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Category Archives: real estate

Wayback Wednesday… Long Distance Listing (or Selling) Agents

Wednesday, 01 February 2012 08:00
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A couple of years ago I was dealing with this situation… actually cleaning up after it.

I had a client that had an offer on their house with an out of town agent (the agent was the buyer’s niece).  She was very nice, but she couldn’t be there for any of the 6 inspections we had, nor could she be there for the closing.  In effect, her clients were largely unrepresented in the sale… they were constantly asking me (the agent that is contractually bound to represent the best interests of the seller) how they should proceed or what would be in their best interest.

It came to a head at the closing…  The closing attorney got a bit testy with them for continually asking me to explain the forms to them.  He asked where their agent was.  They replied that their niece wasn’t able to come up from Valdosta.  He then asked if she was there for inspections or anything else.  One of them stated that she usually was able to help them via phone, but that often they had to rely on me.  The husband made a comment that I had declined answering some of their questions.  The attorney busted out laughing.  After a moment, he said that since I was contractually tied to the seller, there were few questions I could answer for them, and that I should NEVER have ventured an opinion about any issue they faced.  The wife chuckled and gave her husband an “I told you so” look.  The closing attorney held up the check that was going to their agent and asked what she had done to earn it…  She hadn’t answered their questions, she hadn’t shown the property, she didn’t even find it and send them information on it.

There are a lot of agents that tag their listings with language like “If I show this property to your client, commission will be X%” (generally about 1/6th of the offered split in the listing).  I don’t usually employ such language because I want to get the listing sold for my client, not punish other agents for not doing their job.  But, I understand the reason.

The bottom line is that employing an agent (whether on the buyer side OR the seller side) that isn’t in the area doesn’t result in solid representation.

Check out the original post here…

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Lawrenceville, GA Market Report, December 2011

Monday, 30 January 2012 08:00
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Market stats for Lawrenceville, GA, December, 2011, indicate that there were 1200 properties on the market.  Overall, there was about a 4.7 month supply of properties. In 2010, sales for December were at 176, so 264 sales was a excellent increase, year over year.  Coupled with the decrease in inventory, things are looking great.  Normally they start weakening in September, but we are rolling right along… even better than last month (233 sales).

For Lawrenceville, GA, Homes Under $200k, there are 1014 listings, with about a 4.3 month supply of homes.  Sales were way up from December 2010 (247 v 152).  This segment is easily the lion’s share of sales for the area.  With the 4.28 month A/R, it is solidly in Seller’s Market territory.  The big drop in Absorption Rate (AR) is due to strong sales, coupled with lower listing inventories.  In September I was hoping that October would be a follow up… and it was VERY much is what I was looking for… November reinforced that and December rocked it out.

Between $200k and $400k, there are 164 listings for sale, and about 11.2 months of supply.  Oddly, this had one of the weaker segments in the county, now it’s mid-pack.   The 16 sales for December, 2011 were down from the 23 from last year.  They were up slightly from the 13 sales last month.  Sales should have been closer to 25 units for December.  We are still solidly in Buyer’s Market territory here.

From $400k to $600k, there are 17 homes on the market.  The absorption rate is around 10.2 months.  However, with the level of sales in this segment, a couple of sales added or subtracted can have a HUGE impact.  There were 0 sales for December, the Absorption Rate has dropped from 78 months in June, through good, but sporadic sales.  There were 1 sale in December, 2010.  This is acting like a luxury market and the A/R is jumping all over the place… with just a few sales (A/R was 7.1 last month).  While the long term trend is looking better, it is still pretty choppy.

In the $600k to $800k arena, there are 4 listings, with about 12 months of supply, again.  As with the next lower priced segment, a couple of sales makes a big difference and there was only 1 sale in December.   There were only 6 sales at this level in all of 2011. 

Between $800k and $1M, and Above $1M there are 1 home listed (combined) and not enough sales data to give an accurate absorption rate.  There has only been one sale in this range in the last 3 years (Aug, 2010), according to FMLS.

Lawrenceville is in Gwinnett County, GA, just outside of Atlanta.  As of the 2000 Census, there were 22,937 people in Lawrenceville, but that is only including people in the city limits, and there has been a lot of growth since 2000 in Gwinnett County (2008 estimates from the Census Bureau peg population around 29,000).  It was incorporated in 1821. Lawrenceville is home to Central Gwinnett High School, and also has students that the Mountain View and Archer clusters.  It is also home to Gwinnett Technical College and Georgia Gwinnett College.  Another recent addition to Lawrenceville is that it is home to the Gwinnett Braves, playing at the Gwinnett Stadium on GA20 between I-85 and GA316.  Possibly the most famous resident of Lawrenceville was Oliver Hardy. As a small boy he lived in Lawrenceville with his parents for a short time.  Lawrenceville was also home to Junior Samples.  Some of its other residents included Jeff Francouer, Brian McCann and Jennifer Ferrin.

Atlanta Metro Zillow Home Value Index

I have a page dedicated to Lawrenceville Market Data.

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Buford, GA, Market Report, December 2011

Friday, 27 January 2012 08:00
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Market stats for Buford, GA, December, 2011 indicate that there were 434 properties on the market.  Overall, there was about an 6.4 month supply of properties (Absorption Rate or A/R).  There were 83 sales for December, way up from 44 last month and even up from the 62 sales last December (2010).  It isn’t the strongest market in Gwinnett, but it is much better than it has been.

In the sub-$200k arena, there were 247 listings, with a 5.5 month supply.  This is the largest price segment in this market area, so strength here usually equals strength across the whole local market area.  Sales were well up from last month (53 v 30), but flat compared to last year (41 sales in December, 2010).  Framed in the results for the whole market area, the segment is reasonably strong.  And the A/R is under the 6 months that would be considered fairly balanced… pointing towards a slight seller’s market.

Between $200k and $400k, there were 138 listings for sale, and about 7.0 months of supply.  The 25 sales recorded were well down from the 11 from last month and from the 16 sales last year for December.  This had been one of the weaker segments in the county, but has improved dramatically and at current A/Rs, it is one of the stronger $200k-$400k segments in the county.

From $400k to $600k, there were 26 homes on the market. The absorption rate is 7.8 Months.  There have been 10 sales in the last 3 months (3 for October, 3 sales for November and 4 sales for December).  When the market is rolling, there should be 5-7 sales a month during this part of the year.  September was pretty strong, and but we didn’t have the follow-up the next two months I was looking for… December is back in the right direction, and the drop in listings certainly helps.  Just for comparison, there were 4 sales in the Oct.-Dec. period in 2010.

In the $600k to $800k arena, there were 6 listings. Absorption Rate is 18 months… but it jumps around a lot.  Sales in this range are pretty sporadic, but steady when looking at the long-term.  The drop in inventory over the last few months from 14 homes to 6 homes has made things look less slow… but there have been 5 sales in this segment in the last year… the last was five months ago until the 1 sale in December.

The range from $800k to $1m, there were 7 homes listed. And with only 2 sales in the last year (December, 2010), obviously trends are hardly definable. Listings are down, but sales aren’t following through.

Above $1m, there were 10 properties listed. The last sale in the segment was in April… of 2009…and then there was May… and 2 sales in June. So, we have 37 months of inventory. I hope, but am not expecting, sales to be more consistent.

Buford, GA is a suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett and Hall Counties. The population is 2000 was 10,668, but that only included the area inside the city limits, and it had seen tremendous growth since that census. Buford is home to Lake Lanier, one of Georgia’s premiere recreational areas, and Lake Lanier Islands. Recently, the City of Buford has revamped their old town. It is also home to Buford (Buford City Schools aren’t a part of Gwinnett County Schools), Mill Creek, Mountain View and Lanier High School (Lanier will open for the 2010-11 school year).

I have a page dedicated to Buford Market Data.

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Wayback Wednesday… The Bigger Price Myth

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 08:00
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This is one of those things that I hear about all of the time.  I face it all too often.  I go on listing appointments and either an agent before me, or one that comes later “buys the listing“.  Of course, not literally, but figuratively.

They tell the seller what the seller wants to hear… regardless of reality.  They tell the seller that they will sell the house for more money.  It is an appeal to the ego… and sometimes even defies logic.  But, it gets the listing.  Obviously, the seller generally wants to hear that their house is worth more.

It usually happens for one of two reasons… the innocent one and the not so innocent one.

The innocent reason is that the agent just doesn’t know any better.  Through inexperience or bad data or poor technique working with the data… or even misreading the market climate… they arrive at a price that isn’t really realistic.  And the window for a price is pretty small.  At 20% over real value, the house likely won’t be seen in the current market.  At 10%, many of the prospective buyers will dismiss the house even if they come look at it (most buyers won’t make a serious offer more than a few percent off of the list price).  Even at 5% over reality, many prospective buyers won’t offer… or they will push it to the back of the line.

The “not so innocent” reason is that the agent KNOWS that the sellers will list with them if they give a higher price estimate.  It is a LOT more common that most sellers would think.  In fact, there is an entire sub-industry in real estate involving strategies and support for these agents.  One of the popular strategies is to build in price reductions at predetermined intervals.  The sellers should ask a simple question… “If you are confident of the price, why would you build in price reductions?”  Of course, the market DOES shift, sometimes unexpectedly.

The idea, as stated in much of the materials supporting this strategy, is that the agent can tell the seller, “OK, we’ll try it at your price, but if nothing happens in 30 days, we’ll cut the price to ____.”  There is always the chance that there will be a buyer that will drop out of the sky, with cash (since the asking price might not clear an appraisal) and no desire to have an appraisal of their own done.  But… not that likely.  And that is where the issue I take with this as a deliberate strategy begins.  We know, from tons of studies, that over-priced houses generally end up selling for less, after spending more time on the market.

It goes like this…

  • The house starts off as over-priced, so it gets fewer, if any showings.
  • After a period of time, the price starts to ratchet down… but it has already missed that magic window (when a house is first listed) when the most buyers look seriously at it.
  • Since it has been on the market longer, the buyers that DO run across is wonder WHY it has been on the market so long.
  • Vicious cycle…
  • Price gets cut more to get showings.
  • When the offer comes in, it is lower than it likely would have been to start with.

Here is the post I wrote about this very issue a couple of years ago.

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Sugar Hill, GA, Market Report, December 2011

Monday, 23 January 2012 08:00
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Market stats for Sugar Hill, GA , December, 2011 indicates that there are 158 homes on the market.  Overall, there is about an 5.0 month supply.  There were 31 sales, compared to 34 last month and 28 last December.  The Absorption Rate (AR) dropped, but that is largely due to the decrease in listings.

For Sugar Hill homes priced under $200k, there are 118 listings, with about 5.0 months supply.  There were 24 sales this December, slightly less than last year for the same time (25).  Last month there were 29 sales.  Inventories have been fluid, rising and falling.  Normally, this time of year we see inventories leveling out, but this month there was a slight decrease.

Sugar Hill Listings between $200k and $400k, there are 34 listings for sale, and about 11.3 months of supply.  Last December there was an 17.2 month supply.  Last December there were 3 sales, this year there were 7.  Last month  had 2 sales.  This segment had a HUGE turnaround this month compared to the last few months.  The 3 month rolling average of sales was WAY up and the inventory was down.

For listings in the $400k to $600k range, there are 3 homes on the market.  The absorption rate is around 3 months, but with 4 sales since last October (until November), it is tough to calculate accurately.  Obviously, a sale or two could make a BIG difference, and we had 3 more sales in November alone, but none for December.  That brought the total sales for the year from 4 to 7.  There were only 3 sales in this segment last year.  I still hope to see some consistent activity in this segment.

In the $600k to $800k, $800k to $1m and Above $1m (combined), the sales are too inconsistent to have a solid read on, but there are only 3 homes listed for sale in that price range. No sales have been recorded in the last 2+ years.

Sugar Hill, GA is a suburb of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. The population is 2000 was 11,399, but that only included the area inside the city limits. The name comes from a bag of Sugar that spilled on a hill while in transit between Cumming and the railroad in Buford. And while it is actually a big market, it is in the shadows of Lawrenceville, Duluth and Suwanee… which all are nearby. That also makes it a great location, as it is close to everything that Gwinnett County, GA has to offer.

I have a page dedicated to Sugar Hill Market Data.

Atlanta Metro Zillow Home Value Index

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