Episode 121: Mississippi Gulf Coast Housing Market

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Connect with our guest, Crystal Boggs at www.nexthomehomefront.com

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Transcript:

Lindsey Litton 0:07
Welcome to the MilHousing nation podcast where we bring you stories from real military spouses who have been in your shoes, from New spouses to veteran spouses. You’ll get tips, tricks and actionable steps that can help you along your military life journey. Hey, veteran homeowner, have you heard about interest rates dropping? Have you been getting enough mailers to fill a cargo plane? Well, throw that stuff away and call the VA Home pros at Aligned. Mortgage they will analyze your personal situation and figure out if refinancing is the best option for you to ignore the sales pitch and get the facts Aligned mortgage, veteran-owned veteran operated. Now here’s Ashley peoples.

Ashley Peebles 0:50
All right. Welcome, everyone to the MilHousing Nation Podcast. My name is Ashley Peebles. I’m so excited to be with you today. And we have an awesome guest with us. So what we’re going to start doing on the podcast is every single month, we’re going to be interviewing one of the male Housing Network realtors, and we’ve got absolutely amazing lineup, but we’re starting it off with the one and only Miss crystal Boggs. She is with next home home front out of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. And we wanted to start where there first of all, because she’s a complete rock star. Second of all, she’s in one of the most desirable areas, she’s in one of the busiest areas. And when it comes to military, they’ve got four bases down there all around them. And the housing market is absolutely booming. So we wanted to make sure that we could link all of our listeners that are going to be PCs sing neat, you know, in and around Biloxi Ocean Springs, anyone that’s PCs into the area, we wanted to give you a snapshot of what the housing market looks like down there right now. Because the truth is, if you’ve got a window into what you’re walking into, you’re gonna Your eyes are going to be so much more wide open. And we were just discussing it before we started filming about all the things that you want to know walking into it the expectations that you need to have before walking into an area. So welcome, welcome. Welcome, Crystal. I’m so glad to have you here. Thank you. Thank you guys for letting me be on the podcast. I don’t know how long have you been in real estate?

Crystal Boggs 2:22
So I started in San Antonio in 2016. So four years ago,

Ashley Peebles 2:26
that is awesome. And you actually you’re the owner of next home home front, right? Correct. That is incredible after four years owning your own business. So how many people do you guys have in your office there?

Crystal Boggs 2:38
We currently have 14 that are all military, either a spouse or retired or a dependent.

Ashley Peebles 2:46
I am so thankful that you said that out loud. Because so many of us in the military community we really love to do business with other military spouses and military families. So you’ve got 14 there in the office. How did how did you come about doing this? What made you choose real estate?

Crystal Boggs 3:03
I’ve always had a passion for and I used to flip houses. I don’t have time for it now. But we moved to San Antonio, I decided to do a career change moved back here in the fall of 17. And I’m in 2020 already this year on it. 15 point 4 million in sales. So 67 families this year already.

Ashley Peebles 3:25
Can you say I was saying Holy mackerel. And I totally interrupted you how many families

Crystal Boggs 3:29
67 myself so far this year not to include the agents in our office who are also Bowman,

Ashley Peebles 3:36
Crystal that is in that is absolutely incredible. No wonder you’re the very first person that they sent to me when I was like, Hey, we need to interview real estate agents in the middle Housing Network. They’re like, Oh, I’ve got the one for you. They sent you give me right off the bat. Well, that totally makes sense. So what branch of the service are or have been Are you attached to

Crystal Boggs 3:59
so my husband retired a year ago, November 1, from the Air Force. So we are actually retirees I don’t even like saying that word anymore. Cuz uh, you go, the commissary that they have days for retirees can go now and I’m like, wait, I can’t go to the commissary today. So yes, we are a retiree and we are going to stay here for life. I love this area.

Ashley Peebles 4:19
I’m so glad. I know what our listeners probably don’t know, I don’t know if I’ve shared it on here is when you were stationed at keesler. Just like a whole lot of the military. Like, there have been so many people in all different branches of the service that have been stationed in your area. So that was our very first duty station. Everybody remembers their very first duty station. We remember it very fondly because both of our children were born at keesler. And we lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. We have a really fond memory and we have one that’s like, you know, that we don’t, we wouldn’t want to do that part again.

Crystal Boggs 4:57
Not that part at all. Not at all.

Ashley Peebles 4:59
So Tell me about the housing market in your area right now. Is it slow?

Crystal Boggs 5:04
It is not slow, it is extremely busy. And I will tell you something he sent you mentioned during Hurricane Katrina, right after that we had a housing boom, because we got here in oh six the first time. So we were here at about the same time, except for I got here after, um, and there was a huge housing boom, we are back in that right now is insane houses are going off the market, and 24 to 48 hours if it’s at market value with multiple offers. And that’s an expectation people aren’t really realizing when they they’re coming here and PCs, and like how bad it is, I mean, interest rates at 2.25. Great. That means everybody’s wanting to buy a house, which is horrible, like the competition makes my heart hurt, like how bad you know, people are having to go up against others just to get the home. Yeah. So do you think people understand that when they’re moving there? Or do you? Are they coming in thinking, Oh, this is going to be so easy. The interest rates are so low, let me just go buy a house. Do you think they’re looking and thinking it’s going to be a whole lot more simple than it is? First conversations where people, they’re like, yeah, that real estate agents crazy, there’s no way that the house has gone off the market that fast, so they do not expect it when they’re coming in, especially in a place like Mississippi, like, I didn’t know anything about Mississippi, I’m from North Carolina, when we PCs are the first time it’s such a great area, and so many retirees are here and for bases, you know, so everybody comes here, they want to buy a home. And it just it’s hard, because once they get in the process, and they’ve lost two or three houses, then they start realizing Okay, it’s insane. I mean, 16% increase sales price in a year.

Ashley Peebles 6:49
Tell me that earlier. So 16% in your area, what’s the national average? Is? Are all of the the housing markets up? 16%? Or is that just in your area?

Crystal Boggs 7:01
It’s a lot of like hotspots like this one is but three to four times three. Sorry, there’s people in the background. Sorry, let me ask offices a little excited today. We had a technology problem with DocuSign. And somebody is like really excited in the back. I’m no problem. I’ll ask you

Ashley Peebles 7:21
that question again. And then CNI. Get it out of there. What did I Oh, I know what it was? Sorry, sienna. Hey, how are you doing? Okay. So you were telling me about that earlier with the 16% rise in sale price this year? Is that just for your area? Or is that the national average right now,

Crystal Boggs 7:39
it’s not the national average is pretty much for our area, we were at a three to 4% increase per year, and now we’ve hit 16%. So it’s definitely turned into a seller’s market. Holy

Ashley Peebles 7:49
cow. I will tell you, we just bought a house and we lost out on to just one it just got on the market that day. And by the time we found it, it had already gotten a full price offer and they just accepted it. And I thought goodness gracious, I can’t even imagine. But what I was seeing when we were looking for this home that we just bought was people were putting in offers on homes that they’ve never even seen it. Are you seeing that in your area as well.

Crystal Boggs 8:17
I would say 65 to 70% of my personal clients bought through FaceTime.

Ashley Peebles 8:22
Well, there you go. So it’s not just my crazy area, I guess.

Crystal Boggs 8:25
I guess it’s all over.

Ashley Peebles 8:27
So now tell me about your bH there in the area. Does it match? Um, does it match the housing market? Is it high? Is it low? What should people expect when they’re moving in

Crystal Boggs 8:38
rbh for the area’s low, and I’ll give you a good example. We left here, and we’re getting over 1650 to move to Lachlan. And when we came back, it was close to 1200. So it had dropped $400 on average, three to $400 a month based on rank. And that’s that’s huge, because our prices have not been going down. They’ve been going steadily up and now we’ve got a huge increase. But what really helped us this year, the 2.25 2.5 on a VA loan has dropped the mortgage payments down. Our rental rates, though, are about $300 on average higher than a mortgage. So that makes people our rental markets very low inventory also and then they see what they get and a lot of people I’d say 90% of my clients end up buying a home though.

Ashley Peebles 9:27
I would think most people are looking to buy a home with these really low interest rates has that affected the rental market since so many people are wanting to buy? do you have? I don’t know do you have inventory in the renting? Do you have more inventory to rent than you do to buy or is it just

Crystal Boggs 9:41
slammed all over? Is slammed all over? I mean houses that I didn’t think they used to sit on the market 3060 days even to rent or renting in a week. So everything is going it’s just yeah, it’s crazy. It’s crazy.

Ashley Peebles 9:56
Somebody has PCs into the area. How soon should they start? They want to buy a house, how soon should they start looking just immediately.

Crystal Boggs 10:04
If you have ordered, I would say at least six to eight months out, because then you have an option to really get familiar with the neighborhoods and also get familiar builders. I’ve had a lot cynic sitting in temporary housing, they couldn’t find a Pre Owned home, and they wanted to build Well, if if we started the process a little bit earlier, they would have been in that temporary situation a lot less, our temporary housing is high here, I’m just saying TLF. Now it’s 3100 a month, if you have a pet Holy smokes.

Ashley Peebles 10:35
That makes you want to get rid of your dog real fast,

Crystal Boggs 10:38
holy cow, and our temporary housing because it’s a coastal town, and we’ve got the casinos and we’ve got you know, we’re surrounded by a lot of, you know, fun activities. It’s about 2000 a month. So you know, when you’re bH is 1100 to 1500 a month, and you’ve got to find somewhere temporarily. So definitely start looking about six months before you get here.

Ashley Peebles 10:56
So crystal, tell me do you guys have new builds in the area that are going up? Do you have inventory? there? Are those going I guess, just tell me about the new build market? Because I we were we were a couple that when we moved to Williamsburg, we were really interested in a new field. So what does

Crystal Boggs 11:12
it look like in Biloxi? what it currently looks like in Biloxi is it’s also sad. I try not to be sad, but, um, by the time it’s at foundation stage, it’s already sold. So finding, you know, I just have to take people through a home that similar get the colors together, put it all together, show the lot. And you see the final product eye closing? Yeah, absolutely.

Ashley Peebles 11:35
So I would think that with the market changing as fast as it is, and with the inventory, moving as fast as it is, it’s even more important to rely on a trusted realtor like yourself and your team.

Crystal Boggs 11:48
Would you agree? Absolutely. You need someone that understands you know, if you’re a first time homebuyer or you bought multiple homes in the military and what your goals are, do you want it to be a rental? Do you want to resell this home? So absolutely.

Ashley Peebles 12:01
All right. Is there anything else? Let’s say you’ve got let’s say we’ve got listeners, they’re listening right now. They know that they’re headed to Biloxi is are there any final thoughts, anything any current trends that you’re seeing anything in your area that you would like to impart to them

Crystal Boggs 12:18
this Gulf Coast, I had never been here before we were stationed here Oh, six, very family friendly love the area, there’s a lot of changes going on, like keesler, we were getting a new gate saved about seven minutes on commute time. From like ocean sprains or divert, we’ll just start researching early. Like I said before, just research, research, research and find the real estate agent for you one that understands what you’re looking for.

Ashley Peebles 12:43
That is perfect. So if someone wants to get in touch with you guys at next home home friend, what is the website that they can go to,

Crystal Boggs 12:51
they can go to next home home, front calm, I like things simple. I like things simple.

Ashley Peebles 12:56
Amen to that. And then so they can go to next home home friend.com. To get in touch with your team, we appreciate you being here so much. And given us all of the insight on your area, I know that anyone that gets linked up with you is going to be super, super blessed to have a super professional staff there that you have, but also someone that really understands the market that knows it. And also, like I heard you say several times, it just hurts your heart that people are losing out on these homes, you can tell that you’ve really got a heart for this real estate market, you’ve really got a heart for your team, your job and your clients. So I hope that all of the people that walk in from here on out are super awesome clients to work with because I know that you guys are awesome to work with yourself. So thank you so much for being here with us today. I can’t wait to see where the trends and where the housing market goes bear and Biloxi I’m going to be following along. I honestly can’t believe that it’s changed so much since we were there and wait. But then again, you mentioned that you were a retiree, my husband just got out. It makes us sound really old when we say rich. I’m just gonna I’m gonna pretend that we’re not as old as I feel. But I think back to Biloxi, and I think oh, I was just there a few years ago, and I hear you talking about the market and I realized it’s been a long time. So thank you so much for being with us today. And hopefully we can have you back on here soon. And give us another update for your area. We appreciate we appreciate backers. Thank you for listening to the milhousing nation podcast.