An Update on the Brunswick Real Estate Market


I’ve got a thorough market update for you today regarding the Brunswick real estate market.

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We’ve got a comprehensive market update to share with you today. We’ll look at every detail of the Brunswick market, as well as how the market changes as you go up in price. 

Right now, the Brunswick market is in a seller’s market overall. The number of properties that have come on the market has increased from 66 to 90 in just one month. Pending properties have stayed pretty flat, and our inventory is at about 1.3 months. If no new listings came on the market, our inventory would be depleted in just over a month. The average days on market is shrinking too. We’ve dropped from 57 days to only 48. 

What does this mean if you’re thinking about buying and selling? For sellers, you need to make sure your home is priced at market value and presented well. Making the small improvements will lead to you getting a maximum price. 

We’re seeing a bit of a different market for condos. We’re still in a seller’s market with 1.7 months of inventory, but our pending inventory is at 2.1 months. This may be indicative of a bit of a slowdown. 

As you already know, real estate is hyperlocal and each segment of the market can have its own trends. Here’s a quick look at all of the price points we’ve been tracking and what kind of numbers each of them is seeing:



We looked at every market detail.


For homes priced under $150,000 we are in dire need of inventory. We have less than one month available. Based on the current pending properties, we have an average of fewer than 14 days on market. 

Homes in the $150,000 to $200,000 range have seen a big increase in inventory, going from 10 properties for sale to 21. There has been some strong buyer activity in this market, with just 0.8 months of pending inventory. These properties are sitting on the market a bit longer than they have been, but they are still selling for good prices.

For homes in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, we’re still seeing strong sale numbers. Homes in the $250,000 to $300,000 range aren’t seeing as much of an increase. In fact, we might see this price point slowly shift into a neutral market. 

For the luxury market above $300,000, this is a buyer’s market with a lot of inventory. Around nine months to be exact. However, we saw a ton of homes go under contract last month and our pending inventory was at just 1.8 months. This is a great price point for sellers that are still out there. Even though inventory is high, the best homes are still moving quickly.

If you have any questions for us about the Brunswick market or if you’re looking to buy or sell a home, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you soon.

How We Can Help You Find Success in the Real Estate Industry

Joining the BOLD team can bring you a new level of professional success. Here’s how our system works to allow our team members to reach their highest goals.

Thinking of making a career change? Contact us today

If you’re considering a career change, the BOLD team might be the perfect fit for you. 

Chris Moscarino, one of our agents, was once in the same position. When he was switching careers, he looked into many different industries. After meeting with us, though, he decided that real estate fit him the best and offered the most opportunity. Another factor in his decision was that because we are a real estate team, we already had a network of support that he could leverage to start his career. 

Overall, our vision was in line with his. We have structure, a training plan for new employees, and a growth model that other brokerages he interviewed with didn’t have, and he didn’t feel like he could achieve his ultimate success without these things. If some of these principles sound familiar, it’s because they’re the same ones outlined in the book “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent.”

In the five months Chris has been with us, he managed to follow the 100-day plan we formulated for him very tightly to hit all of his benchmarks and goals. Having this plan in place accelerated his path to becoming a successful agent. His initial training and mentorship were closely monitored, and in the 60 days since he’s been on his own, he’s been experiencing a pace and level of success that’s rare for first-year agents. 


Who you become is up to you.


Like everyone in our office, Chris is held accountable to his own goals and the activities that will achieve those goals. There are expectations of things he must do every month along with these goals. These expectations are put in place as a guideline to what he must achieve to be successful. Many agents experience a roller coaster ride of business when they start out because once they get a few sales under contract, they’re too busy to continue their lead generation. The standards we have in place allow for a consistent line of business. 

Moving forward, Chris feels like there are endless opportunities for him and the sky’s the limit as far as how much he can grow as an agent. We have an organizational chart to help our employees create opportunities, but as Chris knows, our philosophy is that it’s up to you to achieve those opportunities. Part of his responsibility in that regard is sitting down once a week to make sure he’s hitting the benchmarks we’ve outlined to help him achieve those opportunities. 

If this type of experience sounds like something you’d be interested in or you already work in the real estate field and think we might be a better fit for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to sit down with you and discuss how we can take you to the next level.

How to Sell Your Home When You’re Looking to Buy Another

There are a few ways you can handle buying and selling a home at the same time.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access


How can you sell your current home while trying to buy another home in our market? What are your options?

The first question you should ask yourself is, should you buy a home first and then try to sell your former home?

If you’re in a financial position that allows you to buy before you sell, that’s more favorable because you won’t have to coordinate showings or keep your house clean. Closing dates are also easier to get in this scenario. 

If you’re not in a financial position to do this, you can always put in a contingent offer on the new home you want, but those offers don’t look as favorable to someone who doesn’t have to sell their home, especially in a multiple offer situation. If you have a house to sell, list it first and then start looking for other homes because if you get an offer on your current home, it makes your offer on the buyer side a lot stronger if that house goes under contract.



If you can afford to buy your next home before you sell your current home, by all means do it.



If you don’t find the home you want in your designated time frame, there are certain things you can do to remedy the situation. For example, one of the things we do for our clients is door knocking, where we go to certain neighborhoods and proactively find homes that match our client’s criteria. This way, we can secure a purchase on a home that’s not even on the market. This scenario also benefits sellers because it happens before any other buyers get a chance to look at the home and they won’t have to deal with any multiple offer situations. 

In the end, the best tip we can offer is to call us for a free consultation so we can go over your needs, what you’re looking for, and help you to have the least amount of stress and hassle throughout the process. Everyone’s personal situation is unique, so it’s important to develop a personalized plan for your situation. You wouldn’t get into a car and start driving without knowing the end destination. So, what we do is provide that end destination.  

If you have any questions or you’re thinking about buying or selling a house, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email so we can give you a free consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.

What Do the Numbers Say About Our Market?

We have the latest numbers from our market and what they mean for both buyers and sellers.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access


To get a sense of where our southwest Cleveland area market stands, let’s look at how the numbers stacked up at the end of May. 

In Medina, there were 248 active listings, 115 pending listings, and 114 closed listings. There were roughly 2.2 months of inventory. These numbers indicate Medina has moved from a neutral market to a seller’s market. 

In Brunswick, there were 58 active listings, 78 pending listings, and 69 closed listings. Based on the number of properties closing per month, Brunswick has zero months of inventory, which makes it a heavy seller’s market. 

In Hinckley, there were 22 active listings, 12 pending listings, and four closed listings. This area is still a neutral market and hasn’t changed much from previous months. 

In Strongsville, there were 123 active listings, 66 pending listings, and 64 closed listings. With less than two months of inventory, they continue to be a seller’s market. 



Our market generally favors sellers.



In Middleburg Heights, there were 23 active listings, 21 pending listings, and 25 closed listings. They have less than a month of inventory, so they’re also a strong seller’s market.  

Though most areas are in a seller’s market, not every price point favors sellers. The sweet spot for buyers seems to be in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. In Brunswick, the $300,000 to $400,000 is more on the border of being a neutral or buyer’s market because there is more inventory in that price point than there are buyers. 

If you have any questions about our market or are thinking of buying or selling a home, give us a call or send us an email for a free consultation. We’d be happy to help you.

Why Hire a Buyer’s Specialist in Today’s Market?

In today’s market, hiring a buyer’s specialist offers many advantages that can help you get the home you want.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access

Why is it so important to hire a buyer’s specialist in today’s market?

Today I’m joined by two buyer’s specialists from Bold Real Estate Consultants, Linay Forgac and Pietro Bonanni, to explain how this benefits you as a buyer. 

Purchasing a home is a large financial investment for most people, and today’s real estate market is more complex than it used to be. You must have your own agent working for your best interests that will go to bat for you in all phases of the transaction so you don’t feel like you’re left in the dark throughout the process.

The state of Ohio has three types of agencies: buyer’s agency, seller’s agency, and dual agency. If a buyer contacts the listing agent directly, that agent works for the seller. Otherwise the agent can become a dual agent, in which case they don’t represent either party and instead become more like a referee between the two parties because they can’t negotiate on anyone’s behalf or give any advice. There is also a type of dual agency where the agent represents the seller and the buyer doesn’t have any representation whatsoever. 


It make sense to have your own agent working for your best interests.



Since we’re in a seller’s market, buyers in certain price points in certain areas are encountering multiple offer situations. Buyer’s specialists help you avoid this by actively searching for listings that aren’t on the MLS yet. You simply tell them the neighborhood you’re looking at and they probe that neighborhood for any homeowner that’s planning on listing their home so you can get to it before it’s listed. 

The best part? Agent commissions in Ohio are paid by the seller, so the services of your buyer’s specialist are totally free.

If you would like to contact Linay for more information, you can reach her at (330) 242-1108 or linay@boldrealestateconsultants.com. If you would like to contact Pietro, you can reach him at (216) 256-6503 or pietro@boldrealestateconsultants.com.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I’d be happy to help.

What Sets Us Apart?

Today I’m joined by Chris Moscarino and Zach Roberts, our listing manager, to talk a little bit about our listing process and what makes us different.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access


What makes our listing process different from the rest? There are a few factors.

The very first thing we do when we get a listing is contact our staging consultant who then sets up a time with the homeowner to come and do a room by room evaluation of everything that needs to be done to get the home show-ready. Once the sellers check off the projects they feel comfortable doing on the stager’s list, we bring in a professional photographer to take pictures of the home.

While that’s happening, here at the office we are contacting buyers and getting open houses set up. We also do what is called circle prospecting, in which we call and knock on the doors of neighbors to see if they know anyone interested in the property. We then have a private showing for them.

Once a home is live on the market, there will be a lot of traffic at that first open house. Our goal is to get multiple offers, drive the price up, and net our sellers the most money. Although we’re pretty confident your home will sell within days, if a couple weeks go by there’s no need to worry. We are constantly updating our homeowners to let them know exactly what is going on with the property.


Our goal is to get multiple offers, drive the price up, and net our sellers the most money.



We stay very competitive with our marketing strategy and continue to make phone calls until we find the right buyer for your home. Communication is the biggest thing for us during this process. Chris even has a weekly phone call with our active clients to make sure they understand what’s happening with their listing. He goes over the showings from the previous weekend and gathers feedback to get an idea of what buyers are looking for. That way, even if our seller’s home has been on the market for a couple weeks, we can figure out exactly what needs to be done to get it sold.

If you have any other questions you’d like answered in a video, or if you have any other real estate needs, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’re more than happy to help!

Discussing 7 Key Areas in Our Market

What's going on in our market? I'm joined by Chris Moscarino from Bold Real Estate Consultants to help me update you on Berea, Brookpark, Parma, Middleburg Heights, Strongsville, Brunswick, and Medina.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access


For today's update on the northeast Ohio market, I've asked Chris Moscarino of Bold Real Estate Consultants to come help me explain things. We're focusing on seven areas in particular today.

Berea: Inventory is 1.9% lower than last February and sold homes are up 14.3% with 23 homes pending. It's a neutral market but appears to be shifting to a seller's market. 

Brookpark: It's a seller's market with inventory down 60% from last year. Sold homes are down 20% with pending sales up 18.8%. The good news for sellers is that 19 of 20 homes for sale went under contract.

Parma: It's also a seller's market with inventory down 21.2% and sold homes up 14.9%. Almost 50% of the inventory is going under contract, which is great news. We're almost to a point for the first time in a decade when available inventory is down below 200 homes. 

Middleburg Heights: Current inventory is down 66.1% with just 21 homes on the market. Sold homes are up 18.2% and pending sales are up 31.3%. This tells us that almost all homes going under contract are selling.


Inventory is 66.1% lower now than it was at this point last February in Middleburg Heights.



Strongsville: Inventory levels are down 43.7% and sold homes are down 33.3% with pending sales up 10.2%. It's another area with over 50% of the inventory on the market going under contract. 

Brunswick: The market is neutral but shifting to a seller's market. The number of sold homes is down 40% from last year and pending sales are down 1.6%. These decreases are due to lower inventory.

Medina: Inventory is down 19.2% but the number of sold homes is up slightly. Pending sales are up 11% as well. The market is consistently neutral.

If you have any other questions about your particular area, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be glad to help you!

The Do’s and Don’ts of the Home Buying Process


To help you deal with being a homebuyer, I’ve laid out the do’s and don’ts of the home buying process.

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access

What are the do’s and don’ts of the home purchasing process? Today I’m joined by Tom Swan of All American Home Lending to answer that question for you.

By the “home purchasing process,” we mean the time period during the loan process, or from when you buy your home until a couple weeks after closing when you get your keys. According to Tom, the do’s and don’ts are as follows:

DON’T:
  • Make any large deposits
  • Move money around
  • Let anyone pull your credit
  • Open any new credit accounts
  • Make any large purchases (i.e., buy a new car or go furniture shopping)
  • Pay off any large debts
  • Jump jobs (if possible)

Some of these items are self explanatory, but others aren’t. If you absolutely must make some kind of large purchase or go out shopping for furniture for your new home, don’t give any information to any salespeople you interact with. Why? They’ll typically push you into making the next step, which is entering your information (name, date of birth, etc.) into a database. That will then show up as an inquiry and another account that your lender will have to scrutinize.

Inquiries like that can affect your credit score and even result in a turndown of your loan. Not only that, but it can also impact your interest rate. Everything is score-based in 20-point increments, so if you drop 20 points in your score, your rate would jump from 3.875% to 4.125%.

Additionally, paying off a large debt might seem like a good idea in the sense that you’re increasing your ability to buy, but it’s actually not. That kind of activity adds a layered risk because your lender has to then source where you got the money to pay off that debt. 


Inquiries can affect your credit score and even result in a turndown of your loan.




If you have no choice and have to make a switch in your career by jumping jobs, then by all means do so. That’s understandable. Otherwise, changing jobs can result in changing titles from a salary-based position to a commission-based one, which is where the problem lies. This is because your lender will need at least a year’s worth of proof that your commissioned income is as reliable as your salary income was. 

DO:
  • Make sure your IRS dealings are in order
  • Find a Realtor you’re comfortable with
  • Get fully pre-approved by a lender
  • Beware of online pre-qualifications

Regarding your IRS dealings, if you haven’t filed your taxes on time or you have a deficiency to the IRS, that will stop you dead in your tracks. As far as online pre-qualifications go, there are many disclaimers to the pre-qualifications process, and the results of an online test can be skewed based on a number of different factors that don’t show up.

I want to give a special thanks to Tom for joining me today. If you have any more questions for him about navigating the home buying process, you can give his office a call at (440) 234-1400.

If you’re looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d be happy to help!

The Latest Trends in the Northeast Ohio Real Estate Market

How did the December 2016 market stack up against the December 2015 market? We’ll look at the latest numbers today. 

Selling in Northeast Ohio? Click here for a free home value report
Buying in Northeast Ohio? Click here for full MLS access

Today, we’ll take a look at the latest market numbers from a few different areas and compare December of 2016 to December of 2015.

In Parma, inventory dropped by 22% from December of 2015 to December of 2016. At the same time, the number of properties going under contract went up 16%. Overall, Parma continues to be in a seller’s market. If you’re hesitating to sell this time of year, you should know that Parma is still in a great place for you to list your home and net more money. 

In Middleburg Heights, inventory levels are down 62% and the number of properties going under contract is up by 30%. Middleburg is also in a seller’s market.

North Royalton saw a 39% decrease in inventory and a 19% increase in properties under contract. North Royalton is in a neutral market compared to a few months ago, when we were in a strong seller’s market.

In Strongsville, inventory levels are down by almost 50% year over year, while pending properties are up 88%. Strongsville is in an incredibly strong seller’s market, which is great news for homeowners who may have been under water back in 2008 or 2009. If that’s the case for you, now is a great time to get your property back on the market and net more money.



Now is a great time to put your home on the market.



Brunswick also saw a decline in inventory, with inventory dropping by 42%. The number of properties under contract also dropped to 28.3%. Why? A lot of the inventory out there right now is stale, so the good inventory is going quick. Brunswick is still in a seller’s market.

Inventory in Medina dropped by 27% but the number of properties going under contract increased by 27%. Medina continues to maintain a neutral position in the market right now.

So, what does that mean to you? If you are a seller and you have been hesitating about putting your home on the market, now is a great time to sell. A lot of people have pulled their homes off of the market to wait for spring, which means you will face less competition. Not only that, demand is still strong and there are plenty of buyers out there on the market.

If you have any other questions about the current market or about selling your home, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!