Posts tagged “sellers

13,780 Homes Sold Yesterday!

To all those who have declared the real estate market dead, we want you to know that over 13,780 houses sold yesterday, 13,780 will sell today and 13,780 will sell tomorrow.

(more…)


Fear or Trust

Today I turn to an email that I received entitled, “Fear or Trust.” The author is unknown. After reading the email I couldn’t help but to blog about it. I re-wrote it to add in my theory of Chicken Little and added my own flair. However, I want to give credit where credit is due and disclose that this is not all my own writing. If I knew the author I would love to say, “Man, you are right on with your thinking.” Here we go …

Fear or Trust

Let’s get Chicken Little.

You all know the story … young chicken, fearful of the worst, runs around declaring, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” I think we have too many Chicken Littles running around. No wonder the economy is still facing challenges! The 24/7 media is creating a frenzy of panic and fear that fills the collective psychology of the country with gloom and doom. Some people are more stressed and fearful than they have ever been in their life.

(more…)


A Window of Opportunity for House Sellers

There has been much confusion as to where housing prices are headed.   Today, I want to give my opinion on this subject for the short term based on what I learned at a recent real estate seminar I attended.  I believe sellers have a window of opportunity for the next 90-120 days in which to sell their homes for maximum price.  I believe there will be increased downward pressure on home prices later this year and the first half of 2012.

(more…)


Should You Rent or Buy in this Market?

Families are trying to determine whether or not now is the time to buy a home. Some are advising these families to sit out the current real estate market and instead rent for the next year or two. We do not agree with this advice. Homeownership means a lot to a family. We also realize that the financial aspects of purchasing a home today can be a concern. The challenge is any advice given by someone in the real estate community is immediately dismissed as self-serving.

For this reason, we want to give you the advice of three entities not involved in real estate sales: (more…)


Even the Naysayers Are Saying To Buy Now!

Business School professors Eli Beracha of East Carolina University and Ken H. Johnson of Florida International University have done extensive research on which makes more sense financially: to rent or own a home. They published, Lessons from Over 30 Years of Buy versus Rent Decisions: Is the American Dream Always Wise?In their paper, the professors do not dispute the social benefits of homeownership:

“Home ownership is touted as the “American Dream”. It is credited with enhancing wealth, increasing civic pride, improving self-esteem, crime prevention, child development, and better educational outcomes, among other benefits. This paper does not dispute any of these claims.”

What the professors were proposing is that homeownership is not a better investment strategy than renting. The first of the two major findings was:

(more…)


House sold in 2 days!

A house in DeForest that we listed on Monday, received an accepted offer by Wednesday! With five showings the day after it listed we generated an offer, and a few hours after receiving the offer, our seller accepted. A few lessons here; 1) price it right and it sells fast. 2) plenty of buyers are in the market for a home. 3) when offer comes in, take it seriously, move swiftly, and diligently work to bring it together.

Congratulations to the buyer and seller of this transaction. The buyers are excited they found the house they were looking for. The sellers, of course, are elated their house took 2 days to sell.


Selling Your House? 5 Reasons To Do It NOW!

The conventional wisdom when selling a home has always been to wait until the ‘Spring Buying Season’. Over the years, that has seemed to make sense and is now accepted as a good strategy for those who want to sell their house and receive the best possible price. This real estate market has shattered many previously held beliefs. The wisdom of waiting for a spring market is another belief that is about to fall. Here are five reasons why?

(more…)


Myths: The Earth Is Flat and Newspapers Sell Houses

It is amazing how masses of people can believe something that is absolutely untrue. The greatest example of this is that at one time the vast majority of people believed the world to be flat. Today, we want to debunk another commonly held belief – that newspapers sell houses. Somehow this notion gained believability even though the facts consistently prove it to not be true.

We should know what methods perspective purchasers use to find the home of their dreams when we are selling our house. That would enable us to develop the best marketing strategy to attract a buyer. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has just released the 2010 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers*. This report is recognized by most as the best compilation of data on today’s buyers and sellers because of the enormous amount of data available at NAR’s fingertips.

Let’s look at the actual search habits of today’s buyers as reported by NAR:

(more…)


Don’t Pay Attention To the Scary Headlines Coming

There are going to be some tough headlines written about the housing market over the next several months. They may create apprehension and in some cases outright fear. The good news is these headlines will not reflect what is actually taking place in real estate. Some in the industry say we should just ignore this media blitz of problematic stories. That would be similar to trying to ignore a growling creature lurking in the shadows in the corner of the room. Instead, we want to shine a bright light into that corner to honestly evaluate how dangerous the creature actually is.

PROBABLE HEADLINE: Sales Plummeting. Housing Market Crashing

THE FACTS: The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Sales Report is a leading indicator for the housing sector, based on pending sales of existing homes. A sale is listed as pending when the contract has been signed but the transaction has not closed.

The pending sales reports covering September, October and November will be UGLY. The reason is that the houses going into contract in those months this year will be compared to the same months last year. In 2009, sales were skyrocketing as we headed toward the original termination of the Homebuyers’ Tax Credit on November 30. It will appear as though this year’s sales fell off a cliff in comparison. The headlines will be brutal.

(more…)