What Consumers Want On A Real Estate Website

What information do most consumers want to know about when visiting a real estate website?

According to a survey released by the exclusive Buyer agency firm Accent Realty Group, here are the topics most searched by consumers:
1) 85.7% wanted the ability to search all homes in the area.
2) 42.9% said they wanted to know about local schools.
3) 57.1% said they wanted to know about local crime rates.
4) 28.6% said they wanted to know about tax rates.

The survey also went on to add the fact that consumers were still unfamiliar and confused about the terms “Dual Agency” and “Facilitator”.

I spent a lot of time personally creating my website and I go into great detail to educate consumers about the different types of Agency, but I still find about 50% of the potential buyers I speak with are confused or just plain suspicious. I don’t blame them because the real estate community is still playing a shell game and trying to be all things to all people. I say it can’t be done.

On my website I use the analogy of two sports teams sharing the same locker room, and the same coach. What kind of game do you think they are going to be playing? In an NAR sanctioned publication titled Agency – Choices, Challenges & Opportunities (Agent’s Guide), the definition of an EXCLUSIVE Buyer Agency reads as follows: “The practice of representing only buyers and never sellers in a transaction. The company never lists a sellers’ property and thus never has a seller as a client. Agents never accept subagency that is offered to a seller’s agent.” (Note: In Massachusetts, practically all agencies no longer offer compensation to subagents because of inherent liability.)

As if it is not hard enough for the public to understand terms like “Dual Agency”, “Designated Agency”, “Transaction Agency” or “Facilitator”, “Single Agency”, and “Buyer Agency -- with consent to Dual Agency”, many brokers are still misusing the term EXCLUSIVE in order to capture a buyer. They offer EXCLUSIVE Buyer Agency with consent to Dual Agency”. That is like saying, I’ll be married to you, but if I see someone I want to fool around with, I’ll do it. I don’t know about you, but my wife would have none of that and I am perfectly happy being her EXCLUSIVE husband. Call me what ever you like, but I prefer to keep my life simple stupid, and be respectful of consumer intelligence. I will never share the locker room with another team.

In conclusion, allow me to direct you to a wonderful article I just read and please call me if you still don’t “get it”. I create power buyers!

Follow this link to read > What Buyers Do Wrong

Can You Smell the Brownies in the Oven?

Anyone who has ever been shopping for a home has had at least one of these experiences. It’s early June and you walk into a home to be greeted by a crackling fire in the fireplace. Even before you have walked over the front door threshold, the smell of Vanilla extract is overpowering. You go to inspect the basement and six different Airwick scents chase you back up the stairs. How about the dining room table with eight place settings for a formal dinner -- and all the plates and wine glasses are dusty? Don’t for get the framed needlepoint in the family room that says ‘Home Sweet Home’.

Staging has become very popular lately. Seller agents implore their sellers to remove all the personal knickknacks and clutter, and if necessary rent new furniture, putting dad’s tattered Lazy Boy into storage along with that treadmill no one has used in years.

Even more so today, people are going to extremes ‘staging’ their homes, and you know why? It works! Sellers who stage their homes usually sell them for more money. That is why I say, buyer beware – and be aware.

The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) published an article sometime ago warning buyers of staging pitfalls. What I find interesting is the national Press picked up on it and there are still articles being written referencing NAEBA.

Follow this link to read > Don't be fooled by for-sale homes that are 'staged'

GREENSPAN SPEAK(S)

If you watched the most recent interviews with Alan Greenspan you may or may not be pleased with what you heard. As for the housing bubble, Greenspan says it is a global problem and we still have some distance to travel before the market levels off. He said, “We, unlike the rest of the world, are showing some modest price declines.” When asked if a recession was on the horizon, his answer was, “The evidence so far, is not yet. The economy at this stage, despite this fiscal problem, despite the financial problem, is still holding up.”

In hopes of slowing the downturn in the housing market and lessening the credit crunch the Fed is expected to lower federal funds rates to at least 5.0 percent; it is now at 5.25%. However, Greenspan still sees a great deal of pain ahead for those who overextended during the boom. “I think we're going to have to go through this adjustment, as indeed all the other countries are in the process of going through it. There are going to be a lot of people who will have very tragic stories," said Greenspan.

It appears Greenspan is less optimistic about the economy than he was while writing his memoir, The Age of Turbulence, and estimates the probability of a recession at just above one-third. One of the problems, according to an interview published in the WSJ is the “very large” inventory of newly built and unsold homes resulting in increased pressure on builders to sell them quickly.

Martha's Vineyard for the most part is a high-end resort and second-home market where many expensive properties are sold without need for mortgage financing. However, in order to stave off inflation in the future, Greenspan said the Fed would most likely have to raise interest rates to double-digit levels for the first time since the 80’s, but that increase period would be short lived. If you are contemplating a real estate investment on Martha’s Vineyard and need financing, I think that prediction alone is a good reason to get into the market while the rates are low.