Now that we are half way through January, it is not too early to think about the spring selling season, which will be here, before we know it.  The wonderful people at agent genius, and Lani Rosales in particular, were nice enough to allow me to post this wonderful video for sellers, on my blog.  It is somewhat humurous, but offers advice that is right on target for those who are selling in the current market.

Selling Your Home:  Watch This Video and learn the mistakes that sellers make!

 http://www.howcast.com/videos/29934-How-To-Avoid-the-10-Biggest-Mistakes-Home-Sellers-Make

First, I have too apologize for not posting in such a long time.  I really have no excuse for it.  I love to write, and have let to many things get in the way of my blog posting.  I am going to be much more diligent in the future.

Because it has been such a long time since my last post, I have a lot to share.  I attended a real estate conference in Arizona, a couple of weeks ago, that was absolutely the best, most informative and inspirational real estate event I have ever attended.  I learned a tremendous amount, while there, and shared ideas with a group of amazing, productive, and wonderful people.  I am going to share some of what I gained from that conference, in another post.

I saw an article in today's Wall Street Journal, that I could not help sharing.

Basically the article talked about some incentives that sellers are using to get their house sold.  I am not suggesting that any seller I am currently working with, try any of these strategies, although they may work!

Here is one I absolutely loved.  A seller in Texas, who is trying to sell a 6200 sq. ft house, is giving the new owner a brand new car.  Not just any car!  He is throwing a new Porsche Boxter into the deal, for the new owner.  Apparently a family with a 16 year old, recently saw the house, and the 16 year old is, "driving" her parents crazy, in hopes that they buy the house, and she gets the car.

A seller in Phoenix, where prices have fallen more than 19% from July to September, from a year earlier, is offering to install a pool, patio and professional grill, should a prospective buyer be interested in those amenities.   Otherwise, he is willing to knock off 100,000 from the price.

Then there is the seller in California, who is willing to pay to have his property professionally maintained for 6 months, for the new owner, and is throwing in a washer, dryer, along with a flat screen TV, and furniture in order to entice offers.

The best incentive deal I ever heard of, was actually offered on a property in North Jersey a couple of years ago.  The seller of the house was offering a 250,000 bonus to the selling agent, along with a Ferrari to the new owner!  Asking price of that house, was over 7 million dollars, so I guess they could afford that kind of incentive.

On a personal note, I still believe that those trying to sell in the current market, need to do what sellers always need to do; that is, make sure your house shows as well as possible and is priced well.  I had 2 listings that sold within the past couple of weeks.  One in Yardley and one in Langhorne.  In general, Bucks County real estate values are down approximately 15% from the height of the market.

As we move through the month of February -- although it does not feel like it at the moment -- we get closer and closer to spring.  The spring market -- well, what we in the real estate industry refer to as the spring market -- begins once the Super Bowl ends.  That means we are in the early stages of what is traditionally the busiest real estate time of the year.  I thought that this would be an appropriate time to review the local real estate market situation in the areas I cover, which is essentially Bucks County in Pennsylvania and Mercer County in New Jersey.

There have been many articles over the past several months in national magazines that have painted a picture of gloom and doom in the real estate market.  Most of those articles discuss the concept of a "real estate bubble."  We experienced such a bubble in the late 80s and early 90s.  Many people who purchased homes in the late 1980s found that when they went to sell several years later their homes had depreciated signficantly in value.  In fact, for those sellers who were highly leveraged -- meaning they put down small amounts of cash -- they had to bring money to closing in order to settle because of the fall in the value of real estate.  The most common question I am asked is whether the so-called bubble in real estate has burst. 

It has been frustrating for me to read many of the local articles about the real estate market, which often use statistics from extremely depressed markets in other parts of the country. They use those statistics as evidence that the market here in Bucks County is in a free-fall decline.  It's true that in parts of the country (i.e., areas in Florida) there has been a serious decline in real estate value.  Many of those areas saw a large amount of speculative buying during the past four or five years as real estate values sky-rocketed.  But in our market here in Bucks County we do have a buyers market although it is nowhere near as dire as the press would have us believe.  Emplyoment in our area is still very strong and there has not been the sort of speculative buying that we have seen in other areas and houses continue to sell every day.  Statistics from 2006, bear this out.

In looking at the market statistics from 2006 for single family homes in the following areas: Lower Makefield Township, Newtown Township, Upper Makefield Township, Solebury Township, Buckingham Township, Northampton Township, the only township that had a declining value from the prior year was Upper Makefield.  In all other markets, the average sold price was higher in 2006 than the previous year.  As the table below shows, the increase ranged from 3.4% in Lower Makefield to 12.6% in Solebury. 

What the table clearly show is that the average price for homes on the market indicates much slower appreciation.  The statistics also show that, for the year, inventory was higher and sales were slower than for the previous year.  That indicates that we are in a buyers market.  Interestingly enough, sales pace actually improved in November and December in terms of sales dollars and units.  Clearly it is more important than ever to be sure that your house is priced correctly, if you are considering selling.  In a buyers market, there are more homes on the market, which means more competition so it generally takes longer to sell. Often homes end up selling at a price that is less than the asking price.  This so-called discount rate actually increased in the fourth quarter meaning that buyers were able to negotiate better prices.  It is critically important to remember that when selling, it is the current market that determines the price of your home.

My personal experience over the past couple of months has been that the market is improving somewhat.  I was actually surprisingly busy in November, December and January.  As we move further into the spring market, as always, the market will be influenced by supply and demand.  Will there be many more sellers than buyers?  We don't know. But if so, the buyers market will get even better for those who are buying.  If we see more buyers coming into the market than sellers, then the market will improve for sellers.  With interest rates still at very attractive levels -- close to all-time lows and with lots of inventory -- it is actually a very good time to be a buyer.  From a seller's perspective, as I mentioned before, be sure to price your home correctly and make sure that it is marketed aggressively and it will sell.  The Bucks County market is nowhere near as dire as the press would have you believe.