How concerned should buyers and sellers be about corrections in the stock market and a potential recession?

A: Our life has cycles and our economy is no different.

Rather than viewing shifts as doom and gloom, know these ups and downs are expected and can bring investment opportunities. I am of the school of having three buckets of asset allocation in order to weather any storm. The first bucket is for short-term investments—stocks, CDs and money market funds. The midterm bucket features bonds and deferred annuities. Lastly, in the long-term bucket, is real estate. In short, don’t put all your eggs into one basket.

The interesting thing about real estate is that we all need a place to live. I recently read that the world is expected to grow to 8.5 billion people by 2030. That will be a lot of people all needing a place to live. What is most interesting about real estate is that we dwell inside our investment. Sometimes we cannot wait for that perfect moment to sell or buy our home. Our families will grow, jobs will change and, as Green Day once sang “time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.”

For buyers, research the rent vs. buy formula, talk to a financial advisor, watch the mortgage rate trends and diversify your portfolio.

For the seller, observe real estate market reports and understand seasonality trends. Ask your Realtor for monthly updates of active, pending and sold properties within your hyper-specific neighborhood to keep tabs on trends in real-time.