agents are cool again
Issue 92 - July 8th, 2022
As the residential real estate market shifts, the value of having a great agent to assist you in buying or selling a home goes even higher. The frenzy of the last 24 months or so caused some listing agents to get lazy in their business processes as they could literally sign a listing agreement, throw a property on the market, and sit back and wait for offers.
The value of having a great agent to guide sellers to achieve the highest and best price is becoming cool again - imagine that! As more properties hit the market and inventory levels climb higher, sellers need a trusted agent resource to help with pricing the home, getting the property in good shape to sell, and navigating a diligent process to get the home sold successfully!
3 things that make a huge difference in this current market:
PRICING matters more than ever right now. You cannot list a home too high and get greedy as buyers are smarter and more hesitant; an overpriced home will not get a response from the market even like it did 90 days ago. Price your home in line with recent comps to get good activity right out of the gate when listing.
Photos, floor-plans, and virtual tours are a must in today’s world. With 90%+ of home buyers browsing Zillow and other online portals before even starting to visit homes, you have to present the home in the best possible way online for buyers to get a good understanding of the property before they schedule a tour. Don’t cheap out on saving a few hundred dollars on these items as it could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in value on the sale price when it is all said and done.
Make handyman repairs, paint walls, and get the property in good shape before taking it to market. 90 days ago, sellers could be lazy and just throw a home on the market, but that has rapidly changed with rates creeping higher and less buyers being aggressive with offers.
On the flip side of the transaction process, if you are in the market for buying a home, a great agent will help you navigate the changing market and help identify great properties coming online. We are still in the phase of greedy sellers with unrealistic expectations putting homes online, and you don’t want to be the buyer that falls for a bad home. Inspection contingencies and financing contingencies are also coming back in style and a great agent can help you navigate the twists and turns of the changing market to find you a great property to call home.
Newsworthy Links To Share
The CEO of Bisnow Media has died after being struck by lightning at just 33 years old. RIP Will Friend. (Newsweek)
Red or Republican-leaning states are winning the post-COVID recovery race, with their share of U.S. jobs rising more than half a percentage point since February 2020. That amounts to a total of 341,000 jobs added to red states, while blue or Democrat-leaning states are still down 1.3 million jobs.
Short-term rental startup WanderJaunt shuts down, stranding users
WanderJaunt is shutting down and reportedly laying off up to a couple hundred people. Renters were also left scrambling to find new accommodations within 48 hours. (Bay Area Inno)
PODCAST: How I Built This With Guy Raz: Expedia & Zillow: Rich Barton (Spotify Link)
CoStar launched CitySnap, its NYC listings portal, in partnership with the Real Estate Board of New York. Citysnap is an attempt to knock off Zillow-owned StreetEasy, which has dominated the market for years while provoking the ire of NYC brokers with its policies and pricing.
COOL PROPERTY: Midcentury Modernist Tiny House Includes a Micro-Gym (Link To Photos)
The median national rent for one-bedroom apartments, which jumped 11.4% over the past year, rose a mere 0.5% between May and June. Meanwhile, median rents for two-bedroom units fell by about 2.9%. Not too surprising, as some desperate renters had begun bidding on apartments in hotspots like NYC, a surefire sign of a short-term peak in prices.