Five things you need to know – Part 1

Just in case you missed my last rounds at sales meetings, as promised here is my summary post on the 5 important trends in Real Estate that every good real estate agent needs to know. Just to keep you all interested and reading – I am going to spread this out over a five part series. Hopefully, it will keep you awake and somewhat interested.

Part 1 The Market is ummm – challenging.

2007 will be the year we look back and remember as the Year of Inventory.

This year as our listing inventory accumulated, we have learned a lot about pricing, short sales, foreclosures but most of all we have learned the financial pain of carrying listings without the income to match. Each Monday morning when the Sunday Open house yielded little or no traffic, we attempted to keep our sellers, of often overpriced listings, happy by committing to another pricey newspaper ad, a costly mail out, magazine spread or some other pay for play method of trying to garner a buyer who might be willing to at least look at the property and make some sort of offer.

Time passes and ad bills accumulate long before you realize that the overpriced listing is about to expire and all you have is a bill to show for it.

As I have watched the ebb and flow of advertising I can always tell when bills went out because that week we are always short in every publication. They say that every action has an equal and opposite reaction – so with a bill comes a dead stop much of the advertising. If it isn’t a dead stop – it is certainly a slam on the brakes and understandably so.

I think by now, most of us realize that we can no longer advertise without thought and believe it will sell an overpriced listing. I see people giving careful consideration to every dollar spent and I think overall, that is a good thing.

2008 promises to be much more of the same. I think we are all a bit wiser for having spent a year in the trenches of a challenging market and as prices have fallen, showings and offers have begun to appear… an amazing phenomena. We have brushed up on our vocabulary and , at least I hope, we know what tools to put in front of our sellers to get those prices right. If you haven’t seen my quick and easy “cheat” click here.

As we are all smarter lets look at the second trend… What will happen to print advertising??? As for the answer to that question and many more… stay tuned for part 2.