In conjunction with the National Association of Realtors, First Weber will be participating heavily in the Realtor National Open House Weekend April 10-11, 2010.
View all First Weber open houses.
This is the final push to help both home buyers and sellers qualify for the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit and the $6,500 home seller tax credit. Hopefully this weekend will allow numerous people gain some free money from the government. The more the better.
Why an open house? An open house allows a buyer to walk through a home at there convenience at there speed with less interference from a real estate agent. Does it get any better than that?
If you’re interested in seeing the best homes available in each price range this is the weekend to get out.
And feel free to stop by and see me.
I had a very interesting conversation with a couple who’s home I’ll be listing in a couple weeks. Obviously we had the customary conversations about price, how long it will be listed, where their home will be advertised etc.
But then we started to talk about the MLS. No doubt if you’ve had your home listed in the past few years your agent touted the advantages of the MLS heavily.
It’s great, don’t get me wrong. But I see one inherent problem that no one wants to talk about…
Which reminded me of a post I wrote in June 2009. The post had 2 takeaways:
- Statistics on who will probably buy your home.
- How the MLS is like a grocery store.
The article is below. Enjoy!
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Have you met yet? Probably not…
But first, why should you care who will buy your home? As long as a buyer offers a price you can live with…what does it matter?
In the past not much because their was only so much a Wisconsin Rapids home buyer could do when purchasing their first or next home.
In the old days, you know 2004 , a home buyer would usually:
- check the Daily Tribune and Buyers’ Guide
- look through the local MLS on the internet
- find some homes that looked promising
- contact an agent
- walk through 15 homes before purchasing
Through the entire process the real estate agent was in control. How? The buyer was always given bits and pieces of information. Newspaper and Buyers’ Guide? A picture and a few lines of text, always ending with “call so and so at 423-call-now.” MLS? A few more pictures, but your listing would still contain a limited number of words. Then buyers did the only thing they could – they called an agent (You remember 2004, email still wasn’t huge, and besides an agent always wanted to get a person on the phone – remember we used to be called a “Real Estate Salesperson). I shudder just thinking about that…
And once you made contact, the agent shuffled you around from house to house showing you homes they picked out… And 15 homes later, plus more time than you could imagine, you purchased a home. But those days are long gone.
Enter 2010 and Generation Y
Lets now meet the next owner of your home.
The average home buyer is 31 years old. (Odds are, you’re around 41 and and your typical agent is in his/her 50’s) These new buyers are technology driven. The internet has empowered this new generation. This has caused these new home buyer’s to become confident and self-reliant in their decision making.
If they have questions, they “Google it.” If they want to buy something, they go online (giants EBay and Amazon to name only two). If they rent movies, they have a membership with Netflix. If it’s time to buy a new car, they go to Auto Trader to find the best deal. Are we (I’m generation Y) concerned about 1100+ auto dealerships closing? No. We’ll find the car we like online, drive to the dealership, drive it around a little, haggle and then buy it. We already knew we were going to buy it before we got there. Why? We compared multiple cars together online–mileage, amenities etc. and found the one that suited us best. Does it matter if we had to drive to Appleton to get it? Nope.
This ability to find information easily and quickly has caused buyers to need real estate agents less. There’s very little your agent can control outside of marketing it aggressively and making sure your home is where this new buyer hangs out, the internet. (When it comes to selling a home, I believe my main job is as a marketer. The real estate stuff is easy, I earn my money by marketing your home 5x better than older agents.)
Does that mean your MLS listing is enough to reach this new buyer? That’s the internet… Right?
Yes, the buyer will probably see your home. But will they REALLY see it? You know, enough to make contact to walk through your home? Does a few pictures and a 500 character description do your home justice?
Lets picture a trip to the grocery store. You only need milk, bread and some cereal for breakfast. So you head to the back of the store for milk–oh yeah, eggs too–next the cereal aisle–Kellogs is on sale so you buy two–next on to the bakery–but wait–roasts are on sale, that’ll be good in the crock pot tomorrow–ugh, you don’t want to have to make dinner tonight–good Tombstone pizzas are on sale–almost to the bakery department–made it, finally–might as well buy a couple loaves of bread. Time to check out–your total comes to 28.83. You wanted three things–bread, cereal and milk. But you ended up with those plus meat, pizza, and eggs.
The MLS is the same way. Too many choices. When your home is alongside hundreds of other homes what are the odds that a buyer will choose your home? If an agent promises internet marketing, and that marketing sets your home alongside every other home, how is he/she marketing YOUR home?
This is why I create a single property website for your home. When I’m marketing your home I funnel all advertising to your home’s website. You know, because you want your home sold…
Originally published June 4, 2009
This is the second installment of the “I couldn’t have said it better myself” post…
Some call it negotiating. Others call it playing mind games. Read Margaret Woda’s article about buyer’s playing mind games with sellers.
I was in a very similar situation last year. Except that I was the agent representing my brother and his wife in the sale of their home. Mixing family and business is never easy.
I can attest that my brother and sister-in-law felt the exact same feelings described in the article.
Remaining emotionally neutral is extremely important. But there were times when it was difficult for them to not take things personally.
“What do you mean _____ is too old? Its worked everyday we’ve owned the home (5 years).”
“Now you want us to replace it? At our cost!?!?”
It came to a point when they almost would have sold it to another person, at a lower price, than to finish the sale.
But in the end, being in a new home home won out. But just barely…
When you’re ready to make an offer, yes it seems impersonal. It’s just a house. But remember that this ‘house’ has been a ‘home’ for the current owner for years, maybe even decades.
Yes, you want to look out for your bottom line. But at what cost? Will it be OK if you lose this home? How much is it worth to you to be in your dream home?
There are two sides to every situation. Considering both can have a dramatic impact on your situation. For the better or worse.
Last chance to read the thought process a seller goes through when selling.
*Update*
Coincidentally after this post went live Jay Thompson of Thompson’s Realty in Phoenix, AZ posted an article discussing if you’re able to get proof of a competing offer. The interesting story is when another agent tried to bully a buyer into increasing an initial offer by flouting “another offer” in their face. And then the next day, the original offer is accepted…
Read Jay’s reasoning behind why, as a buyer, you’ll never know for sure if there is another offer. Plus reasons why agents are unable to disclose information relating to the offer.
Each is an example of why you shouldn’t play mind games in real estate.
Less than 75 days left… Then poof they’re gone.
Just realized that the tax credits are ending only a wee-little bit after taxes are due… Yikes. Hopefully taking advantage of the tax credits can put a smile on your face after the tax-man taketh away.
Corollary–we’ve already received our tax refunds AND they’re also already gone.
Poof, just like the tax credits.
What’s stopping you from getting me on the horn about a question or two? Even easier you could send me an email. Look up and to the left a little bit…
Check out the following links:
Stay classy Wisconsin Rapids!
…or how long it will take to sell all the homes currently for sale in Wisconsin Rapids…
I don’t like to make predictions. At some point in every listing presentation, usually after we start to discuss a listing price, a home owner will ask how long it will take to sell their home. And that’s an answer I really don’t have.
I could guess. But I always feel conflicted because in the end, the buyer will control how long the home is for sale.
I know what you’re thinking… I bet it’s something along the line of: Really?!?! The buyer has the last say in how long a home is for sale… I know, I know.
How about if I take out ‘buyer’ and insert ‘market’:
The market controls how long a home is for sale.
Does that make more sense?
But if I had to give you one piece of data to help answer your “how long” question, it would be the Absorption Rate. Remember, data never lies…
What exactly is the Absorption Rate?
The absorption rate is the calculation of how long it will take for all homes on the market in Wisconsin Rapids to be sold, or absorbed, at the current rate of sales.
Below you will find the activity for Wisconsin Rapids during the past 9 quarters:
As you can see the number of homes sold in the second half of 2009 was considerably higher than 2008.
You can guess why, right? (Hint: it was some type of tax credit)
And remember, the First-Time Home Buyer Credit has been extended AND they’ve also added a new tax credit for home owners who’ve lived in their home for at least 5 years. So if I had to predict (ignore, for a second, that I said I dislike predictions 
) I’d bet money that more homes will be sold during the first quarter of 2010 compared to 2009 as well.
Months of Inventory
Realtors generally agree that 6 months of inventory is the magic number. Below 6 months of inventory you have a sellers market. Anything above you have a buyers market. As you can see its been a buyers market for awhile.
But, as more and more buyers hit the market, the the number has been pushing itself back towards the magical 6 months of inventory. And when the number is close to six everyone wins. Why? Because a seller knows they should be able to sell in a reasonable amount of time and a buyer knows they still have choices and time to find the right home.
Personally, I know the market is active. In the past month I’ll have added 3 new listings. In the past two days I’ve fielded calls from three different prospective buyers.
And I know I can tell them all that it’s a good time to be buying or selling a Wisconsin Rapids home…
PHONE: (715) 572-8372
My name is Adam Holberg and I’m a Realtor with First Weber of Wisconsin Rapids. This website is designed to inform and help bring conversation to a topic I love, real estate.