Episode 55: Listen Up Home buyers – Real Estate Market Forecast Fall 2025

Episode Summary

Episode Notes

Victoria Ray Henderson: Listen Up Homebuyers. I’m Victoria Ray Henderson, and with Mike Crowley. He owns Spokane Homebuyers, an exclusive buyer brokerage in Spokane, Washington.

Mike Crowley: You know, it’s not becoming a buyer’s market like they want it to because I’m not seeing prices come down. I’m seeing a little pressure on them coming down. But I think I’m most likely seeing as interest rates sit there at that six and a half to seven margin and sellers don’t seem that willing to budge on their prices.

Victoria Ray Henderson: We’re seeing things a little different in the Washington DC area. We are seeing some price drops. We are seeing some real advantages, especially with condominiums in Washington DC. They’re sitting on the market longer and I have the ability to get a seller subsidy, maybe even a price reduction.

Mike Crowley: Yeah, homes are still selling, buyers are still buying. It’s just not as busy it was a few years ago. That’s it. I don’t have any problems currently with the market. I do wish interest rates were a little bit lower and I wish sellers were a little bit more negotiable.

Victoria Ray Henderson: Now, what’s happening in Washington state with buyer-broker agreements? How are things going?

Mike Crowley: The good fortune here is, and I don’t think this is the case all across the country. I’ve just kind of taken a pulse of it from other brokers, but most, this is a good spot. Most sellers are still willing to help the purchasers with their buying costs, whether it be with their loan costs or more specifically with their realtor fees. The concern a year ago was that buyers were going to have to come up with eight, 10, 12,000 more dollars to purchase a home. And I think the listing agents out there, give them a lot of credit, are explaining to their sellers, the best way to get your home sold is to make it as easy as possible for the buyer.

Mike Crowley: So I think the public out there has adapted to this. They seem to be comfortable paying their realtors for a service.

Victoria Ray Henderson: Yeah. You know, I’ve had a couple of people be very scared of wanting to sign a buyer broker agreement. And the way that I’ve made this work is anybody who has an issue with signing an agreement, and you know I get it because you’re meeting somebody maybe for the first time or maybe you met them via Zoom and you say, there, sign this agreement that says exactly how much I’m going to be paid in this transaction. And the work around for me has been that I get people to sign it for a length of time that they’re comfortable with. So my experience so far has been very good. How about yours?

Mike Crowley: Yeah, I feel the same way. I do think there’s a flaw in this settlement that buyers are expected to make a decision in front of a house about whether or not they want to work with a broker and pay them a substantial amount of money. If they were to go into a law office, their commitment, if they wanted to just initiate some sort of a civil action, is probably around a neighborhood of $2,000 or $3,000 upfront commitment. While our commitment’s not upfront, it’s still signing something that’s going to commit you for what’s likely $8,000, $15,000 after meeting someone that you know nothing about in many cases. I think there’s a fallacy with that. I get around that. Most of my clients I know personally from a referral, I think they would sign anything. I am doing non-exclusive agreements. And I think all agents out there have that opportunity. If you have a buyer that’s hesitant, I like your approach to making it a short term.

Mike Crowley: Yeah, and that’s kind of the problem I’ve always had with the upfront part of the buyer’s agency agreement. I don’t have a problem with their utilitarian purpose, but the idea that realtors need to spend the first thing they need to do is worrying about how they’re going to get paid versus my first concern is this, can I take care of your needs or not?

Mike Crowley: I just read a lot of economist views and they were all wrong, which tended to make me wrong that we would not be down closer to 6% this year. I think, I don’t mind admitting I was wrong, but I would certainly take the advice of a lot of experts. They are pretty confident that we will be down closer to 6% coming into the year.

Mike Crowley: These interest rates are probably close to the norm, which is why I’d really like to see some more downward pressure on home prices to make them more affordable for people.

Mike Crowley: But sometimes once they sign the contract, you don’t hear much from them. Or sometimes they don’t realize that once you have an offer on house that they need to know what the next steps are that you don’t always know.
Mike Crowley: every realtor should have something like that set up and I do not. Look at as many houses as you can, not so you determine value.

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