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How Well Do You Know Your Market?

•1. How many active listings are there in your MLS system right now?

•2. How many of these are short sales or REO's?

•3. How many properties are auctioned off at your county level as foreclosures every month? What percentage of total transactions does this figure represent?

•4. What are the absorption rates for homes, condos and land in your market?

•5. Are the prices of inventory selling reflecting 2004, 2003, or 2002 pricing levels?

•6. What is happening to the Rental market in your area?

•7. How familiar are you with the quarterly figures for your market? Can you recite the last three quarters' figures for each of the product category you service?

•8. What is the best selling product in your market? What is the worst performer?

•9. What is the cheapest home sold last month? What is the most expensive home sold? How about condos and land transactions? How about the previous two months?

•10. How does the third quarter of 2008 compare with the third quarter of 2007? How does it compare with the previous two quarters?

If you know the answers to all these questions, congratulations! You are one knowledgeable agent! If you don't, then use this questionnaire to guide you in finding the answers! Not only will you garner a better understanding of your market, but that knowledge will serve you well with both your Sellers and your Buyers. Your offers will be better equipped to succeed and your listings will actually sell. You will be more productive overall as a result of this exercise.

Each of the above questions could become one or more blogs. If you post these on Localism for the areas they pertain to, you will garner clients who will seek you out as the expert that you have become. That is the strongest advertising you could possibly have.

Feel free to propose new questions I have not yet posed!

Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela Monte Proud Optimist!

Posted by Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela Monte on 10/11/2008 08:25 PM

Comments (45)

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Originally posted at: Myrtle Beach Real Estate by Mirela : How Well Do You Know Your Market?

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45 Comments on How Well Do You Know Your Market?

OCT

2008

I look forward to your comments! Please share your opinion!

You must have read my mind as I have been researching for a couple of hours now most of the above info! Great post idea MM! KM

Kristin: Good girl! You are doing stats on a Friday night? Let's see: Beautiful, smart AND studious? You are a rare gem indeed!

There was a post just like this yesterday (I forget the gals name..sorry) but I though it was wonderful. My market area has so many communities that it is hard to learn the details about market saturation for each one on a weekly basis, let alone a daily basis, but I do try.

Good questions...sad to say I know abouthalf the answers..Thanks

I live with these stats. When a buyer calls and wants to know anything about any area in my market, I can engage them and they have confidence that I know what I'm doing.

Mirela, I would say that anyone that doesn't know the answeres to these questions may need to find another profession. I study the MLS everyday before I do any thing else. I've been doing that for 14 years. I have folks call me up to list thier property and I can actually tell them the lay out of their house off the top of my head because I have seen it or sold it over the years. It blows their mind!!!

Kris: How about just your area of service? You don't have to do it daily (you can just extract any new listings daily, no?), but at least stay on top of it monthly, so you know what the figures are.

Gary: Half the answers will garner you half the results. ...It's still much better than a lot of the Agents can claim...

Mirela, I know most of the answers here, but thank you for reminding me that I need to stay up on my numbers. AR is so good to keep us all on track. I am going to bookmark you so I can come back and make sure I have all my numbers covered.

This is a very good post and I will have to check out the market in my area. I am afraid some of the statistics are not easy to find in this neck of the woods.

Fantastic post and yes, every active Realtor should know the answer to all of these questions, smart buyers and sellers out there are going to keep you on your toes.

Definitely bookmarked this post! Great advice to start posting these stats on Localism. Great post! Thank you.

I consider myself very knonwledgable as one can see from all the charts in my blog. However, we never know it all and your list is a good one.

Mahalo!

Kim: That's true, but most importantly it gives you what I call "GRIP". When you understand the market you can write correct offers, you can negotiate those offers with a lot more persuasion. Many times when I come to an agent with a ridiculous offer, it seems in la-la land initially. After I sit down with the agent and I show him exactly what I based my offer on, he typically is left scratching his head and going back to his seller client with a new point of reference. That's how I have a $125K where the comps are still running above $170K. Are my Buyers delighted? You bet!

For the Sellers it gives them the correct view of where they need to be price wise and why. I just took a listing (BTW from a lead that came from AR). Because I know my market and I was able to present an accurate picture to the Seller, we listed the property correctly. That was two days ago and it looks like I will be getting an offer on it Monday. Price does matter!

I just posted the Quarterly Condo Report for my area. You might want to take a look at it. It is very in-depth, but it will really help me and my agents make a case for both our listings and our offers.

We constantly research stats (well I do, Brian is busy...) and specifically in the areas we concentrate on. It takes time but I personally like to keep my hand on the pulse so to speak. ~Rita

I must be one smart cookie cause I knew em all and didn't have to cheat. I thinks it's a great idea to study and know the numbers.

Mirela, that is a great list. I'm going to print out your post and get right on it. Thanks for the information and a push in the right direction.

Hi Mirela -- Great post. This is the kind of information we should all keep up with.

I do keep up with this very well. But I did print this and will make sure I know it every week.

We serve 9 citites but concentrate on 3 so learning all 9 will be my new goal.

Mirela:

Let me suggest another "list" for you to incorporate into this one:

How well do you know the BUYERS AND SELLERS in your market?

I'm fairly certain that most agents can rattle off all sorts of HOUSING stats - sales, expireds, list-to-sell, yadda yadda yadda... but FEW have ever seriously studied their CONSUMERS.

What are the demographic profiles of your LOCAL sellers? Age? Income? Tech usage? etc?

What are the demographics of the last 50 sales or buyers you worked with?

How did those consumers contact you (referrals, website, etc?)

What were their NEEDS?

My point is this: We study MARKET DATA toooooooo much; and the consumer HARDLY. And until houses start buying and selling each other (:>) we better do a better job of studying the consumer - who isn't calling, walking in or responding to our postcards (gasp!) and may be different than our "expectations."

Just a thought... As someone who consistently teaches Generational Marketing to REALTORS - and hears hundreds of people gasp when they can't quickly answer the average age of sellers or buyers, or first time buyers, or what percentage of buyers had no children under the age of 18 at home, and other critical data, I think we sometimes do ourselves a disservice by only studying houses.

- Matthew Ferrara

www.matthewferrara.com

Mirea: These are great questions.. most in any given area can not answer these questions.

Mirela - I study the market and follow the MLS in my area everyday, producing, weekly, monthly and quarterly reports. Readers do pay attention to whats happening in the area.

OCT

2008

We all need to know our local market. Especially since we need to counter all the negativity in the media. My area definitely has done better than the newspaper depicts when they talk about Southern California!

Mirela,

As one of the best musicals goes: "These are a few of my favorite things."... regarding stats. It's also important to present them to your clients in a format they can easily follow and remember. My preference is charts and graphs since most people are visual learners. These items really add to the verbal presentation we do in this biz! Great post.

Paula: You're right! ...And to that end, I have my lovely MacBook Air... If that doesn't impress them into giving me the listing, I don't know what would!

One of the most refreshing blogs I have read in a while...very worthwhile information. Thanks Mirela! Ps. God, I miss Myrtle Beach...what an awesome place on earth! I used to go there every year as a teenager since Mom was from Roxboro, NC...we'd visit..NC an trek to Myrtle Beach...ahhhhhhhhh....one has to go there and experience if for oneself!

Mirela,

Thanks for the post. Great basic information that sets you apart from the pack, amongst your peers and the consumer.

Hi Mirela what is interesting about this is that if I did not put my market reports together to post here every month I would not have the same level of understanding of the figures.

This is great... I was reading one of your comments and you talked about the MacBookAir...Why is it so impressive

EXCELLENT POST - I'm sending this to all my agents (I'm the manager) to see how they do with their answers (gotta do a bit of research myself!)

Mirela,

A thoughtful post----the office where I work goes to great length to support us with market data. I've worked in other offices where it never occurred to them to assist agents this way.

Yay!! I passed. I try to keep up with all of these most important facts..it takes a bit of elbow grease but that is our job, right!

Thank you so much for posting this blog. Knowing the market and who the consumer is makes a big difference. I too will print this out to share with my broker/owner who does stats for us several times. I agree this needs to be done on a regular basis.

I live in a very interesting community where there are many second home owners around the lakes and then the residents who grew up here and stay. It makes the stats different for the type consumer one might want to work with.

Great post, so do you have an excel spreadsheet you can share? Out board is from the dinosaur era and we have to do this by hand! info@kathytoth.com

Great post...thanks!

Mirela,

Important to do the homework and you are great to send a reminder.

IF THE MAJORITY OF REALTORS KNEW THESE ANSWERS, WE'D ALL LOOK BETTER!

Thanks so much for your input, I do study stats and do lots of market reports but you have given me some new directions to look into.

Mirela...Great post! Have actually posted our Charleston numbers several times....expecially in my newsletters and didn't even get a comment, I guess because most agents consider it "Focusing on the Negatives".

Answer:

#1 10,627 Listings = 571 closings last month

#2 87 REO listings

#3 261 forclosure properties sold at auction in 3 county area

I could go on, but I "get" your point...

and my most emphasized point is that there are only 23 homes that offer No Qualifying - No Credit check homes for the "Credit Challenged"!

Bobby Wallace

Great post Mirela, I am going to start on staying current on my stats right away.

I did have a lady call me just because I was the only one posting about the stats in my area.

Mirela, this is a very basic point and thanks for the reminder. I read an article last year in one of the Realtor magazines and the title was "Know Your Numbers." It's hard to argue with numbers. It will quiet a buyer or a seller when the cold hard facts are in front of them.

OCT

2008

A few qualitative market statistics to know.

1)how many have "no qualifying - no credit check" (posed by Bobby Wallace above)

2) how many loan officers can get competitive financing for your buyers?

3) how many mortgages does one have to shop to get the property financed?

Spencer: For oceanfront right now:

1. None

2. Very few

3. All my oceanfront transactions waiting to close right now are cash (I have about 5 or 6).

This spring I had a doctor client with scores in the 800's and we had to move the loan to three different lenders to close. They all said and thought they could do it and had to retreat in the last stage. It stayed in underwriting for almost 10 days, but it got closed. Since then I just reccomend to buyers to pull the money out of other properties and pay cash. I had a few who financed with no problems, but only a few. There is so much regulation when it comes to condotels

OCT

2008

Mirela, great post! I'm embarassed by how many of these I don't know. Time to get on the MLS and research. Thanks for the insight!

Kristen: It makes me so happy to awaken that in you! Thank you for being so candid! Your erudition will be well worth it!

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