June 21, 2023

We made a BIG move and we are finally ready to announce it!

We started a team! The Lewis Group is officially a real estate team in Northern Nevada (unofficially, I believe, we are the coolest real estate team in Northern Nevada). We are so excited to bring more value to our family, friends, and clients. I can’t wait to share all of our plans and systems we are implementing, but we have a lot to get to today.

The market stats for the last couple months will probably surprise you, but first, I want to introduce you to the team!

Ben Florsheim

Ben asked me to coffee one day and told me he was interested in joining a real estate team and how he wanted to dive back into selling homes. I started telling him about a couple of the teams in town that I admire and asked if he wanted me to make some introductions. He had other plans. You see, Ben was my life coach for a few years so he knew I had always wanted to start my own team. It took me a couple cups of coffee to wake up and realize he was asking me to get off my ass and start my team already! The push I needed.

Ben is a HUGE addition to the squad.

Ben has unparalleled experience in the new build market. His family has been building homes for decades in California and Nevada. Among many other responsibilities, he sold them. Watching him negotiate against builders has been really fun to watch over the last couple months.

Ben will also be our go-to guy for our investor and flipper clients. He has first hand experience with income properties and flip projects. Watching him run numbers makes me feel like I’m new to the industry.

Glad to call him a friend and a major part of The Lewis Group!

Jaimie Saladis

Jaimie and her husband Niko have been an integral part in my success from the day I started. They have been helping me with marketing and file management for a few years now. The first time I had her tag along for a showing, I quickly realized she was going to be an all-star and begged her to get her license. I also noted that I never want her as competition. She is going to take over and I’m ecstatic to have a front row seat.

Jaimie is an absolute breath of fresh air for the real estate community. In a perfect world, every realtor would have her motivation, disposition, composure, and heart.

Jaimie is a mom and her and Niko are expecting their third very soon. I’ve got a lot of friends with kids, and I’ve got to say, Niko and Jaimie make the cutest little ones I’ve ever seen.

I’m super excited to watch Jaimie grow and become the realtor every other realtor wants to be. We are so lucky to have her.

Niko Saladis

Niko has been in my corner since day 1. From building websites to running the drone for listing pictures, he does it all… and he does it all extremely well. I’m reminded daily of his skill when it comes to growing a business.

It’s unbelievable to me that we are lucky enough to have him on our side when he’s not in some remote location filming and photographing for some of the big time hunting and lifestyle brands.

Niko has some incredible ideas on how we will set ourselves apart from any other realtor out there. When it comes to marketing your properties, I wouldn’t choose any other person out there. He’s truly incredible at what he does.

Ecstatic to have him and his skills on our side and pumped to see everything he has in store for us.

Cal Lewis

Me! Most of you know me, but there a few of you that don’t yet. I started in the industry in the title and escrow sphere. After a few years there, I moved into a management position with one of the top firms in town. The next logical step was to move into sales and break out on my own. Now, looking for a new challenge, the next move is to start a team. I can’t believe I’m doing it!

I can’t find the quote or who said it, but I read once that if you want to build a great company, you surround yourself with people smarter than you. I’m happy to say that I am putting that to the test here. Sitting with these folks over the last few months has been life changing. They are all amazing people to the core and I’m so jacked to see where this team climbs.

Stats:

Sorry for the long introductions. I promise I kept them as short as I could. There is so much to say about all these amazing people. Without any more delay, let’s talk stats!

We ended May with a Median Sales Price of $554,475. That is the 4th straight month of positive movement in value. Is that crazy? Well, yeah, a little bit. On one hand, we had to expect that with the limited inventory that we have (only 1.6 months of inventory). On the other hand, however, rates are still high and volatile. Buyers are still struggling to make their monthly payments make sense with rates in the high 6’s or low 7’s.

Despite what you might be hearing out there, even with the mortgage rates where they are, we are still in a seller’s market. We are still battling multiple offers in some cases. If a clean, well-priced home comes on the market, buyers are still having to come in with strong offers. Our average time on market before an accepted offer is only 14 days! I know that’s hard to believe with what the media is saying, but these are the numbers.

We had more new listings hit the market than we’ve seen in a while which was refreshing, but not nearly enough to swing us into a buyers market. This is going to be an issue for the foreseeable future. Most homeowners are sitting on a 2 or 3% mortgage and obviously not wanting to give that up to move into a 6 or 7%. As we’ve been saying, we need the rates to settle down. Honestly, I just want to see them stabilize at this point. Watching them go up and down every day is contributing to my stress way more than it should.

I’d love to tell you I know where the market is headed. I honestly have no idea. I can’t imagine our median sales price continues to rise, but with the limited inventory, I don’t know how they can’t stay where they are. I can tell you that we are very slow right now. I’m not sure what the summer holds for us in the real estate market, but hopefully we can get a handle on the rates. I hope to see us get to a place where sellers are motivated to sell and buyers can get a fair monthly payment. We will just have to see what happens. It’s going to be an interesting few months.