Posts Tagged as real estate market

Downsizing Is Good!

5 Real Estate Agent Tips For Downsizing Baby Boomers

Upwardly mobile baby boomers had a mantra of “More space!” as they looked for larger homes to accommodate growing families and increased possessions. Now, as empty nesters look to downsize, they’re headed in the opposite direction.

How can you best serve home buyers in their period of transition? Here are five helpful tips for real estate selling to downsizing baby boomers.

1. Evaluate Current Space and Possessions

Wanting a smaller home is a vague goal. Have your clients take a careful look at their current space and decide which features they could do without. Do they need more than one spare bedroom? Does the formal dining room get any use? 

2. Start Downsizing Immediately

The sooner your clients can begin eliminating unwanted furniture and home accessories, the easier the task will be. If they wait too long, they may be forced to take them along and put them in storage, which is an additional expense they don’t need.

3. Obtain SRES Designation

A Senior Real Estate Specialist, or SRES, has completed specialized training focused on working with seniors and evaluating their unique need. SRES certification will give your clients additional confidence in your ability to help them.

4. Budget for Monthly Housing Costs

All homes come with property taxes, HOA fees and other costs that must be included in the overall budget. Baby boomers on fixed incomes need to be particularly accurate in accounting for all expenses.

5. Think Ahead

Do your clients have health or mobility issues? Do they want to be close to family members? Consider other changes that will impact their choice in homes.

Properties Online: Real Estate Selling for All Generations

We have tools to help you serve real estate selling needs for any population segment. Contact us to learn more.

Selling Real Estate Can be Based Alot on Presentation. Make Sure Your is Up to Par!

Are Your Sellers Kitchen Cleanliness Standards Driving Off Buyers?

When it comes to real estate selling, it’s easy for homeowners to overlook detritus. Dust-laden lights. Dirt-encrusted appliances. Countertop clutter. Over the years, all the issues within the home simply blend into the background. However, these issues shout out to buyers. The kitchen is the heart of the home. When it’s not looking its best, it can give potential buyers a heart attack – and send them screaming for an alternative place to shop.

When is it Time for the Seller to take Intervention?

If your listings are lagging, consider if kitchen cleanliness may be the cause. Always take action, informing sellers when you see these showing detractors:

– Trash: Real estate selling 101 – Take the trash out. Its smell turns off buyers. If a home looks or smells unclean, buyers will assume it’s uncared for.

– A Preponderance of ‘Stuff’: The kitchen tends to be ground-zero for stockpiled stuff. Cohabitating with clutter may be just fine for homeowners, but it detracts from the home, making the kitchen look small and useless.

– Animal Stuff: Fecal-containing ‘potty pads’ and litter boxes send buyers for-the-hills.

– Weird Stuff: Hair salon chairs, exercise bikes, and taxidermy supplies do NOT belong in the kitchen. If it’s not what Martha Stewart would showcase in her kitchen, clear it out.

– Grease Bombs: Fryers filled and coated in grease, grease-splattered hood ranges and walls, and the lingering scent of the drive-thru in the air do not make for a welcoming kitchen environment. A friendly gift of degreaser and a box of Magic Erasers may be in order.

– Pests: Pest droppings = pest infestation. (Battling pests? Hide the evidence.)

– Filthy Appliances: Buyers often take a peek in (and under) appliances to gauge the level of care homeowners dedicate to home care.

Homes lingering on the market? Don’t let your turnaround times take a hit. Step-up your game with these and other real estate selling tips and technology from PropertiesOnline today.

Looking For Something Good? This Could be Your Year.

Prominent Economists Tip the Hand of the 2016 Housing Market

Economists Tips The Hand
Economists Tips The Hand

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what 2016 will bring for the real estate industry. However many are putting their money on the real estate trends forecasted by the six prominent economists in a recent Housing News Report. What are these monetary moguls betting on?

  • Moderate home price growth and sales.
    The economists interviewed were cautiously optimistic about home prices and sales overall. This is due to rental and homeowner vacancy rates that continue to decline, pushing up housing prices (and rents), particularly in affordably priced homes. The edging up of interest rates from historical lows by the Fed is also expected to spur fence-sitters into action.
    • Who’s buying?
      • Older millennials age 25 to 34 have the potential to claim one-third of sales
    • Who’s supplying?
      • Gen X’rs, whose income and families are movin’ on up.
      • Older boomers looking to downsize and/or retire.
      • New home construction, now geared toward single-family, affordable housing.
  • Rising rental rates.
    Rents will continue to rise more rapidly than home prices. While this will reinforce the desire to buy, the burden of high rental rates will prevent many from saving toward a down payment, evidenced by the lowest home ownership rate in almost 50 years. Though many markets are ready and waiting for buyers, demand has yet to be seen. The market for first time buyers is especially tight, due to higher credit standards and a lack of affordably priced options
  • Low inventory.
    The developing affordable housing shortage is expected to be among the most influential real estate trends in 2016. New construction remains far below demands and the existing stock of homes is drying up, quickly being consumed by newly formed households and second home buyers.

What’s in the cards for you when it comes to real estate trends? Make the most of your hand with the help of Properties Online today.

REO’s Rise in April and More Upswing Is on the Way

REO's On The Rise
REO’s On The Rise

Lender owned real estate sales are expected to rise this year, with the April 2015 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report showing a rise of 9 percent from a year ago, an 18 month high.

The driving force?
A jump in bank repossessions (REOs). Lender owned real estate sales in April showed an increase of 25 percent from the previous month alone, a 50 percent rise from the last year, a 27 month high.

I thought the crisis was over – is this a new peak?
Not so much. The spike in lender owned real estate sales is still 56 percent below the September 2013 REO peak. Overall, foreclosure starts are decreasing, with filings nationwide consistently below pre-crisis levels. The REOs are simply a continuation of the clean-up phase of the crisis.

Exceptions to the rule…
Florida still has the highest state foreclosure rate – one in every 425 houses – nearly 2.5 times the national average. Foreclosure filings in Nevada, Maryland, and New Jersey are also on the rise.

Uh-oh. What will this do to my sales?
Though distressed sales typically have a stifling effect on the housing market, in this market the distressed inventory is expected to help stimulate sales during the spring and summer buying season as new listings become available in the mid to lower ranges of the market. Better, yet, because it is now a seller’s market, inventory should sell quickly and at a price relatively close to market value. Sale prices this year have come in at about 87 percent of estimated market value on average, with listings in some cities at nearly full value. This uptick is viewed by some as part of the natural trend toward equilibrium and a more stable market.

Make the most of lender owned real estate sales this buying season. Boost your sales with the help of Properties Online today!

Summer 2015 – Millennials Projected Take Over the Market

The Market is Changing
The Market is Changing

What’s the latest in today’s real estate trends? Investors are out, millennials are in. And for those aching for a little balance in their real estate sales, the news couldn’t come soon enough.

Cash buyer, where art thou?
Investors, who previously peaked prices and sales thanks to a foreclosure feeding frenzy in which they could buy low and sell high, have walked away from the buffet table, balancing and normalizing the market for more traditional buyers – those mere mortals without thousands in liquid funds and in need of mortgages. This should slow home value growth from the 6 percent seen recently to around 3 percent, snagging negotiating power from the sellers and putting it back into the hands of buyers.

“Like” it?
In upcoming real estate trends, millennials are expected to break away from social media and their iPhones long enough to scope out a place to crash and carry a mortgage on. By the end of 2015, they’ll represent the largest group of homebuyers, rising above Gen X-ers as they starts families and seek out more stability. And don’t expect similar buying patterns. Gen Y wants smaller, more urban centered dwellings versus the larger outskirts homes preferred by X-ers.

Has credit loosened, or will they have to sign in blood?
Turns out credit is indeed loosening, with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae leading the way in easing mortgage eligibility. The pair has even announced a new program offering home loans to buyers with as little as 3 percent down in what is seen as an effort to extend credit to buyers “in a reasonable and safe manner.” Have a prospective millennial buyer with a job and 20 percent down? Go ahead and smack the “That Was Easy” button!

Don’t turn into a marketing zombie. Stay up on the latest in real estate trends, only with Properties Online today!

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