#228 - Navigating Bay Area Real Estate in 2024 with Anna Fine

Welcome Money Boss Parents to another episode of the Money Boss Parent Podcast. Today we're diving deep into San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate scene with incredible Anna Fine a Realtor with unique background and experience in previous career as a nurse, from marketplace predictions to buyer tips and sellers strategies, Anna's expertise extend beyond real estate, touching on wellbeing in holistic approach to buying and selling your next home. Get ready for a powerhouse episode filled with exclusive insights. I am your host, Anna Sergunina. And this is Money Boss Parent podcast. Let's dive in. Anna, welcome to the show. I'm very excited to connect with you today.

Hi, Anna. Thank you for having me. It's a big honor.

And you get today to Anna. So there we go. Yeah. Okay, so we're talking about a hot topic that's on a lot of people's minds these days and a spring just around the corner. Everybody's starting to think and to get excited about how can they buy their next home or a new home. So I'm excited to chat with you about that, because a lot has happened in the market. And everybody's worried watching interest rates closely. So I think that just kind of gets people out and about. So before we dive into that topic, I'd love for you to share with our listeners, how did you get started in real estate? And just a little bit about yourself? Yeah,

Sure. So my background is in nursing, actually, it's completely not unrelated to real estate. So going back to where I'm from, I was born in Ukraine, I emigrated to Israel when I was 15 years old. And I came from family of doctors, and kind of went to towards that path. I was a nurse for 17 years. But very early on in my life. Thanks to my husband, when we got married, my husband was very against renting. And he was very determined to buy our first apartment together. And to me at that time when it was 21 years old with absolutely no money and completely, like had no clue where to begin. And I had no idea how are we ever going to pull this off. But he was so certain that this is the way to go. And because of his conviction, I think like once you have a thought, things just start information start coming in. So that was my first kind of interaction with the real estate world when we bought our first place in Jerusalem with my husband and I with pretty much no money down. And we knew that it's going to require a lot of sacrifices. But our goal was and our focus was so strong on being home owners that yes, we decided this is our first priority, and we sacrifice vacations and having second car and a lot of other things. Long story short, it all paid off. Because in only four years, our property almost doubled in value. And we when it was time for us to emigrate to us, which is a totally different conversation, we're not going to go into it. We knew the first thing we wanted to do when we arrived here, we wanted to buy a house. Of course, we couldn't do it right away. It took us some time. But we did it again because of our determination and just having a plan and having that goal in mind. So that was my first kind of two experiences with real estate. And I was I was sold, I knew this is the way to go. So I continued working as a nurse, raising our children. And we were just hungry, we wanted to invest in real estate. And so that led me into diving deeper and deeper and getting more education just for my own sake because I was looking for ways to invest. In 2022, the opportunity presented itself and we bought investment properties. And that's when I knew that's what I want to do. I only want to do real estate. So at that time, I got my license and I actually quit my nursing job. And I completely dedicated now my career to real estate and never looked back.

That's exciting. And I know I very much relate to your mindset. Because I come from a similar background, where our families or our parents owned real estate, it was not the idea of renting to them. It seems like really bizarre so like us living in the modern world in a different country. It's it's just a completely different mindset. So I appreciate you mentioning that. Now I'm now that we are physically located in San Francisco Bay Area. And if once you say that this area on its own, it's like in a completely different pocket of real estate and just how the whole game works here.

Oh, it's absolutely it's a separate I would say that's like a whole universe. is different from the rest of the nation. In every time I get the confirmation of that I kind of reminder of how unique this market is, when I communicate with my colleagues, I have a huge network all over the United States of realtors and professionals in this industry. And every time we get to talk and I share with them, the prices, the competition, just the way we conduct business here, it's completely different. There is nothing like Bay Area market. So it's very unique.

Yes, I would agree with that, even though I'm not in a real estate markets, like you are, but I get to talk with clients who want to buy houses. So I do. I do see the other side. So let's, let's talk a little bit about what are you seeing right now, in this area? What is the market look like?

So yeah, that's my favorite question. And I get asked at least twice a day. So I love to share what is the market is doing right now what's going on? Right now we are seeing huge influx of buyers, people just coming back to the market. So to give you perspective, it's usually what we see in this market, we see a lot of buyers not enough listings. But last year, for example, we did had a little slow down, it was still a seller market, but we saw way less buyers than normally. And of course, it attributed to higher than normal rates and a lot of uncertainty, just fear and worry about loss of job and other factors, politics, all of that fear monger that people hear on TV. So people were afraid to buy because you know, it was there was a lot of uncertainty in the air, the rates were kind of rising almost every week. And you know, a lot of people were speculating that we're going to see a crash. So some people were waiting for that crash. And they missed opportunities, of course, but a lot of people also capitalize on some opportunities. So now we've seen kind of a natural seasonal, up, because we only see it in this time of the year when we come into all spring. But also we see more than usual buyers, because there's a lot of backed up demand, and a lot of people who were on the sidelines and 2023 they now coming back. So it's going to be a very active season, I can already feel it. And I mean, I'm experiencing it on a buyer and on the seller side.

I know and I know that's been the sentiment across the board. We know what with people not just here in the Bay Area, but you know, elsewhere, where people are just kind of like waiting to see what will happen, right? Well, will the interest rates go up? Or are we going to have you know, some kind of a reset and now in naturally the market to like people start to move and, and do stuff in the spring? So so it seems like there's going to be a lot of a lot of things going on. And when when people are been waiting to buy and I feel like we sort of kind of went through this just very recently with the pandemic, right where, where people were just like you're submitting multiple offers. And it was like a bidding war and all of you know all of the properties that were available, because of different reasons. But similar, similar situation. So how do we prepare? Like I want to talk, compare and contrast? How do we prepare as buyers if we're looking to buy our next home or our first home? And how do we prepare sellers? Because there's probably different things to focus on. So let's whichever one you want to start first. Absolutely.

So I know there's a lot of especially maybe your clients who are planning their finances because they planning to buy so I'm going to touch on being a buyer first. So what super important, of course, as a first step, I would definitely recommend people to start from conversation with a professional like yourself, talk to financial advisor, if you have one, if you don't have one, that's time probably to hire one. Because it's probably going to be your biggest purchase. And you really need to map out your finances and understand realistically what you can afford because what I'm seeing a lot of people, they kind of guess, and they don't really know and it can play negatively on both ends because sometimes they underestimate what they can buy and they miss an opportunity to buy something better, or they overestimate and then they become disappointed in the middle of the processes they realizing they cannot pull it off. So definitely as a buyer, look at your finances. First sit down with your professional advisor and prepare a plan. If you're ready in the stages where you've done that. Then the next step of course it would be for us to meet right I'd sit down with my clients and I recommend to go to realtor first before you go to lender because as a professional in the industry, I know people who I will recommend you to work with. And again, there's so many different lenders and mortgage brokers and for every type of buyer, there would be a different lender that I would recommend to work. So once I know I'm you know, I'm not going to take your, you know, basic, I'm going to assess your situation, once I know more about you, and then I know where to direct you, I know who will be the better fit for you. And then I will connect you to the lender or mortgage broker. Next step would be of course, you will work with that professional, and they will get you pre approved. And ideally, get you through underwriting, which is a more deeper and more concrete pre approval, where you pretty much solid as if you had a cash, full cash. So that's super important. I do that with every client of mine, and it helps us win. In competitive environment, it also gives my buyers peace of mind, because now they know 100% While 99% that they are going to get the loan. So those are first three steps that I highly recommend every person to go through when they have a first thought, okay, maybe I need to buy a house, financial advisor, realtor and lender.

I like I like that concrete approach. Now sometimes people are sort of still undecided or like they're, they're testing the territory and a lot of like the questions I get about, well, can we afford to buy a house? Right? So do you still recommend for somebody to go through these steps? Let's say they finish the financial plan with someone like myself, and they know the numbers, but then it's like, I don't know which neighborhood you know, my family wants to live in? And where are the jobs? Like, you know, those lifestyle choices? Of what are your thoughts of what do you do? Do you still go through the process of engaging your realtor,

I didn't percent, I talked to every client. You know, basically, I'm my background as a nurse helps me I'm taking the load, like you're like, if you were a patient, and you come into me, and I want to know everything about you, because there will be some things that you might not think that they are even relevant, but I will see relevance to them. Because I know my I know what I'm selling. You know, let's say I even asked people if they have pets, because for example, I have a family right now that we're working with. And they didn't mention they had a cat that leaves kind of half outdoor, half indoor, because how important is that we're looking for a house. But then we went to see that townhomes that have restrictions, they don't allow to have outdoor cats. minor thing, we were focusing on schools, we weren't focusing on finances, we were focusing on bedrooms and bathrooms. Well, a cat, right. So I love to ask people many, many questions, and I will sell them My goal is to see the house through your eyes, but also to through the lens of professional so I want to know what exactly you're looking for. But I also going to put my head as a professional and I will give you some tips. And I will point out that some things that you didn't even know to ask. So absolutely 100% Even if you think you cannot afford, and I had those clients, I had my former calling. When I was working in the operating room, I remember our conversation that should I will never be able to buy anything here. And I told her one day before I left my job, I gave my letter of resignation and said Lily one day when you really, really ready, come and talk to me. When you're ready. I'm sure we can find something. And sure enough, two years later, she came, we sat down, we talked and then she talked to the lender. And she was completely blown away, we were able to find her property. So it's always worse to do it. It doesn't cost you anything to talk to a realtor doesn't talk to cost you anything to talk to the lender. What do you have to lose? Only thing to gain? You're going to get more clarity, either yes or no?

Yes, I liked it. And I think that I think you I love your holistic approach with looking at all of these different angles. Because yes, if you don't mention that you have a pet or some other restriction that completely change the type of property you're looking at, or you know, even if you can afford it all together. So it resonates very well with me because I look at finances comprehensively as well. And so being able to marry the two or even like the third step when you get together with the realtor is with the mortgage person is is really, really important. How I am just curious, how what do you think like when somebody's thinking about like just the general numbers in terms of like, what how much downpayment do I need to have on hand is because the market seems to be competitive, right and we're heading in that direction. Do you think there will be More aggressive requirements for higher down payments. Like I'm just trying to understand, well,

you don't have to have 20% down, right. But ideally, I would say, It depends where you're looking at what you're looking for. But if you're looking at a super competitive niche, which is great schools, single family home, three bed, two bath, you will probably benefit from having at least 20% down, it's just gonna make you more competitive and in line with other buyers, right? If we're looking at properties that you know, more Townhouses and condos, and if you don't really care about schools that much, that market is not as hard and competitive. And we might be able to find opportunities, even if you don't have 20%, even with, you know, FHA loans with a three and a half percent down or 5% down or some programs, with a downpayment assistance for first time homebuyers, all of those products that are available. I don't want to give false promises for people and say, you know, yes, you can do it when I know because I will be negotiating for you. And I know what other people are going to have. And it just gonna be very challenging. I don't want people to be disappointed. So ideally, I would say if you're, you have children, and you need good schools, and you're going to be in that most desirable niche where a lot of people are shopping, it will be better off if you prepare to that stage, when you do have, you know, 20%, I would say at least 10% down plus some because I never ever recommend people to use all of their savings to downpayment downpayment. I don't want people to freak out the moment their offers accepted and say, oh my god, I'm not going to have any money left in my bank account. That's not a good scenario, that means you're not ready. You know why, and I will be the first one to tell you you cannot buy right now. So

I appreciate you mentioning that that's actually a really important point. Because we don't want to be house for as much as it sounds. So awesome. And it's amazing to own a home with lots of benefits and appreciation and all of that creating family memories for families. But if you're going to be stressed out about not having reserves, so not being able to do every model that you want, or whatever else. That's really not a good plan. Well, I actually learned something new that you could in depending on you know, where you are, what type of property you buy, you may have some flexibility in terms of a downpayment. But yes, do you, right, the most desirable types of homes or single family homes, because families are looking for those. So there's, there's some flexibility for people who don't need that much space or want for want to find a smaller property. Okay, so let's shift gears a little bit sellers, they're waiting, right, to put their beautiful properties on the market. And, and, and and I suppose this is just my thoughts, but maybe I'm off with that. Do you think sellers have higher expectations these days because of where the market is at? Or is that just sort of, like made up?

Well, that's interesting, because one of the contributing factors to the hot market that we are seeing already, and it's just going to pick up is the backed up inventory, right. So a lot of sellers are locked in very low interest rates, right, and they don't want to part with those rates, they don't because most sellers are also buyers. There are some instances when people selling let's say, their parents home or they selling you know, portfolio of rentals, but in most cases, people selling the only home that they have, and they need to buy something else. So that means they need to say goodbye to their two and a half or 3%. And not only they're gonna buy more expensive, they're gonna get also a higher rate. So that caused a lot of sellers to sit on the fence and not sell in addition to they got a little bit drunk, I would say on peak market of 2023 the February March when right before the rates start climbing up the mood saw oh my god, they were numbers that people never expected to get for their homes and they got so like, you know, excited about it that when markets start correcting itself naturally right because of the interest rate. Sellers just couldn't you know, they couldn't get over that number like I couldn't get that number but it was too late. So so a lot of people realizing just like buyers are realizing that the rates not going to be two and a half percent anymore and they kind of made peace with that. The sellers also a lot of them made peace with okay, that price is gone. Now in the new Reality, I'm not going to get that number, if their motivation is strong enough besides the price because people selling most likely because there's something changing in their life, right they need to move because of job they need to move because of divorce, they need to move because of death in the family, they need to because they need bigger house. So you can wait so long. Eventually, if those life events kind of pushing you to move, you will have to move. So you will have to just make peace with that new reality a new price. So now that we seen that market is recovering, and the rates are now, you know, supposedly going to go down, as we hear the Fed is anticipating to reduce at least three to four times this year. Sellers see that opportunity. And most likely, a lot of sellers will get that number that we saw in 2023, before the rate corrected. So yes, it will be exciting time for seller. But my advice would be still be realistic. And a price correctly, it's really important to price your property correct. And also, you know, there's three things that really sell, presentation, price. And market Yes, market kind of plays role. But it's not the main factor, because you can sell in any market, but it has to be the presentation and the price that drive. So make sure you you work with an agent that can handle all of that. And that's what I do in that and you know, my team, we take that stress off seller hand, we take the key and we make the house shine, we wanted to present in the best possible way from curb appeal to staging but also this is something unique for Bay Area market particularly, we are spoiled here. Our buyers are spoiled, because our sellers do the inspections up front, which is very unique, you won't see it in any other state or even in the California market, you know, Southern California, they don't do it. Even if you go to Tahoe, it will be probably the buyer who will do the inspections but in our market. So if you're a seller, I strongly recommend you do this. Because that will position you in a situation where there is no objection to the buyer, where they feel confident to put their best offer and remove contingencies. Because you presented everything upfront, you disclosed everything in front, you show the condition of the house. In some instances, I do recommend to do some repairs. But I don't insist on it, of course, because sellers are the ones who making the decision. But I will make some recommendations because I know you know what people are going to focus on. And there could be some really small things that can make a huge difference in buyer confidence. And that's our goal, we want the buyer to come and fall in love with your house and disclose everything we can so they can make decision quickly because in this market buyers are pushed to make decisions so fast. So we want to make that process as easy as possible for the buyer. So that's what I highly recommend for the sellers. Make sure your property shines, make sure you disclose everything makes sure you do your inspections upfront, and you price correctly. And all of that should be done by your qualified realtor.

I like how you how you position the fact that you know doing some of these steps up front right help you have the best looking property right to attract the most qualified buyers. Now, since so, so explain to our listeners because I know like sometimes you kind of get these these situations flipped confused. Are we in the seller's market? We're in the buyers market like what? Like where you know who's who's the dominant here? Okay, this time around? Yeah,

so what does it mean when we say it's a seller's market, it means that market benefiting sellers more than that sellers have the upper hand. When it's buyer market obviously that means we have so much inventory not enough buyers so right now we're in a situation where we have not enough product and a lot of demand. The inventory is low we measuring inventory by months of inventory. What does it mean if we don't have any more new houses added on the market? How long will it take to sell all of the houses and so to call it a balanced market according to Nar National Association of REALTORS standard it should be six months to make it a balanced market, which that number never worked in Silicon Valley. For us. Those numbers are way like they are shifted. So for us even when we had two three months of inventory which is extremely rare, but that would already feel like more balanced market. We are in less than one month of inventory like two weeks of inventory That

means in that means if there was somebody listing a house two weeks ago, it is gone. Now it's been sold, usually,

but what it means actually, there is no more listings added on the market that all of the houses will be sold in two weeks. I see. That's what that term means the month of inventory. So but yes, on average, I can give you a life example. I just was hosting open house last weekend, the house was on the market for three days. And just so we understand what we're talking about, it's a very typical kind of family home in good neighborhood, but not luxurious. Just a three bedroom, two bathroom, single family 1600 square foot home was listed at $2 million. And it was sold in three days, almost 300,000 over asking price. Wow, no, that's where we are right now. And that's just to give you perspective, it's going to just get more and more competitive. Even though I know that there's more inventory coming. I hear from other agents, I see my own clients that are getting ready, and waiting for that spring market. But honestly, there is no reason to wait because it's already here. So if you're going to list your house, now you're going to get amazing price. And if you you know followed all the marketing steps that need to be done. So yes, it's it's extremely, you know, hot seller's market

solid. Okay. Understood. Okay, that's, I haven't focused on that too. Right. Okay, so as we wrap it up for today, any last minute thoughts for our sellers, and our buyers,

I would say, uh, for the buyers, you know, I know a lot of people kind of always waiting and they calculating and they looking at, well, it only cost me let's say 3000 to rent. But if I buy, I need to pay six a month or something like that, I have to tell you, you know, those numbers in Silicon Valley, they not never going to be equal, right? In some other markets, you probably will say, Well, I'm buying, I'm paying the same for my rent that I'm going to wait, I should buy because I won't be paying the same. That's not going to happen here. Just because the rents here are just lower than, you know, if you buy a home, but the early you're yet in the market, the better off you're going to be long term. This is a long term purchase, I don't like to call a primary Holman investment because it's not an investment because it's legal liability because it costing you money every month, it's not making you money. But in the end of the day, knowing historically, the numbers if we look 30 years back, we're going to have the data that every decade, we hit a new record on real estate prices here. And that's not going to change anytime soon, probably not in my lifetime. You know, I'm pretty confident this market going to continue to be strong. So I would say Stop waiting. Make your financial plan, assess your abilities, if you can realistically buy today just go by you will thank yourself 10 years from now that you did it today. And if you're a seller, the your own factor needs to be your own situation, your own motivation. If for your family, you need to sell right now again, don't try to time the market. That's my message for both sellers and buyers. Time in the market, just like in stock market usually doesn't doesn't work. Well. It doesn't work, especially sellers. A lot of times they need to sell and buy and they try and to really time ok, I'm going to sell high but I'm going to buy low. It doesn't work because if it's a seller's market, it's not a buyers market. If it's buyers market, it's not seller's market. So focus on your life, focus on your finances and go from that point of view, not don't look at what's the economy doing what's market is doing. Don't listen to the outside noise, like focus inwards, and don't look outwards. That's my main message today.

I love that a lot because we can get distracted by so much noise and that creates so much worry and a lot of people's lives that you just like you get stuck and you can't make decisions. So how can our listeners connect with you? Well,

I'm gonna leave my information and but in general, you can find me on Google just search Anna Fine. My office is in Los Gatos. I have Instagram afinerealtor is my instagram handle. You can find me there. My phone is 408-649-8351 and you're going to have the contact information below in the link. And don't hesitate. It doesn't matter what your question is. There is no stupid questions. If you just want to ask and you're not planning to transact. That's okay. That's what I'm here for. I'm here to give you confidence to answer your questions and help you hopefully get you closer to your to your dream to your goal.

Thank you so much. And we also chatted a little bit about this offline but we'll include it A ball buyer and seller guide for the listeners to download as well for them to kind of grasp all of these ideas you have and get started on getting their next home, their new home or whatever it it looks like for them. So thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.