Open Houses

I want to touch on a topic many sellers and agents are afraid to talk about; Open Houses.

Open houses are often a much demanded aspect of an agents arsenal by sellers and a much hated chore by agents.

The fact is open houses for the most part do not work in our current time and market place. 89% of buyers begin their home search online and can do so in their own underwear without leaving their own house. Open houses are old technology from the early days of real estate. Times have changed and folks, they simply do not work. Back when people actually read the newspaper and had no idea what a computer was let alone the Internet, open houses were a great selling tool. Now days the newspapers themselves have admitted that readership is down, classifieds are dwindling and everything is moving to the Internet.

Studies have shown that less than 1% of homes actually sell in an open house. I'm willing to bet that most of those were new construction homes which I used to sell. I still feel that for new construction those open houses are a must as people need to see and feel their options and begin the tedious process of building their new home. For existing homes the need is just not there.

Why do open houses still occur?

The reasons they still occur are simple, sellers are not educated in the open house process and the factual data that we as agents see. This data is readily available to us as agents and it is our job to educate our clients. the other reason is there are some agents who are "Old School" and do it just to please their sellers urging desire to have an open house. Again, if the agent were to sit down and educate their sellers this could be avoided. Some agents do them when they are "rookies" in hopes of snagging a potential buyer as a client. But if nobody shows up it is all a waste of time for both the sellers and the agent.

Folks why spent around $100-150 to advertise an open house for one weekend when you could be plastering it all over the Internet for far less than that price for 30+ days. Marketing has changed, times have changed and the times are dictating that we need to stop this nonsense called, "open houses."

So when it's time to list your house a better question to ask the potential agent is not, "How many open houses are you going to do?", but rather, "Do you provide a virtual tour and heavy Internet marketing?"

Short Sales

Everyday you may see the term "Short Sale" either on TV, surfing the internet or even in the newspaper. But what is it? A short sale is the term used for anyone trying to sell their home for less than what they owe. It does not necessarily mean a foreclosure. Sometimes the lender will be willing to do a short sale if you can prove a problem to them in the future.

The average foreclosure costs the lending industry around $50,000, that’s not including holding costs. In order to save some money up front lenders will decide to let you sell the property for less than what’s owed. Lenders are not in the business to hold property. They want to make money and if your loan doesn’t make them money they want to get rid of it, quick.

Getting the lender to agree to a short sale is often times just as hard as getting the lender to give you the mortgage in the first place. You need to prove you are worthy. It takes a lot of time to work on a short sale and special skills and knowledge of the business is a must.

I have made short sales and foreclosures my niche in real estate. I have preformed many BPO’s (broker price opinions) for lenders and know how to get the lenders to take note and react to the short sale process. Unfortunately many agents try to do a short sale and have no extra training or knowledge in the process. This only hurts the sellers in the long run. Besides getting the bank to take less we can also get them to stop calling you everyday. So if you find yourself in a situation that may be a short sale make sure you find the right agent to work for you. This is just the basics of a short sale make sure to ask us for a free consultation to learn more.

When will things get better?

Our real estate market is very volatile right now and many things need to be corrected in order for it to improve. The current foreclosure mess will no doubt drag down our local prices and already has in many areas. But the bigger problem, in my opinion, is the over corrections made by the lending industry which have made good buyers side by the sidelines unable to buy right now.

We need to burn off our inventory of foreclosures in order to bring the market back to a healthy status. Rates are still great but getting qualified now is 180 degrees from even the first half of 2007.

Real Estate is an industry that drives our nation. Think about it from the agents and lenders down to the manufacturing of appliances and home based products. Everyone is affected from a down market