I think once they do, our market will repair itself quickly. If you have any questions about the Phoenix market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

Our market is a river, and we have no choice but to go with the flow. I often like to look at the real estate market as a flowing river. There will always be a current, but sometimes that current is moving slowly like a stream and other times it’s roaring quickly.  Coming into January, February, and mid-March, the market was absolutely on fire, with most homes under $350,000 generating multiple offers. Inventory was coming off of the market almost as quickly as it was coming on, and 2020 was primed to be a stellar year.  When stay-at-home orders were issued throughout the states and the reality of life under quarantine settled in, we saw skeptical buyers canceling their purchase and sellers canceling their listings for fear of having exposed individuals walk through their homes. Basically, the current of the market slowed dramatically. When the current drops, it exposes boulders in the middle of the river, causing more rapids; navigating the market in March was treacherous, and everybody was stressed out. “The dam that might have been created by COVID-19 two months ago is now going to release all of the pent-up demand back into the market.” What we’ve noticed, however, is that as inventory levels have come up, the metaphorical water level also rises, which in turn reduces the number of rapids in the market. That’s why April was a pretty strong market, and things are continuing to look healthier.  Though the official dates keep changing, our city is expected to start a multiphase reopening soon. The dam that might have been created by COVID-19 two months ago is now going to release all of the pent-up demand back into the market. That means the river will be raging these next few quarters, and, assuming we can finally put this pandemic behind us, we’ll be preparing for a busy season that extends all the way into December.  If you have any questions about what was discussed in this message, or if you’re interested in buying or selling a home soon but aren’t sure how to proceed in these times, reach out to us. We’re always here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

As we head into May, our real estate market is starting to pick back up. Here are the latest numbers. The April numbers are in for our real estate market, so we’re taking a look at them today. Compared to last year, listings are down 21%, pending sales are down 22%, and listings under contract are down 23.7%. The pandemic has slowed down the activity in our market, but things have been starting to pick back up in the last few weeks. Our closings per month that sold over listing price in April was at an all-time high. To learn more about what’s going on, watch this short video.