Archive for the 'Working With Realtors' Category
How Many Photos Generate The Most Interest In Your Home?
July 23rd, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Sellers, Working With Realtors
Point2 Technologies has released the findings of its 2008 Point2 Photo Effectiveness Study. The results of this study should be especially useful for both real estate agents and home sellers.
Over 100,000 real estate listings were sampled!
The graph clearly shows that more real estate photos generate more interest. But look what happens when the photo count goes from 15 to 16. Amazingly, there is a 20% jump in Views, Interest, and Leads.
The purpose of this study, according to Point2 Technologies, was to examine the impact of photos in driving real estate transactions.
Below is a quote from the Point2 Technologies article about the study:
“Results strongly suggest that adding more photos generates better response to real estate listings, reconfirming trends observed in a 2007 study also by Point2.
The Study tracked three trends, namely consumer Views, Interest and Leads. All increased significantly as the number of still photos related to the listings increased.
Listings that did not include any photos performed very poorly, generating little consumer response and business. Specifically, the Study showed that listings with zero photos attract, on average, a mere 0.02 percent of the detailed listing views that listings with 21 to 36 photos enjoy. Listings that featured a single photo fared significantly better.”
Here is a definition of the terms used in the study:
Views: how many times a real estate listing was viewed online
Interest: how many unique visitors interacted with a real estate listing, i.e. going beyond the initial set of photos to see a virtual tour, do a mortgage calculation or access more home details
Leads: the number of unique visitors who contacted the real estate broker or agent
What does this mean for real estate agents and home sellers?
Very simply, ensure that the real estate listing has 16 or more photos for maximum effectiveness.
I did my own little study using homes listed for sale on the Pensacola real estate market. I did not sample 100,000 homes. I sampled 100 homes. All were between $150,000 and $250,000 and were in various areas of Pensacola, Milton, and Gulf Breeze.
To sample, I did a search for homes in the aformentioned price range and areas. I then picked every 5th home in the list. That seems random enough to me. There were a lot more than 100 homes available to sample in the list, but by the time I got to 100, I was sick of sampling. 
The first column shows the number of pictures that were included with the real estate listing in the Pensacola MLS.
The second column shows the percentage of my sample that met the picture criteria. In other words, 10% of the homes sampled had only 1 picture. 20% had over 20 pictures.
Overall, this tells me that most Pensacola real estate agents are doing a very good job of including pictures. Around 68% included over 10 pictures.
However, with 16 being the magic number, 63% of the agents are missing a golden opportunity by including 15 or fewer pictures, according to the referenced study.
Is it always good to include pictures with your real estate listing?
Well agents, if your pictures are bad enough to end up on Athol’s Bad MLS Photo site, maybe you should just focus on working with buyers.
Related Articles On Pensacola Real Estate News:
How Important Are Pictures For Your Listing?
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Fully Furnished Home Takes On A Whole New Meaning
June 29th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Real Estate News, Working With Realtors
A Florida real estate agent is advertising her home for sale. Her ad starts with “Florida Dream Home”. And it does look like a beautiful home. She even posted a couple of photos of the home on her Craigslist ad.
But this home comes with something special. HER!!!
Yes, that’s right, you can buy this beautiful Florida dream home, wife included.
Here is the full headline on her ad: Florida Dream Home with a Dream Princess Bride included (West Palm Beach, Florida)
Deven Traboscia has been divorced for eight years and she is ready to get married. Deven is a single mother and real estate agent. Here is a portion of her ad:
“If you want to live the never ending dream and experience the real love, life and the romance you have always felt was a fairytale then this is the vibrant outstanding woman of your dreams! To sweep this European Loving Lady off her feet send in your application right now ”
You can find the full add at this link on Craigslist.
All my blog post normally fit nicely into predetermined categories. This one required some thought. In the end I decided to put it in the “Working With Realtors” category. Appropriate, don’t you think?
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Real Estate Short Sales, Is It Worth It?
March 28th, 2008 Categories: Pensacola Real Estate News, Working With Realtors
A few years ago, very few people, including real estate agents, had heard the term “short sale”. With the growing foreclosure rate, short sale is now a well known term to both real estate professionals and many consumers. A search of the Pensacola MLS shows that of 6693 residential properties for sale on the Pensacola real estate market, 417 are short sales or foreclosures. That amounts to 6.2% of the properties on the market.
For those not familiar with the term “short sale”, think of a short sale as a pre-foreclosure sale. You are purchasing from a very motivated seller who needs to sell to avoid foreclosure. And you are negotiating with a motivated lender who wants to get their money, but doesn’t want to own a home.
For the lender, foreclosure can be an expensive proposition, due to the fact that many buyers owe more on their home than the home is worth. The lender has to pay all the legal fees process the foreclosure through the legal system, and then turn around and pay all the fees related to selling the home. For these reasons, banks are often willing to accept less than is owed on the home just to avoid losing more money on a foreclosure.
But how good of a deal can you really get buying a short sale? And if you are a seller, what are the chances of getting your bank to accept a short sale? Are the banks really motivated to sell at a discount?
The answer to these questions is that “it depends”. Every bank is different, and every situation is unique.
I read a post on the real estate site Active Rain regarding experiences that many agents were having with short sales. I wanted to share assorted quotes from this post with my readers so everyone could see the reality behind short sales, which are often advertised as the way to get properties dirt cheap in this market. These quotes are from the author of the article and from agents who left comments. The bank names have been removed. 
- “I realize that many agents are struggling with short sales right now. Because the system is screwed up, and some banks in particular are almost impossible to work with. Bank staff are overworked, probably underpaid and buried in paperwork. I tell my buyers to throw out the short sale listings they get from me, because they’re not worth the effort. Buyers can purchase a home that comes with warranties, where sellers will pay buyer’s closing costs and the price is comparable to a short sale, so why bother pursuing what is guaranteed to become a headache without resolution?”
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“ I have worked with some great asset managers, some of whom I actually have a real, on the phone conversation with once a week. They all say the same thing — handling 750+/- files, buried in the paper, and depressed when they look at their voicemail because they know they can’t possibly get back to everyone on everything. ”
- “I have a short sale with BANK since last October. They finally approved the primary loan 2 weeks ago…the second loan is still pending. This has been six month’s…my buyer is ready to forget it. ”
- “Here in Florida many of us agents have been throwing cash and buyers at the short sales to no avail. There are not enough processors. What I am being told is that they cannot find enough “qualified” people to make decisions and that the board of director’s only meets once or twice a month to make these decisions.
”
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“I know an agent here who had a great offer on a short sale - it was almost full price, or “retail” as she said. The servicer for the lenders took 90 days to respond and by then the value of the property had fallen 10% and the buyers did not want to buy at that price any more. The delay cost the lenders $50,000. ”
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BANK ”refused an offer at $462k with the seller coming in with an additional $2000 and willing to do a promissory note only to foreclose and have the bank’s real estate agent list it at $454k. That really baffled me.”
- “I recommend anyone considering getting into short sales contact their attorney first to see what they could be held liable for. And please, inform your sellers to first contact an attorney and try to work out a deed in lieu of foreclosure before agreeing to take a short sale listing. Short sales should be the last effort before foreclosure…not the first step.”
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“I suggest you take your ready and willing buyers to very motivated listings that are ready to close NOW…My time is too valuable to work with a known 80% failure rate….The only ones making any money in the actual short sales end of the business are the seminars and books & CD sellers on EBAY. ”
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“I currently have an bank owned property here in Florida. I have two offers sitting on the table for it and the bank still has yet to respond. I call the asset manager 3 times a day and he tells me the same thing, “still waiting to hear if the bank approves it”.
This is Karl writing again. The previous paragraphs were quotes from the other thread. So what is my point in sharing these messages? Think twice before going after that super deal on a short sale. It may end up being an unproductive and stressful waste of your time and energy. I’m sure there are a short sale success stories where buyers ended up with a great deal on a property, but just beware that it may not always be that easy to get a property below market value through a short sale.
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Pensacola Real Estate News: Price Reductions On Homes Common In Today’s Real Estate Market
January 21st, 2008 Categories: Working With Realtors
I had the idea for this article based on another article I read that suggested many buyers feel that price reductions on homes for sale often indicated a problem with the home. In my quest to educate buyers and sellers in the Pensacola real estate market, I wanted to clarify this topic for my readers. 
I’ll start by defining a price reduction. I am not referring to a seller who accepts an offer on a home that is lower than the asking price. This is common in most real estate transactions, especially in the buyer’s market we are experiencing now. I am referring to sellers who list their home at a certain price, and then reduce that asking price during the time the home is on the market.
Today, many sellers have homes listed that have been on the market for six months or longer. Most of these homes have had price reductions since they were put on the market.
If you are a buyer looking for a home, a real estate agent can give you information on the pricing history of the home. If you find a home that has been reduced in price since being listed, there are generally 2 main reasons that cause sellers to reduce the price:
1. The Home was overpriced when listed. This is the most common reason for reducing the asking price of a home. After the hot real estate market of the past several years, many sellers are not realistic about what their home is worth in today’s market. Many Realtors refer to overpriced homes as “homes that are not on the market”. These homes will get few, if any, showings, and they will languish on the market. They will garner the reputation of an overpriced listing and will generally be avoided by Realtors looking to get their clients a good value.
2. A Major Defect was discovered with the home. Sometimes a home will go under contract, but a home inspection will uncover an unknown defect. This situation will effectively force the owner to reduce the price of the home low enough that a buyer will be willing to purchase it with the defect. This is far less common than the first reason.
I had a buyer tell me that they felt they got a very good deal on a home because it was originally priced at $195K, but the owner had reduced the price to $150K. Sorry happy buyer, but this type of scenario generally indicates that an owner had to reduce the price because it was too high to begin with. It is very likely the buyer got the house at fair market value. Unfortunately, I think she was feeling a lot better about her purchase before she talked to me.
I was curious as to what percentage of homes on the Pensacola Florida market had price reductions since being listed. I do not know of any tool in the MLS that would give me such data, so I had to take an educated guess approach. Note that the results of my market survey have no statistical validity whatsoever. I pulled up homes that had been on the market for over 4 months in different areas of Pensacola, and I randomly selected homes, looking at the history of the home while on the market. My unscientific results were at the very least consistently convincing.
East Hill - 70% of homes checked had price reductions
Scenic Hills - 70% of homes surveyed had price reductions
Pensacola Beach - 90% of the condos clicked had price reductions
Myrtle Grove - 90% of the homes selected had price reductions
The homes that did not have price reductions probably need to be reduced. What this survey shows is that sellers often tend to be unrealistic about the price they can get for their homes in this market. The hot market is gone. So how does a seller price their home to sell? Simple, listen to your real estate agent. One of the biggest complaints among agents in this market is overpriced listings. Sellers who will take the advice of their agents and price their homes competitively to begin with will in many cases end up getting more for their home than if they priced it too high in the early stages of the listing.
In this buyer’s market, sometimes it is hard to get to the right price for a home, even for an experienced agent. My best advice is to find a good real estate agent, and ask that agent to show you prices of similar homes sold, and prices of homes for sale in your area. Take a tour of some homes that are considered your competition. Prep your home to sell. Work with a good agent who will do the research for you, show you the competition, and help you price your house right the first time.
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How To Search For Pensacola Real Estate The Right Way
December 19th, 2007 Categories: First Time Home Buyers, Pensacola Buyers, Working With Realtors
If you are going to search for a home in the Pensacola Florida area, you will most likely begin your search on the Internet. While there are many sites available on which to search for Pensacola homes, all are not created equal.
To get the most accurate and up-to-date search results, you need to be searching on the Pensacola MLS. Other home search sites will have information on homes available in the Pensacola real estate market, but these sites often don’t have a complete and current database of Pensacola homes for sale. You may find homes on these sites that show as active listings, but which actually are already under contract or even sold. This situation can happen because other sites do not have a direct Internet data feed from the Pensacola MLS. Thus delays in record updates are common.
A fellow real estate blogger in Alabama posted a great article about this recently. You can read it at his Dothan Home Search site.
Remember, when you are performing a search for a home to buy, you can search the Pensacola MLS by clicking the “Search For Homes” link in the menu bar at the top of this page. If you need more criteria defined in your home search than are available through the Pensacola public MLS, please feel free to Contact Me .
As a Pensacola Realtor, I have the ability to perform a search based on a wide range of criteria not available on the public MLS. In addition, I can provide a service for you whereby you can receive an email when any home that matches your criteria becomes available on the Pensacola real estate market.
If you would like to sign up for this free notification service, just call or email me and I will help you find exactly what you are looking for. You will never be spammed with unrelated emails. You will only get emails when a home comes on the market that meets your criteria.
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Earnest Money: Clarifying The Confusion For Pensacola Home Buyers - Part 2
November 24th, 2007 Categories: Pensacola Buyers, Pensacola Sellers, Working With Realtors
Earnest money shows commitment to buy. My real estate experience has shown that many home buyers in the Pensacola real estate market do not understand the concept of earnest money. This is an important concept to understand when making an offer on Pensacola real estate.
Click the link below to read Part 1 of this article:
Earnest Money: Clarifying The Confusion For Pensacola Home Buyers - Part 1
In Part 1 we discussed what earnest money is and how much should be offered when buying a home in Pensacola Florida. In Part 2, we will address the following questions:
1. Who holds the earnest money?
2. What ultimately happens to the earnest money?
These are 2 questions I encounter regularly when working with Pensacola real estate buyers.
When a buyer makes an offer on a home, the buyer will give their real estate agent a check for the earnest money deposit. The real estate contract 
will dictate to whom that check is made payable. The check may be written to the real estate broker, who is required to deposit it in a trust fund. However, this tends to be a burden on the brokers, so the check is commonly made payable to the title company that is expected to handle the closing of the real estate transaction. The title company holds the earnest money in escrow.
At the end of the real estate transaction, whether it be a successful closing or fail to close, there are 3 things that can happen to the earnest money.
1. It is applied to the purchase price of the home
2. It is returned to the buyer
3. It is disbursed to the seller
If all goes well and the real estate transaction results in a successful closing, the earnest money is applied to the purchase price of the home. Thus if the home is sold for $100k and the earnest money deposit was $1000, the buyer will need $99K to close.
If the real estate transaction cannot be completed, the earnest money will be returned to the buyer if the buyer complied with the terms of the contract. Most real estate contracts, including those used in the Pensacola real estate market, require that the buyer apply for financing within a certain number of days from the effective date of the contract. If the buyer makes a good faith effort to obtain financing and cannot, the earnest money will be returned to the buyer. If financing is obtained, the buyer still has the option of having a home inspection. If the buyer is not satisfied with the results of the inspection, the buyer can back out of the the contract and have the earnest money returned.
This has been a simple overview of how earnest money can be returned to the buyer. I go into much greater detail with my Pensacola real estate clients with regards to their obligations under the real estate contract.
If buyers fail to act in good faith in complying with the terms of the real estate contract, the earnest money can be disbursed to the seller. This generally happens if the buyer is determined to be in breach of the real estate contract.
A good real estate agent will do everything possible to prevent breach of contract, but ultimately it is the buyer’s responsibility to meet the terms of the contract.
As a final note, there are 2 important points that I need to address in regards to earnest money. These points are:
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Earnest money is NOT a requirement of the real estate contract
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The earnest money check is deposited, it is not held until closing
The fact is, earnest money is not a requirement of an offer to purchase real estate. If a seller is willing to accept an offer without an earnest money deposit, so much better for the buyer. However, the reality is that most sellers will require an earnest money deposit.
Buyers also need to know that they must have the funds in their account to cover the earnest money check. The check is not held by the designated escrow agent until closing, it is immediately deposited into an account. Thus the earnest money funds must be available immediately. A bounced earnest money check can cause serious problems with the real estate transaction.
Look for detailed discussions of real estate contract terms is upcoming articles. We’ll see just how interesting I can make a contract discussion. I can hear the yawns already.
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Earnest Money: Clarifying The Confusion For Pensacola Home Buyers - Part 1
November 22nd, 2007 Categories: Pensacola Buyers, Pensacola Sellers, Working With Realtors
Earnest money is all about commitment. My real estate experience has shown that earnest money is a topic unfamiliar to many home buyers in the Pensacola real estate market. I have worked with many clients who did not understand the earnest money concept when making an offer on a Pensacola home.
We’ll tackle the 4 biggest questions I have encountered when working with Pensacola real estate buyers:
1. What is earnest money?
2. What is the proper amount of earnest money to put down?
3. Who holds the earnest money?
4. What ultimately happens to the earnest money?
We’ll start with question 1, “What is earnest money?” Earnest money is money that the buyer provides along with an offer on a home. It is considered “good faith” money. The buyer is offering good faith to the seller that the buyer will do everything possible to obtain financing and purchase the home. Without an earnest money deposit, the buyer has nothing to lose by backing out of the real estate contract. Note that there are legal ramifications, but these are rarely pursued due to the legal costs involved. In other words, the real winners end up being the attorneys.
When the seller accepts an offer, the seller effectively takes the home off the real estate market. This is done by having the real estate agent mark the listing as ”Pending” in the Pensacola MLS. Thus the seller is risking losing a potential buyer while the home is under contract. Buyers in the market will no longer be looking at this seller’s home. In addition, the seller is paying holding costs up until the home is sold. For this reason, larger earnest money deposits make the seller more comfortable with the potential buyer. Larger earnest money deposits show that the buyer is more committed to the purchase of the home.
2. What is the proper amount of earnest money to put down?
The answer depends on the price of the home and local real estate market conditions. Typically in Pensacola homes under $100K, a $1000 earnest money deposit would be acceptable. For higher priced homes, generally 1% of the purchase price is generally considered acceptable.
Real estate market conditions are also a factor in the amount of an earnest money deposit. Pensacola, as with much of the country, is experiencing a strong buyer’s real estate market. In a buyer’s market, buyers generally offer a minimum earnest money deposit. However, in a seller’s real estate market, as Pensacola experienced after hurricane Ivan, the amount of the earnest money deposit can make the difference between acceptance and rejection of an offer. If a seller has multiple offers, or expects more offers soon due to market conditions, the seller is more likely to accept an offer with a larger earnest money deposit, all other factors being equal. 
A common negotiation tactic used by seller’s real estate agents is to include an increased earnest money deposit in a counteroffer.
In some situations, when acting as a buyer’s agent, I counsel my buyers to break the earnest money deposit into 2 separate payments. A minimum deposit is included with the offer. Another earnest money deposit is promised after the completion of a home inspection. This method works in the interest of both the buyer and seller. The seller ultimately gets a larger earnest money deposit, and the buyer learns of the condition of the home before making a full earnest money deposit.
In part 2 of this article, I will discuss questions 3 and 4. Who holds the earnest money, and what happens to it in the end.
Click below to read Part 2:
Earnest Money: Clarifying The Confusion For Pensacola Home Buyers - Part 2
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