Tropical Realty's Marketing Stats

Hi Everyone!

Now that we have decided to actually start taking listings again, I thought I would share with you some of the stats that help us to sell homes. Firstly though, it is important to know that there are really only two things that will help sell a home in a slow market....price and exposure.

Price

We have been very selective about the homes we choose to list. Unlike most Real Estate companies, we will not take every listing that presents itself to us. Don't get me wrong, I used to do that like everyone else. It was then, while sitting on 50 listings or so, getting yelled at by every owner, that I realized I need to change our philosophy on Listings.

As most of you know, we do things quite differently at Tropical Realty. Over the past few years we have spent all our efforts on helping buyers buy homes. Because of the scenario above, it just wasn't worth it to carry listings. Besides that, it just wasn't fun. I'm a firm believer that if my customer and I are not having fun, I really don't want to be involved!

I heard a saying a few months ago that I truly love. "Do you want to be IN the market or ON the market". With less than 250 homes selling out of 7200 homes on the market in January, you can see that only a few sellers choose to be IN the market. Since our goal is always to help our customer, we will only take listings of customers who want to be IN the market. So how do you become IN the market?

In this market, it's really all about price. We have been testing our marketing and have found that if a home is priced at 5% below everyone else in their market, the home should sell within 90 days or less. We have seen that a few of the homes we listed in January are now under contract using this rule. The others are getting showings and it's just a matter of time before we should get offers. It's actually very exciting and our customers love us!

One problem with our Industry is that many Realtors will tell you what you want to hear. Fortunately we don't fit into that mold. We are going to be upfront and honest every time. Unfortunately most sellers do not want to hear what we have say! We are not going to list a home for $250k when we know that it is going to get $200k at the most. In fact most Agents will tell you that you should be able to get $250k and they are the first ones to call you in 30 days or less letting you know that you have to lower the price. They are not doing any type of service for their customers. Price your home right and it will sell...it really is that simple!

Exposure

Most Agents will put your home in a magazine and list your home in the MLS...and then what....they just sit back and wait for another Agent to sell the home or for someone to call off the sign in the front yard of the home.

Tropical Realty of Suntree owns and operates two websites currently with two more in the works. The stats I am going to give are a combination of both sites.

Tropical Realty of Suntree – Quick Facts

Did you know that over 80% of homebuyers start their search on the Internet?

Tropical Realty of Suntree is the leader in Brevard County for Internet Traffic and Buyers.

Currently Tropical Realty websites receive approximately 55,000 visitors each month.

www.MitchRealty.com is ranked 14th in the nation for Real Estate websites according to Ranking.com.

Tropical Realty of Suntree was the Number 1 office in Brevard County in closed transactions with buyers in 2007.

There are over 500 registered Real Estate companies in Brevard County

Tropical Realty currently has over 25,000 people in our database with approximately 10,000 buyers actively looking to buy within the next year.

Tropical Realty spends more money on Internet Advertising than most companies spend on print Advertising.

All our listings are found on Google, Yahoo, Homegain, Craigslist, Trulia, Lycos, AOL, Zillow and many more sites with a total of over

Our goal is to have 100,000 visits per month by the end of 2008 with an additional 20,000 new customers in our database.

As you can see there is a lot of great stuff here ! I have more stats but don't want to put to much writing on here as I try to keep these blogs to a reasonable length. As always, let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Have a great night!

Mitch

Short Sales - Are they worth the wait?

Hi Everyone!

It's Sunday night and I should be sleeping, but there is so much happening in the Real Estate world right now it's hard to go to sleep. As most of you have seen, Short Sales have now become very popular. Currently about 25% of all our listings are Short Sales.

First, let's spend a minute and explain exactly what is a Short Sale? Let's say you bought your home in 2005 for $300k. Three years later the market has crashed and the home you went out on the limb to buy is now worth $200k. To make matters worse, you may have bought your home with zero money down and an adjustable rate mortgage to boot. Your rate has gone up and that hope of your home going up in value $100k like your friends did only a couple of years ago is gone. You now qualify as so many do these days, to ask the bank to let you sell the home for the current market value of $200k. Once approved by the bank, you can now list your property to sell. So, a short sale is selling a home for less than what you owe on it. The seller has to prove to the bank they are a hardship case.

The benefit as a seller is they have the opportunity to get themselves out of their bad investment. It will still hurt their credit, but not quite as much as a foreclosure. In many cases the bank will not let you out of the home unless you sign a note saying you will pay the difference back to the bank. Most of the people put in this situation will choose to foreclose because they don't have the money to pay the bank. However, most banks are not asking for a note and they realize, in hind sight of course, that they should have been a little more conservative when deciding who they should or shouldn't give loans.

The benefit to the buyer, or at least the perceived benefit, is they will get a great deal on a property. Granted, there are some great deals to be had through Short Sales. However, most of the banks are not going to take much of a hit below current market values. Many times the bank will receive offers, then do an appraisal on the property to determine if they will accept any offers.

The Problem

It all sounds so simple doesn't it? Well it isn't! Short Sales have proven to cause a lot of heart break and distress. Let me tell you about a couple that we have dealt with recently.

The first couple put an offer of the home of their dreams. They fell in love with this home from the moment they walked through the front door. Their offer was full price based on the advertised listing price. They were very excited. The offer was submitted to the bank the following day. At this point we hadn't done many Short Sales and when we had, they were handled within a few days at most. So we waited for the banks answer....and waitied....and waited. Six months later we finally heard that the bank would not accept the offer. Yes, you read correctly, six months later. After some quick thinking from my Agent, she was able to convince the bank to take the offer. Our customers were full of emotions going from depressed to very excited again. Everything from there until closing went great. Our customers had their home inspection ($300), Termite Inspection ($75), appraisal ($300) and survey ($350). The got to closing and the seller found out she was going to have to sign a note for the difference in the short sale...around $57k. She refused and walked out of the closing room leaving our customers with their mouths hanging down and the tears flowing. They were devastated. To make things even a little worse, the next day the seller said she would sign. Our customers emotions were doing what you would expect by now. The got to closing and the seller again refused to sign. They were destroyed. Don't worry, there was a very happy ending to the story. We found them another house they loved even more and they closed in 10 days through our mortgage company. Everyone was happy in the end.

The second story won't be as long. It's basically the same as the first story in the beginning. They fell in love with the home and put an offer $3k above the asking price. We thought for sure they would get this home. After waiting for about three weeks, the bank came back and said they wanted $265k. This is $8,000 higher than our customers offer and $11,000 that the other Realtor had it listed in the MLS. Our customer was extremely upset and thought it was a bait and switch by the listing Realtor. The reality is the banks will not give us the dollar figure that they will take until we bring them an offer. Realtors can only do their best at guessing what the bank will take and list it around that price. It's really a mess.

The point I"m trying to make here is that Short Sales sound good on the outside but you have to be prepared to wait a very long time and possibly not get the home or pay more than you had offered. The banks are understaffed trying to handle an ever growing number of homes coming to them for Short Sales.

Now let's go back to the beginning of the conversation when we talked about the situation inwhich one can try to sell as a Short Sale. The reality is that the bank is not going to take less than market value in most cases. You are going to pay the same price for this home as you might with a regular resale with no issues.

My Advice

So what happens if you fall for a Short Sale home? Keep looking is what I've told most of our customers. You can put an offer on the Short Sale home, but you should keep looking for your perfect home while waiting for the answer from the bank. Chances are, with the amount of homes on the market, you will find another home with not so much baggage as the Short Sale home. In the end you will pay approximately the same amount of money for either home.

I know that everyone wants to get the best deal they can get. That is human nature and the American way! However, there are better ways to get good deals then doing a Short Sale. For instance, there are so many builders who have homes for sales less expensively than most resale homes. Also, look at homes where the owner has bought their home before 2002. Chances are they didn't pay much for their home and even wtih the market crash, they still have plenty of equity. The more equity they have, the better chance you have of buying the home at a better price. Of course if they don't have to move, they won't be going down to much either. But if the do have to sell, they have the flexibility to lower than price.

Hopefully that will clear up any thoughts and or questions that you may have had on Short Sales. I know it can get quite confusing out there. Believe me, when this first started happening we were all confused and we sell houses for a living. Now that we have done so many of them, we can help you though with ease. However that doesn't make the bank go any faster. We can just prepare you better for the possible heartache you might feel. So take my advice...Make your Short Sale offer if you want, but keep looking for your ferfect home. I know we have one available for you right now.

As always, feel free to call the office at 321-259-9115 or email me to answer any questions you might still have on Short Sales or anything else that I can do for you.

Have a great night!

Mitch

And the year has begun!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since I wrote. I have been extremely busy working on new programs to better help my Agents help our customers.

Last year ended up a little slower than normal but still we had a great year. Our business was up a little over 60% over the year before and we ended up the Number 1 Real Estate office in Brevard County in working with buyers. It's pretty amazing since we are really a small company compared to many of the over 500 companies located in our county. We are expecting to increase another 50% of so this year if the market stays the way it is. Hopefully the market will get a little better and we will grow even more.

So what can we attribute our 2007 success to?

I believe that in building a world class company, you must hire great people. Most of our Agents had little or no sales experience when I hired them. That was one of the reasons I hired them! When someone comes from a sales background, especially in Real Estate, they might bring with them the bad qualities they learned from their previous organization. By hiring people with less sales experience, I am able to hire people that truly care about our customer and don't worry about commissions. That doesn't mean they don't want to be paid well for their work, it just means that our customers always come first! I am blessed to have a great staff of Realtors and Admin people. Truly blessed!

Secondly, to be successful you need to have great relationships with your customers. We send out surveys after each closing to our customers. We receive about 90% of these surveys back and thankfully they are all beaming with accolades from our customers about my Agents. There is nothing better than having a customer tell you what a great time they had as well as how smooth the transaction went from start to end. I get a big smile on my face every time I read those responses. I'm just tickled that we get 90% back, I think that is awesome!

Finally, we need to have customers. Without you, our customer, we don't have a growing company. We are all very aware of that and work hard to ensure you are and stay happy. There really isn't anything we wouldn't do for our customers (legally of course) to help them in any way. Our goal is very simple; to help our customers have no headaches and have fun while working with Tropical Realty. Even when we have difficult transactions, and you know we do, my Agents handle it so well that our customer will very seldomly notice!

As we move through this year, if there is anything questions or anything I can do for you. Please don't hesitate to email me. I'm always here, we are all always here!

Take Care and have a fun day!

Mitch

Happy New Years!

Hi Everone!

Well another year has past us by. It's amazing, everything my parents told me as a kid were correct. None more than when you get older time goes way to fast! Boy that's an understatement. So here I sit on New Years Eve with my three cats and my dog. Jeanette, my wife, had to go to CA for an emergency the day after Christmas and she is still out there. The best part of this is that there are three differenct CSI, Law and Order marathons on tonight! Ok, I must be getting old.

Anyway, this isn't really about real estate as it is about reflecting on the past year in the Real Estate business. It's been a tough year for a lot of my fellow Realtors. I know of many that have had to get jobs and move onto different careers. It's really a shame since many of these people are really good, honest, ethical and trustworthy people. On top of the Realtors, there are the people that bought homes in 2004 and 2005 only to watch their home values fall aproximately 30%. Like I said, it's been a tough year. All those consumers who have homes on the market are well aware how tough it is has been this year. If you listen to the media, the end of the world is coming in the housing market. Yes it's been tough, yet there are still people buying and selling homes. Approximately 5% of the homes that are listed, are selling each month. We have been telling people lately, do you want to be on the market or in the market. Only 5% of the homes will be in the market. Each month less than 500 homes are selling. I would venture to say that these people are all happy and relieved that they sold their properties. Whether people want to hear it or not, pricing is what is going to drive your home to a sale. If you are not below everyone else in the neighborhood, then the home may sit there for a long time. Of course there are some exceptions, however not many.

Ok, I really didn't want to get into the doom of the past year. Let's look at the good stuff. As a company, thanks to all of you, our customers, Tropical Realty of Suntree is the number one office in Brevard County for working with buyers. Our small staff did a tremendous job this past year in keeping everything rolling. This coming year we expect to beat 2007 numbers and sell even more homes. One thing I have always believed and have spent my entire business career doing is taking care of people. The more you take care of people and provide exceptional customer service, the more people would prefer to work with you. My staff, your Realtors, are great people. They all sincerely care about our customers before they think of themselves. Do you know how rare that is in a sales environment? It is quite a remarkable feat to have not lost any Agents over the past few years with the exception of two that changed careers. The reason is, we have a very caring, sincere, funny, honest, ethic, smiling group of people who fill out our Realtors and our Admin staff. We all get along great and I believe this shows when we are helping our customers.

So for 2008 I wish all of you a great year. If you are trying to sell your home, no matter what state you reside, and you need help or suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask. There are a few things we have tried that have worked pretty well. I also have an entire network of Realtors that we work with around the country so if you need to sell your home outside of Florida and would like my help in getting a good Realtor in your area, just drop me a note. My email is mitch@mitchrealty.com and phone number is 321-258-4150.

Happy New Year!!!

Mitch

What's the deal with Foreclosures? What is the alternative?

Hi Everyone!

We are getting tons of calls these days with customers wanting to take advantage of the "lucrative" foreclosure market. I figured it was time for me to throw in my two cents to all of you. In this market, foreclosures are not the best deal. Yes, you heard me right. Foreclosures are not what they used to be and there is a logical reason for this comment.

Firstly, five years ago foreclosures were running at about 50% of the value of property. They were great deals. The reason was simple. When a person went into foreclosure, they usually had put 10% or more down on the property. Also, as the years have gone by, prices in our area increased. With more equity in the property and prices skyrocketing, foreclosures made a lot of sense. Let's look at an example:

A person buys a property for $100,000. He puts 10% down for a mortgage of $90,000. Over the next three years the property value went up to $130,000. Once this person goes towared a foreclosure, he has $40k equity in the property. The bank is also willing to take less of a payoff to avoid going through the legally taxing foreclosure property. Ultimately the buyer can buy this home from approxinmatley $75,000 or so and with a built in equity of $55,000.

Ok, now let's fast forward to the fall of 2007 (no pun intended). A person buys his property two years ago for $300,000. As with most people during that time period, he financed 100% of the propery and now has a mortgage of $300,000. Now in 2007 he needs to sell his home or go into foreclosure. The problem we run into now is that property values have dropped around 30% since 2005 when he bought the home. Therefore, his home is now valued at $210,000. This means, if the bank goes into foreclosure, they are going to sell the property at market value to recoup as much as they can to minimize their losses. The buyer of this property is buying the property at market value and is not going to see much, if any, equity upon the purchase.

With all that said, you can see that foreclosures today are not going to offer you the best bang for your buck. So what is going to get you the best deal. If you are looking to get your best deal, look for homes that have been on the market for more than 6 months and have been owned by the owner for more than 5 years. This will most likely insure two things unless the seller had refinanced in the past two years and taken equity out of the home. First, the owner might have only paid $125,000 for that same house that sold for $300,000 in 2005. If he needs to sell the home, he can lower the price of the way below market value and still make a decent profit from the home. If the market value is $210,000 as we figured in the above example, then selling the home for $199,000 would still offer the seller a tremendous profit while offering the buyer a great deal below market.

Hopefully this all make sense to you. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call or write. We are always here to help you accomplish your Real Estate goals!

Have a great day!

Mitch

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Everyone!

So it's 2:15am and I'm sitting here doing a little bit of work before I go back to bed. I do need to get a life! As I"m sitting here thinking about Thanksgiving, so much goes on in my mind. I get a little misty around the holidays. I guess the older you get the more you realize how precious life is and that we have only one shot. It's definitely not easy some times, but it's the life we have so we might as well have fun. For those of you who know me, you know fun is what I'm all about. I don't take to much to serious when it comes to day to day life. Believe me, in this business if you are to serious you would go crazy!

It's this time of year that I become very thankful for everything I have now and have received in my life time. I was blessed with two great parents that died much younger than they should have been allowed. Were they perfect, no. Did they do everything in their power to guide me through my youth and young adulthood, yes. I learned from them the most important rules that I follow every day. That is to be honest and to really care about people. They taught me even though there are some evil people out there, that most people are good and want to be good. They were very right!

Ok, so here is the rest of my list of what else I am thankful for: My beautiful and loving wife, Jeanette. She makes me smile and she takes the brunt of when I'm not happy. (yes, even I have my days!) My four awesome ,way to old children in Jon, Matt, Amanda and Michael. My precious granddaughter Lola who lights up the room as soon as she walks in...sometimes she strolls in I guess since she is only 19 months old! My very cool, fun, caring, and great staff who makes coming to work every day so much fun! My friend Wayne's two girls who were shot this year are both out of the hospital and doing great! My brothers who have been my friends for my entire life. My friends that I grew up with and that I"m still close with...I'm lucky to have several friends that I could count on if I needed anything...how cool is that! And finally and not least are my customers who have helped me grow a company that is well respected and successful. As we all know, without great customers like you and with my great staff I don't have a company!

On this day, Thanksgiving, give thanks to everything in your life that is good. Remember that sometimes things don't go exactly as we plan but there is always a lesson to be learned. I have gone through some very hard times and come away with many great lessons of life.

Lastly, please take a moment while you are sitting down to eat that yummy turkey to say a prayer for all of our troops scattered around the world in harms way. We are blessed to have such a fine group of men and women who are wiling to be away from their families during the holidays and put their lives on the line on a daily basis all in the name of freedom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mitch

Brevard County Properties Sold through the end of October 2007

Hi Everyone!

I have been promising stats for quite a bit but have been so busy I hadn't had a chance to do them. Well I finally got them done. Below are all the homes, condos and townhomes, and land sold for the year. As you can see the numbers are very low. At the bottom of the chart are all the current active properties for each category. The good news of course is that your negotiating power is very strong right now. If a home has been on the market for more than 6 months there is a good chance you can get the home for 10% or more off the listing price.

Month /Residential/ Condo&Townhouse /Land


January /342 /109 /45

Feb /465/ 121/ 43

March/ 519/ 143/ 63

April /510/ 127/ 64

May/ 471/ 131/ 60

June/ 487/ 128/ 53

July/ 447/ 122/ 50

August/ 447 /117 /54

Sept. /297/ 70/ 45

October /356 /83 /47

Currently
Active/ 7563/ 2987/ 4120

As I have said many times, this is a great time to buy. If you are interested in finding out more about the opportunities in Brevard, please don't hesitate to call or email us.

Have a great day!

Mitch