Real Estate Investing

There’s an agent in my area who shall remain nameless.  He’s a big, popular agent.  He guarantees his listings will sell in 60 days or else.  The else is the charming part… or else what?

Or else he’ll buy them personally?  No.

Or else he’ll sell them without charging a commission?  No.

Or else he’ll just re-list them again and again so it will appear it’s only been listed for 60 days?  Bingo!

A friend of mine - before I became an agent myself - once said that she called him and learned that to list with him you were required to sign at least six listing forms.  Each form was good for 30 to 60 days.  When one listing date expired, his staff would re-input everything into the MLS thus creating a new MLS number.  We’re not supposed to do this - it’s against the MLS rules… more specifically there’s supposed to be a 10-day rest period before a home listing shows back up as a new, active listing.  Here’s what I found the other day on one home:

August 6, 2007 - 49 days
September 24, 2007 - 49 days
November 12, 2007 - 46 days
December 28, 2007 - 61 days
February 28, 2008 - 46 days
April 14, 2008 - 46 days
May 30, 2008 - 63 days
August 1, 2008 - 45 days
September 15, 2008 - 45 days
October 30, 2008 - 48 days
December 17, 2008 - 170 days (wrong picture)
June 5, 2009 - 119 days

I definitely sense a pattern that the agent is tired of the 45 days listings and is expanding them to three and four months! So this may be a boost for sellers - to give them optimal exposure because we agents do keep an eye on the hot sheets - to see what’s new on the market, what prices have come down, who’s withdrawn and expired.  Yet it’s misleading to buyers UNLESS their agent performs due diligence and looks at the full history of the house.  If I was the buyer’s agent, my thoughts would be that since it’s been on the market for 787 DAYS, they may be willing to negotiate.  OR they probably are NOT willing to negotiate!

Maybe we should just call this Reason #29 to Interview and Hire a Professional Realtor to Represent Your Best Interests.

I had the privilege this morning of listening to Steve Murray, owner of REAL Trends (a leading source of analysis and information of the residential real estate industry) and editor of LORE Magazine which features success stories about some of the top agents in the nation.  Murray said REAL Trends has been tracking and predicting real estate data for years, including the 50 percent fall in the number of units sold from the peak 2005 to 2008.

In 2005, 8.3 million homes were sold. In 2008, that number had dropped to 5.4 million units.  The amount this drop in volume cost is estimated at $1 TRILLION.  Murray said 2009 is the floor with sales expected between 4.9 and 5.4 million units. We all now know the primary cause was due to the epic fail in consumer confidence coupled with NINJA loans = No income, no jobs, no assets.  Murray believes housing sales will resume their upward track in 2010 to 2011 and that housing prices will recover as sales increase.

Meanwhile, we will continue to see strategic defaults - or people who walk away from their mortgages when they 1) can’t afford the payments on 2) a house that’s no longer worth what’s owed.  These people will simply be OUT of the housing market for several years, however we wil see a gradual increase in housing sales and values in teh next five to ten years because the nation adds 1.2 to 1.4 million new households per year.

While we look to another year of flat real estate, you’ll see the exceptional agents flourish because superior service, transparency and trust mean more now than ever before.  It is really kind of an exciting time to watch who will be thriving this time next year.  Buyers and sellers will always go to the agents with the professional dedication and commitment to continue providing professional service.

This has thankfully been a great week in real estate … a closing, showing houses, getting phone calls.  I am delighted to be out and about because there’s always fodder for sharing information with you here at Banks.com … little details about what I stumble across.  Like yesterday… I found a business card and it was too irresistible to pass up.  I was probably not very kind in taking it, but I couldn’t help myself.  The back of her card looks like one of the memory cards that you see at funerals.

Of course, I’ve blocked the agent’s name and face, but it serves as a caution to be careful about what you have on your business card.  A couple of years ago, someone posted about what should (and shouldn’t) have on your card.  From HELLO, my name is BLOG!, here are eight thoughts on bad business cards, here’s a pet peeve about business cards directly related to real estate:

One man who works in real estate has a little heart on his card that says, “I LOVE REFERRALS!” Well DUH! Who doesn’t? And once again, maybe it’s just me, but seeing that little icon makes me NOT want to give him referrals. Almost like he’s desperate.

My business card pet peeves?  When the lettering is designed so poorly that I can’t find the contact information!  Also, I don’t like the really really old glamour pictures of agents… or the photos that are so old you don’t even recognize the person on the card anymore.  It doesn’t cost THAT much to update the card.  In fact my card has a snapshot from outside that I cropped.  I get a LOT of comments about it, and only ONE person has said they don’t like it.  Love it or hate it, the card is memorable!

And perhaps in the end, I’ll always remember the memorial business card of the agent from northern Tennessee!