Luxury Homes Sites

I'm drawing upon the vast resources of the AR community here.

I am taking a "pocket listing" today on a luxury home in Middle Tennessee.  It is 12000 sf, 20 acres, gated, 4-car garage, elevator in 3-story section, pool, etc., etc., etc. My question is this:  Have any of you been using any external, non-MLS sites to post listings of this sort (probably $2.5-3.5 million) that have been notably effective? Have you found Zillow and Trulia to be good for these type listings?

I would appreciate any advise on this.

Many thanks,

Steve Heydel

It Not the Points, Its the Principle of the Thing

Okay, I realize AR is not about simply accumulating points, but they do keep score, after all.

Yesterday I posted once and commented 5 or 6 times, but I was only credited in points with one comment. And the post was credited with 238 points. Huh? I thought posts were credited with 200 points and comments were credited with 25, up to 10 per day.

If any of you AR geniuses out there could provide any answers I'd appreciate it.

I've now topped 15000!!!!!! But who's counting...........

Why Do Realtors Think They Should Cut Their Commission?

We hear this from potential sellers far too often, in one form or another: "I don't want to pay 6%", or "Other realtors don't charge 6%", or "If you want the listing, we'll need to negotiate the commission".  By "negotiate", they always mean reduce; how 'bout if we Realtors said "Okay, we'll negotiate--I'll start the bidding at 10%".

I was on a call a few weeks ago (No, I have not gotten the listing---yet), and the seller asked me about my commission.  I have recently printed up a trifold brochure, "My Plan to Sell Your Home", in which I list what I do the first 24 hours, the first 72 hours, the first week, the first month, and on an ongoing basis.  I go over the brochure and most sellers seem impressed at what we really do.  Then, when the almost-inevitable question of commission arises, I tell them "All that I have shown you is what I invest in selling your home up front, with no guarantee it will sell or that I will ever recoup my investment. I cannot afford to do these things and take a cut in pay." I try to key in on what steps seemed to turn them on, then tell them "I could cut my salary, but I'll have to eliminate some of the things I do; I could cut out the (fill in whatever idea the seemed to like)"

An even bigger question I have about this is for Realtors who advertise--advertise, mind you!!!!--"We'll sell your home for 5% (or, even, 4%)".  With things as slow as they are at present, how can they justify having a listing, on which I assume they are spending money, that will probably be on the market longer than normal, and they are taking even less to advertise, market and sell that house???

Sometimes it reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live "commercial" for the 1st National Change Bank, in which they bragged "I had a customer come in last week and ask for change for a ten. We gave him a five and five ones"--the point being all they did was make exact change! At the end of the "commercial" the late Phil Hartmann said "People ask us how we make money doing this. One word:  Volume".

Year-to-date Sales for Wilson County, Tennessee

I just thought I'd pass this along to AR.  This is an e-mail that I sent out to my mail list comparing the current and past sales here in Wilson County/Lebanon, TN.

As you know, real estate drives our economy. When times are good--more jobs, growth, an overall sense of financial security--home sales flourish.  When those factors don't exist..........well...........

I am constantly being asked "How's the real estate market?", so I try to keep folks informed of what real estate is doing in their county and city, and I try to do it in a fair, non-sugarcoated manner. To do that, I've done a year-to-date comparison, January-June 2007 vs. January-June 2008, of the status of residential home sales for Wilson County and Lebanon. And the news is, well, less than favorable. 

As you can see, home sales have taken a real hit this year county-wide, with Pended Listings (homes on which there is a contract) down 28%, Closed Listings down 25% and Average Days on Market (DOM), the length of time it takes to sell the average home, up 21%. That means fewer homes are being sold (actually a lot fewer), and it is taking longer to sell them. Bear in mind that the above-figures are for Wilson County as a whole, and that Mt. Juliet has still been growing. As you will note at the bottom of the chart, Lebanon Closed Listings are down a whopping 29%!

That's the bad news--the good news is this:  If you are in the market to buy, you have enormous potential.  It is absolutely a buyer's market and, with a little effort, you should be able to get a great deal on a home that probably has been on the market for a while.  If you are looking for investment rental property, there are new-construction homes out there, never been lived in, that have been on the market up to-and-over a year.

Unable to post pictures on blogs

HELP!!!  A few weeks ago we had some glitches on AR and, since then, I have not been able to add pictures to any of my posts.  The "Popups okay" box in my toolbar is visible and I get the initial "Insert/edit image" popup, but when I click on "Image URL" nothing ever pops up.

Can one of the staff or some tech-savvy soul take pity on me and offer some advice?

"Pacman" Jones home may be foreclosed

Ah, the trials and tribulations of a misunderstood thug. I'm sure this is only due to the failed policies of the Bush Administration, huh? (s/off)

On the bright side, I'm sure there is a veritable army of lawyers who have been able to make their house payments thanks to Pacman's numerous encounters with the legal system.

Year-to-date Sales for Wilson County, Tennessee

I send out a regular update to my SOI providing them an update on residential activity for Wilson County, TN.  The chart below give this information for January 1-May 31, 2008. I thought it was interesting in that, if you compare it to the same criteria for 2007, the AVG LP is up, but the AVG CP is down. Also up is the AVG DOM.

This might not be startling information for us REALTORs, but several folks have mentioned that they simply were not aware of the downtrend locally; Wilson County (and Tennessee in general) has not suffered as badly in the real estate downturn, but it is largely due to a few large, new-construction developments which have pumped up the sales (but left most of us local REALTORs out in the cold).

January 1-May 31, 2008

January 1-December 31, 2007

Great time for investment home buyers

There is currently a LOT of real estate sitting on the market in most areas of the country, including Middle Tennessee; I recently added an update to my website showing the year-to-date real estate activity in Wilson County. Although average prices are up, compared to 2007 the percentage of closing price to list price is down and the days on market is up.

One area you might seriously consider is investment in rental homes. Traditionally the stereotype of this is to find a "fixer-upper", put in some sweat equity, then rent it out. However, there is a huge backlog of unsold new construction homes that are doing nothing but draining the builders' pockets. I suggest looking into some of these; you have the advantage of a new, undamaged home (no repair expense needed); usually in newer, better neighborhoods (which should increase your equity over the years); and a 1-year builder's warranty.

And if you're considering investing in a residential foreclosure as a location for a business, you might want to check out this article from Inman News outlining some of the normal precautions you should take in evaluating properties.

Is anyone else having problems with uploading pictures?

Over the last several days I seem to be having a problem uploading pictures to my blogs. I have the "Popups okay" clicked and get the "add picture" box, but when I click on the "Image URL" box the second popup window is not appearing.

I'd not had a problem with this before, so I kinda wonder if it is related to the recent changes with the AR program.

Anyone else having a problem with this?

Website advice needed for non-AR REALTOR

HELP!!!!

A fellow realtor in my office is planning to initiate, for the first time, a website. I have recommended Advanced Access, but she has expressed an interest in Image Pro primarily due to the cost difference. 

Has anyone out there had any experience with Image Pro?  Please, with all due respect and blah, blah, blah, no Image Pro staff response; I realize you have a product to sell, but I'm really looking for more non-biased info, okay?