Hi Everyone!
Well here we are at the end of another month in this fun year of 2007! The market is holding steady as prices have stabalized and sales are consistent. Finally sellers are realizing that if they want to sell their homes, they will need to lower their prices. We have spent most of the past year and a half turning down listings. Certain death of an Agent is taking on listings that will not sell because they are over priced. One reason they are so over priced is the competitive market amongst Realtors. Most sellers will have 2 or 3 Agents come to their home to tell them their thoughts. Of course Realtors know that if they tell the homeowner the homes is worth more than it is, they will most likely get the listing. At that point, a month into the listing, they are telling the seller that their price is to high and they need to come down. It sounds to me like a bait and switch tactic which I don't approve of and will not allow my Agents to do in this office. Honesty will always prevail! Hopefully!
So let's talk about listings for a few minutes. I was on the plane this week after going to South Carlolina for a meeting. What a beautiful area of the country that I have only driven through in the past. The hardest part was understanding their language! Anyway, I was on the plane and met a woman from Virginia who is trying to sell her condo. That area, as with most of the country, has been hit hard with the slow down in the market. The first thing she wanted to do was to tell how her Agent just wasn't doing a good job. The property was shown the first few days and hasn't been shown since...I think it's been three months since it was shown last. After explaining to her that the condo not selling most likely has less to do with her Agent and more to do with the Condo market, she started to listen to what I was saying. (FYI - The condo market in Florida is down 32%) So let's touch on what I believe will help sell your listings:
1. Price is still and will always be a motivating factor. If you are priced higher than other similar properties, there is a good chance your home will be on the market for a very long time. With the amount of inventory out there, you are now competing with your neighbor who is trying to sell their home. Whatever homes sold for in the past is not relevent anymore. Price your home lower than everyone elses and you will get more showings and most likely the home will sell quicker.
2. Offer more to the Buyers Agent. I have never quite understood why Listing Agents get paid the same as the Agent who has brought the buyer to the seller. In every other business I have been involved with, the person who brought the buyer got paid. I can see a lot of Realtors not wanting me to say this, but I'm going to. If you have a 6% listing, tell your listing Agent to take 2.5% and have your Agent payout the Buyers Agent 3.5%. Keep in mind that all Agents are commission only. Put yourself in their shoes, especially in this market. If they are not selling many homes and they are working with a buyer. They are more apt to show homes that pay more commission. It's just human nature. A Realtors job is to narrow the search for the customer. If there are 20 homes that are similar and you are offering 3.5% or more to the Buyers Agent, which home do you think will be shown more. The second portion of this is to offer a bonus to the Buyers Agent. Instead of lowering your price $5k, offer the Buyers Agent $5k bonus with an acceptable offer. If you are lowering the price more than $5k then offer the $5k while lowering the price the difference. Remember, reward the Buyers Agent and you are more likely to get showings! I'm probably not making to many Realtor friends at this point!
3. Expectations - One thing for sure is to keep your expectations realistic. Most homes are sitting on the market for several months right now. Don't be in such a rush to shoot your Realtor. Also, don't ignore their advice only to wait until the listing expires, then with a new Agent do exactly what your original Agent was suggesting. That is very frustrating from an Agent's perspective. When talking with your Agent, ask them when they "Really" believe this is going to sell and how long you can expect the home to be on the market. If they tell you it's going to sell real quickly, tell them to get lost!
4. Condition of the Home - Your home must show like a model. Your home must be kept in excellent shape and have great curb appeal. It's worth spending a few bucks to spruce up the house. While I am on that subject, put yourself in the buyers seat. When you are looking at houses what turns you off the most. Usually the home that is not well kept or when you drive up the homes looks like a mess. If your home looks like that home, the buyers will be thinking the same thing!
5. Marketing Your Home - Again, I'm not going to make to many Agents happy right now but the truth is the truth. Most Agents will take your listing and put it in the MLS. They will then tell you that they will also put it in Realtor.com, Yahoo, Google, and possibly a few other Real Estate sites. The reality is that once a Realtor puts the listing in the MLS it automatically goes into all those Real Estate sites. Those sites have feeds sent to them on a regular basis of all the new listings. Internet Marketing has changed the way to market homes. The most important feature is to be in the MLS. You then have, as in our case, thousands of Realtors wanting to sell your home. Again, once it is in the MLS, it will be on the other sites. At Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com, we have chosen not to do any print advertising. We have chosen to do only online marketing since 80% of the people looking for a home start on the Internet. Currently we are receiving 55,000 visits per month from potential buyers. Our average listing gets seen 250-300 times per month. This much more than your listing will be seen in the Real Estate Magazines. Ask your Realtor how much money they spend on Internet Marketing and how many people a month come to their site. If they are not generating thousands of people, then you are not getting great marketing. The magazines are becoming antiquated! Don't be fooled by any of those buy back schemes or some fancy marketing they are saying they are doing. Basically you want to know how many people a month will look at your home. It's that simple.
Well that's it for now. If you have any questions or need any advice, don't hesitate to call or email me. We are always here to help!
Have a fun day!
Mitch
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Tropical Realty MS Golf Tournament
Hi Everyone!
I trust everyone had a great weekend. This past weekend on the 12th of May we held our 3rd Annual Golf Tournament for MS. This year, as always, the tournament was put together with the help of our staff with special thanks and effort going out to Co-Chairs Debbie Sanders and Melissa Goldman, Kelly Richard (especially for the great cookies) and Pat Bertrand. It was a great time with over 80 Players. The weather was typical beautiful Florida weather and the food after was great.
If you have ever put on a tournament then you know how much work it is. We start working on it the beginning of the year by working on getting sponsors and players. It doesn't stop until we have everything very organized, lots of sponsors, great prizes and a bunch of happy golfers. One thing that we do well is our prizes. All of our players go home with a prize and a gift from Tropical Realty. This year we gave away nice divot repair tools and ball markers. They were well received by all!
I think the hardest part of putting this on is that most golfers wait until the last minute to sign up. We did better this year in that department by offering a discount for golfers registering before April 15th. At that point I think we had received 3/4 of the players. We will certainly do that again next year. Usually we are two weeks away with 2 foursomes and we a stressing out. Well actually Debbie does most of the stressing for all of us!
I don't have the amount of money we raised this year as it is still be accounted. I believe we raised around $7,000 or so. Not bad but below our goal of $10,000. This year was a little tougher for many of our sponsors as the Real Estate slowdown has affected businesses that are affiliated with Real Estate. With that said, we had 18 Hole Sponsors, A Food, Putting, Long Drive, and Cart Sponsors. Without our sponsors we couldn't do this so I do thank all of them.
That's about it for today. Hopefully next year you can join us as we hit the links!
Have a fun night!
Mitch
I trust everyone had a great weekend. This past weekend on the 12th of May we held our 3rd Annual Golf Tournament for MS. This year, as always, the tournament was put together with the help of our staff with special thanks and effort going out to Co-Chairs Debbie Sanders and Melissa Goldman, Kelly Richard (especially for the great cookies) and Pat Bertrand. It was a great time with over 80 Players. The weather was typical beautiful Florida weather and the food after was great.
If you have ever put on a tournament then you know how much work it is. We start working on it the beginning of the year by working on getting sponsors and players. It doesn't stop until we have everything very organized, lots of sponsors, great prizes and a bunch of happy golfers. One thing that we do well is our prizes. All of our players go home with a prize and a gift from Tropical Realty. This year we gave away nice divot repair tools and ball markers. They were well received by all!
I think the hardest part of putting this on is that most golfers wait until the last minute to sign up. We did better this year in that department by offering a discount for golfers registering before April 15th. At that point I think we had received 3/4 of the players. We will certainly do that again next year. Usually we are two weeks away with 2 foursomes and we a stressing out. Well actually Debbie does most of the stressing for all of us!
I don't have the amount of money we raised this year as it is still be accounted. I believe we raised around $7,000 or so. Not bad but below our goal of $10,000. This year was a little tougher for many of our sponsors as the Real Estate slowdown has affected businesses that are affiliated with Real Estate. With that said, we had 18 Hole Sponsors, A Food, Putting, Long Drive, and Cart Sponsors. Without our sponsors we couldn't do this so I do thank all of them.
That's about it for today. Hopefully next year you can join us as we hit the links!
Have a fun night!
Mitch
Thursday, May 3, 2007
To Grow or Not to Grow!
Hi Everyone!
What a year this has been so far! We have been working like crazy lately and have just finished hiring our last Agent we will hire in this office. We are now officially full! Now we have 20 Agents to help you accomplish your goals of finding your own little bit of paradise. Does that sound like a commercial or what!?
So why are we so busy and most Real Estate Companies are struggling? I think the biggest reason is that we have a very loyal base of customers. Our past customers have always been our greatest allies and they continue to send us new customers all the time. That says alot for my team of Agents and Support staff here. We also generate a bunch of new buyers each month through the Internet and we continue to educate and train our Agents to be better and better. The beauty of our systems, is that we don't lose Agents. We have not lost an Agent to another Agency since we opened our doors in 2005. The winner in this of course is our customers. All of our Agents main goal is to help our customers. They come first in all of our minds and it's great!. I believe that is our biggest asset and appeal.
Just today I had a first time homebuyer in our office. He had called me last week about one of my listings and told me that he was calling all the listing Agents to find out more about the homes. He didn't realize that we all have access to the same homes. We all share the same MLS. The difference of course is that nobody would really give him their full attention when they found out he is hopping from one Realtor to the next. Anyway, to make a very long story short, I explained to him the benefit of sticking with one Realtor. We hung up the phone and within a few minutes he called back and thanked me for being so honest and that Ned, one of our Agents ,was assigned to him and he would meet him. We found him a home within a day or so and he also is using Tropical Mortgage Group. When he was in our office today he came to my office and thanked me for explaining how it all worked and that everyone from Ned to Pedro to Kelly have been so helpful and friendly. I love hearing this of course. It's music to my ears.
Now I have some decisions to make since we have maxed out our current office space. I can either open more offices around the county and beyond or franchise our systems throughout Florida. Franchising seems to be the way to go since I would have control over who owned each office. It would also make managing 50 offices much easier. If I open new offices, I have to do all the hiring, the traiing and all else involved in opening an office. Of course Franchising has its problems too. First and foremost is the cost. Have you ever checked into it? It's very expensive and would take a very large investment of both time and money. Do I have that in me at 46 years old?! Good question. I'm going to be doing the research over the next month or so and make some decisions soon. I'll keep you updated.
In the meantime, as always, thank you for using Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com and if there is anything we can do to help...you know where we are!
Have a fun night!
Mitch
What a year this has been so far! We have been working like crazy lately and have just finished hiring our last Agent we will hire in this office. We are now officially full! Now we have 20 Agents to help you accomplish your goals of finding your own little bit of paradise. Does that sound like a commercial or what!?
So why are we so busy and most Real Estate Companies are struggling? I think the biggest reason is that we have a very loyal base of customers. Our past customers have always been our greatest allies and they continue to send us new customers all the time. That says alot for my team of Agents and Support staff here. We also generate a bunch of new buyers each month through the Internet and we continue to educate and train our Agents to be better and better. The beauty of our systems, is that we don't lose Agents. We have not lost an Agent to another Agency since we opened our doors in 2005. The winner in this of course is our customers. All of our Agents main goal is to help our customers. They come first in all of our minds and it's great!. I believe that is our biggest asset and appeal.
Just today I had a first time homebuyer in our office. He had called me last week about one of my listings and told me that he was calling all the listing Agents to find out more about the homes. He didn't realize that we all have access to the same homes. We all share the same MLS. The difference of course is that nobody would really give him their full attention when they found out he is hopping from one Realtor to the next. Anyway, to make a very long story short, I explained to him the benefit of sticking with one Realtor. We hung up the phone and within a few minutes he called back and thanked me for being so honest and that Ned, one of our Agents ,was assigned to him and he would meet him. We found him a home within a day or so and he also is using Tropical Mortgage Group. When he was in our office today he came to my office and thanked me for explaining how it all worked and that everyone from Ned to Pedro to Kelly have been so helpful and friendly. I love hearing this of course. It's music to my ears.
Now I have some decisions to make since we have maxed out our current office space. I can either open more offices around the county and beyond or franchise our systems throughout Florida. Franchising seems to be the way to go since I would have control over who owned each office. It would also make managing 50 offices much easier. If I open new offices, I have to do all the hiring, the traiing and all else involved in opening an office. Of course Franchising has its problems too. First and foremost is the cost. Have you ever checked into it? It's very expensive and would take a very large investment of both time and money. Do I have that in me at 46 years old?! Good question. I'm going to be doing the research over the next month or so and make some decisions soon. I'll keep you updated.
In the meantime, as always, thank you for using Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com and if there is anything we can do to help...you know where we are!
Have a fun night!
Mitch
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
First Quarter of Brevard County Real Estate
Sunday April 15, 2007
First Quarter in Brevard County
Hi Everyone! So the first quarter has past for Brevard County Real Estate. Some people are saying the market is starting to pick up, others say it's still at a stand still. I'm a believer in letting the numbers do the talking so let's look at them!
As of today, April 15th:
Single Family Homes on the Market: 7471
Condos and Townhomes on the Market: 3435
Land on the Market: 4398
Sold Numbers are from Jan. 1, 2007 - April 15, 2007
Single Family: 1414
Condos and Townhomes: 374
Land Sales: 168
I think you might be getting the picture right now. Compared to 2004 when prices were 20%-30% higher we had around 1200 single family listings including condos and they all sold within 30 days. We also only had 1,000 land listings and they all sold within 30 days. It was a great time if you were selling your property but a terrible time if you were trying to buy. We had priced first time homebuyers out of the market and many of our buyers that would have liked to move up couldn't because they couldn't afford the next house. Crazy Times!
So here we are now on April 15th, 2007 and things have certainly changed. Sellers are starting to realize they need to lower their prices dramtically if they want to sell and even then they should plan on 3-6 months listing times. In 2004 you would have been blessed to find a home under $200k. Today you can buy a brand new home for under $200k. So we have completely changed from a sellers market to a buyers market. This is cetainly the time to buy a home. With interest rates staying around 6.5% or less, and home prices 20%+ lower than two years ago, this may be the best time to buy a home!
Of course one piece of great news for us, Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com is that our sales have been excellent. We are currently ranked number 2 in the county out of 392 Real Estate companies in working with buyers. Keep in mind we are ahead of companies that have hundreds of Agents where between our two offices we have a total of 30. Obviously we are exceptional at helping our customers which is why our business is extremely strong right now. I definately want to thank all of our buyers who have chosen us to help them purchase their homes. Honestly and Integrity surely pays off!
Well that's about it for now. As always, if there is anything we can do to help don't hesitate to email or call us. We will do anything in our power to make sure you make the right decisions on your next purchase!!
Have a fun Sunday and take care!
Mitch
First Quarter in Brevard County
Hi Everyone! So the first quarter has past for Brevard County Real Estate. Some people are saying the market is starting to pick up, others say it's still at a stand still. I'm a believer in letting the numbers do the talking so let's look at them!
As of today, April 15th:
Single Family Homes on the Market: 7471
Condos and Townhomes on the Market: 3435
Land on the Market: 4398
Sold Numbers are from Jan. 1, 2007 - April 15, 2007
Single Family: 1414
Condos and Townhomes: 374
Land Sales: 168
I think you might be getting the picture right now. Compared to 2004 when prices were 20%-30% higher we had around 1200 single family listings including condos and they all sold within 30 days. We also only had 1,000 land listings and they all sold within 30 days. It was a great time if you were selling your property but a terrible time if you were trying to buy. We had priced first time homebuyers out of the market and many of our buyers that would have liked to move up couldn't because they couldn't afford the next house. Crazy Times!
So here we are now on April 15th, 2007 and things have certainly changed. Sellers are starting to realize they need to lower their prices dramtically if they want to sell and even then they should plan on 3-6 months listing times. In 2004 you would have been blessed to find a home under $200k. Today you can buy a brand new home for under $200k. So we have completely changed from a sellers market to a buyers market. This is cetainly the time to buy a home. With interest rates staying around 6.5% or less, and home prices 20%+ lower than two years ago, this may be the best time to buy a home!
Of course one piece of great news for us, Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com is that our sales have been excellent. We are currently ranked number 2 in the county out of 392 Real Estate companies in working with buyers. Keep in mind we are ahead of companies that have hundreds of Agents where between our two offices we have a total of 30. Obviously we are exceptional at helping our customers which is why our business is extremely strong right now. I definately want to thank all of our buyers who have chosen us to help them purchase their homes. Honestly and Integrity surely pays off!
Well that's about it for now. As always, if there is anything we can do to help don't hesitate to email or call us. We will do anything in our power to make sure you make the right decisions on your next purchase!!
Have a fun Sunday and take care!
Mitch
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