Thursday, February 11, 2010

Median home price rises in q4 2009

A story in USA Today quotes the National Association of Realtors as saying that the median sale price for resale homesrose in 67 out of 151 metropolitan areas in Q4 of 2009, a sharp increase over the previous year
The national median price for a home was $172,900, and it was the smallest price decline in more than two years.
Real Estate analysts fear that the end of the homeowner tax credit may signal another decline, and there is also a fear that more homeowners who are hanging onto their homes could yet default, creating another wave of price declines.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Corporate or bank owned?

Banks are getting more and more crafty in what they want realtors to say in the MLS. The latest is that the banks feel their properties are stigmatized when the listing says that it is an REO or is bank owned. So now we are seeing lots of listings that say that the house is 'corporate owned'.

'Corporate owned' used to mean that the house had been bought by a company when they transferred an employee, and the employee couldn't sell the house in a timely manner, so the company guaranteed the sale in order that the employee could move on to his new posting.

Buyers' agents need to know this distinction, because they will counsel their buyers to make offers based on different criteria if they think the property is bank owned or actually owned by the employer of the person who used to live there. Check the tax records first, and if that doesn't give the information you need, you'll have to ask the listing realtor.

Realtors education paramount when chossing a realtor

Any realtor who thinks that 24 hours of continuing education every two years is sufficient to keep them in the game is not only dreaming in technicolor, but is likely not serving clients with the most up to date information on today's ever-changing market.

With banks and government changing the rules of engagement about once a week, every realtor should be taking continuing education courses as often as that, just to stay abreast of new developments.

And realtors who only take courses they can utilize for their required continuing education hours, need to wise up and be taking courses for the sake of their own edification and the better serving of clients, not just because the have to take a certain number of hours to hold onto their license.

It's a different world out there, and realtors need to realize that we will never return to a market like we had even a couple of years ago. Times have changed and realtors need to change too.

I take at least 60 hours a year of continuing education, plus I subscribe to dozens of websites, news feeds, twitters, blogs, etc and even some snail mail magazines, which I read every day. And I learn something new every day that I can use in my business.