Ro Troia

Say What? You Fired Your Realtor?

Another one bites the dust!  I know there are tons of people out there that are frustrated because no one is coming to look at their house for sale – right?  Well than it makes sense to Fire Your Realtor!   That’s OK, another Realtor will come along and promise to sell your house for “that” special price  bring in tons of buyers.  Yes – Real Estate is emotional!  Yes and….Real Estate is still a great investment.  Should you fire or should you keep the same Realtor?  That is a good question.   I admit, most people are a little weary anyway when their real estate agent tells them

to price their home “just  below ” their competition.   How can that be????  My house is much nicer and much bigger than any other house in the neighborhood.  If you’re one of those people that think your house will sell for more than your neighbor’s house, may I suggest that you take a moment and do a little home work before firing your agent first.   Even areas (like Boulder Colorado where I live and work) are not escaping the downward real estate trends.

 

Boulder’s average home sale price as of July 2008 is down 10% from the first quarter of the year 2008.  We thought we were impervious!  Interesting enough though, the average Boulder home list price is up 1% from the beginning of July 2008?? Go figure….

Boulder Market Trends – average sales price

No. Bedrooms	Apr-Jun ‘08	Jan-Mar ‘08	Apr-Jun ‘07	Apr-Jun ‘03	Compared to  Jan-Mar “08
1 bedroom	$193,011	$167,629	$184,233	$152,088	+15.1%
2 bedrooms	$304,085	$366,026	$281,686	$271,842	-16.9%
3 bedrooms	$515,931	$478,492	$516,993	$392,369	+7.8%
4 bedrooms	$698,457	$689,895	$739,020	$538,767	+1.2%
all	$471,730	$526,727	$485,394	$383,764	-10.4%

I found these trends on Trulia.com.   I admit I was weary myself when Realogy  Corporation (Coldwell Banker’s parent company – the largest real estate franchiser and operator of residential real estate brokers) partnered up with Trulia last year how reliable the information would be.  Now that so many other Real Estate Companies have jumped on board the information is probably as good as it’s going to get.  For those of you that are first time home buyers or sellers that haven’t heard about Trulia or used it, it’s a free and unbiased website designed to inform the everyday buyers and sellers out there and provides a portal to search for homes and research other community information relevant for you.  For the everyday home owner who is looking to sell their home, go see for yourself what’s happening in your neck of the real estate world.

The best thing you can do for yourself in this up and down real estate world is to educate yourself.    A good real estate agent will be educated and share local market trends and neighborhood statistics with you so together you can make a good educated guess at what list price will get the attention of all the buyers out there.  Buyers….where?  Oh they’re out there all right.   Did you know that the number one reason why your house hasn’t sold yet is due to the advertised sale price, not because the buyers are disappearing.   Your sales price is still too high for this market!   These savvy buyers have done their homework and they know what’s going on.    Give them a reason to LOOK at your house.   Give them a reason to BUY your houses.  The age old logic of pricing high and bringing your price down “if you need to” is so not working so well in today’s real estate market.  The sad reality is – the longer it sits, the longer it sits, and the longer it sits.  You know the house don’t’ you?   The one down the street that has been on the market forever?  In your neighborhood?  Yes, it’s partly the market folks, but it’s partly the stubbornness of the sellers or their Realtors to adapt to the changing market.  

May I offer some advice when deciding which Realtor to replace your old one with?  …..make sure they come highly recommended, don’t use your best friend unless your relationship can withstand the pressure, make sure they come armed with market trends and make sure they aren’t afraid to tell you what you might not want to hear. 

Tags: Tags: boulder colorado, home sellers, homes for sale, real estate market trends, real estate trends, Realtors, sellers, Trulia

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Market Conditions, Selling Thoughts, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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