Real Estate Market 2021: Rick Nesbitt

Despite the 2020 pandemic, the housing industry in Topeka remained strong, sustaining a seventh-year sellers’ market as interest rates dropped sharply.

Citing October year-to-year data, Rick Nesbitt, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, said, “Whether it was a $45,000 house or a $445,000 house in Topeka, it typically sold within 18 days compared to 37 days the previous year. Buyers, everyone from first- time homeowners to empty nesters, want to take advantage of historic low rates, but the overall listing availability in Topeka is down 49 percent compared to 2019, and I think that trend will continue in 2021. If I had a client right now looking for a home in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, I might have one available, and if that number pushed up to $350,000 to $400,000, I might have four.”

Although he works with buyers and sellers across multiple demographics, he said adults 28 to 45 are typically wanting to upgrade their residences while people 60 and older often are looking for properties with less square footage.

BUYERS: LOCATION & SPACE AMENITIES

Buyers often seek homes with larger yards and inground pools, and the pandemic has heightened interest in such open-air amenities.

“This past year especially, my clients have wanted to look at homes with acreage to accommodate a trampoline or a pool,” he said. “Inground pools were hot commodities this year because families spent so much time at home and were looking for ways to entertain themselves. Because of that interest, it might take 18 months or more to get a pool installed now.”

Inside the home, Nesbitt said buyers continue to gravitate toward large kitchensand bedrooms and locations in their preferred school districts.

“Topeka is territorial in the sense that people who grew up in a certain section of the city tend to gravitate back there so their kids can attend the same schools they did,” he said. “The community is familiar to them and there’s a sense of pride in that rite of passage of returning as a homeowner.”

Nesbitt said some buyers are looking for properties that can accommodate merging families.

“Adult children may be moving home with grandchildren, so a larger basement is needed,” said Nesbitt. “Or they may need a bigger bathroom and bedroom on the main floor so an older parent won’t have to use stairs.”

While new construction can deliver a homeowner’s desired amenities within a set budget,purchasing an existing structure is often a more economical choice.

“With new homes, you may have to pay special assessment taxes for 20 years too,” said Nesbitt. “Post- pandemic the price of materials and labor have also increased. If an empty nester wanted to downsize to half his home’s square footage, he might end up using all of the sale price of his current home on the new, smaller structure while paying a third or half as much more in taxes because of special assessments.”

SELLERS: AMP UP THE WOW FACTOR

“Given the keen competition for existing housing stock, sellers can take low-cost steps to enhance their ability to close the sale and amp up the wow factor,” Nesbitt said.

“I tell my clients they need to have the right price and a good presentation. Most of what I recommend involves sweat equity—clean the house, shampoo the carpets, touch up the paint, and move some of the furniture around or out of the room entirely so that the space looks like a magazine photo.”

Decluttering is also key.

“Rent a storage unit and pile it as high and tight as you need to,” he said. “Everything you don’t use every day needs to be removed from the counters and stowed in cabinets.

Restaging your space so it looks larger will allow buyers to visualize their possessions in the space and won’t indicate you’re selling because your stuff is bursting at the seams.”

He also recommends proactively spending $425 on a pre-listing inspection to avoid surprises and assume control by fixing them.

“Having that pre-listing report card on the counter conveys to a prospect that you’ve had the property reviewed by a trustworthy inspection company and you’ve fixed deficiencies,” he said. “It takes a lot of the negotiation work off the table and makes for a smoother, faster transaction.”

DOWN THE ROAD

In Nesbitt’s estimation, more maintenance-provided housing would be a welcome addition to Topeka’s housing inventory. Although some of his clients 60 and older still

desire large lots for greater privacy, many are seeking well- appointed smaller homes with lawn care and snow removal services provided.

A popular building trend he’s seen in Lawrence, Manhattan and Kansas City involves homes in the 2,000 to 2,200 square- foot range built on concrete slabs without basements.

“Since we live in a tornado zone, builders are creating concrete safe rooms with steel doors in master suite closets,” he said. “I think this type of housing is truly needed in Topeka.”