Archive for May 2006
You don’t need to be a home inspector or an electrician to know this is just plain wrong…
Photo courtesy of http://www.frameworkinspect.com/
Well avid reader’s, our little spot here in the blogosphere was mentioned (sort of…) in the Arizona Republic today. I spoke with the reporter, David van den Berg, at length last week about real estate and blogging. He was a nice guy, and asked a lot of great questions. I wish he’d had more space to print some of them. I also wish he would have printed the URL to this blog like he did with everyone else he quoted, but oh well, nothing I can do about that. Regardless of what the article says, I don’t maintain this blog with the sole purpose of driving traffic to thompsonsrealty.com. That’s just one of many goals for this blog. The main goals for this blog are to give me a place to opine and write, to provide information and yes, to help drive traffic to my main site (where if it’s information you are looking for, you will find a veritable treasure trove.)
And don’t worry, even though Mr. Ron LaMee, vice president of information services for the Arizona Association of Realtors, thinks “real estate agents, blogging about topics other than real estate isn’t a good idea”, I’ll continue to go off on a tangent occasionally… I don’t see anything wrong with injecting a little personality into the blog.
Blogs will grow as tool for real estate
David van den Berg
The Arizona Republic
May. 17, 2006 12:00 AM
article link
The blogosphere, that online realm of information and opinion covering a massive range of people and issues, has snared at least three Southeast Valley real estate agents.
Shannon Hubbard of Mesa, an investor and real estate agent with Great American Realty in Ahwatukee Foothills, runs www.blogarizona.com. Hubbard has been blogging for about two years. Her husband, Scott, also blogs at www.homeinspection blog.com. She believes people and businesses will continue to find uses for blogs.
“I know when I first set up blogarizona, a lot of people looked at blogs as if they were a fad,” she said. “You can actually get into a discussion with someone as opposed to just reading a marketing message.”
• Jay Thompson of Gilbert, an agent with Century 21 Aware in Mesa, said he’s been blogging for little more than a year. The blog has achieved Thompson’s goal, driving traffic to his Web site, he said.
Most of the time, Thompson said he keeps his blog focused on real estate. “Occasionally, I’ll go off on a tangent,” Thompson said. “Do my opinions turn some people off? Probably.”
• David Thomas of Gilbert has been a real estate agent for 20 years and has been blogging with his wife, Paula, for less than a year. The Thomases, agents with West USA Realty in Mesa, have a blog at www.onlinearizonahomes.com and contribute to www.blogarizona.com.
David Thomas said he doesn’t think blogging is a “huge thing at this point” for local real estate agents, but it could grow in popularity.
“I wanted to do it and my wife decided to do it because there was a need to get some basic real estate information out to people,” Thomas said. “We’ve seen some interest. Insofar as acquiring clients I don’t believe that it’s been a huge benefit, but insofar as informing clients, there I believe it has been helpful and I believe it will continue to be helpful.”
Real estate agents will face ethical scrutiny for blogging if they post disparaging comments about competitors or inaccurate or fabricated information, said Ron LaMee, vice president of information services for the Arizona Association of Realtors. Still, for real estate agents, blogging about topics other than real estate isn’t a good idea, he said.
At this moment in time, there are 40,017 listings in the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS). That’s a lot of inventory. Especially when compared to January 2005 when the MLS listings equaled 3,402.
People ask us all the time if we are in a “Buyer’s market” or a “Seller’s market”. I don’t believe anyone has ever tossed “Neutral market” into the question.
Compared to the outrageous seller’s market of early to mid last year, this sure looks like a buyer’s market. But ANYTHING would look like a buyer’s market compared to that. It was insane.
I’ve read and heard several “experts” proclaim that a real estate market that has six months of inventory available can be classified as a neutral market. (I’m looking for a source for that and will post it here when I find it).
In April, there were 6,751 homes sold. Do the math and that means there is currently 5.9 months of inventory listed. That’s close enough to six months for me. So “mathematically” we are in a neutral market. But as my college statistics professor once said, “you can prove anything with statistics”.
Real life experience tells me we are in a Neutral to slight buyer’s side market. However there are a lot of people out there that would argue this assesment (and please feel free to do just that in the comments). What makes me feel we’re in a neutral market? It’s hard to pin it down. We’re still seeing buyer’s filter back into the market. Sellers are getting more reasonable in their expectations for listing prices. There are pockets of places where the market is still very hot, and others where it is significantly cool. But over all, across the Valley and across the types of real estate, we are in a neutral to slight buyers’ market, in my humble opinion.
I’d love to hear other’s opinions…
Buy a house, get a free car! Believe it or not, it is possible to just that. As Phoenix shifts from an insane seller’s market toward (TOWARD) a true buyer’s market, many sellers are beginning to offer some unique enticements to get the attention of buyers.
The things we’ve seen range from the “typical” to the quite creative…
* Paying for closing costs
* Buying a home warranty
* Including furnishings, appliances, even the pool table.
* Paying the first months (or 2 or 3) mortgage payments
* Credit(s) for landscaping, flooring, appliances, etc.
* Guaranteeing 12 months of rental payments (Investors take note!)
* Paying for a new swimming pool (!)
* Leaving the new Toyota Four-Runner in the garage (!!)
Most of the “bigger ticket” incentives come with the caveat that the offer has to be for full price. As more sellers come in to the market and buyers become more scarce, expect to see even more bigger, badder and creative incentives for buyers.
