Selling Real Estate: A Look at Home Seller Trends

So, recently, I covered some of NAR’s buyer trends from their 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.  This time we’ll dive into the trends of sellers in 2008.

What Sellers Want Most From Real Estate Agents

As you can see, across the board of level of service brought by agents, sellers wanted real estate agents to help competitively price their home.  What’s curious is that sellers that utilized a “fee for listing” agent, most wanted”Help sell[ing] the home within specific timeframe.”  Sellers that utilized a “full-service” or “limited-service” selling agent wanted price assistance more than anything else.  If nothing more, this shows that sellers, on the average, get that price is the issue in selling their home.

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The New Real Estate

theRockStarAgent.com was born as a result of doing real estate differently.  We found that the systems and processes that we used were not only unique to our marketplace, but to the industry at large.  When the local real estate market declined, and many licensees decided to parachute out, we had our best years ever.

Don’t Get Caught Napping

One thing that we know about life in general and real estate specifically, is that change is constant.  In real estate, change can be alarmingly fast.  For agents not keeping pace with the drastic and swift changes to our industry, it almost appears as though the industry is lethargic. Slow to change.  Yet, there are agents that are on the cutting edge of the change and using it to their advantage.

Developing an edge in today’s market requires REALTORS to have a user friendly website with IDX listings available.  Practitioners need to be proficient in Blogging, social media, search engine marketing, and how to work with the e-consumer once they contact you. Using savvy marketing techniques may generate leads for agents, however with no skills in permission marketing and inbound marketing, you will be lost. Nearly 90% of the home buyers are searching homes on the Internet prior to ever contacting an agent. Are they finding you, when they go to Google, Yahoo or MSN?

Mike Bowler has a great post on the change that we are currently undergoing.  And he’s right…

Those agents that see, educate themselves and take advantage of their new knowledge will be well set when the market turns.  This business has always been about the buyer or the seller.  Now, with information at their fingertips, consumers are in the drivers seat when it comes to choosing the agent to represent them.

Will they choose the agent that presents all of their listing information online, holds “office hours” when they can be reached via instant messaging or webinar and is easily accessible via the ‘net or phone?  Or will they choose that agent that “forces” them to contact the agent for the address, number of bedrooms or square footage of a property?

The Light at the End of the Tunnel Does Not Need to be a Train

With information so easily found, and so free on the internet, here are a few simple steps to help you become the resource your future clients so desperately need:

• Be sure that you are visible on the internet
  • start a blog, get involved in social networks, fill out your own Google Profile, do something that the search engines will see when someone searches for you as an agent.
• On your website, be sure to have a user friendly IDX search solution
  • Consider creating web pages dedicated to your marketplace’s neighborhoods: photos, general description, a map, etc.
• On your website, be sure to have information about your marketplace
  • take your site to the next level by doing some business reviews or restaurant reviews
    • business owners will love the exposure, and your readers will begin to see you as an area resource

These are just a few ideas to implement, but there are many more you can put into place to be found on the internet and show yourself to be the real estate resource that your future clients should be contacting.

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Short Sales…Aren’t

Everyone wants a deal!  We want the best price and quality combination our shrinking dollars can afford us.

The same is true for folks entering the real estate market to purchase.  If you haven’t noticed, many folks when they call for housing information, ask for information regarding foreclosures and these “short sales.”  I’ll tell you right now, that of the folks that I closed that originally told me they wanted a foreclosure or short sale, only 1 in the last year actually purchased a distressed property.

You know the drill, prospect says, “I want to only look at foreclosures and short sales,” thinking that these are the cheapest properties out there, and, therefore, the best value.  As a buyer’s agent, you likely know how the dance is going to go….

1. Send prospect list of homes that meet their criteria, distressed properties and non;
2. Immediate phone call from prospect, “Only want distressed properties!”
3. While showing the prospect homes one beautiful Saturday, they ask why they haven’t gotten 123 Main St sent to them
   1. 123 Main St is a non-distressed property
4. 123 Main St is priced appropriately, in great shape and already under contract

At this point, the prospect does one of two things:

1. Begins to listen to you; or
2. Decides to work with a different agent that “listens to me.”

Ok, so a bit of an over-simplification of the process, but you get the gist.

Need more reason to be wary of short-sales, specifically?  Check out this article from USA Today:

Just 23% of short-sale offers that homeowners receive from potential buyers actually close, according to a February study of 1,300 real estate agents by Campbell Communications. More than 90% of agents cited a slow response from the lender as the reason short sales were lost.

23% is an extremely LOW execution rate!  77% fail…over 3 out of every 4 short sales fail to close. Yikes, those are low odds for closing…

That’s a Grim Picture of Short Sales, but…

There is a silver lining, thin, but it does exist.

If you are the listing agent of a short sale listing, you need to stop trying to negotiate with the banks on behalf of your clients.  Your efforts are best utilized, on behalf of your clients, in marketing the property and negotiating the deals to be presented to the bank.  For your sanity, and the sanity of your clients, you should enlist the help of a short sale specialist or a real estate attorney.

First-Time Home Buyers: Got any?

When Uncle Sam says, “Hey, first-time home buyers, I’ll reduce the cost of your first home by $8,000,” folks respond!

The NAR released its March Existing-Home Sales report this recently, and it paints a story that’s kinda grim, but still has some silver linings.

An NAR practitioner survey in March showed first-time buyers accounted for 53 percent of transactions, based largely on contracts offered before the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit became available. “Buyer traffic has been rising, and real estate offices are getting phone inquires about the tax credit,” Yun said. “By early summer we should be seeing a positive impact on home sales from record-low mortgage interest rates in addition to the stimulus provisions.” [emphasis added]

So, even before the $8,000 sweetener, first-time home buyers were seeing value in jumping into the market.  With interest rates steady to falling, and inventory levels remaining relatively high, this is great news as the summer buying season gears up!

The problem facing many Realtors® is how to find those first time home buyers.  Simple deduction, and NAR reporting, tells us that an overwhelming majority of folks utilize the internet, at some point, to find information about their next, or first home, purchase.

After the Jump, 4 Facts You Need to Know About Today’s Buyers

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Communication and Information

Is your message getting out?

How?

How do you find information and convey it to your clients?