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Tag Archives: business of real estate

Global Power… LOCAL DOMINANCE

Friday, 14 June 2013 09:19
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Recently, I posted about how Century21.com is crushing the other major brokerage websites for unique visitors.  Well… that isn’t the whole story.

C21 Local and GlobalWhat is going on in the world at large is good to know, when you list YOUR house, you need to know what is going to happen with YOUR house.

  • Will an agent that gets an inquiry on it know anything about it?
  • Will an agent that gets an inquiry on it be motivated to sell it?
  • How will it appear online?
  • Will buyers even see it?

That is the basis of our Lock Down/Lift Up strategy.

C21 signFirst, we lock down the listings, meaning that every listing we have has OUR contact information next to it.  Each of MY listings has MY phone number next to it.  It has MY email next to it.  If they fill out the contact form, it gets sent to ME.  Obviously that is great for me… but it is pretty good for you, too.  I will know more about your home that some random agent that paid to be on any unrepresented listings, and I want it to sell as quickly as possible.

That is the Lock Down portion of the strategy.

The next thing we do is get premium locations for all of our listings.  When people search, OUR listings are the ones at the top of the results.  As buyers search, instead of going through pages and pages of homes, people generally only look at the first page.  We want OUR listings to be there… and if you are selling YOUR home, you want it there, too.

That is the Lift Up part.

And it isn’t just one or two places…  It’s

  • Zillow.com
  • Realtor.com
  • Trulia.com
  • Homefinder.com
  • Homes.com
  • RealEstateBook.com

The last post was about Global Power… but Local Dominance is where we are today.

When it’s time to sell, what do you want for YOUR house?

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Century21.com is CRUSHING IT!!

Wednesday, 12 June 2013 08:28
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We just got a report in the office looking at website usage of the major brokerage sites… C21, RE/MAX, Keller Williams, etc.  The results may be surprising to a lot of people.

C21 signFor 2013, January through April, the number of unique visitors to the sites were as follows:

  • Century 21 – 10.6 million unique visitors
  • Coldwell Banker – 5.3 million unique visitors
  • RE/MAX – 4.6 million unique visitors
  • Weichert – 3.7 million unique visitors
  • Keller Williams – 3.0 million unique visitors
  • ERA – 700 thousand unique visitors
  • Prudential – 400 thousand unique visitors

It might be good to note that Century 21 Realty’s parent company is Realogy.  They also own ERA… as well as Better Homes & Gardens Realty, Sotheby’s International and Coldwell Banker.

C21 Local and GlobalBut there is another little tidbit that makes Century 21 a little more powerful for sellers.  Realogy owns a company called Cartus.  While most people may have never heard of them, they are one of the biggest corporate relocation partners in the world.  They feed those relocations into the Realogy system… and since Century 21 is easily the biggest, that is where most of them go.  And since Century 21 Results Realty Services is one of the biggest C21 franchises in this market, WE get a pretty good feed on those.

Normally I post about market stats and some news about real estate… sometimes views on things that can affect value or other tips for buyers or sellers.  But one of the things that can REALLY affect value is marketing power.

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Foreclosure Wave Broken on the Shore?

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 16:19
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For years I have been hearing (and talking about it here) the “wave of foreclosures that are just around the corner”.  For years the wave has been just around the corner, over the horizon and getting ready to hit.  We did have a tsunami of foreclosures, and Gwinnett County has been one of the worst hit in Georgia, but the second wave has been a phantom…

Foreclosures fall behind retail sales in Gwinnett

Foreclosures fall behind retail sales in Gwinnett

And I am about ready to say that it will remain a phantom.  That isn’t to say that there won’t be more, but I would like to lay to rest the idea that the banks have a pile of foreclosures that they are “about the release” or that “will hit the streets in the next few months”.

If there was a time, it would be NOW.  There is little inventory, prices are starting to strengthen… the time would be ripe.

Instead… we see the first chart.

The green line represents wholesale (foreclosures, short sales, pre-foreclosure sales, etc.).  It has dropped over the last few months… as retail (that would be regular sellers) have surged.  One not to include here… the red line (new homes) only represents a portion of new home sales.  Builders only report “inventory sales” to the MLS.  And many of their sales are “pre-sales” (houses purchased before they are built).  Some builders are selling 3 or 4 pre-sales for each inventory home.  Expect that the red line might actually be 50% higher than it shows…

Prices rebounding in Gwinnett County, GA

Prices rebounding in Gwinnett County, GA

To be sure, everything isn’t all wonderful… but it is a load better than a year ago.  Right now, actual people that want (or need) to sell their homes have a shot.

The next issue that will start to right itself over the next couple of years regards the people that have been through this wave of foreclosures…

It takes most people 3 years to recover from a foreclosure, short sale, pre-foreclosure, deed-in-lieu or other mortgage shortfall.  So, over the last three years, as Gwinnett County has been ravaged by foreclosures and similar issues, thousands of homeowners have been locked out of the market… instead, largely joining the ranks of renters.

That won’t last…

And as they come back into the home market, with the reduced inventories we’re seeing, expect to see continued price strength.

Like I said, it isn’t all wonderful, but we are looking at the beginnings of a Gwinnett recovery.  If it follows the Forsyth recovery (they weren’t hit as hard) you can expect to see the market heat up quite a bit through the end of the year as the pent-up demand is released.

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Mortgage Flowchart…

Wednesday, 29 May 2013 08:07
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Options Instead of Foreclosure…

Wednesday, 22 May 2013 21:39
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Yes, there are still buyers out there underwater.  Things are getting better, but just because the flood waters have started to recede doesn’t mean that all of the land is out of the water.

English: Sign of the times - Foreclosure

English: Sign of the times – Foreclosure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here are the choices that “under water homeowners” face if they need to sell… or just really want to sell.

  • Short Sale – These have gotten much better over the last couple of years, and especially the last few months, but they are still tough and hurtful.
    • They take a long time to process.  While it isn’t the 2 years that they took not that long ago, don’t expect the bank to be done in less than 60 days… after they start looking at the offer.  And they might drag it out for six months or more, only to end it all with a rejection.
    • Credit scoring agencies look at a foreclosure and a short sale in EXACTLY the same light.  So, despite all of the work that you, as a seller, may put into a short sale, the bank doesn’t care.
  • Foreclosure – Stressful and kills your credit for two to three years… or maybe a little more, depending on what you do to recover.  And for many, the stress of knowing that a Sheriff’s notice could hit the door any day can be pretty rough.  It may be embarrassing, too.  Many don’t want their neighbors to know about financial hardships they may be facing.
  • Renting your home – There are a lot of folks out there we call “accidental landlords”.   But it isn’t all flowers and unicorns…
    • A credit card, the biggest beneficiary of the ...

      A credit card, the biggest beneficiary of the Marquette Bank decision (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      It might seem either like it doesn’t matter or nothing matters more, but you NEED to be able ot be cashflow positive… more in rent than house payments.  And remember, insurance is a different game as a landlord than as a occupant.

    • You need to be financially solvent enough to afford repairs on the home if needed.
    • Keeping up with the house payments will take on even more importance.  If you were to rent out your house and default on the payments… if the renter could prove that you knew you could default, they might take you to court… maybe not, but…
    • Your mortgage likely includes language saying that if you move out, the mortgage is due in full.  Again, the mortgage company may not care, but it is a risk.
  • Write a check – If you can pay off the shortage at closing, that is a pretty good option.  But most people don’t have the resources to write the check…

If you are wondering if you are underwater, we can talk about it.  I have an option for those that want to go the short sale route.  If you are interested in renting, we can talk about that, too.  I generally don’t handle rentals, but we can talk over the options.

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