CAAR Blog

April 28, 2008

Save a House, Ride a REALTOR®

Filed under: Affordable Again, Market Reports, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 2:34 pm

(If you are not a country music fan, you may have a serious character flaw, but that is the subject of another post on another Blog.  For now, here is a video that will help you “get� the title of this post.)

Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy


Across the nation, in most markets, we not only have too many listings, we also have too many overpriced listings.  It is true in Charlottesville; it’s true in Atlanta, Austin, and Atlantic City.  I know it is true even without looking at the local statistics for all these markets because “too many listings� and “too many overpriced listings� goes hand in hand.  The basic law of economics – supply and demand – dictates that prices will adjust downward when supply is too high.  Following that logic, what we need is a good old fashion INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE!  Can you picture this ad as part of the NAR public awareness campaign?“Hi, I’m Charles McMillan, President of the National Association of REALTORS® and I’m here to announce an across the board 30% reduction in home prices.  That’s right, this is the REALTOR® Spring Spectacular event of a lifetime.  Buy before July 1st and save BIG on any home in any market.�

Okay, that’s not going to happen, nor could it.  The real estate market is not like the market for toilet paper at Wal-Mart.  In real estate, we have something like five million owners (sellers) of the “company� that would have to approve an across the board price reduction.  That’s a lot of decision makers even by Wal-Marts standards.

Some sellers have figured out the economics of the current market and agreed to price their home correctly.  Guess what?  Those are the homes that are selling.  In the CAAR MLS, homes that sold in March sold after and average of 130 days on the market (DOM).  That’s not a particularly good number, but it beats the 149 days (and counting) that the current active inventory is averaging for DOM.  In addition, a closer look at the numbers will show that many of the homes that sold in March, sold quickly; likewise, many homes that are currently on the market have been there a very long time.

My Way or the Highway

So, why are there so many overpriced homes on the market?  Is it unrealistic sellers, or REALTORS® that are willing to take overpriced listings?  Yes, to both I suspect.  Sellers, if you really want to save your house from being stuck on the market, ride the advice of your REALTOR® and agree to a proper price.  A proper price is one that reflects the current market and not one that is based on what you want/need.

REALTORS® also need to accept their role in adding to the overpriced inventory.  Most experienced REALTORS® will tell you the best thing (and the hardest thing) to do when a seller insists on pricing a property too high is to walk away.  Maybe if a seller has a few REALTORS® show them tough love, then they will start to understand that the market sets the price at which a home will sell, not the seller.  In addition, allowing a seller to overprice their home is a disservice because it generally results in a seller netting less than could have been gained with a quick sale.

In this market, more than ever, REALTORS® are in position to help the bottom line of both buyers and sellers.  Buyers need to be careful not to buy overpriced listings and sellers need to understand this rapidly changing market.  Save a house, ride a REALTOR®.

 

 

April 27, 2008

Update On New Data Standards for Listing Displays

Filed under: Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 8:33 pm

On April 12th, I posted some “news� from NAR regarding the unanimous approval by RESO (Real Estate Standards Organization) of the draft data standards for listing display.

On Friday, April 11th, NAR announced that the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) had unanimously approved a “draft standardized data format for distributing real estate listing information.�  
A few of you wanted more information, so I contacted NAR’s Technology Center and got the full scoop.

First, the draft is NOT available on-line, at least in a format that non-techies can read.  Here is a link to some really technical stuff for those of you who know what an “enum� is all about (I do not have a clue).

Second, I found out that these standards are a subset of the RETS data.  The RETS Syndication Standards (the official name) includes less than 2 dozen fields (I’ve heard 14) from RETS.  That sounds like a lot of field at first, but once you count up the obvious ones (e.g., agent name, contact, beds, baths, etc.) that is not very many.  Not that I’m second guessing the wizards who came up with this stuff.

Finally, the near riff I reported in the original post was reasonably accurate.  The big aggregators were tired of the slowness and bureaucracy of the process, but after they threatened to create their own standards, the process moved very quickly.  Essentially, they are beta testing now and will make the final decision in August.

So, what does this mean to REALTORS®?  Here’s what Chris McKeever from NAR said in an e-mail:

With the RESO and NAR backing of this Syndication Specification, this could very easily be adopted into MLS systems to allow them to be the clearinghouse for data transfer between all points.  In other words, your single point of listing data entry into the MLS could then also dynamically be sent to every site that you choose, very similiar to how REALTOR.com is fed now.  This, coupled with the growing number of consumer facing MLS search portals(link) could throw a complete paradigm shift into how listings are marketed on the web.
 

April 25, 2008

Homes Are Affordable Again

Filed under: Affordable Again, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 3:43 pm

On May 1st, CAAR and a couple dozen partners and sponsors will kick off a program named Affordable Again.  This program is so big and exciting that the Daily Progress sniffed out the story a couple weeks before the official launch.  Here is the official press release, but if you want the quick scoop, this post will give the who, what, where, when why, and how.

houseWho?
CAAR has teamed up with the Blue Ridge Home Builders, The Chamber of Commerce, NBC29, the Charlottesville Radio Group, and the Piedmont Housing Alliance to put together this multi-faceted program.  In addition, Crutchfield, Ryan Homes, UVA Community Credit Union, and many other sponsors have put up cash and prizes to bring some real zing to the promotion.

What?
The Affordable Again program has four major initiatives aimed at generating interest and excitement in potential first time home buyers.  The four components of the program include 1) agent education on the down-payment assistance and other financing programs for first time buyers; 2) first time home owner workshops by the Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) to prepare buyers to seize the enormous opportunities in this market; 3) two weekends of Affordable Again Open Houses featuring many of the 1200 homes on the market under $250,000; 4) Savings Certificate program to offer discounts to home owners and buyers.

Grand Prize – To add excitement to the entire program, a $6700 grand prize package has been assembled.  The package includes a home theater, $1000 in cash, two $500 gift cards, estate planning services, and free removal of a truckload of junk. In addition, the three finalists who don’t win the Grand Prize will each get a $500 gift card.

Where?
This is a regional promotion.  CAAR is hosting the agent training at the REALTOR® Resource Center and the Piedmont Housing Alliance will host the public workshops at the Omni Hotel.  The Affordable Again Open Houses will be held from Waynesboro to Louisa, and the Saving Certificates will be available in the Real Estate Weekly and at the workshops and open houses.  Registration for the grand prize will be available at the open houses and the public workshops.  Finally, the four finalists for the Grand Prize will be invited to the B.B. King Benefit Concert for the CAAR Workforce Housing Fund for the selection of the big winner.

When?

  • The agent education – Affordable Housing Advisor – has already started and will continue well into the future.
  • The PHA workshops will be held Thursday, May 29, Saturday, May 31, Thursday, June 5, and Saturday, June 7.
  • Affordable Again Open Houses will be held over two weekends, May 31 – June 1 and June 7 – 8.
  • The Saving Certificate discounts will be available May 1 thru July 6.
  • The four finalists for the Grand Prize will be drawn on July 7th,  and the winner will be selected live on stage at the August 6th B.B. King concert.

Why?
The intent of this program is to draw attention to the incredible opportunity for first time buyers in today’s real estate market.  Despite the negative news in the national media, our local market is in good shape, particularly for first time buyers who do not have a home to sell.  There are hundreds of homes on the market that, thanks to the recent drop in prices, are Affordable Again.

How?
This program would not be possible without the many partners and sponsors.  Two dozen companies/organizations and hundreds of real estate agents will be involved during May and June.  There will be a major media campaign conducted with our media partners, NBC29, The Charlottesville Radio Group and the Real Estate Weekly.  There will also be a special Affordable Again web site with updates and a list of the open houses. 

The Affordable Again Campaign should be a great benefit to many in the community, especially the 3600 home sellers that will be helped if the program gets the real estate market moving and the first time buyers who will start developing wealth through home ownership.  There is no fundamental reason why the local real estate market is underperforming right now and since prices have fallen, many homes are Affordable Again!  It is a great time to be a first time home buyer.

AFFORDABLE AGAIN PROGRAM KICKS OFF MAY 1st, 2008

Filed under: Affordable Again, Press Releases, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 3:37 pm

April 25, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:         Mary Elizabeth Allen, Director of Communications                        434-817-2396 or maryelizabeth@caar.com

AFFORDABLE AGAIN PROGRAM KICKS OFF MAY 1st, 2008

Joint Educational Program from Housing Advisors, Builders, Local Businesses & REALTORS® Seeks to Educate Public on Opportunities in Marketplace

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – The Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) has joined with the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association, the Chamber of Commerce, NBC29, the Charlottesville Radio Group, and Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) to launch a new educational program to the public called Affordable Again. The goal of this program is to educate first-time homebuyers, their REALTORS®, and others about what opportunities exist in the current market that may help potential buyers achieve the dream of home ownership.

CAAR President Judy Savage, of RE/Max Assured Properties, explains the initiative as having simple motivation. “There are a lot of programs available out there for first-time buyers, including down payment assistance, financing options, and more. If we can get the word out, those buyers can jump-start the real estate market and get things moving.�

The Affordable Again program has several major initiatives aimed at generating interest and excitement in potential first time home buyers. CAAR will focus on agent education by providing classes to REALTORS® on down-payment assistance and other financing programs for first time buyers. There are 80 agents currently enrolled in the Affordable Housing Advisor training program.

Piedmont Housing Alliance will work to educate the public, hosting first-time homeowner workshops aimed at preparing consumers for the process of purchasing a home. Those workshops will precede two weekends of Affordable Again Open Houses featuring homes on the market under $250,000.

Area businesses are supporting the program by offering Savings Certificates to those interested in the Affordable Again program. These businesses have agreed to offer a 20% or higher discount on a product or service to all Savings Certificate holders. Certificates will be available at the Affordable Again Workshops and Open Houses and in copies of the CAAR Real Estate Weekly. A complete list of discount providers and their offers is available on the Affordable Again website, www.affordableagain.com.

Businesses have also supported this program by donating products and services to generate interest and excitement. Anyone attending an Affordable Again Workshop or Open House will be eligible to enter for a chance to win a Grand Prize Package worth $6,700. Elements of the prize package were generously donated by Crutchfield, Ryan Homes, Tucker Griffin Barnes PC, UVA Community Credit Union, 1-800-Got-Junk?, and Court Square Title.

Workshops

Affordable Again Workshops will be held at the Charlottesville Omni and will be run by the Piedmont Housing Alliance. These workshops are free and open to the public and are scheduled for the following dates:

  • Thursday, May 29th, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
  • Saturday, May 31st, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon
  • Thursday, June 5th, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
  • Saturday, June 7th, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon

Open Houses

Affordable Again Open Houses will be held over the course of two weekends to give potential buyers ample opportunities to find the home that fits their needs and budget. These Open Houses are free and open to the public and are scheduled for the following dates:

  • Saturday, May 31st
  • Sunday June 1st
  • Saturday, June 7th
  • Sunday, June 8th

More information will be available on specific Open Houses and locations as the above dates approach.

The various groups supporting the Affordable Again endeavor believe this is an idea whose time is right. “Current market conditions lend themselves to opportunities that haven’t existed in more than five years,� remarks Savage. “Prices are down, sellers are more willing to negotiate, interest rates are low, and there’s no pressure to decide quickly or pay a premium price because you got in a bidding war.�

For more information on the Affordable Again program, please visit the program website at www.affordableagain.com or email info@affordableagain.com.

April 23, 2008

Statewide Real Estate Market Data Released

Filed under: Market Reports, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 9:47 am

The Virginia Association of REALTORS®, in partnership with George Mason University and local MLS’s across the state, has released the Statewide 1st Quarter Real Estate Market Report for 2008.  As we have reported on CAAR Blog, the state of Virginia is in better shape than many other states.  Very interesting report to get a statewide perspective of the housing market.

April 22, 2008

What Your House Is / Is Not Worth

Filed under: Leadership, Market Reports, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 5:45 am

(The following list was created by CAAR President Judy Savage and is graciously shared with all agents and sellers to help our fight against overpriced listings.)

The Market Value of Your Home is NOT:dollar sign

1.         What you have in it.

2.         What you need out of it.

3.         What you want.

4.         What it appraised for.

5.         What you heard your neighbor’s house sold for.

6.         What the tax office says it is worth.

7.         How much it is insured for.

8.         Based on memories and treasures.

9.         Based on prices of homes where you are moving.

The True Market Value of Your Home Is What a Buyer is Willing to Pay:

1.         Based on today’s market.

2.         Based on today’s competition.

3.         Based on today’s financing.

4.         Based on today’s economic condition.

5.         Based on the buyer’s perception of the condition.

6.         Based on location.

7.         Based on normal marketing time.

8.         Based on showing accessibility.

Properties That Sell in Today’s Market:  On a Scale of 1 – 10, the “10’s� Are The Ones That Are Selling.  How Can Your Property Be A “10�?

1.         By improving the condition dramatically.

2.         By offering good terms.

3.         By improving the way the home shows.

4.         By adjusting your price.

As a Seller you control:

1.         The price you ask.

2.         The condition of the property.

3.         Access to the property.

As a Seller you do not control:

1.         Market conditions.

2.         The motivation of your competition.

3.         Value

April 13, 2008

2008 1st Quarter Market Report

Filed under: Albemarle, Central Valley Region, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Market Reports, Nelson, Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 6:11 am

A Recipe That’s Hard to Swallow

Have you ever stood in your kitchen, felt a creative surge and decided to “invent� a new recipe that will land you a “celebrity guest� spot on one of Rachael Ray’s shows on the Food Network? Okay, maybe that’s just me. Sometimes the recipe turns out well, like my yogurt-mustard sauce to accent a tuna steak, but other times, like my Pumpkin Meatloaf, the recipe is a bit hard to swallow.

The local Charlottesville area real estate market is a lot like my Pumpkin Meatloaf – a combination of ingredients that don’t work well together. Like a good recipe, a good real estate market is one that features a good balance of ingredients. If you put in a little too much of one ingredient, the dish may not taste very good; however, if you put in way too much of that ingredient, the dish becomes unpalatable. The recipe for the Charlottesville area real estate market has way too much of one ingredient – supply of homes for sale – and that has created an unbalanced recipe that is hard to swallow.

Read the Entire 1st Quarter Market Report

April 12, 2008

Big News on Data Standards

Filed under: Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 11:26 am

read the newsOn Friday, April 11th, NAR announced that the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) had unanimously approved a “draft standardized data format for distributing real estate listing information.� Okay, I expect some of you are not particularly impressed by that bit of news, but let me try to explain why I think this is important.

First, you should understand this was not a group of NAR leaders in a back room filled with cigar smoke that agreed to this draft. Yes, NAR helped organize this group, but check out this list of organizations/companies that UNANIMOUSLY agreed to a set standard:

The standard was drafted and unanimously approved by a RESO working group composed of NAR’s Center for REALTOR® Technology and many of the real estate industry’s leading publishers and consumers of real estate listing data. They include MLS Assistant, MLS Listings Inc., MLSPIN, New Jersey MLS, TREND MLS, Move Inc. (operator of Realtor.com®), Bridge Interactive, Bainbridge, Cevado Technologies, CLRsearch, eNeighborhoods, eShowings, FBS Data Systems, Google, Homescape, Marketlinx, Oodle, Point2, PropBot, Prudential Preferred CRE, RealEstate.com, Realtracs, ThreeWide, Trulia, Vast, Yahoo! and Zillow.

Now approving a “draft� means there is likely more work to do, but this is an important first step in making listing data seamless on the Internet and between MLS systems. What’s the next step? According to the news release:

The draft standard will be implemented immediately by several of the partner organizations. Following their feedback, a final draft will be presented and voted on during a meeting of the partners in August.

This agreement has far-reaching and mind-boggling implications for listing data on the Internet, but there is more to the story. This whole process was in danger of imploding recently when a couple of the BIG NON-MLS PLAYERS headed off to form their own standards because they were tired of the petty bickering of MLS’s over unimportant field names (you say vegetable sink, I say utility sink). NAR was able to talk Google…er…the BIG NON-MLS PLAYERS off the ledge and back to the table. It is likely that this re-integration avoided having competing standards and a Blue Ray vs. HD type of shake-out (a battle the MLS’s and NAR would have lost quickly).

One of the BIG road blocks to fixing the OMD (overlapping market disorder) with MLS’s and the local associations/brokers that control them is a lack of standards. The petty bickering at the RESO level plays out in almost every local market around the country. This keeps MLS’s from merging and keeps REALTORS® paying multiple MLS fees just to do business in ONE marketplace. I think the RESO standards will go a long way to putting these silly little issue to bed and letting us focus on real issues – like creating standards for lockboxes so we can fix the OMD with these important tools of the trade.

Finally - Proof the Market has hit BOTTOM!!

Filed under: Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 8:51 am

Market Hits Bottom When Mom Sells!

April 10, 2008

Time to Trash the Treo and Get a SUPRA Blackberry?

Filed under: Real Estate — Dave Phillips @ 3:15 pm

I have been plotting a post in recent weeks where I would expose the Palm Treo phone for its incredibly bad performance for REALTORS®. Many agents around the country use the Treo for the SUPRA eKey to access lockboxes, but there has been a wave in Charlottesville (and I suspect other places) to trash the Treo and get a Blackberry. But Blackberries do not work with SUPRA – right? Correct, at least for now.

I was spurred into action when I got a message from SUPRA yesterday asking if CAAR members would be interested in participating in a survey to determine the possibility of having their lockbox key merge with their Blackberry. It took me a nanosecond for me to agree. For months I have been watching members come in with a new Treo to reload the software for the lockbox key only to find out it is their 3rd of 4th “new� Treo.

The poor quality of the Treo is staggering and terribly inefficient. Who has time to waste messing with a product that has catastrophically failed multiple times? It is certainly no fun to go to show a property and have your Treo fail to open the lockbox AND fail to work as a phone to call for help.

My recommendation, trash the Treo and get the basic SUPRA dKey. Then go buy yourself a nice Blackberry or a cool iPhone. At least you will have either a reliable product or a cool one. That will be a lot more impressive than carrying a failed Treo.

Let’s hope SUPRA figures out the Blackberry issues soon – no infrared being a significant stumbling block – and REALTORS® will have a reliable product to perform a most basic service.

CAAR members should watch their email for an invite to take a survey about hooking up the Blackberry with SUPRA. The questions is, will Palm fix the Treo before SUPRA figures out the Blackberry. My money is on SUPRA.

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