Southampton, New York has been a very busy place for real estate this year! The only problem I see is that the housing inventory is dwindling and very few houses are coming on the market for our projected "hot" selling season--1st quarter of 2011. We now have the phenomenon of the vanishing house..."Where did all the houses go?"
Fast paced sales and no inventory--not a good place to be!!! Some may even say it's worse than a boat-load of inventory and very few buyers! I don't know if I would say that but I will tell you each and every deal that comes together now is tense and scary--lots of high emotions with a frightened buyer and a very 
anxious seller in almost every single one! The scarcity of properties is making it even more treacherous for everyone involved!
Maybe that is just a sign of the times; maybe the truth is that the fewer the houses to pick from, the better the chances there are to sell something--I prefer to work with less inventory, myself. My background in retailing taught me that in order to get "faster turn" you need to keep inventory low and sales coming in at a fast pace. Faster turn creates fewer markdowns and better profits as a result.....the ideal situation if you are in retailing!!! It may also apply to real estate in this new economy of ours!
My company will be getting our 4th Quarter, 2010 report from our accounting firm, Miller Samuel, in the next week or so and I can't even see the number of sales or the number of houses left to sell until then. I have only 2 exclusives left now and it is a little worrisome that I had 2 potential sellers tell me they don't want to list their homes right now..they "don't have to sell" and they "don't want to put the house on the market until prices start to go up again". Another owner just told me she has been told her C of O's on her inherited property are not complete and it could take 9 months to a year to get the final documentation in place in order to sell it!
Right now my number one priority is to get listings---I am usually very good at that so we will see how that unfolds.
It is my goal to get 5 new listings before the end of the month...so here is how I plan to do that:
- ADVERTISE MY "SOLD" LISTINGS IN THE LOCAL PRESS AND IN THE NEW YORK POST.
- GET MY NAME IN AS MANY PLACES AS POSSIBLE BY BLOGGING ENDLESSLY.(WELL-- MAYBE ONE A DAY!)
- TALK TO 4-5 DIFFERENT HOMEOWNERS EVERY DAY JUST TO TOUCH BASE.
- SEND NEWSLETTERS TO MY BASE--GIVING THEM THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT INCREASED SELLING ACTIVITY.
- SIGN UP FOR VOLUNTEER WORK THAT I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT DOING FOR THE PAST YEAR OR TWO.
- ENGAGE IN DIALOG WITH MY DOCTOR, DENTIST AND OTHER BUSINESS PEOPLE HERE TO LET THEM KNOW THAT I AM LOOKING FOR NEW LISTINGS AND DO THEY KNOW ANY ONE WHO MAY WANT/NEED TO SELL AT THIS TIME?
I have had a great deal of luck with using similar tactics in the past and hope they work under the conditions we find ourselves in right now....Who knows, it may be that the public is unaware that the real estate market has come to life again, here in The Hamptons!!!
HOW ABOUT YOU???....DO YOU HAVE A PLAN???
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