Renting vs. Buying In Today’s Hot Market

To rent or to buy, that is the question! Ashley Peebles is joined by RealEstate Agent Michelle Killian to go over the pros and cons of renting versus buying in todays hot market.

Today we are joined by a real estate agent Michelle Killian who is based out of San Antonio, Texas.

ASHLEY: Michelle, you started in real estate two years ago, has it been constant and non-stop crazy the whole time?

MICHELLE: It has been extremely busy, but also rewarding and quite educational. 

ASHLEY: You told me earlier you feel like you’ve gotten a lifetime worth of learning condensed into a course of a year and a half or two years. One of the questions we are getting asked the most right now is: Should I be buying or renting right now? The house prices are through the roof all over the country! Michelle, tell us—is this still a good time to buy?

MICHELLE:  Yes, it is still a great time to buy. We are still seeing fairly low interest rates, but they are starting to climb. If you can, try to get in now before they continue climbing. We are also seeing a steady increase of housing prices, even new constructions. A lot of builders, every five houses they sell, they increase the prices by three thousand dollars. If you can get in now, as opposed to ix months or a year from now when they are going to continue having those price increases, it makes a world of difference, and it will continue to give you more buying power as opposed to a year from now when the interest rates could be inflated even further than they are now. 

ASHLEY: Is renting preferable right now? 

MICHELLE: I would say it’s situational and it depends what market you are in. Here in San Antonio, I don’t believe that renting is the way to go. We have actually seen a decrease of rental properties because so many people are trying to take advantage of this crazy market we are in, and they are offloading their investment properties so there is just not a lot of inventory out there to be able to rent. So, people that have rental properties are increasing their rental rates so it’s still probably cheaper to buy than to rent currently. 

ASHLEY: Talk about the benefits of buying now and having the option of renting your property later. 

MICHELLE: We have a lot of our military clients think about this as they are purchasing their next home. We run rental analysis to see what they could potentially rent it for at that current time to see if that could offset the mortgage and what their rental potential would be. When they PCS, they can maintain that property and be able to continue to gain equity and keep that investment. 

ASHLEY: What pulled you into the real estate direction a couple of years ago?

MICHELLE: I have always been interested in real estate. We have self-managed our rental property for the first ten years, and then I personally am on a mission to help as many military families as I can because I personally understand not only the market right now but what it’s like to be a military family having to PCS and the stresses about it, and trying to sell one property and get into another and the timeline that military has on it. I want to help alleviate that pain for our military clients and just overall being a better resource and educating people on things such as VA loan. Military families sacrifice so much for our nation and the fact that I can help them in one of their biggest investments that they will make in their lifetime is hugely rewarding to me. 

ASHLEY: Are you seeing more people over the last couple years upgrade their homes and get into their dream homes or are you seeing more people downsizing? 

MICHELLE: In San Antonio I have been seeing more people increasing their budget to be able to have a little bit more buying power to get into the home they prefer—one that checks more of the wish list boxes off. Interest rates have been incredibly low this past year and a half, which is giving people more to work with. Interest rates are at a record low, and people were lately willing to come up more out of pocket. With the low interests rates it’s ok to go higher. We are seeing more people wanting to get that dream property. 

ASHLEY: If someone has a big house and they are looking to sell it, would you say that they should sell the house right now and wait on the market to cool off before purchasing another one and live in an apartment for a little while, or is it a good time to sell and rebuy immediately? 

MICHELLE: Right now is the best time to do both—to maximize your profit on the sale of your current home and to buy a house with the low interest rates even if the prices of the houses keep climbing. You want to lock in the low interest rates before they change. 

ASHLEY: Do you see any signs of the market cooling off anytime soon or do you think it really can stay on the track of being this hot for a really long time to come? 

MICHELLE: I don’t see our market cooling down anytime soon here in San Antonio. We are seeing buyers from out of state, we have military families that are constantly PCSing in and out of San Antonio, so our housing market is staying strong. There are new construction properties popping up all over San Antonio and the outskirts, and the city is just expanding so much and there are so many buyers for the properties. It’s crazy and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. If they are selling all new constructions right off the bat, then the market is staying really hot because people cannot get into these preowned homes with these multiple offer situations and these bidding wars, so they are having to go the new construction route. 

ASHLEY: How can someone who is moving in or out of San Antonio get in touch with you?

MICHELLE: Email me (michellekillian@milhousingnetwork.com), give me a call, my team has an amazing website you can contact us on as well. We are a MilHousing realty group in San Antonio with Keller-William Cityview. We are a team of agents that are here to help military families. 

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