Well this past weekend was the Home sweet home weekend in Kernersville. It is an open house event which is put on by the Chamber of Commerce in Kernersville. We had over 100 homes open for viewing from 2-5 pm on Sunday. Not sure of the count yet but in past years we have had over 1500 people come through. I had 3 very interested buyers come into the home I was in and have heard reports of homes which had up to 70 visitors. I wish I was in the house with 70! Either way I think realtor participation was high as was the participation from the buyers.
These are all a good signs to me that the market is getting a bit stronger. Over the past few years we have seen a decrease of over 30% in home values, and have had a huge inventory of homes on the market with days on the market averages between 13 and 36 months depending on the price category. From what I am seeing in the local market over the past month or so is that things may just be turning a bit as buyers are back on the street.
The Triad is still struggling with unemployment over 10% so as the market does strengthen it will be a gradual improvement. That being said, I will take it. Any push in a positive direction is a good push for me. A large part of any improvement in the market will be based on peoples perception of the market so on a daily basis I try to find the good things to focus on rather than the doom and gloom. I am sure we are about to turn things around.
Over the past 3 months I have visited many properties which are for sale, I can tell you that there are plenty of homes out there which are priced right and in really really good condition. As I have said before in prior post, NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY! Low interest rates, lots of inventory to select from, prices as good as they can get. Buyers need to know all about it and it is our job to let them know.
Spend some time connecting with your sphere of influence. Call that client who bought a home 5 to 10 years ago. Who knows, tell them it's time to buy, drum up some business. It will have a ripple effect on everything. If you get a new client to buy a home and maybe sell one as well, you have helped the market improve. Maybe they have a friend to refer to you as well. Every little bit counts, let's all get out there and make the connections today and get this thing back on track. We are almost there I will try to do my part in kick starting it again, will you do the same?
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Gas is high find out the real needs of your clients
It has been a while since I have posted anything so I figured it was time. February is gone and it is starting to get nice out. People are back looking for homes, interest rates are still low as are housing prices. The time is right for buyers to make a move. In fact I am showing houses to two people coming from New York tomorrow. Being the transplanted New Yorker (24 Years) that I am, I will put on my best ex New York face and accent and get out there and show them around. It is always fun to show houses here to people from up north because they seem amazed at what they can buy as compared to in NY.
My fingers are crossed and my thinking cap is on as I look for appropriate homes to show them. I just love all the tools we have which make the process of finding homes to show simple. Listing book is a great tool but I find a lot of agents use it as a crutch rather than a tool to help find the right house. You can not just tell someone to use listing book and find some houses to see. If you do that you will end up with a list a mile long with houses stretched out over miles and miles of roads. With gas at $3.40 a gallon that does not make any sense. We agents need to dig deep to find out the needs of our clients and then lead the search for homes. Now more than ever we need to have serious conversations with clients to find the true needs of our clients and the true benefits that they are looking for in a house. Remembering all the time that features do not equal benefits. Once we have done a good job in discovery we can come up with a handful of homes to show the buyers. If we have done a good job up front we should be able to narrow the search quite a bit.
If everything works according to plan there will be at least one offer written by Monday afternoon. With zipforms on line and docusign I will be able to write the offer and have it signed electronically even with my clients back in NY. Wow technology is great.
On another note I wanted to let everyone know about an event in Kernersville on March 20th. The Kernersville Chamber is sponsoring the Home Sweet Homes for all real estate companies on 3/20. This is a huge open house event where there will be well over 100 homes being held open. Last year we had more than 1500 buyers come through and look at houses and this year the event is even bigger. I am sure we will have a lot of our listing go under contract. Please let your buyers know about it and send them out to look in the Kernersville area on the 20th. All of the Coldwell Banker listings will be in the Winston Paper that day and there will be a map and list of all the open houses in the Kernersville paper the week of the event. I hope to see you out and about on the 20th.
My fingers are crossed and my thinking cap is on as I look for appropriate homes to show them. I just love all the tools we have which make the process of finding homes to show simple. Listing book is a great tool but I find a lot of agents use it as a crutch rather than a tool to help find the right house. You can not just tell someone to use listing book and find some houses to see. If you do that you will end up with a list a mile long with houses stretched out over miles and miles of roads. With gas at $3.40 a gallon that does not make any sense. We agents need to dig deep to find out the needs of our clients and then lead the search for homes. Now more than ever we need to have serious conversations with clients to find the true needs of our clients and the true benefits that they are looking for in a house. Remembering all the time that features do not equal benefits. Once we have done a good job in discovery we can come up with a handful of homes to show the buyers. If we have done a good job up front we should be able to narrow the search quite a bit.
If everything works according to plan there will be at least one offer written by Monday afternoon. With zipforms on line and docusign I will be able to write the offer and have it signed electronically even with my clients back in NY. Wow technology is great.
On another note I wanted to let everyone know about an event in Kernersville on March 20th. The Kernersville Chamber is sponsoring the Home Sweet Homes for all real estate companies on 3/20. This is a huge open house event where there will be well over 100 homes being held open. Last year we had more than 1500 buyers come through and look at houses and this year the event is even bigger. I am sure we will have a lot of our listing go under contract. Please let your buyers know about it and send them out to look in the Kernersville area on the 20th. All of the Coldwell Banker listings will be in the Winston Paper that day and there will be a map and list of all the open houses in the Kernersville paper the week of the event. I hope to see you out and about on the 20th.
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