Real Estate Show interview with Tina Grimes Dec 2022

Full Video Transcript Below

Alice Lema: [00:00:00] Well, hey there, Southern Oregon. Welcome back to the Real Estate Show. So glad you could join us today. I'm Alice Lema. I'm a broker here in beautiful Southern Oregon with John L. Scott Real Estate, your host for the show. Today we're gonna be interviewing Tina Grimes, the CEO of Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, also known as RVAR.

If you ever hear somebody say RVAR, they're talking about rogue Valley Association of Realtors, and we're very lucky to have such an amazing organization here locally. They do a lot of community outreach, they do a ton of education. They also help with the legislature for housing in general, as well as just real estate, real estate stuff.

So Tina Grimes, the CEO of Rogue Valley Association of Realtors is going to be on the show today, and we're gonna try to get a picture of what happened in 2022 and also look forward to 2023 and yeah, and just hear what they have planned. Before we bring in Tina to [00:01:00] talk, let's do a quick check on the stats now.

Southern Oregon, MLS, and the Rogue Valley Association realtors have a fabulous website. They have so many charts, they have so much data and you know how, how we like our data. We wanna talk a little bit about some of the third quarter. This would be September to the end of November 3rd quarter numbers for Jackson and Josephine County. Just wanted to point out our one year percent change in the for Jackson County. We're up two and a half percent, but I wanna take a quick second and say our five year percent of change in Jackson County, we're up 46% for five years. We're up 2.5% for the one year, for third quarter.

Let's look at Josephine County. We are, we are up in Josephine County, a half percent, and that's for the year. [00:02:00] But if you look at the five year change in Josephine County, we're up 54%. So what we've been talking about over the last few weeks, we, we see the market settling. We still have some small appreciation, but things are definitely calmer.

And that's what the Federal Reserve Bank wanted to accomplish. So there you go. Let's get ready to bring Tina Grimes of Rogue Valley Association of Realtors in. We've gotta take a quick break and say thank you to our sponsors, John L. Scott, Ashland and Medford, Guy Giles, mutual of Omaha Mortgage and the local rogue Valley Association of Realtors. We appreciate your sponsorship every week so that we can do this show and just inform and educate our local listeners. We'll be right back after a quick word. Don't go away.

Well, good morning, Southern Oregon and welcome back to The Real Estate Show. I'm so happy to have Tina Grimes as my guest today, Tina's the c e o of our local [00:03:00] Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. Thank you so much for being on the show. Again, Tina.

Tina Grimes: Happy to be here as always.

Alice Lema: Yeah, now here we are winding up 2022 and, you know, I think the public doesn't always understand how important the Rogue Valley Association realtors is and what function you perform on behalf of the agents and the public. Can you tell people a little bit about what the agency does?

Tina Grimes: Yeah. So yeah, so we're not, we're not a real estate firm. A lot of people think we are, we're not . We're a, we're a trade association. And realtors, so the National Association of Realtors is the ones that started the word realtor, and they own that as a federal trademark.

A lot of people think that has become, That is the word for the profession. Because the branding has been done a little too well. , I liken it to someone saying, you know, hand me a Kleenex or hand me a Coke. That's not actually what they are. Those are the brand names I. You know, it's a tissue and a soda.

[00:04:00] So realtor is actually means someone who is a member of a realtor association and technically realtor, the realtor category is real estate brokers and appraisers. So, oh yeah. So a real estate licensee, a real estate broker, that is the profession. If they're a realtor, it means they are a member then of the Realtor Association.

And they have voluntarily said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna subscribe to a higher level of ethics. I'm gonna do more than just what state law requires. Now I will say our state law is better than a lot of other states that have some pretty loose laws . But it's still, the code of ethics is still a step up from state law.

So so one of the things that we do as the association, so those of, so when you hear someone say they're a realtor, ho, hopefully they are using it correctly and it means that they are a member of the realtor association and that they are following the code of ethics. [00:05:00] They're stepping up to that higher level.

And As far as the association and what we do, so for the, for our members, for the real estate brokers, for the appraisers, and then for the affiliate members, which is everybody else in the real estate industry, who is not a real estate broker or an appraiser. So it's the title companies, the lenders, et cetera.

We provide continuing education classes. We provide enforcement of the code of ethics. So if you have a, you know, I, as much as I'd like to think, think every single person does every single transaction perfect. That's not the world we live in, , because we're all human. So if you've had an issue with a realtor, if you have a complaint, we're the ones you call.

And we can walk you through the process of, of, you know, hopefully getting some resolution for that. We provide, in fact we provide ombudsman services, which is informal mediation. And so it doesn't have to be that you wanna file a formal complaint. You could just call if you have a question and we can connect you with an ombudsman and maybe get resolution that way.

So that's a service we provide to the public on behalf of our [00:06:00] members. We also provide networking resources. We do a lot of legislative advocacy, which is not just for our members. Most trade associations when they do political advocacy work, it is just for their members and their members businesses. But because our members' business is about homeownership and private property rights, we are one of the few. Associations when we are lobbying and doing political advocacy work, we're doing it on behalf of homeowners and commercial property owners and anybody who is, who owns real estate period. So we're doing that for both our members and the public.

And then we're hugely involved in the community. First, I mean, our members, just on a personal level, I, I would say, I, I don't think I'm exaggerating to say there's not a single charity in either Jackson or Josephine Counties that doesn't have a realtor connected to it some way, somehow. That's just what realtors do but as an association, as a group. We also do a lot. Unfortunately, COVID, you know, [00:07:00] caused some of that to get stalled, but we are getting ready to ramp things back up again. We've had two fundraisers this year and raised, you know, close to $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity in our summer smash event.

 And Just had our chili Cookoff in Josephine County brought that back to life after three years. And raised just shy of $8,000 for the family house. So, yeah. So yeah. So we're getting our fundraisers going back again. We're gonna do a whole lot more in 2023. A whole lot more. We try to focus on housing related efforts as an association.

Obviously our individual realtor members, like I said, they're involved in every charity, but as an association we keep try to keep it connected to housing related efforts. And the one thing I'm super excited about is we are in the final stages of forming actually an arm of the association that will truly be a charitable foundation that will provide grants to other nonprofit entities here in the valley that are housing related. Habitat for Humanity Accesses Housing [00:08:00] Program, those kinds of entities.

It will also work focus on providing education about housing and, and what it means to be a homeowner. And it will also work on affordable housing efforts in the communities. So in increasing our quantity of affordable housing. So, so I'm very excited about that. We hope to get that launched right after the first of the year.

Alice Lema: Wow, that is so much going on. Are those efforts nationwide to have these foundation or charitable arm associations kind of connected to the realtors or is this local?

Tina Grimes: It, it's a little of both. I mean, the nationalist, so the National Association of Realtors has what they call the Realtors Relief Foundation, which they step in in the event of a natural disaster. And help people with grants provide for mortgage payments and things that, you know, may not be possible when you've just lost your house and your job.

And, but you still have to pay that mortgage unfortunately. So they step in and provide efforts and provide relief there. In fact, they, [00:09:00] when we had the Alameda Fire in 2020 and the Obenchain fire both at the same time, which was devastating, we got from the Realtors Relief Foundation. And you may remember there was fires all over the state at that exact same time, and there was like five different towns that had major housing loss loss.

The Oregon Realtors, the state level Association, they applied for a grant from the Realtors Relief Foundation and got $120,000 that was given out around the state, but most of it came to our area. We had been out over 90 grants to different people that were impacted by housing loss. Some of our own members, even in fact, your ex ex radio show partner, Pete Belcastro received one of those grants.

 So huge impact. And then our state association has what they call the Oregon home foundation which we have supported for years. And the reason we wanted to start our own, we're gonna continue to support the Home Foundation, but we wanted to start our own just so that when we have these events people [00:10:00] making donations at the events can actually have it be a tax write off and hopefully will be a little more generous then in what they give So, that's our methods.

Alice Lema: That's awesome. So that's awesome. Well the the Association of Realtors and our local Rogue Valley Association of Realtors does so much in so many different categories. And it's kind of hard to know where to start, but let's just take a minute because it's the end of the year, and talk briefly about what was accomplished in 2022 by the board. Do we have any changes? I know we had some fair housing conversations going on. The love letters got challenged.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. On that got had a stay of execution, so that's not in place. Man, there was, you know.

Alice Lema: So can I, on that love letter before we leave, that was, did that get where, where does that stand now? Because people are still kinda confused about it, but. And, and if you don't know what we're talking about folks Tina, why don't you tell people what [00:11:00] we call them love letters, but it was actually, yeah. Yeah.

Tina Grimes: So a bill passed in the 2021 legislative session that was supposed to go into effect January of 2022. But a lawsuit was brought against it and a judge issued basically a halt order on executing the bill until things could be worked out. And I, I genuinely don't know where that's at, at the moment. I'd have to check on that.

Alice Lema: Well, those lawsuits take forever. But it was very interesting though that people were getting in trouble for writing a personal note to their seller with their offer.

Tina Grimes: And, and what, what, as I say, the impetus of what brought the whole bill about is that it had become a fair housing issue. Because they were finding that a lot of times those letters included pictures of the family or, or person who was trying to buy the home. It would include personal details about them or their, you know, it wasn't just, Hey, I love your property and here's why I love your property.

It was more like, Hey, I wanna buy your house [00:12:00] and here's, here's details about me and why you should choose me. And going in, you know, in the last couple years with all the multiple offer, Situation we had it was putting sellers at a lot of risk for fair housing violations because they may be choosing somebody based on how they look or the lifestyle they led or those kinds of things, instead of just, are they offering me what I'm asking and are the terms something I can accept there?

It was becoming a subjective decision instead of objective and , and this was on a national level. And couple of the legislators here in Oregon said, well, let's make it so that people can't submit those love letters. And then that eliminates the fair housing risk and the bill passed.

But then others felt that it was a step too far, and that's where the lawsuit generated. So I, I don't, like I said, I genuinely don't know where that's at other than just, I think it's all still in process. The lawsuit itself is still in process, and so there a decision won't be made on the bill till the lawsuit [00:13:00] ends. And like you said, those take years. Yeah.

Alice Lema: Yeah. So in the meantime, don't send a personal note with your offer, or if you do, make sure it's about the property and not about you personally and only the property. Because at the end of the day, even though it's an emotional decision, it's a business decision. They're trying to get the emotion out so that it's fair.

Tina Grimes: That's, and you know, the multiple offer frenzy has died down, so it maybe it's a non-issue at the, at this point, but it, that doesn't mean it couldn't come.

Alice Lema: Right. Well, markets ebb and flow. Right. How long have you been in real estate, Tina?

Tina Grimes: So I've been here with the association, it was actually 22 years this last Sunday,

Alice Lema: Oh, congratulations. Wow.

Tina Grimes: But before coming here, I worked at one of the local real estate offices for close to two years. So it's all, it's about 24 years overall.

Alice Lema: Ah-huh . And how did you get the calling to become so involved in, in real?

Tina Grimes: I don't know that it was so much a calling as a, Hey, this is just a series of events that happened and let's go along for the ride.

Alice Lema: Uhhuh, . Well, you're good [00:14:00] at it.

Tina Grimes: And, and then when I got there, I realized I absolutely loved it and it became a calling, but it didn't start out that way. Yeah.

Alice Lema: Well, you're really You make a huge contribution. We've got two more segments. We do have to take a quick break. We're talking to Tina Grimes, the c e o of our local Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. We also call it RVAR when you hear us say RVA R people go, what are you talking about? We're talking about the organization that Tina Grimes heads up. We're gonna take a quick break. We're brought to you by Rogue Valley Association Realtors. Thank you. We appreciate your sponsorship. Guy Giles Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, and also John L. Scott, Southern Oregon, Ashland and Medford. Also just a reminder, we're gonna be repeating this episode tomorrow, Sunday at six o'clock. Don't touch that dial. We'll be right back with Tina Grimes.

Well, hey, Southern Oregon. Welcome back to the Real Estate Show. I'm Alice Lema, a broker here in beautiful southern Oregon with John L Scott real Estate, and we're [00:15:00] chatting today with one of my favorite people, Tina Grimes from RVAR. Hi Tina. Before the break we were talking about all the different kinds of positive impact that the Rogue Valley Association realtor has on the Valley, and also we were talking a little bit about your histories. I've never really known that story.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. So I, I worked, I mentioned I worked at a real estate firm for a couple of years before I came to work here, and that was actually at Wind Bear Investors Marketplace, which was owned by Bob Methin and later became part of Wind Bearer Van Fleet. Yeah. Bob and Judy.

Yep. Yep. And when Valerie Albert was the managing broker there, I was her assistant. And worked there like I said, it was just shy of two years. And then she decided she wanted to quit managing and go back to just selling. So she left there and went to van Horn, when Mary Van Horn still owned the firm.

And I decided I got an opportunity to take a different job at a diff totally different unrelated company. So I went there and after about a year and a half, Valerie called me up and said, [00:16:00] Hey, the MLS office is looking for a bookkeeper. You need to get your butt down there and apply.

And I actually had not been enjoying the new job that I had, like I thought I would. So I came down, I, you know, sent in my resume and they had just brought on a brand new CEO, Gary Stein. And I came in and interviewed with him and he, he, it was kind of funny cuz. The two presidents of the, because we have the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing service too, and it's separately incorporated.

So I have two boards of directors. Oh. So Val at the time was the president of the association board, and Gloria Young was the president of the MLS board. And I came into the interview and I sat down and Gary looks across the desk at me and he goes, just because Val and Gloria recommended you doesn't mean anything.

Why should I hire you? ? And all I could think was, oh crap, what did they get me into? ? Because Bernie and Gloria have been friends with my family for years, so they, oh, so but Gary and I ended up clicking and he hired me and I, so I [00:17:00] started out as the bookkeeper. I did that for about a year and a half, and then he made me his assistant and I did that for him until he retired.

He mentored me. And then when he retired, I didn't feel like I was quite ready to step up to this role. So they did a search and brought in a new person and he was here for about two years and then he ended up having to resign for family reasons. And so at the time he left, I had thought, you know, maybe I can do this.

And threw my hat in the ring and took a few months for things to work out and shake out. But in February of 2011, I ended up becoming, becoming what I am now and I've not looked back.

Alice Lema: So, yeah. Yeah. And you've done some really wonderful things. The, the education department, for example, we didn't get to talk about that much.

Very, very robust. You've, yeah. You've really increased that department by quite a bit. Can you talk a little bit about when you first signed on versus now, and the vision that you had to, to bring a more robust education platform?

Tina Grimes: Sure. Yeah. Yeah, when I first [00:18:00] started, we offered one class a month. Typically two to three hours, and we would only do it 11 months outta the year. We wouldn't try to do a class in December because of the holidays. So we were offering anywhere between 30 and 33 hours a month of education. Now we offer a hundred to 150 hours per year of education. Yeah.

And the, the, the reason I felt like that was so important is because there are three main reasons why you guys pay your annual dues. One of those is the code of ethics and that, you know, having that as the backbone of what you do. The other one, one of the other ones is the, well, it's kind of behind the scenes and it's not necessarily upfront and the sexiest thing in the world. It's the political advocacy.

And then the other part of that is the connections you make with the other members. And that's done both through the networking events and through the education classes. So it's not that you have to, you know, you, you, you only need 30 hours of education per the state every two years.

So, you know, some people would say, well, why offer then so [00:19:00] much education every year? And the main point of it is for, is more for networking than for CE credit. So you guys connect with each other. And that became even more apparent during covid that that was needed as people started getting kind of isolated and, you know, it became just so apparent that we needed those connections.

Because like for you, for example, you, you know, you're with John L. Scott, one of the biggest firms in the valley, if not the biggest, and. I'd still wager, guess that most of your transactions are not done with someone in your office. They're done with somebody from another firm.

Alice Lema: Yeah. I don't even know the answer to that. Yeah. Yeah, it probably is cuz there's a lot of realtors in southern Oregon.

Tina Grimes: 1500 between Jackson and Josephine counties. So, you know, you, you need to make, if you can make those connections at an education class, at a networking event and get to know those people in the other offices, then when it comes time to do a transaction, it makes that transaction go so much smoother because you know the person on the other side of the deal that you're talking to and working with.

So that [00:20:00] was, that was a big part of the impetus behind it. So brought Susan Ladue on at that time and she had a quite a bit of experience in that arena. Had come from the St. Mary's school environment working with them. And, and she just really, I have to give her kudos, she took our, she took it and ran with it and developed an amazing program and now she retired in 2020.

 In 2021, she retired. I've lost track of my years with Covid and everything. , she retired in 21. And so now Lisa Smyth is our education director and you know, she's, she's learning, so she's getting her feet under her. It's a lot to learn, a lot to absorb, but she's already got, she's got some amazing plans for 2023. I'm excited for what this.

Alice Lema: Ooh, that, that is, that's good to know. And you know, the education I was always so impressed with the variety and the breadth of education that you could get here in southern Oregon for a relatively small population. Yeah. So it's so important to all of us for the connection, [00:21:00] like you said, but also so that we have more depth of knowledge. Because you never know in real estate what, what's gonna get thrown at you, no matter how many decades you've done this. And the, the society changes, family structures change, laws change yeah. I cannot even imagine having 30 hours a month. I only, only 30 hours. Yeah, I know it's not, yeah. And then that's if you don't even do the technology which that I don't think people realize we do take technology classes, right? So that we can expedite and little things.

Tina Grimes: And those don't count for CE credit, but they make you better for what you do for your client.

Alice Lema: So, yeah, exactly. Exactly. What about designations? Can we talk a little bit about what designations are for realtors?

Tina Grimes: Sure. So those of you out there who have maybe worked with a realtor and you see all these random letters after their name , the alphabet suit, quite of you, myself actually, but , but mine unique to being on the administrative side of the industry. Those designations mean they may not, the letters themselves may not mean a whole lot to [00:22:00] you as a, as a, the general public, but what you can be assured of is it means that that realtor has dedicated themselves to learning everything they can about how to serve you the best they can. Whether you know what the letters themselves mean or not.

That's what the, that's really what the designations are. But there's things such as G R I is one of the big ones, and that's the grad, a graduate realtor institute. And that means they took, I think it's like 60 or 80 hours of additional education to get that designation. And it is intensive quality education.

It's not just. Something you can, you know, while you're, while you're listening to it or you're checking your emails and doing things with the other side of your brain. You have to be paying attention. . There's things like ABR which is an accredited buyer representative. You know help me, I'm drawing a blank all of a sudden.

Alice Lema: There's some, there's a senior for senior citizens.

Tina Grimes: SRA, senior re senior real estate specialist.

Alice Lema: And that's kind of new, isn't it?

That's a fairly new one. Yeah. There's the,

Tina Grimes: what's the military one for the veteran.

Yeah, there's one that's for [00:23:00] military. Mm-hmm. , where it means you're a specialist in veteran related housing and financing.

One of the, one of the important ones since we were talking about fair Housing earlier is A H W D, which stands for at home with diversity. And it means that,

Alice Lema: so that's a designation now?

Tina Grimes: It's a certification. A certification. It's still letters. Yeah. It's still letters you put after your name, so, Yeah. So yeah, I actually myself this last year committed to getting what's called the CAE designation, which stands for Certified Association Executive. And it's the granddaddy of all designations for someone in my profession. And it's, it's not just really, it's not just unique to the realtor industry. It's for any association of any industry.

Alice Lema: Oh, that's super cool. How many hours is that gonna take?

Tina Grimes: A lot. I got it, I got it in May.

Alice Lema: Oh, congratulations.

Tina Grimes: Thank you, . And it was, it was basically, well, you had to have a hundred hours of education before you could even apply. Oh, and then once you apply, you have to take this three month long, basically [00:24:00] college course before then you take the exam, which is a four hour long exam, yeah. Wow. It was intensive. It was very intensive, but I, I, it's been on my to-do list for several years and, and when Covid hit, I thought you, , now's my chance to get those a hundred education hours. Let's , let's just do it. .

Alice Lema: You are always busy. You are always busy. My goodness. You know we had kind of a surge in our realtor roles during Covid or is, was that my imagination or did we get a lot of people taking their training during shutdown?

So we got, we had, we hit record high

Tina Grimes: membership numbers in 2020. . And it dropped a tiny bit in 2022, but not hardly enough to even mention, like 1% drop. And, and not an overall drop, just to drop in the number of new members coming in.

Alice Lema: Oh, interesting.

Tina Grimes: We, we stayed at record high numbers overall, but the number of new members coming in was just astronomical in 21, and it's been really crazy this year too. I think that's gonna [00:25:00] dramatically slow down going into 23 with the interest rates increasing and, and the frenzy dying down, but yeah, there was definitely a surge. And I think a lot of it had to do with during 2020 when everybody was locked at home, it was a that's, that's courses they could take online. And it was, they saw that that industry did not get shut down. It was left as an essential industry.

Alice Lema: And, but we didn't know that for sure. Do you remember? You did not for sure. Wasn't it? Not for sure. It was some number of weeks. Yeah.

Tina Grimes: It was us at the local level and also then in conjunction with Oregon Realtors at the state level. We, we lobbied hard to get that declared an essential industry.

Alice Lema: So that was the association. Keeping that all going. And it was more, more than just jobs because People's life events. Yes, yes. Were on hold. If real estate couldn't keep going exactly. And there were some states that did stop. Yeah. You know, we never went back and checked with any of those states. You know, looking back maybe we'll do that. We'll [00:26:00] get a list and next time we talk, cause we wanna have you on more often. So record number of realtors now. Record number of education hours. And just the one minute we have left what else do we wanna remember about 2022 .

Tina Grimes: It feels like it was the, it was like almost a year of two years, because the first half of the year was crazy. It was more of what we saw in 2021. A lot of multiple offers, a lot of high pricing, and then the interest rates started going up. And it was just a totally different look to the latter half of the year than the beginning half. It'll be very interesting to see what 2023 looks like.

Alice Lema: Yeah. And that slowdown was kind of sudden.

Tina Grimes: And, and we, it was very sudden, you know, wasn't just a, it wasn't just a gradual, let's put on the breaks. It was No. Come to a screeching halt.

Alice Lema: And like, you got a rock in your skate. Right. So we're visiting with Tina Grimes, the CEO of Rogue Valley Association of [00:27:00] Realtors, also known as RVAR. We'll be back after a quick word from our sponsors. Don't go.

Well, welcome back to the Real Estate Show folks. I'm Alice Lima, broker John L scott Real Estate here in beautiful southern Oregon talking to Tina Grimes, the c e O of Rogue Valley Association, realtors, lots and lots to talk about. Tina, thanks for being back on the show.

Tina Grimes: Happy to be here. Love it.

Alice Lema: So before the break we were talking about the tail of two, two parts of the year for 2022. Looking backwards.

Tina Grimes: Yeah, and we mentioned that, you know, it wasn't a gradual slowdown, it just felt like things just came to a screeching halt. And the statistics bear that up. I mean, we, we provide what we call a rolling quarter of statistics. So we're always looking at a three month period and the, the rolling quarter that ended in November, so it was September, October and November that we were looking at sales were down 32% in Jackson County and [00:28:00] 29% in Josephine County. So a third, year over year. So from September through November of last year versus this year, we dropped a third.

Alice Lema: So that's the most recent quarter.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Yeah, so like we said, it didn't just, you know, gradually press on the brakes and we just ease into a nice, it was kind of a whiplash stop. So . Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alice Lema: Yeah, it does, it does feel like that. Yeah. And, and you as an association, you provide so many amazing reports and they're available to the general public. But one of 'em that we don't talk often enough about is the report that has how many key box lock boxes were open. Oh, do we know what those numbers are are looking like lately? Because if the sales are down, then does that mean that we just have fewer people out looking or people looking and not writing offers?

Tina Grimes: I honestly, I don't know the answer to that. I, I can tell you and I [00:29:00] apologize, I don't, here we go, showing activity of key boxes. So if you go to RVAR, if you, for those of you listening, if you wanna see this for yourself, if you go to RVAR, so RVAR.Realtor, and then click on the market statistics tab, the showing activity that I'm looking at right here, it's actually up, well it went up so it dropped a lot last week of course, cuz of Thanksgiving.

Alice Lema: Ooh, that's interesting.

Tina Grimes: But the fourth quarter average compared to we're, we're actually staying pretty close to average.

Alice Lema: Wow. So see, the buyers are still out there, and that's how it feels to the agent.

Tina Grimes: the buyers are still out there.

Alice Lema: We're still out there doing showings. We're just like, and

Tina Grimes: the good news about the sales being down is that inventory's up cause Yeah. Stuff isn't churning through as fast.

Alice Lema: Well, and you get more than 10 minutes to think, you know? Right, right.

Tina Grimes: So I think part of it, like, and you just hit the nail head. I think part of it is buyers are able to actually breathe [00:30:00] and take a moment to make the decision. They're not having to just go with their gut and go, okay, we gotta jump on this now.

They can actually take time to really think it through. But also too with, with the rise in interest rates you know, it has decreased the pool that buyers can afford. So you know, you know, I've heard people say, well, we survived 18% interest rates in the eighties. But in the eighties, the average home price was $80,000

So 18% on 80,000 is actually not as hard of a hit as 7% on 400,000.

Alice Lema: Isn't that interesting? It's really the ratio of your payment. Yeah, yeah. And wages. Yeah. Yeah.

Tina Grimes: So so you know, this, the interest rate is a concern. You know, hopefully we can, what we really need to see is more of an inventory in that 200 to 300,000 range.

Cuz that's really where most buyers are at and that's where we just don't have hardly any.

Alice Lema: well even even if rates were not an [00:31:00] issue, would Southern Oregon have much available.

Tina Grimes: No, but if rates were, if rates were still what they were, and that's the challenge is that you know somebody that back in April who could afford 400,000, now for each, cuz basic, the way you can kind of look at it with our current home prices, for each percentage, the interest rate goes up. They're buying power reduces by $50,000. Five zero. Yeah. Yeah. So somebody who could afford a $400,000 house back in April now today can only afford a $250,000 house.

Alice Lema: So then people that are selling need to do the math as well. Yes. And part of why we have inventory is it's just taking longer.

Tina Grimes: Yeah. Seller, I, we are seeing sellers starting to come down on their price, but it's not happening as quickly. . It's not happening very quickly, I should say. There's not an as, it's more just, it's not happening very quickly.

Alice Lema: Well, they wait, they wait to see. Yeah. And then that takes a month or two . [00:32:00] Right?

Tina Grimes: Well, and I think everybody's kind of thinking, well, maybe after the first of the year stuff will kind of, they're all just, everybody's just kind of, and I, I said this to somebody the other day, one of the, one of your fellow agents, cuz I was talking to him and I said, I almost feel like everybody's just in this moment where they're just kind of holding their breath.

And they all think, okay, let's just wait and see what happens after the holidays are over and after the first of the year. And, and but, you know, eventually people are gonna have to breathe because you can't hold your breath forever.

Alice Lema: everybody has to move. You can't sleep forever.

Tina Grimes: So yeah, so I, I don't know, you know, talk, moving into next year, I genuinely don't know. I, I made this comment to my board the other day when we were going over next year's budget proposal. I said, You know, this was the 23rd time I've written a budget proposal for this organization and it was without a doubt, the hardest one I've ever done. Cuz I really don't have a clue what to expect from next year.

Alice Lema: Wow. So are you as a board maybe discussing a couple different scenarios?

Tina Grimes: Well, we, we [00:33:00] approved one, but yes, there's definitely some options that we will, we're just gonna keep a close eye on it as we go into the year and maybe have to make an adjustment halfway through the year. I don't know.

Alice Lema: So are is there some concern of a further downturn or.

Tina Grimes: Well, you know, the, it depends on which economist you listen to. Some of 'em say that we're, we're, we are headed for a full-blown recession. Others are saying, no, we're gonna kind of skirt the edge of it, but then, Bounce off, we won't go into full-blown recession.

So it just really depends on which one you listen to. I think going into the, the first of the year legislative session on both a federal level and a state level is gonna be very telling what kind of things come out of that. That's gonna make a huge difference on what happens for the rest of the year.

Alice Lema: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. Is there anything gonna be discussed in the state of Oregon that you guys are already aware?

Tina Grimes: Well there, I know that there's obviously the, that the wildfire bill that put ratings on people's homes.

Alice Lema: Oh, [00:34:00] right, right. That's gonna be, we forgot about that.

Tina Grimes: It's, that's gonna be a huge topic going into next legislative session because I do know there's a couple of legislators that are planning to propose a bill that will amend that . So, you know plus the there's still some tweaking that needs to be done to that climate friendly and equitable communities Bill that got passed last year. Because it's got some unattended consequences that nobody was expecting. So just there's gonna be quite a bit of work done at the state level for sure.

Alice Lema: Yeah. It's gonna be a big year. Yeah. We don't have a clear picture yet, but that's why we like talking to Tina Grimes, the CEO of Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, and we really thank you so much, Tina, for all the different aspects that your organization performs on behalf of the community and the real estate agents.

Tina Grimes: You're well, you're very welcome and I love what I do, so that makes it easy.

Alice Lema: Well, we thank you again for being on the show, and I know you're I got a lot going on today. It's another busy day for you, [00:35:00] so we'll let you, let you get back to it. And yeah, hopefully we'll have you on the show again more often for 2023.

Tina Grimes: Pleasure. As always.

Alice Lema: Thank you so much. We're gonna wrap it up for today. The show will broadcast again tomorrow at 6:00 PM Have a beautiful Southern Oregon weekend. Bye now.