In our profession, it's important to have more infomation about the market than our clients and the media. Oftentimes, I will hear incorrect information in the media and people believe it. I circumvent that by keeping up on the latest information from our Realtor database/multiple listing service, title company reports and my own personal experience.
As an example, this is the type of information I cite to my customers and post on my blog. I have found that if you "nicely" and professionally give people the correct information and focus on the positives rather than the negatives, most people will back off and respect you for your knowledge and willingness to stand up for your profession. And they'll look upon you as the expert you are and next time they talk with their friends, they'll be telling them what you said.
I posted the information below to my blog yesterday...remind your clients that statistics don't lie. I post this on Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo Pulse and LinkedIn by using ping.com; one click posts it to all places.
"The numbers for housing sales for the first nine months of the year are in and show that sales for 2009 in the Phoenix area remain strong and well surpass numbers of the previous year.
As of Oct. 17, there were 31,920 active listings; down about 14,000 from nearly 55,000 listings at the beginning of this year. And there are 12,824 properties pending or "under contract" so we shall soon see inventory dip below the 30,000 mark. Remember, housing is a "supply and demand" issue, meaning less supply creates more demand. And we have seen the average price per square foot for homes under $500,000 climb slightly this year. Homes priced above that mark continue to drop in price.
For the month of September, 6,948 homes "closed," compared to 5,497 in September, 2009, an increase of 1,451 or more than 25 percent. Ninety three percent of homes sold were less than $399,999 with REO or bank-owned properties accounting for 48% of all sales and short sales making up 19.6 percent. A short sale is a pre-foreclosure property that is being sold for less than the seller owes the lender, thereby requiring lender approval.
What does this mean? Well, obviously, homes are selling and one of the reasons they're selling is because prices have dropped to more affordable levels and there are some real bargains out there. Investors have come back to our market as can be evidenced by the fact that 50% of the sale of homes under $100,000 are cash deals.
There are often multiple offers on homes priced under $400K the first day or two they're on the market, driving up prices and making it hard for buyers to get a home under contract, unless they're willing to step up to the plate and offer the right price.
It will be a long time before our housing market recovers but in the meantime, if you're buying you can still get a great deal. And if you're selling, you need to be realistic and price it right so that it will move."
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