Busy Week in Park City

Busy week in Park City About 12 years ago I created an alliance of boards of Realtors at destination ski resorts throughout the Rocky Mountain states. With the purpose of sharing market and resort information. The Rocky Mountain Resort Alliance has 12 member boards in four states plus British Columbia, Canada. Our members are in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming. This coming weekend we are holding our spring meeting here in Park City. There are about 20 Realtors from the non-Utah resorts coming here to share information on their markets and issues that are facing the resorts. Over the years this has proved to be one of the most informative and beneficial meetings that I attend. Even though I always hear news from the other resorts, it is best when I am able to speak with my compatriots one on one and be able to get an in depth picture of their market. Watch for a report on the meetings next week.

In local real estate news, business is definitely picking up. Late last week I received an offer on a townhouse in the neighboring community of Heber and yesterday I received a second and backup offer. We have not seen multiple offers in quite some time and hopefully this is an indication that for good properties properly priced, buyers are out there. Also late last week I received an offer on a Deer Valley condo that I have listed and while the negotiations are ongoing, buyer and seller are very close and I am confident that ultimately we’ll see a sale. For the end of May, early June when the town is still quiet, as it is still snowing every week, this activity is very promising for the summer. In speaking with a potential buyer this morning, I again reiterated (and he agreed) that whether it be two or three years from now we are going to look back at this year very wistfully. I suspect that many buyers are beginning to realize this and understand that while sellers are negotiating this may not be the case for much longer. Real estate markets and particularly resort real estate markets can flip from a Buyer’s Market to a Seller’s Market or visa versa very quickly and with little advance notice. The savvy investors understand that the time to purchase is not at the bottom of the market but as the market is approaching the bottom. All too often everyone waits for the market to hit bottom to purchase. If a significant number of buyers all come into the market at close to the same time the market quickly changes to favor sellers and buyers may have lost whatever gains they thought they had realized by waiting.