Archive for the ‘Real Estate Trends’ Category
Syndication Issues in 2012
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on February 1st, 2012
According to an article on Inman News, the coming year will see an increased scrutiny of the value of real estate listings syndication. The article discusses a renewed debate around broker control of listings data and its distribution channels and and a rising demand among consumers and real estate professionals for higher-quality data.
In November a subsidiary of HomeServices announced plans to pull listings from Trulia and Realtor.com. This syndication withdrawal may be among the first in a coming wave where brokerages and MLS decide to feed real estate listings only to sites that provide the most value.
The third-party real estate search business model does not reflect the brokerage business; they simply sell advertising in a manner of speaking.
The brokerage has thus far pulled its listings from Trulia, though the companies have devised a workaround that allows Edina agents to submit their own listings to Trulia if they choose. The brokerage is attempting to negotiate a similar workaround with Realtor.com before pulling its listings from that site.
Will listing syndication will be among the most controversial data issues in 2012?
Does deciding no to syndicate force consumers to the actual broker site, or miss the online target that relies on this exposure?
As the value of listing data is further assessed in 2012, multiple listing services may decide that value is worth a price, some experts said.
Taking control
If you don’t know where your listings are, you can’t track them. Rather than distributing their listings “anywhere and everywhere,” brokers are starting to take back more control of where their listings are distributed.
5 Surprising Demographic Trends for 2012
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on January 25th, 2012
The National Association of Realtors’ latest Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has some unexpected statistics about who is buying and selling in today’s market. Now that the first-time homebuyer tax credits have ended, baby boomers have replaced Gen Y and Gen X as the dominant players in the real estate market.
This year’s profile revealed these surprising statistics:
1. Bottomed out at last. Prices appear to be stabilizing in some areas. This is the first step in climbing out of the rocky bottom we have been in for the last several years.
2. Boomers are the key players. In 2010, due to the first-time homebuyer tax credit, the median age of first-time buyers dropped to 31. In many markets, the number of first-time buyers hovered at the 50 percent level. The smart move in 2011 was to market to Generation Y.
Over the last 12 months, however, there has been a substantial change that can have important ramifications for your business in 2012. In 2011, baby boomer purchases substantially surpassed the number of Generation Y buyer.
Why is this surprising? There are more Gen Yers than there are boomers. Generation Y is also at its peak buying age – marrying, establishing new households, and having children.
Furthermore, boomers are actively driving the second-home market. As a result, it may be smart to revisit your business plan for 2012 and to place more emphasis on working with boomers who are currently the dominant players in terms of purchasing.
3. More buyers are using agents. 89 percent of buyers purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker – that’s up from 69 percent in 2001. What are some ossible reasons?
Realtors shorten the search process when there are huge amounts of inventory on the market and people are pressed for time. Most likely, though, it’s the difficulty of the loan process both on the buyer’s side in terms of qualifying for a loan, and on the seller’s side based upon the appraisal process that marks the need for realtors.
4. Married couples or single female buyers? The trend since 2001 has been a substantial decline in the share of buyers who were married. From 2001-2008, the number of married couples purchasing homes dropped from 68 percent to 58 percent.
A historically high percentage of Gen Xers are actually unmarried. As a result, the market saw a huge proportion of single female buyers – the smart market niche for 2011.
In 2012, it’s an entirely different story. The number of single female buyers is still relatively high at 18 percent, but that’s the lowest number since 2004 and represents a reversal of a major trend. It’s time to focus on marketing that reaches couples and families in 2012.
5. Life changes drive real estate sales. The primary reason to purchase a home among repeat buyers is often because of life changes: the desire for a larger home, a job relocation or move, desire to be closer to family and friends, or a change in a family situation.
How will you focus on these 5 new developments for 2012 to reach more sales?
iPhone Apps that Help Real Estate Agents
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends, Social Media on January 24th, 2012
Being a real estate agent can sometimes get hectic – you may feel disorganized. Have you also ever felt you didn’t have enough information handy to help your clients make the best decision possible? Here are some new and convenient ways to remedy your situation with apps and place you above your competitors:
Sketches
Sometimes pictures don’t support the message you’re trying to convey with your clients. With Sketches, you can take a photo and then draw on it. For example, you might use arrows to point out certain features or write down the distance between two properties.
Around Me
Being able to give your clients instant information is essential. With this app you can quickly tell clients about the restaurants, banks, grocery stores and other shops in the area, making it much easier for a client to make a decision.
Walk Score
People in busy cities want to be able to walk to everything. This app will give you the ability to tell customers exactly how far the nearest restaurants, grocery stores, shopping and more are from their new home. It even has a built-in GPS so users will never have to type in an address to get results.
Real Estate by Smarter Agent
One of the biggest factors for an agent is knowing what comparables are selling for or what sellers are currently asking. Being able to access this information immediately is necessary in today’s instant gratification society. You’ll never believe how fast the contract can be drawn up once you download this app.
What apps help you in your real estate career?
Children Being Evicted?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics, Real Estate Trends on January 19th, 2012
As the economic downturn bears down on families, an increasing number of grandparents are stepping in to raise their grandchildren, and it’s presenting complicated issues when it comes to age restricted communities.
It’s Not a Minor Issue
The problem seems to be growing.
In one senior community in Florida, 10 cases have been discovered in the past six months where children were living with relatives. These families are faced with a choice of evicting the child or selling their home within a set amount of time.
It’s not surprising that there are more multigenerational households with the current economy, but bending the rules for even one child could get an age restricted community in serious trouble.
Up to 20 percent of residents in age restricted communities can be under the set residency age, but this exception is for adult children who inherit property. The rule is never used to accommodate minors. If a community is found to exceed the 20 percent limit, it could lose its exemption status.
There’s also the matter that senior communities aren’t equipped for children; there are plenty of safety hazards that would have to be addressed, such as golf cart transportation and swimming pool specifications and insurance.
Do you think there should be a policy created that both maintains age-restricted enforcement and considers extreme family hardship? Or should families in these situations have to choose between their homes and their children?
Let us know your thoughts by commenting below or on our Facebook page.
Five Key Issues for 2012 Housing
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics, Real Estate Trends on January 18th, 2012
While many housing markets rose together during the boom and fell together during the bust, they’re coming out of the downturn at very different speeds, and so it’s no longer a matter of a “national” housing market. We’ve seen recovery happening on a local market level, and at very diverse rates.
With that in mind, here are the five key issues as published by the Wall Street Journal that will determine the housing market in 2012:
1. Confidence and jobs: The housing market still needs the economy to add more jobs to stimulate demand for home purchases and to prevent mortgage delinquencies from rising. The good news is that housing is more affordable than it has been in decades. But many that are considering buying are not striking because they are concerned that the prices will continue to drop. Others don’t want to buy a house until they have more evidence that they’re not going to get laid off or see their hours cut back.
2. Foreclosures: Whether home prices hit a floor this year also relies on how banks manage a huge overhang of foreclosed homes that they haven’t yet taken back and resold. Banks and other mortgage investors own around 440,000 foreclosed properties, but there’s another 3.4 million loans in foreclosure or serious delinquency.
3. Rents: Apartment rents are rising as vacancy rates drop. If low mortgage rates aren’t enough to give urgency to buyers, rent hikes could accelerate their decisions to take the plunge. This is a good thing.
4. Mortgage credit and rates: Federal policymakers have taken extraordinary steps to keep mortgage rates low and federal-backed entities are responsible for backing nearly nine in 10 new mortgages. But it’s still hard for many buyers to get a loan because banks are demanding lots of documentation of borrowers’ incomes, and appraisals are tanking some deals. Banks will need to put their loan problems behind them before there’s much easing in lending standards.
5. Regulation: Many analysts don’t expect Congress to make major changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the election year, but several major regulatory changes could significantly reshape the future of the lending landscape in 2012.
Meanwhile, the regulator that oversees Fannie and Freddie is revamping the way that mortgage companies are paid for collecting loan payments.
What other key things do you think will affect the market this year?
What’s Effective in 2012 for Real Estate Marketing?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Trends on January 10th, 2012
So, it’s 2012 and there are a multitude of options for marketing real estate. What should you spend your advertising dollars on? What funds allocated in your budget will offer the biggest reach, influence and return in the new media world?
ActiveRain, the largest blogging platform and professional social network in real estate, conducted a survey of 1,910 real estate professionals asking the simple question of “what is the most effective real estate marketing or advertising that you do?”
Here are some highlights from the survey results and how you can make it work for your community:
- Referrals and word of mouth were the most preferred, making up an overwhelming 26% of the responses.
- Second place was tied with 13% of responses: Blogging and traditional Direct Mail. This includes postcards, mailers, and printed newsletters.
- Next 12% of responders listed Internet Marketing as a general category. It can be assumed that this category is comprised mostly of pay-per-click ads, such as Google AdWords.
- Finally, networking received 8% of the responses. This includes partner referrals and face-to-face meetings.
Most Effective Real Estate Marketing Plans
Even in this digital age, real estate professionals continue to favor more traditional offline, hand-to-hand marketing techniques: referrals, direct mail, networking, and open houses. Blogging is viewed as an effective medium as well, but it must provide value in order to stay in that 13%.
Most Effective Real Estate Websites
Real Estate professionals polled consistently listed ActiveRain, Craigslist, Facebook, Zillow and Google as the most effective sites for their business. There were very few mentions of WordPress, though as an agency we find it to be at the top of the list for delivering valuable information and gaining a targeted audience. Noticeably absent were Trulia and Realtor.com.
What do you think? Do you agree with the poll? Is there something that works for you that the survey left off?
If you need help with your 2012 marketing plan, let us create a balanced, effective mix of traditional and new media customized for your community’s needs.
Will the Real 2012 Housing Market Prediction Please Stand Up…
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Economics, Real Estate Trends on January 3rd, 2012
When you search for housing market predictions 2012 on Google, it returns roughly 1,650,000 results. As you start scrolling through these well-respected sites and their corresponding articles, you are left scratching your head and wondering what to believe. From gloom and doom naysayers to cheery hopefuls saying the worst is behind us, experts are heard quoting a spectrum of possible outcomes.
CBS News strongly feels that the nation’s real estate balance sheet is slowly turning around.
To further quote the positive article, the official unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent, even as the labor participation rate dropped to about 62 percent. But the better news is that the U-6, which is the broadest measure of unemployment, fell below 16 percent for the first time since the Great Recession started.
Of course turning around the housing market begins with well-paying jobs so that people can once again afford a mortgage and insurance premiums.
Fannie Mae chief economist feels that people will not undertake the financial obligation of homeownership until they are positive their personal financial situations are on the upswing. But according to their November National Housing Survey homeowners do believe their home value will rise at least 0.2 percent over the next year.
Another positive sign is that interest rates continue to hover at a historic low level, saving homeowners who can refinance hundreds or thousands of dollars per year.
New construction still leads the industry in the slow bounce back. There are even some markets where existing home sales are picking up as well, which benefits agents, appraisers, attorneys, and mortgage lenders.
CBS News also notes that the biggest indication that the housing market might begin to normalize is that the number of homeowners who are seriously delinquent in their loan payments is shrinking.
Does this mean the market will magically shift to normal in 2012? No, but hope remains that it will be a better year overall for real estate.
What do you think? Which news source resonates best with your own personal and professional outlook of 2012?
Luxuries Are the New Must Haves
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on December 8th, 2011
For most people, building a new home starts with a list of “must haves” and a list of luxuries that it would be nice to have.
Some new home amenities have transitioned over the years from being considered luxuries to being standard additions to today’s custom home designs. One of those amenities is a home elevator. Once thought to be an item exclusively talked about by Robin Leach, home elevators are actually becoming increasingly common for both contemporary and traditional homes.
Because of multiple levels, a home elevator would obviously allow everyone in the family access to the entire house, even after their mobility may be compromised.
What about the cost of a home elevator? When you consider that a home elevator becomes one of the most-often used elements of a new home, the investment is wise, as it will also increase the resale value of your home up to 10%. A home elevator can also help to avoid injury or damage when transporting objects from one floor to the next.
Another concern may be the space it takes to incorporate a lift or elevator into either an existing home or new home plans. Some companies have released a new option: customizable cab sizes and the ability to remotely locate its control box, eliminating the need for a machine room.
What do you think about home elevators becoming the new standard? Would it be worth the investment in your new home?
The Latest Club Trend
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Real Estate Trends on December 1st, 2011
At Idea Associates, we have marketed golf clubs, equestrian clubs, lifestyle clubs, marina/boating club communities and many types in between. But now there is a new club taking shape that plays right into the health and wellness trends: The Outdoor Sporting Club.
They are popping up in the west for everyone from the “real” outdoorsman to those seeking fresh air and magnificent skies. One current example we are marketing is The Montana Sporting Club. The activities here are impressive including snowmobiling, cattle drives, hunting big game, fly-fishing, and endless miles of ATV trails. Or for those not so adventurous, there is a personal chef who will prepare your favorite wild game or practice your photography skills on one in a million views.
Some clubs offer “glamping” which is an upscale form of camping out but with luxury tents and bedding. Spa services can be found at most of the clubs.
How are these different from the clubs of the past? I believe it reflects a changing demographic and psychographic. Rather than spend 7 hours with your buddies playing golf, now many dads are choosing 8 hours of hunting with their kids and maybe extended family or friends. The club format today is much more inclusive while still being exclusive.
What trends are you seeing in club memberships?
Top 3 Digital Trends
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Real Estate Trends, Social Media on November 9th, 2011
Online marketing and the digital world are ever changing. Here are three of the top trends happening today… subject to change, of course!
Mobile and desktop are becoming one. The dividing line between mobile devices (remember, iPads / tablets are actually mobile devices) and personal computers is becoming not only blurred but practically non-existent. Apple has even incorporated features from its smartphones into its desktop operating system. It is predicted that Apple’s two systems—OSX and iOS—will merge completely.
Click through—going away? Advertisers have been predicting the demise of the click-through rate for years, as it really is a highly inefficient way to measure an ad’s success, especially brand advertising. There are actually campaigns out now that measure time spent mousing over an ad rather than clicking.
The value of expert content. We all have a story and a message that can inspire others and solve their business problems. Today’s digital paradigm begs you to use your message to make a difference by sharing lessons and advice with others. The lessons you’ve learned in life and business are your greatest asset.
