Is It the Right Time to Buy Real Estate? A Realtor’s Honest Answer

Steve McNamer (00:00)
I hear a lot of the markets bad, the markets tough, the market. And, you know, we’ve always got we’ve always as a family looked at the markets not good or bad. It just is. And so, you know, it’s a bad market compared to what or it’s a good market compared to what now might have been they might be easier before the interest rates were better. Yeah. House prices were a lot lower, but

you know, the price of milk was a lot lower way back when too, but here’s kind of where we are. So how do we still then, but there’s still ways we can put deals together. There’s still ways to get you into a home. Cause people all that, everyone is, is this the right time to buy? Is this the right time to sell? Everyone always tries, you know, tries to time the market. And I always think if we all have the crystal ball, we all would have bought Apple. We all would have bought Microsoft. We all would have bought Bitcoin.

Kristen Knapp (00:51)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (00:54)
if we knew, so is it right for you right now as a family? And it’s always a good time to own when it comes to real estate, always a good time to own.

Kristen Knapp (01:01)
Mm.

back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen Knapp and I’m here with Steve McNaimr and he’s…

Steve McNamer (02:39)
Yeah.

Kristen Knapp (02:39)
of the McNamara Homes team, a realtor in Seattle, Tacoma area. So we’re going to get into a lot about the market, how we got started in real estate, and we’re going to have a lot of fun. So thank you for being here.

Steve McNamer (02:50)
Thank you, really excited that you’re here. Take a little time and talk about real estate.

Kristen Knapp (02:55)
Yes,

of course. So how about we just start at the beginning? How did you get into the industry?

Steve McNamer (03:01)
So it started in really the investor world. So our family had been doing investments, my brother, for…

We were over 30 years and I had actually pursued a different angle. was actually, I was a manager for a bank. And then also I was pulled away from there to promote and develop online education. And so that was, that was kind of when the market was kind of, it was kind of getting a little rough. And so again, they kind of, poached me and said, Steve, we’d love you to do some regional sales and set up online schools around the nation. ⁓

And so that really, know, education was important and it was going to be a lot of, it was really an opportunity that I couldn’t refuse. And down the road, that company actually ended up merging. And so we had, there was duplicate positions and, and so they ended up giving me a little severance package. And that’s like, whenever you start in real estate, how do you, how do you keep food on the table?

Kristen Knapp (04:08)
I ain’t.

Steve McNamer (04:08)
You’re

eating beans and rice while you’re trying to build your pipeline. So it really worked out great because I had some unemployment. I had some of the severance package so that could then kind of get me started. And my brother had started a brokerage and said, Steve, hey, investment real estate is really big right now. Short sales is awesome. So that’s when the old, it was the wild wild west and short sales. So I just helped.

I then got my license and we started to, I started to be the data analyst and find the properties, be the bird dog, you know, going every day, look at the MLS to try to find those good deals that seemed to make sense and get offers written. And you know, so there’s thousands of homes and negotiated thousands of contracts and, know, then, yeah, just started doing invest, working with a lot of investors right out of the gate.

Kristen Knapp (05:00)
Wow, I mean, it’s so lucky that you found such a passion. It sounds like you found it almost immediately and started pursuing that.

Steve McNamer (05:09)
Yeah, yeah, once, know, Jody had been in it for a while and really enjoyed it and I never really thought about going that direction. But then once I kind of got into it of, yeah, this definitely, definitely is a lot of fun.

Kristen Knapp (05:21)
Yeah, and when you’re thinking back to that first deal you did where maybe you’re like, wow, this is actually, this can be my full-time thing where I’m actually providing for myself. What was that deal and what did that look like?

Steve McNamer (05:33)
Lakeland Hills, so Lakeland Hills was a Get a community definitely was a destination community and it was a house that ended up going into short sale so we were able to then get it go in there and get it fixed up that need to be fixed up and and touched up and then I was able to get it then resold back out on the market. So yeah, that was my that was my first deal

Kristen Knapp (05:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that must have been fun.

Steve McNamer (05:58)
And it was really cool.

you know, I read, yeah, that’s what you do. I knew that you knew the first one. And I got the picture of it. Because you always remember the first. ⁓

Kristen Knapp (06:04)
Yeah, I can-

Of course, of

course.

Yeah, I mean, and I think it’s, you know, talking about how you got started and how you had a little bit of flexibility, you know, leaving your other job. I think a lot of people enter real estate just thinking it’s going to be boatloads of money from the beginning. But the reality is it takes a lot of hustling to build what you’ve built.

Steve McNamer (07:14)
But you do, yeah, there’s no easy button, there’s no quick fix. It really is hard work. And if you want it to be something, not be part-time, it is the blood, sweat and the tears. So no, we’re not driving around in our little pink Cadillacs just collecting commission. There’s so much behind the scenes. Our job is to make it look easy to our buyers and sellers. We absorb the stress, we put out the fire, nothing to see behind us, there’s nothing to see here.

Kristen Knapp (07:30)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (07:44)
We’re

here to make it nice and enjoyable for our clients.

Kristen Knapp (07:49)
Yeah, and what would be like a big, maybe a mistake that you learned

from and made you stronger throughout your journey?

Steve McNamer (08:00)
What was interesting was the diversification. So I had gone into, it was solely working with investors and the market was, again, market was great. But then there was the shift where banks were saying, wow, we can actually get more for it or we’re gonna do our fix up, we’re gonna do the fix up ourselves and sell it. And so good deals really started drying up. And so was like, okay, now what do I do?

I never marketed myself as a regular, as a, I guess a traditional broker that works with buyers and sellers. I was solely, solely investors. So if you wanted to say the one trick pony, like that was it. So what I learned was, okay, now that this had dried up, that I had to now brand myself of yes, here’s the specialties that we do. We do residential real estate, buyers and sellers, and even now expand into certain very specific.

niche markets so I could really be a good specialist to help certain markets as well. So that’s probably the big takeaway was all of a sudden, and you see it in other companies where they’re just that, this is their marketing campaign, it’s just one thing that they do. If someone comes in and if the market shifts, they can’t survive because they never said that they were anything else. that’s the one thing that I said that was the biggest takeaway. So it was a little, again, it was kind of some…

Kristen Knapp (09:22)
Right.

Steve McNamer (09:28)
know, Kansas Beanie Weenies is, was trying to make that flip and build my residential referral market in the real estate.

Kristen Knapp (09:35)
Yeah, I imagine

building a referral market is very challenging.

Steve McNamer (09:38)
Yeah, it just takes time. So it builds the time and reputation and and you know, doing doing enough deals where then they have a family and friends that want to buy and sell houses too so.

Kristen Knapp (09:47)
Right.

And how is it different working

with investors and then buyers and sellers?

Steve McNamer (10:30)
Yeah, it’s a real it’s investors. There’s really no emotion to it. The numbers work or they don’t. And I think that’s that’s you know, that’s good that way. Hey, do the numbers make sense? You know, and buying it at the right price. When you’re dealing with buyers and sellers, you know, sellers, well, buyers, there’s it’s all emotion. And it’s great emotion because hey, they get there. Maybe it’s their first house or maybe they’re, you know, they’re

Kristen Knapp (10:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (10:59)
the whatever transitions happening, usually there’s some excitement there. And like I say, with investor is just raw numbers. But with buyers, it’s like, okay, tell me, you what is what does the weekend look like on Saturday morning? What does it look like when you come home during the week? Will this house fit your needs? You know, are you the party place? And then also then with sellers, you’re working with the pricing with sellers sometimes helping them. You know, because everybody’s an expert and everyone at work is an expert.

Kristen Knapp (11:12)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (11:28)
And sometimes saying, and the media can be the media. It’s like, OK, here’s what’s real. So there’s definitely more emotion in buyers and sellers as opposed to investors. Yeah.

Kristen Knapp (11:40)
Yeah, that makes

a lot of sense. Like when you’re selling a home to a buyer, you want to set the scene and help them envision their life and you’re tapping into the motions and with investors, yeah, it comes down to money at the end of the day. And do you work with both still or are you just working with buyers? Yeah.

Steve McNamer (11:54)
All it does, yep. I do. Yeah,

so I do a lot. I go after lot of off-market stuff right now and some of that’s distressed and so I have got my investor pool and then of course your traditional buyers and sellers. So especially with the market the way it is, diversification is really huge and again going out after the business is what you got to get out there and work.

Kristen Knapp (12:09)
Awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and

I love to get into just the current market and what you’re seeing and maybe the misconceptions you might be seeing.

Steve McNamer (12:24)
lot.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s interesting what I hear.

I hear a lot of the markets bad, the markets tough, the market. And, you know, we’ve always got we’ve always as a family looked at the markets not good or bad. It just is. And so, you know, it’s a bad market compared to what or it’s a good market compared to what now might have been they might be easier before the interest rates were better. Yeah. House prices were a lot lower, but

you know, the price of milk was a lot lower way back when too, but here’s kind of where we are. So how do we still then, but there’s still ways we can put deals together. There’s still ways to get you into a home. Cause people all that, everyone is, is this the right time to buy? Is this the right time to sell? Everyone always tries, you know, tries to time the market. And I always think if we all have the crystal ball, we all would have bought Apple. We all would have bought Microsoft. We all would have bought Bitcoin.

Kristen Knapp (13:24)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (13:28)
if we knew, so is it right for you right now as a family? And it’s always a good time to own when it comes to real estate, always a good time to own.

Kristen Knapp (13:34)
Mm.

Steve McNamer (13:36)
So really been able to then find the right place that matches your circumstances. So the market is what it is and the media, know, the media’s job is to promote the viewership, which, you know, it can be doom or gloom and the tragedies and how tough, but yes, it is.

a lot of work, but that’s also what we do. And if you love what you do, then hey, yes, it’s work, but it still can be a lot of fun. I think way back when, when everyone’s hair was on fire, when the market was just running, you’re running 18%, 23%. You aren’t sure if you’re even gonna order a sign because it’d be gone just in seconds. But now…

Kristen Knapp (14:05)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (14:25)
Now, do you have the systems? Do you have the marketing? Because that’s the big deal. Do you have the marketing in place and the systems in place to make sure your people, you can showcase the property well for your sellers, but then on the buyer’s side, all right, how do we put a deal together with good lenders to make sure it works for your family?

Kristen Knapp (14:45)
Yeah, and that’s all just choosing the right realtor.

Steve McNamer (14:48)
Yes, yep, yep, needs the experience need the experience so that someone has the experience the confidence and systems and connections

Kristen Knapp (14:50)
What?

Yeah, and can educate you on the realities of the market as well. Because I think there’s a lot of different information being thrown around that people aren’t really sure what’s even going on. And I think that a lot of people wait and wait and wait. And if you keep waiting, you could miss your moment. So I think partnering with someone like you is really crucial.

Steve McNamer (15:14)
Yeah.

Yeah, like, there’s a lot of people today that says, ⁓ I should have bought.

Kristen Knapp (15:20)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (15:22)
You know, and then there’s definitely plenty of it. is, oh, I should have bought five years ago. But the problem is two years from now, people can say, oh, I should wish I would have bought two years ago. because, where we are, we’re a destination where, you know, it’s a beautiful 74 degrees right now. The sun is out and, you know, it’s just we’ve got, you know, with with all you got Facebook and Google and Amazon and Boeing and, know, we really are a destination. And of course, it’s the Pacific Northwest. So

Kristen Knapp (15:31)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (15:52)
Do I get on a boat? Do I get on some skis? Do I get on a motorcycle? How about a horse? it, you were really a good destination. So for our market, we’re going to always, we’re going to see an increase of house prices. Media says, ⁓ we’re for the big crash. How prices will not go to half price. So, so even if, and even if the rate interface go down, if the price has gone up, your payments going to be the same too. So if you think, boy, is this the right time?

Kristen Knapp (16:11)
Yeah, exactly.

Steve McNamer (16:21)
It’s always the right time to own. The question is, we get you in to what you want or even close to what you want or create what you want? And that’s when it’s going out and finding the house. that’s one thing I really enjoy doing is sometimes it’s not on the market. We’re seeing a huge percentage of homes that are sold off market. So can I go out and I’ll go out and find what you’re looking for so we can get you get your family into a house so you can toss the ball in the backyard.

Kristen Knapp (16:34)
Yeah.

Yeah.

And what are some questions that people should be asking when they’re vetting a realtor?

Steve McNamer (16:57)
One of the biggest, well, are they doing it full-time? Because right now we’re seeing a lot of part-time agents. Again, the market is what the market is. So hey, everyone, gotta put food on the table. is this truly what you do full-time? How many deals have you done? So sometimes you’ll have the average agent, yeah, they’re full-time, but maybe they’ve done six deals a year. That’ll run kind of your average, five to six deals a year. Do they have the experience, sort of like a doctor, right?

Kristen Knapp (17:02)
Mm.

Steve McNamer (17:26)
I don’t have a doctor that’s done that surgery a hundred times, a thousand times. So, you know, how many, you know, how many deals have they done? What’s their process? What do they have on their team to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks? But I think the biggest question is what is their marketing program? Not what do they do for marketing? What is their program? So there should be a tried and true system of how do you market my property to get the most eyes on it?

which means more interest, more potential contracts. And so we really can make sure that we can get it sold. And that is getting into buyers to the market. So do you have the experience when there are challenges that come up, how do you deal with those? But really what’s your marketing, what does your marketing program look like? And that’s involving at all. You’re from, know, cause it’s a combo, social media, the old grassroots direct mail.

Kristen Knapp (18:08)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (18:26)
you know, targeted advertisements, you know, what is, what’s that full system? Yeah, so we actually do, we actually have that multi-layer. So you know how social media knows everything about us, right? That pair of shoes, as soon as you look out on Amazon, will follow you around. So we really do the same thing with people’s houses. So we do targeted social media advertising. We also then have the grassroots direct mail campaign.

Kristen Knapp (18:32)
Yeah, what does your system look like? I’d love to know.

Yeah.

Steve McNamer (18:56)
So if your neighbors are there and they love the house, they may want some friends that would be there. So we then have got, of course, from the open houses, your direct mail, social media, and obviously it’s blasted on the MLS, everywhere we go. So with that, the other part of it is making sure that there is video. We actually do it, I call it Vanna White the house. We actually do a video tour. And of course we have that 3D Matterport walkthrough.

And so the video tour is really powerful. A lot of people say, ⁓ hey, we’ve got our, you know, here’s the virtual tour of the house. And it’s just, you’re flipping through the pictures like a photo album. And you know, people can do that. And also what I found too with video, the power of video is sometimes, especially if for buyers, when they’re running around the neighborhood, they’re looking at five, six homes and they can all start blending together. Like, okay, which one had the tile? What did the back splash of the kitchen look like? And so with the video,

that they can go back and review to say, that’s right. That’s what that house looked like. Or, oh, wow, when I was there, I didn’t catch this. I didn’t catch that. I didn’t notice this. So that’s some of the power that I found of really doing produced commercials for my listings. that the way I call it, it’s sort of like when your house goes on the market, we’re kicking the saloon doors open and your house is there. We have arrived and everyone will know that your house is for sale.

Kristen Knapp (20:17)
Yeah.

Wow, that’s really valuable.

Steve McNamer (20:25)
Yeah, that’s why it’s a system. We’ve tested some where, okay, what if we take this out, or what if we take this out? And it has different lift. It really does affect it. So we found, okay, this is the formula, this is the combination, this is what works.

Kristen Knapp (20:42)
Wow, wow, that’s really, yeah, that’s so valuable. And I’m sure you also just have your own personal network that you can also tap into.

Steve McNamer (20:49)
Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to get your, you know, from the master builders to have got a database of 30,000 interested buyers. And then we have our whole, we’ve got an amazing network, you know, with our brokerage as well. So that then gets it out even that much more. So yeah, you, we will get plenty of eyes on your property to be able to create that.

Kristen Knapp (21:11)
Nice.

Love that. Well, I think something else that ⁓ your business does that’s very unique is you have divorce services. When I went on your website, you have all those resources for people going through a divorce, which I think is such a great niche to be in. If you could kind of talk more about that.

Steve McNamer (21:30)
Yeah, know, it’s sad to say those things, you know, that parts of life happen. And, you know, when on the wedding day, you don’t expect that there would be a divorce day, but it happens. And so what do you do? There’s really a lot of questions that, can we keep the house? Can one of the, you know, can one of the spouses keep the house? Or, you who should we choose? A lot of times what happens is you really need that neutral, you need that.

Kristen Knapp (21:36)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (22:00)
neutral party, like not a friend of one spouse or the other because then they what is it that’s happening? And part of that is the art of listening, of being patient because there are so many emotions that are involved. But I think the biggest piece of it too is pulling things off the plate of everyone. Like you may be dealing with lawyers or you’re dealing with other things. And so if there’s things that I can pull off your plate.

when it comes to the house and great escrow folks to then communicate how you want to communicate. Because we’ve had somewhere, yes, you can, it’s amicable. So yes, it’s okay to CCS together or no, please send some emails or we’ll be signing in different locations. navigating those, there’s an art to navigating that, but I say definitely pulling a lot off their plate because they’re just, they’re working on the parenting plan and they’re working with the lawyers to provide the accounting.

Kristen Knapp (22:56)
Yeah.

Steve McNamer (22:59)
There’s a lot that has to be done there. So to know, all right, it’s in someone that’s experienced, someone that can stay neutral, not get caught up in the emotion and just keep the business up. All right, here’s what you guys agreed to with the house. We’ll help you with this so that you both can lend on your feet when all this.

Kristen Knapp (23:19)
Yeah.

And you even do referrals of lawyers, right?

Steve McNamer (23:22)
Thank

Yes, yep, yep, we’ve got some great lawyers that we work with. you if they need that part, sometimes you start out, things are okay, but you might need a little bit of help. So yeah, we definitely have the resources. I wrote a book about that as well that I can provide of here’s some questions you need to ask yourself about the house. What does it look like? Like a lot of it is, oh, hey, the divorce decree says one person gets the house, but what does that mean for-

Now because as an old bank manager, I know how the bank views it. They don’t care. Your both names are on it and so you both are liable. They don’t care what the ownership says, you both are liable for the loan. So some of that, you see how some of that can get kind of muddy. So it’s making sure is everyone protected, working with the lawyers, working with escrow. So it’s as smooth as possible on a variable.

Kristen Knapp (23:59)
Yeah.

Wow, yeah, and talk about your book.

Steve McNamer (24:24)
Yeah, so we know it’s there and available. We know a lot of people, again, there’s so much going on, you may not want to sit down and read the book, but there’s still those questions of should I keep the house? How do I keep the house? What happens to the proceeds? How do we know for sure that we’ll get the proceeds that we’ll get? What are those different things you need to think about? How to choose a good lawyer? what are the questions you need to ask yourself that we can then

you to. So it’s just just references what people need. This is a new circumstance that they have going on right now and so how can they have a good support system so that they can then make good decisions and that’s what part of the things I provide. So what from lawyers to other guidance, do need help moving, do you need help packing, you know what. But also the biggest thing too is what happens at the end.

first question I always ask is when this is all done where are gonna go? Do you have that plan because we you don’t want the rug pulled out and you really don’t have any place to go so that’s really what I found is helpful is making sure. Okay here’s a question to ask do you have the do you have the full A to Z plan and then the support system to help

Kristen Knapp (25:46)
Right. Well, I think you’re helping so many people.

Steve McNamer (25:51)
Yeah, thank you. ⁓ It’s all about people. If you just take care of people, money falls into place and it gets very rewarding. It’s sort of like the emotion, I always think about it like the airport. There’s so many emotions in an airport, like, this is their first trip to Disneyland, everybody’s excited, or maybe there’s sadness because someone has to leave.

Kristen Knapp (25:55)
Yeah, totally.

Steve McNamer (26:18)
So there’s always a lot of mixed emotions and home ownership is the same way, buying and selling. There’s so much emotions that are there. again, definitely be a lot of fun and want to be there to share that the experiences.

Kristen Knapp (26:25)
Yeah.

Love that. Well, how can people find you?

Steve McNamer (26:35)
Yeah, so we’re mcnamorhomes.com. If you Google or chat GPT Steve McNamor, you’ll be able to find me. I’m all over Instagram and YouTube. If you want to follow me on Instagram and YouTube, I’ve got a lot of great content there for buyers, for sellers, little kind of called treadmill thoughts as well. just so you really know what it is that’s happening in the market and you can decide, but just.

Yeah, I’m always available to actually answer my phone. So you call and answer. But I, if you just have questions, I love answering questions too. Hey, is this the right, here’s what we’ve got going on. We think we have some credit bumps or you know what? Can you give me truly what my house is worth? I see on the web, there’s some websites that will give us some estimates and is that really accurate? And it’s like, Hey, yeah, let’s, you know, let’s find out. So you gotta just love what I do.

So if there’s any question whatsoever, just, there’s not too many McNamers around, you can Google, Google Steve McNamor, McNamor team, McNamorhomes.com, you’ll find us and always happy.

Kristen Knapp (27:37)
Yeah.

Awesome, well I encourage everyone to please check him out. I feel like you have so many great resources to share with people, whether they’re in the Seattle market or not. think you can, you have a lot of great information on your social, so people should definitely check him out, and thank you so much for being here.

Steve McNamer (27:48)
Thank

Thank you for your time. Yeah, I really appreciate being here. Thank you.

Kristen Knapp (28:05)
Awesome. Well, thank you

so much for being here and everyone, thank you for listening and we’ll see you back next time. Thank you.

Steve McNamer (28:11)
Right. Bye.