mfarmer's Blog: All Categories

I have sent 5 emails and posted this request in the forum, so I thought I'd try here.

Please remove my account and information from this site.

 

Bonzai

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This wil be an interesting year in real estate, to say the least. I still maintain that in most areas the adjustment will be complete half way through this year with signs of normalcy in the fall of 2008.

I think getting through the elections will probably have a positive effect on confidence, regardless who wins -- at least the country will have settled on direction.

I wrote a blog yesterday on my new site - Bonzai - about this issue, addressing what I see as a bonanza waiting in the wings, and it has to do with baby boomers retiring, or semi- retiring, and creating movement all over the US.

But whatever happens, it'll be interesting.

Mike from Savannah

 

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Sifting through the myriad choices online to set up an online marketing plan is becoming more time consuming. Outside the efforts I put into my website, there are RE sites where I am advertising more and more, using local print advertising less and less. More RE sites are popping up making it difficult to decide who to feed, who to create an alliance with. In recent years I’ve moved more to offering buyer services, returning to my roots as an exclusive buyer agent. I will continue to take listings on a limited basis, but my main efforts will be geared toward buyer agency services. This creates a problem deciding where and how to market. For the most part, RE sites are heavy on listings, with little room for a buyer agent to get noticed. Blogging is a… Read Full Post

Yes, the market and the economy are down. It’s not the first time and it won’t be the last. The market goes up, the market goes down, and sometimes it goes sideways. There are economists who can explain it in eye-glazing terms, but even a tyro can see the signs in time to say – Hey, something’s changing.

The first tip of a down market is a far off high-pitched sound that you recognize the closer it gets and becomes almost deafening – whining! The second tip is that pundits wake up, put on their out-of-date suits, crawl out from musty caves to predict the end of America – no more apple pie. Then, of course, there is the blaming – the Republicans blame the Democrats, the Democrats blame the Republicans, liberals blame conservatives, conservatives blame… Read Full Post

I recently read on another blog that the jobs of listing agents may get harder as a result of increased activity among home-buyers using the internet as the starting point of the search. The rationale was that buyers will be going directly to the listing agent's lsting advertised on an online site and bypass the buyer agent -- in other words, there will be more unrepresented buyers. According to the blog, this will increase dual agency and place more burden on the listing agent.

I agree that present trends will likely create this result; however, I also see an online opportunity for buyer agents to place themselves in a position to capture online buyers before they click on one of the gazillion listings advertised online. One way is through SEM and…

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I’m still encountering a misunderstanding about the market slow down as it relates to the area I work, Savannah, Ga. Many home buyers coming to this area are still under the impression that home prices are dropping below what they were a year or two ago. They are not. What is slowing is the rate of appreciation.

Let’s take a round number like $100,000. If a home sold for $100,000 in 2005 and appreciated 10% the next year, in 2006 the home would be worth $110,000. If the appreciation was cut in half the next year to 5%, that home would sell for $115,500 in 2007.

The slow down is the rate of appreciation, but the home is going up in value. From all the statistics I have looked at, this is what is happening in Savannah. When you think the home values are…

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