“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.”

                                                             -David Ogilvy, "pope of advertising"

By: Joe Salcedo of Reno Real Estate Blog

Understanding your market can put you ahead not by $4,000 or $4,000 or even $140,000 but as much as $155,000. Or if you choose not to heed, pick $155,000 from your pocket.

My client April (not her real name) was strongly advised (with graphs to show her) to sell her house in August of 2007. She waited till the market got better. We could have sold it at $305,000.

Demand

Median Price (2 years)

Now, it's worth $150,00.

Like a lone voice in the wilderness crying “look at the market... market... market” My cries have been largely ignored. “Location, Location, Location” is what they throw back at me. I don't argue, but a half-truth often carries the impact of a full blown lie.

Open the television, browse the news--there is someone bound to tell us about the real estate market. He's usually with the shiny head, a blue suit and an equally shiny red tie with thirty minutes worth of opinion--either watered down or hopelessly stuck in the latest breaking news in the housing market. 

The result: people seeing from the wrong end of the telescope—the here and now versus understanding the big picture.

The solution: know the supply & demand and median price. I promise you, you will understand the market better than the 90% of the 'experts'.

How: 1) Google it. e.g "Reno real estate number of homes for sale" or "Reno homes supply and demand"

        2) Your agent might not be able to provide you a graph like the ones you saw earlier (I was 'forced' to do this for my blog).  But ask your agent to pull up numbers--supply & demand and median price (at least two years).  Spend an hour to find out how the market is behaving.  You will enjoy it because you will proft greatly from it.

        3) Demand it from your agent's title company.  Ask questions.  Be inquisitive.

“Confront the brutal facts but never lose hope that in the end you wil prevail.”

                                                                  -Jim Stockdale, POW in Vietnam for eight years

*Joe Salcedo is a real estate agent in Reno.  You can find him at Reno real estate blog.