Mid 2009 Market update
Greetings
With the 2nd quarter of 2009 almost at an end, we see a glimmer of light at the end of the Cape Cod Real Estate tunnel. There are positive signs of energy in the market, but tempered with caution on the buyer side. I view the daily Multiple Listing updates, which show new listings (many), price reductions (considerable), ‘pending' sales (stronger) and sales (stronger at the end of each month), and anecdotally feel there is movement.
The Statistics we see in newspaper and on TV and the Web are largely based on actual ‘sales' (closed transactions), which means those properties went under agreement about 45+- days earlier. The real action is in the showings and the pending sales, and is not as quantifiable, since I am not privy to showings that other agents actually have on their listings, nor do we know price that ‘pendings' are selling for until they sell.
Where is the good news, then? In the years I have been practicing real estate on Cape Cod, action is followed by building momentum. The momentum in this market is coming with caution, as buyers evaluate their decision to purchase real estate in light of ‘value', and then emotional connection to the property. Even if the Buyer ‘loves' the property, the offers I see go together finally are a result of careful pricing of the property for the market to generate initial interest, and then both sides seeing some kind of win-win at the end.
I do not see prices on Cape Cod strengthening soon, but what seems best prediction is that as the lower priced properties sell, it may create more movement in higher priced properties-a trickle up effect, if you will. I believe second home buyers are back, but aggressively negotiating this discretionary purchase, young families are getting into the market, and may be able to stretch to buy a little larger house for their families to grow into (and stay in longer than the typical 5-7 years), and Baby Boomers+ looking to move to smaller homes or those with less maintenance.
The potential exists for strong market activity on Cape Cod as we enter the second half of 2009, but Sellers need to remain realistic on pricing, and Buyers need good education from an experienced agent. Any offer that comes in is a GOOD offer, because it means momentum on your property, and my job is to work diligently to squeeze out the best position we can to allow both principals in the transaction to feel good about it at the end.
Feel free to contact me at any time for an evaluation on your property to sell, or if you are making a move, to counsel you on the steps needed to buy in the current market.
Deborah Schilling
RE/MAX Classic Real Estate
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Selling Cape Cod Real Estate 1 Yard at a time
Providing professional real estate services in the villages of Barnstable, including Barnstable, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable, as well as the Towns of Bourne,Falmouth, Mashpee, Sandwich, Yarmouth and Dennis
With all the great tools available on the net for FREE these days, it seems like there's hardly any room or time to add anything new that will either simplify or complicate and consume our lives any further right? There are literally hundreds of sites popping up each week that try to compete and offer greater value than the next site. As I research what's out there, some of my favorite sites to investigate are the ones that might benefit us, our clients or our business.
Have you ever tried to email a file attachment that was too large for your email host, or too big for the recipient? Many of these email hosts and pop servers put a limit to the file size you can share, send, or receive. I wanted to share a file with someone the other day, and their email kept rejecting it because the file exceeded their email servers limits. It was only 3 megabytes.
So looking for a quick and easy solution, I remembered hearing about Box.net It's a file sharing site that allows you to upload all types of files and give others access to them. It can be used for public or private sharing depending on how you set it up. Having a site on the web to store files can also be a huge benefit if you ever need to access them while you're away from your own computer. Of course having your own server is best, but most don't have that luxury.
Box.net lets you upload almost any file type and allows you store up to 1.0 gigabytes of data FREE! You can also add additional services to your "BOX" like efax, Outlook, Gmail etc. You can add your social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter and others. You can even post files directly to your blog to share information with others all over the world.
Here's a sample of one of my Business Cards I uploaded. You'll get a kick out of that one! lol~ It's nice that there's no software or hardware required, it's really simple to use and easy to set-up, you'll have user permission controls, and they offer 24x7 phone support. Here's one of the quotes from their site:
Did you know? Over 50,000 businesses use Box.net to share ideas, create content, and collaborate in an online workspace? Users can access online file storage from anywhere - even on the iPhone or Blackberry.
Since they've been around awhile, that usually proves their value, stability, and WEB track record.
I think Box.net really simplifies file-sharing and team collaboration. There's no attachments or FTP uploads, you just send your clients or co-workers a link. This could be a useful tool to add to the many other tools and resources you'll find in the WEB 2.0 World. Thinking and working inside the "BOX" may help you or your business be more productive when you're outside the box. I'm just sayin... :-)
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