Friday Facts September 17, 2010

FRIDAY FACTS
September 17, 2010

From an article by Mary Umberger in Inman News: Residential real estate auctions in the U.S. grew by nearly 48% between 2003 and 2008. Auctions are the standard method of home buying in Australia and the traditional way of selling a farm in the U.S. Most auction houses will allow buyers to involve their real estate agents who will receive a commission on the sale. The winning bid amount will be increased by any fees and taxes that go along with a conventional property sale as well as by the fees and commissions paid to the auction company and/or real estate agent.

Trulia reports that home sellers in the 50 largest U.S. cities slashed their home prices by $30.1 billion in August alone.

The FHA implementation date for the premium changes has been moved from September 7th to October 4th after lenders complained that they didn’t have adequate time to update systems and disclosures.

Check out ReallyRottenRealty.com for tips on why consumers need to be diligent in choosing an agent. For example, a seller shouldn’t hire a broker who subscribes to the “Three P’s of Real Estate Marketing: Put, Put, Pray – Put a sign in the yard, put the listing in MLS, and pray someone will come along and buy it.”

From RIS Media: To most effectively communicate with today’s client:
Be visible all the time: Pick a platform that works for you and stick with it whether it’s Linkedin, FourSquare, Twitter, Gist, Batchbook or Facebook. The key is repetition and the mastery of the medium, especially considering the average attention span for an individual is 20 seconds.
Engage the client on his terms: Identify your buyer. If its just first time homebuyers, find out where they play on the web and hang out there.
Embrace text messaging.

September 24, 2010

Zillow reports that the most stable markets in the U.S. are: Grand Rapids, Michigan; Philadelphia, PA; Lincoln, Nebraska; Columbia, S.C.; Canton, Ohio; Pueblo, Colorado; tied for 7th: York, PA, Yakima, WA, and Washington, D.C.; and Denver, Colorado.

From Inman News by Tara-Nicholle Nelson, “Many who can afford to buy homes are now electing to rent … some until the price is right, others indefinitely. Additionally, we’ve seen that homeownership without equity, without income or with an unsustainable mortgage (balance or payments) can be more economically burdensome than beneficial. For this reason, it’s increasingly crystal clear that until the job market recovers, the real estate market will languish.”

An annual survey by Bankrate.com shows that closing costs on a home purchase are now about 2% of the mortgage amount, up as much as 37% from a year ago.

Kevin Brass notes in the International Property Journal that international buyers dominate Miami sales. Currently, 60% of home sales in South Florida involve a foreign buyer. Florida accounts for 20% of international sales in the U.S.

RISMedia reports that the number of people who sought local information on their smart phones grew 51% since last year, with the fastest growing method of access through downloaded apps.
The Real Estate Book iPhone app is another free app giving the ability to:
§ Search for home listings by city & state or zip
§ Map listings and get directions from current location
§ View property details and photos of listings
§ Save favorites and share or write notes and attach photos
§ Email or call the agent directly from the listing
§ View past searches and perform advanced searching