Chris’ Real Estate News

 

 

The 2009 survey of buyers and sellers done by the California Association of Realtors has some interesting answers from sellers and continuing trends on the marketing of homes.

 

Sellers report that 97% of agents used print advertising of some kind in the marketing of their homes. That number has been pretty consistent over the last three years, however it may be changing as the results from print ads continue to drop off compared to internet advertising. Internet advertising has gone up from 87% of homes in 2007 to 93% in 2008 while 98% of all homes were advertised on the internet in 2009.

 

Use of photos is another area that continues to gain. In 2007 only 49% of homes had multiple photos of a home. That went up to 57% in 2008, with 78% of homes having multiple photos last year. There isn’t a good reason to only have one photo on a home as almost all of the multiple listing services allow agents to upload multiple photos. Agents continue to use virtual tours on upper end homes. 

 

The percentage of sellers using a real estate agent last year was 99%. This is a little bump up from 96% in 2008. The change comes from first time sellers. In 2007 8% of them did not use an agent. In 2008 that number was 9%. Last year 99% of first time sellers used an agent. 99% of experienced sellers have used an agent each year.

 

If you look at what sellers think is important you find that the most important thing to sellers is an online advertising plan, followed by the best deal/lowest commission rate and best overall marketing proposal. Two of the top three things sellers want from an agent have to do with the marketing of the home.

 

One of the biggest changes in real estate over the last ten years has been the advent of online advertising. Ten years ago internet marketing was sending emails to your friends and other agents in an area letting them know about a new home for sale. Now we put homes on ten different web sites, use multiple photos and send them out on our blogs.

 

What sellers did not like about the home selling process has really changed over the last few years. 61% of sellers said their homes took too long to sell while 51% said they did not get the price they wanted. A few years ago when the average length of time on the market was about two weeks and we had multiple offers on everything these questions had much different answers. In 2006, the first year of the real estate downturn, 53% wanted to sell for more, but only 19% thought it took too long to sell their home. I think most agents agree with the sellers. We want the market to pick up too.

 

Good news! While sellers may not get as much as they want for their homes in this market, you can get a great deal on your next home.

 

If I can show you how to have an easier, smoother transaction, would you work with me?

 

Chris Morris

Broker Associate

Alain Pinel Realtors

408.357.8783 direct

Brokers License 00780130