Real Estate Show with Shelly Culbertson, John L Scott

Real Estate Show with Shelly Culbertson, John L Scott

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Real Estate Show with Shelly Culbertson, Guest 

Alice Lema: [00:00:00] Well, Hey, there in Southern Oregon. Welcome back to the real estate show. So glad you could join us again today. I'm Alice Lema broker here in beautiful Southern Oregon with John L. Scott real estate. I'm your host of the show. And today we're so excited to be interviewing Shelly Culbertson of the Dave and Shelly Culbertson team here at John L scott in Medford. Shelly is a principal broker. She also has years of experience. She has a background in not only real estate, but title escrow and she also trains real estate agents. So we love having Shelly on the show. She's so much fun and she is just a breadth of knowledge with all of her years of experience.

We'll be talking to her about the volatility in the market, some of the changes that we see coming, and also just generally her tips on buying and selling in this kind of dramatic, uncertain time. So Shelly Culbertson will be [00:01:00] joining us today will be so much fun. So please stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, let's briefly touch base on what's going on in the market locally cuz we did have another dramatic week in the world. And people say, well, why do you mention that? And it's like, It matters to Southern Oregonians. It can give us the jitters, but I'm happy to say that we did have another nice batch of listings come on the market, multiple price points. We're starting to see more listings come on the lower price points and, and we've been having you know, more and more on the higher price points and we're just nicely starting to normalize. It does feel like it's slowing down, but we're not in a bonafide buyer's market in all price points. So in a lot of the lower price points, medium price points, we still have a few more buyers and sellers.

So thank you to all of you, sellers who put your homes on the market. And just letting you know, there's still people out there that do wanna [00:02:00] purchase. Now we are a little worried about the next interest rate increase. If that does happen, this will be a different conversation, but for right now, let's enjoy some leveling off of the market and a little bit of a breath.

We've fall coming up. It's gonna be time to start checking your filters for your, your HVAC. It's time to get those gutters cleaned. And also, maybe think about having a home inspection before you go into the fall. It'll be a good time to get some minor repairs done and stay on top of that. Okay. So that's, what's going on for the week locally.

We're gonna be taking a quick break for a word from our sponsors. We're gratefully brought to you by John Scott, Ashland and Medford, the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors and also Guy Giles of Churchill mortgage. So stay tuned for our interview with Shelly Culbertson. We'll be right back.

Well, Hey, Southern Oregon. Welcome back to the real estate show. So glad you could join us again today. We're very excited to be [00:03:00] interviewing Shelly Culbertson. She's a principal broker at John L. Scott in the Medford office with me and she and her husband, Dave Culbertson are part of a team. And we like to talk to Shelly every so often because she has tons of experience.

She's a wealth of knowledge, but she's also a professional real estate agent trainer. So she has all kinds of different ideas and opinions. And we love having Shelly on the show. Welcome back.

Shelly Culbertson: Thanks Alice for having me. And I just, I always really enjoy being on this show. And like you had said, talking about being a real estate trainer coach, I love it. I love helping realtors make this a better industry for everybody and making it much more professional.

Alice Lema: Well, and I don't think the general public realizes how seriously some of us take this stuff. Like me for a coach is a big deal. So why don't you talk a little bit about your [00:04:00] coaching program and then we've got tons of topics to explore for Southern Oregon real estate?

Shelly Culbertson: Well, you know, Alice I, I guess it's, I've been in the industry between Title and Escrow and as a real estate agent for about 25 years. And a big thing that I really realized was that how much it takes to get a house sold. And not only does it take a lot to, and a lot of working pieces and parties to get a house sold, but the other piece to it is it's very emotional for a lot of people because it's the biggest investment they make in their life.

And so I'd like to think of realtors being professionals, just like a doctor is, and your CPA accountant is and your financial advisors, because we're handling the most important investment for most families. And so it's, it's been about eight years now. I decided that kind of a mantra was that I was really going to help [00:05:00] realtors become better realtors and make it a better industry for every one.

Because the more educated realtors are, and the more seriously they take their business, it uplifts all of us and uplifts the entire industry.

Alice Lema: Yes. And the changing market conditions and then the changing whackadoo world conditions. Yes. You've gotta stay on top of it and I'm, I'm so happy that you're out there helping agents to be the best they can be and also to navigate and help their clients navigate all these changes because boy it's a different market than it was even six months ago, three months ago.

Shelly Culbertson: Even three months ago. and you know, it's very, it's, it's interesting that you bring that up. A big piece, a shift I like to call it the market shimmy. I don't wanna think it's a big shift. It's the market shimmy and it kind of started to happen at the end of May and beginning of June. And it was brought on by quite a few different things.

But what I realized as a [00:06:00] whole, when it comes to our industry, but also our clients that with what they were hearing on the media between gas prices, the war with Ukraine, the impending recession, interest rates going up, there was a lot of fear that was being thrown out there with the media. And what I started to realize with just my clients alone, they had a lot of fear that this real estate market, the bubble was gonna burst and it was gonna be devastating in all this.

And yet when we look at the data, nothing points to that. But yet the media is kind of has been instilling that into the general public. And so that's another piece to it right now with we as real estate professionals, and we as real estate advisors, the more that we can get the information of what's going on in our market to combat the fears that our clients are having is huge.

Alice Lema: Well, and [00:07:00] it's interesting because it's hard to watch all these price changes. And even if you're not listening to the news, you're watching what's going on in your neighborhood. People are dropping their prices, you know, sometimes 20 and $30,000. So there's definitely something happening, but I like how you're saying, using the data to explain what is happening and that we're not necessarily having a downturn.

It's that difference between what did we call it? D deceleration, yes. Rather than appreciation. Yeah. But that's, you know, that's a whole conversation unto itself and it's not something we've ever seen.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah, no, you're right. It's true. And if you go back and you historically look at real estate over time, it is such a sound investment. And it is one of those things that over [00:08:00] time you earn three to 5% on your investment and you can't get that anywhere right now.

Alice Lema: And you get a place to live.

Shelly Culbertson: But I think that our thinking just got so warped during COVID because we saw this double digit increase. People were making 15 and 20% one year on their investment, which is it's not normal. yeah.

Alice Lema: Yeah. We did get, get kind of used to that. Didn't we?

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah. Sellers, sellers. I, I say that when, when I'm coaching that sellers are still living six months ago and buyers are looking six months ahead.

Alice Lema: Ah, so are you getting buyers thinking that there's gonna be a crash? Yep. Okay.

Shelly Culbertson: Yep. That's that's, that's what the initial pieces that I'm hearing and it's up to us as real estate [00:09:00] advisors to bring the sellers into reality as to what is going on. And, and we could talk about that a little bit later, cause I have a really interesting way of looking at what we call absorption rate helping a seller with those absorption rates.

But it's same thing with the buyers figuring out, is right now, a good time for them to buy. And if it works for their situation and it's a good time to buy, then they should pull the trigger rather than wait, because historically over time houses are gonna go up to 3 to 5% every year.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Yeah. And the data helps. It really does. But how do you explain to people, whether they're buyers or sellers, the price reductions, the big price reductions that everybody's doing to stay in front of the market changes?

Shelly Culbertson: It's very interesting because that has evolved over the last, I would say 90 days. The first piece on [00:10:00] it is there are some realtors that are looking backwards rather than forwards when they help sellers with pricing the property.

Alice Lema: Oh, okay. So they're running the comps a little too far back.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. So, because if you were to price a piece of property and we look at those comparable houses and they sold six months ago, pricing was a lot different, six months ago, we were still seeing multiple offers over asking price.

And if you are pricing your house based on what was happening six months ago, you've missed the boat.

Alice Lema: Well, and I think it's normal for agents to go back six months because that's what we normally do in a neutral market. Yep. But now that it's quicker.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah. It's, it's interesting. And something that that I'm doing when I sit down and I, and I'm actually coaching realtors to do this. [00:11:00] And if you're gonna go six months back, go six months back, not for the purposes of pricing. Go six months back to see how many houses are selling in that neighborhood a month. Then once you figure out how many houses are selling in that neighborhood, a month, then do your calculations on if I come on the market tomorrow and there's five other active houses there and only two are selling a month, according to what's happened in the last six months, then it may take three or four months. If I go at a higher price to get my house sold and it may never sell.

Alice Lema: See, I love how exacting that is, Shelly. We're talking to Shelly Culbertson of John L. Scott. She's a principal broker. She works with her husband, Dave, the Culbertson team at John L. Scott in Medford.

And she just made an amazing point of pricing and how the volatility of the market can be addressed by [00:12:00] doing a different kind of comparable. So why don't you just say that one more time so that people understand?

Shelly Culbertson: How about if I give , micro I'll give an example. Let's say that I, I am gonna go talk to a seller about listing house and we look six months back and we see in the last six months, 12 houses sold in that neighborhood. So we take those 12 houses. We divide it by six. So statistics are telling us two houses are gonna sell per month. So then that seller is gonna list their house and there's already five other houses listed in that neighborhood. So now they're going to be number six, if they want to be one of them and it sells in the next 30 days, they have to be priced in the top two.

They also have to be in the top two in condition. Because it's perceived as value. You wanna be the most valuable house in the top two, if you wanna sell in the next 30 days, otherwise [00:13:00] it's gonna be times two times two.

Alice Lema: Yes. Right. And that's the part that sellers don't always understand because what you just said, Shelly was so smart you're bringing it down to the neighborhood. And what Shelly was just describing is technically called absorption rate. Yes. But we don't. Use those words with people, cuz it's kind of realtor slang. It is realtor slang. I love how you just broke that down. And in 30 seconds we all understand now how to price things in a volatile market. Mm-hmm very, very smart, very smart.

Shelly Culbertson: And with that absorption rate to take it kind of a step further. So let's take this particular neighborhood. We know that two houses are gonna sell a month and there are six houses listed. So in essence, when people say there are three months of inventory on the market, that's how they get that number.

[00:14:00] So in that specific neighborhood, the way we just spoke was that that neighborhood has three months of inventory sitting on the market.

Alice Lema: So I just think that the detail you went into a few seconds ago is really brings it home. Where, when we tell people where there's 90 days of inventory, they don't always know what that means to them. So I really like the specifics.

Shelly Culbertson: Mm-hmm and what, I don't even know, everybody says, they say, I'm not even sure who they say, who who's they anyway, they . And, and, and like we learned with COVID. What is normal? Well, we don't really know what normal is right now in real estate of market. Yeah. But what we do know when you look at past history, I like to use the word traditional market, ah, because in a traditional real estate market, if you have six months of inventory sitting on that market buyers [00:15:00] don't really have an advantage because there's plenty of them. There's inventory for them. Sellers don't have an advantage. It's what we kind of call a neutral market.

Alice Lema: Mm-hmm and that's 180 days, 120 days, four to six months.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. Four to six months. So what happened during COVID that four to six months of traditional inventory went as low as two weeks in Jackson county. And when we dropped dramatically that low that's when we saw the multiple offers, that's when we saw people going over asking. That's when we just saw all this craziness go on. And unfortunately I'm gonna say, unfortunately, the sellers had a huge advantage. And I, I always say the sellers had the power position at that point. Mm-hmm because there was such a lack of inventory.

Alice Lema: And such high demand. Mm-hmm.

Shelly Culbertson: So sellers are still kind of stuck in that a little.

Alice Lema: Well, and you talk about price differences [00:16:00] in some cases, the difference is $50,000. Mm-hmm .

Shelly Culbertson: Whereas now that we've bumped up and actually in Jackson county, we have 3.8 months, let's say four months of inventory. So we are starting to enter into that neutral market. So it's a matter of how do we show our sellers that we're entering into that neutral market. And prepare their mindset to enter into the market.

Alice Lema: And, and buyers too. And we're gonna have to take a quick break here. Yes. But we're talking to Shelly Culbertson of the Dave and Shelly Culbertson team at John L. Scott. They're, both principal brokers, and Shelly is a real estate trainer for real estate agents. So we love talking to her. We have to take a quick break. We're brought to you by John L. Scott, Ashland and Medford, Guy Giles Churchill mortgage, and also our local Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. Thank you so much for sponsoring us. Don't touch that dial. We'll be right back with Shelly Culbert.

Well, hi again, everybody. Alice Lema here, broker [00:17:00] John L. Scott in Southern Oregon. Welcome back to the real estate show. We had to take a quick break, but we were right in the middle of some great pricing strategies discussing with Shelly Culbertson. She's a principal broker at John L. Scott in Medford. She, her husband, Dave Culbertson have the Culbertson team. And Shelly, I'm sorry we had take oh, it's okay. Such good stuff that we were talking about. And you were about to talk about some of the differences in pricing right now. You were starting to run some stats. So let's jump back into that conversation.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah. You know, I really jumped into this week into a lot of our statistics that come out and it's interesting how much our market has really changed. In just pretty much three months.

Alice Lema: In 90 days. So tell us how it's changed.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah, well, our inventory, so our Rogue Valley Association of Realtors, they give us as realtors [00:18:00] residential stats every month. And what it does is it compares the last three months compared to last year at this time, in the last three months. And it's coupled with I'm, I'm gonna go off a little bit and then I'm gonna come back. There was a recent survey that was done by Realogy. I believe it was a Realogy. And we were identified in Medford, Oregon as being the ninth city in the United States that has had an increase in inventory in the last year.

Alice Lema: I saw that report. I couldn't believe Medford made the top 10 list. And this is for areas in the country that have an increase in housing availability.

Shelly Culbertson: Yep. Housing listings that have come on.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Isn't that interesting. Top 10 in the United States.

Shelly Culbertson: I know. And so part of me, you know, I, I went back and forth and I said, you know, that just doesn't seem right. So I went, you know, [00:19:00] back to our statistics and dug a little bit and lo and behold, I think they were spot on. What's very interesting, what's changed with our dynamics in Jackson county is our inventory is up as a whole in Jackson county, 85% over last year. Isn't that something that is huge. We're we're inching on a total of a thousand listings being on the market.

We haven't seen a thousand listings on the market since probably 2018.

Alice Lema: It's still badly needed. So thank you everybody for putting your house on the market, thank you.

Shelly Culbertson: And the builders for building more.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Yeah. And we still need more. Isn't that interesting? Cuz you were saying if we're at 90 days and an and neutral market is closer to 180 days. So three months versus six months, we still have a few more buyers than sellers. Is that what you're saying?

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. [00:20:00] Yes we do. And you know, and it's, it's interesting cuz this radio show's been on forever. I feel like it's been on for, I believe 10 or 11 years now.

Alice Lema: Yes, Pete and Pete Belcastro and Joe Brett started it in 09 at the bottom of the crash. Yes. Yeah.

Shelly Culbertson: I was on with them and we had a deep discussion back then because it was such a buyer's market back then.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Yeah. I remember how long it took. It was like, yeah, six to 9 months discussion.

Shelly Culbertson: Because builders left the business because they couldn't sell their homes. And we had talked about how we are gonna be approaching a time where we're gonna have a lack of inventory as a county. And that was unthinkable back then.

Pete's like no way. And Joe's like, okay, go on Shelly, go on. But low and behold, we have been in this low inventory level for a couple years now. But we do see it increasing, but we are still at that four months of inventory on the market. [00:21:00] So it, what does that mean? Well, it's getting better for buyers, but it also means for sellers, if you're looking to move up in the market or move down in the market, it's a great time to do it.

Alice Lema: Well, you have choices now. Mm-hmm mm-hmm finally some choices, more choices, I guess we should say we have more choices than before, cuz just because we have an 85% increase in the choices of houses for the whole county, that's still 85% of like very little .

Shelly Culbertson: No, it's true. It it's true. And relativity, I mean, relative wise, interest rates are floating around 6%. It's really not that bad.

Alice Lema: Well, it's not. And if the prices adjust a little, then I was looking that the payments are kind of similar to what they were, it's just the purchase price is a little different. Yep. And the interest rate is a little higher, but the, the payments seem to be similar. [00:22:00]

Shelly Culbertson: And, and I would like, so the conversations I'm, I I've been having with buyers and with the agents that I'm coaching is when you're working with a buyer instead of discussing it as an investment, discuss with it as it's more of a lifestyle.

So think about it. When you buy your principal residence house, yes you're buying an investment. But even bigger, you're buying where you're gonna live the next 3, 5, 7, 10, 20 years. So the point is if I can afford the monthly payment in this house, and this is the lifestyle that I want to be in, pull the trigger.

Alice Lema: Right. And how much more important is lifestyle now, post COVID when you talk to buyers? Yeah. What kind of things are they asking for?

Shelly Culbertson: You know, the, I, I would say the biggest thing, right that I'm finding with my buyers is that they want the space to be able to work from home. [00:23:00] We had a huge migration when COVID hit, from people going to the office to working at home. So home is kind of that, that multipurpose place, you know, I, I don't know what you saw in the, in the last two years, but it's been really big with, with buyers. Just finding, finding, finding, yeah.

Alice Lema: And school, they want a school room too. Yep. Because even though their kids might be in school right now, we've had so much back and forth. They feel like they need a space for that. So bigger square footage. Yep. People want bigger square footage.

Shelly Culbertson: They do. They want bigger square footage. Now. What's very interesting with the statistics when I, and this was a big aha that I had. So our Jackson county, residential stats breaks it into, into different pieces. And they break up what we call urban [00:24:00] living to rural living. And so what's interesting is what's happened with rural property in the last three months. So as a whole in Jackson county, our inventory is increased by 85%. In rural property it is increased by 96%. So it has pretty much, the inventory has doubled over last year at this time.

Alice Lema: So interesting series of questions I have for you. So those properties are sitting longer and those are the ones that used to get scooped up first because they have more elbow room. Yep. So what's going on?

Shelly Culbertson: You know, I kind a couple things well, what's one thing that's really interesting is that there is currently when we talked about that traditional market is four to six months of inventory. Rural property right now has six months of inventory on the market.

Alice Lema: Oh. So it just hit the [00:25:00] neutral market. It just hit the wow. Interesting.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah, that was very interesting for me too. Alice.

Alice Lema: I was like, so there's a buyer, so that's not a buyer'ss market, but there's definitely a buyer opportunity. Mm-hmm interesting.

Shelly Culbertson: So what's causing that, you know, it could be a myriad of things. One of 'em I think is what we're starting to see in our valley right now, over the last five days. I think that plays a part with what happened with Almeda and all of that back in 2020. I think another piece is I still feel that with what we have going on right now with the hemp and cannabis, I think that makes a little bit of effect in the rural market. We had a lot of people move here in the [00:26:00] 17, 18, 19 wanting to make a million dollars planting hemp.

Alice Lema: Oh, the green, we jokingly called it the green rush, the hemp, the green rush.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah. And they're realizing that right now, cuz we're kind of in those drought years, that maybe there's not millions to be made in it well.

Alice Lema: And also the raids, you know, the cartel raids, the, the group effort from sheriff and state of Oregon water, Josephine. Jackson county, all that coordinated effort. So now you can buy and we, I don't know if you remember you and I had a brief chat about cannabis properties when we might be able to buy them ready to go, cuz in the beginning, people were having to create the greenhouses and the, this and the drying rooms and all that. And then people wanted to buy turnkey, move in, ready, cannabis and hemp. And we didn't have 'em. Yeah. And now we do. And nobody wants 'em yeah.

Shelly Culbertson: Well, and another inter interesting piece with what we've [00:27:00] had, I think we might be in the third year of it, but it, it is the lack of rainfall that, and snow that we're getting in the wintertime. And the drought out there, and a lot of people have a little bit of nervousness about maybe Wells going dry. And so that's why, when you are buying and selling rural property you wanna make sure that you're working with somebody that's very knowledgeable with that.

Alice Lema: Yeah. Cuz the shutting off the ditches early. Yeah. I don't, I've only been here since the nineties, but I don't remember ditches starting so late and then getting shut off. And if you were at the end of those.

Shelly Culbertson: You maybe had four weeks of watering.

Alice Lema: Yeah. So if you are a commercial farmer, which cannabis, hemp people, if they're doing it right, that's what they're categorized as. Yes. So they didn't have any water.

Shelly Culbertson: Nope and water and, and both of those crops, from what I understand, need lots of water, lot. A lot of water. Yeah. I'm just hoping that the grapes are not affected because I really like my wine.

Alice Lema: We do, we [00:28:00] do support the wineries. Don't we Shelly. God bless our wineries. Exactly, hope you're at the top of the irrigation ditch system.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah, exactly. So Alice, something I do wanna touch on though, because you did say something earlier about depreciation versus deceleration. Thank you, deceleration. So with a lot of what people in our market are, people just in general are seeing the price improvements is what I like to call them. It's all about the words you use. But the price improvements, the interesting thing with statistics are, and this is where I think that sellers are coming out on the market too high in the market and are having to make those adjustments because of the amount of inventory on the market.

But when we look at what we call the median price in Jackson [00:29:00] county, when I look at last year's median price and this year's median price, that's where I, I go to say that it is real estate is, is a great investment. So last year, the median price in Jackson county at the end of July was 370. This year we are at $420,000.

Alice Lema: So see isn't that weird? The prizes are still going up and you know, we have to take another break. I'm sorry. Shelly Culbertson principal broker at John L. Scott with the Dave and Shelly Culbertson team and just a wealth of information, lots and lots of good stuff. So please stay tuned. We do have to take a quick word from our sponsors John L. Scott, Ashland and Medford, Guy Giles Churchill Mortgage and our local wonderful Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. We appreciate you all do not touch that dial. We'll be back after a quick word. And just a quick reminder, this show will be re-broadcast in its [00:30:00] entirety tomorrow, Sunday at 6:00 PM. Don't touch that dial.

Well, Hey everybody. Welcome back to the real estate show. We're talking today with Shelly Culbertson. She's a principal broker at John L. Scott with her husband, Dave. Culbertson team. And we had to cut you short, sorry that we were just revealing that even though we have all these price changes and a completely volatile different market in the last 90 days, you were pointing out some price, not price, but appreciation year to date in Jackson county. And it was quite remarkable. It was 300 and something to 400. Is that what you were saying?

Shelly Culbertson: Actually the exact numbers, I I've got 'em right in front of me now, the exact numbers and I'm going off medium price in Jackson county, all of Jackson county, medium price last year at this time was 381,000 this year. As of right now by July 31st average medium price is 420. [00:31:00]

Alice Lema: So in spite of everything, we're still 10% up. We're still earning 10% in the place we live.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. And so where I, when I, where I go with that, in the sense of, with the craziness right now in the stock market and the bond market and all the other places you can be investing, real estate is still an amazing investment, that you've earned 10% over the last.

Alice Lema: Yeah. And Southern Oregon is really a great place to live and buy. We traditionally do pretty well. Cuz everybody wants to be here.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. Yes. And, and it's, I'm, I'm looking at all of these numbers and it looks like every area and our, our statistics break it all down between Allen Ashland, Phoenix, Jacksonville, you know, north Medford, south Medford, all across the board, everybody's up. I mean, it's not like there's one area is booming. One area's not. And, and from what [00:32:00] you, and I see, we're kind of seeing new construction in every area.

I mean it's true. I mean, if you wanna live in an Eagle Point, Shady Cove, Phoenix is coming back, Talent is building. East medford's building, Southwest Medford, Southwest.

Alice Lema: Yep. It's happening? White City's got some new construction. Yep. Yep. And that's kind of what we need to see across the board.

Shelly Culbertson: And so kind of the way that I you know, people ask me all the time, well, is it a good time to buy or in a good time to sell? My answer is always, that depends. It depends on what your ultimate goal is. If your ultimate goal is to purchase a house and flip it and try to make 20% in two years, that it may not be the right market for you to purchase it. But if you've been a renter for the last five years and you can [00:33:00] qualify for a loan, it's a great time to buy.

Alice Lema: Let's talk about first time home buyers, because they're the ones that I think got hit the hardest with the interest rate changes. So how, how are you counseling those folks?

Shelly Culbertson: Well, so with buyers, and you would probably agree with me on this, sellers are now much more apt to offer, to help with closing costs and offer to help with buying down an interest rate.

So in this market right now with a buyer, if they make an offer on a piece of property and they have the closing cost, it may not be a bad idea to ask the seller for some of those closing costs to buy down the interest rate that would lower their monthly payment.

Alice Lema: See, and I don't think people realize that you can even do that and it's quite quite effective and it helps [00:34:00] the parties come together during this difficult time.

Shelly Culbertson: It, it is and so instead of a buyer really focusing when I, when I'm working with a buyer or my husband and I are working with a buyer, instead of focusing on that interest rate, because that could move on you, it's focusing on what can you afford for a monthly payment. Right. And let's work it backwards.

Alice Lema: Right. And that really is a critical question, right?

Shelly Culbertson: Mm mm-hmm because what's nice about. What we do know and, and, and Jim in our office showed this slide up the other day, last year, rents went up 15% on average in the United States. It's 15%. That's considerable amount. What's cool about when you get a first time buyer into a house, that house payment stays the same for 30 years. Yeah. And you get the tax write off.

Alice Lema: And you don't get kicked out when they wanna sell or have their you know, [00:35:00] kid move in. Yes, because there's a lot of that that happened. Our poor renter our renter pool is really suffering right now. So it's great to address how people can transition from being a tenant, to being a homeowner. Huge advantage.

Shelly Culbertson: That could be a whole nother show too. And I really encourage anybody that's listening that is a renter, the first, is talking to a lender. And even if you do not qualify right now, a really good lender is gonna show you the path that you can in the next 6, 9, 12 months, where you would be able to purchase.

Alice Lema: Yeah. That is such an important step. And it doesn't matter what the lender says. Like you said, Shelly you just gotta find out where you stand. And a lot of times don't you discover that they're closer than they realized.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes. Yes. And I will tell you that is probably one of the most, it is probably the most rewarding as a realtor is when you [00:36:00] have that first time home buyer realize that they can buy their first home.

Alice Lema: It's just fabulous.

Shelly Culbertson: And what's really cool is when you stay with them and they have one or two children, and then you're able to help them to the next house. And they realize that they've made $75,000 on that house to go buy the next one.

Alice Lema: By just living there. It's really quite a remarkable scenario. Yeah. And it's that first house that's the struggle. Right after that, it's easier.

Shelly Culbertson: No, it's, it's so true. And, and that is, to me, really a part of the joy of being in real estate you know, and, and I love helping the buyers from A to B. Everybody goes through changes in their life, and those changes are what drives the home moves.

And what's cool is when you do life with your clients, you can sometimes see the changes coming. And prepare them for the next move right before they even know they wanna do it.

Alice Lema: That's right. Cuz we can kind of tell.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah. [00:37:00] Oh, they had another baby. Oh, look at that. Oh, in their house is only 1100 square feet and one bathroom. Yeah. That's not working for 'em.

Alice Lema: That's not gonna work. Nope, Nope. Nope. So so in the minute and a half we have left, what are some of the takeaways you want our listeners to have in this, it's still a volatile market. You know, settling down, trying to settle down, but like, what are a couple pieces of advice?

Shelly Culbertson: I would say the biggest one, and this is a question I ask people all the time, do you love the house you're living in? And if you love the house you're living in, then enjoy life in it. If you don't love the house you're living in, then start dreaming as to what the next house is gonna look like.

Alice Lema: Because we can make it happen. Yeah. It doesn't have to stay a dream.

Shelly Culbertson: No, it doesn't. It doesn't. And I, I, in asking that question, I call it waving the magic wand. When you give them the [00:38:00] wand and you allow them to wave it. It's pretty cool to watch the results.

Alice Lema: It is. We, we love our jobs. Don't we, Shelly.

Shelly Culbertson: Yes we do!

Alice Lema: Shelly Culbertson, principal broker at John L. Scott with the David, Shelly Culbertson team. We've only got 30 seconds left. How about you shoot, send out a phone number.

Shelly Culbertson: Yeah, my phone number is 541-621-1602. Or you can just type in the Culbertson team and find me.

Alice Lema: Sounds great. Thank you again, Shelly, for being on the show, always informative, fun, and definitely very, very knowledgeable.

Shelly Culbertson: Thanks Alice.

Alice Lema: So we're gonna say goodbye for now. As we said earlier, this will be broadcast again tomorrow, Sunday at 6:00 PM. Have a beautiful Southern Oregon weekend. We'll see you next time.

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