Some New Statistics

Just before the beginning of the fall selling season, it's a good idea to review some of the facts we know about the current state of real estate.  We know that Guilford, for example, has twice as many homes on the market now as have been sold since the beginning of the year.  By definition, that constitutes a buyer's market.  We know that pricing high is almost never the way to go, because one of our agents did an analysis of a shoreline agent at another company.  This second agent was known for taking listings at high prices, so we looked at what the sales results were, and the answer was striking, but not surprising.  The agent who lists high sold properties at an average of 59% of the listing price, while most other agents in the same area sold their listings at over 90% of the listing price. 

The final statistic comes from my smart friend in Madison, Wisconsin, whom I've mentioned before, because his market seems to be so much like ours.  He studied the phenomenon of "chasing the market down", which I've blogged about previously.  He looked at the selling experience of sellers who priced correctly from the start, and compared their results to those of sellers who just wanted to "test the market" or who priced their properties above what agents thought they should be for other reasons.  The sellers who priced correctly from the start got 12% more for their properties in half the time. 

What else do I need to say?

Not the Typical July

The weather surely signals that it's midsummer, but the slow start to the real estate year means that the dog days of summer have a little more life to them. We are still seeing new listings, new offers, and new sales. Our web hits doubled from May to June. There was a downward blip for the Fourth of July, and then they went up again. People are clearly thinking about buying and selling, even if every contract seems a long and tortuous process.

On that note, I was spending the weekend in Vermont last weekend with a friend from North Carolina. She was trying to close the sale of a commercial building, which she had sold already once and it had fallen through. She was in negotiations with the new buyer on the day before what was supposed to be the closing. Her husband was bemoaning her travails. I told him that MOST commercial contracts seem to fall apart at least once, and that it is, unfortunately, very common for the buyer to come back at the last minute and ask for concessions, often due to financing conditions. Even in residential, we have a number of contracts now that seem to have taken on a life of their own. They go on and on, with delays, threats, changes, grandstanding, and probably tears. I'm telling you this so you won't take it personally if it happens to you! Forewarned is forearmed.