WIS10 News, Columbia, SC.
(Also featured in Charlotte Post)
(ARA) - Not so long ago, housing inventories were turning over so fast
you had to pretty much put a bid on the home of your dreams the day you
found it, or someone else would snap it up. But times are changing.
Rather than staying on the market for just a few days, or a week or
two, single family homes are now taking 30 to 60 days or more to sell
in most markets.
"We
are clearly experiencing a market transition, moving from a prolonged
boom to a more balanced period of sustainable sales," says David
Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR)
in the organization's 2006 home sales forecast. Translation -- it's
turning from a seller's market, into one that's more favorable for
buyers.
With more
inventory out there, sellers are having to work harder to get their
listings to stand out. NAR statistics indicate that in 2005, 77 percent
of U.S. consumers started their search for a new home online. The most
recent data published by Ipsos-Reid for online activity indicates that
54 percent of Canadian adults who have an Internet connection browse
for real estate online. Based on these figures, industry experts say
marketing on the Internet is the way to go.
"Sellers
have come to realize that to get good value for their home, they need
to make sure they choose an agent who knows how to effectively market a
home online; and that doesn't mean just putting the listing up on a
company Web site either," says Brendan King, chief operating officer at
Point2 Technologies, a software technology company specializing in
online marketing tools for real estate professionals.
Rob
Tucker who works in the Boulder, Colo., office of Keller Williams, the
fourth largest real estate franchise in the United States, stumbled
upon Point2's real estate software, Point2 Agent, three years ago while
searching for a more efficient way to market his properties online.
"Before
getting into real estate, I owned a Web-based company that sold outdoor
gear and online training, so I was fully aware of the power of the
Internet from the start," says Tucker. "I was spending a lot of time
and a small fortune on a Web site that offered the tools I knew I
needed to make my listings stand out from the rest on the Internet.
Point2 offered everything I wanted and at a fraction of the cost."
Among
the tools Tucker takes advantage of to get his listings to stand out,
and in front of as many people as possible: providing lots of pictures
online, offering extensive descriptions that answer all the questions a
person may have about the property before they set foot inside, and
getting his listings onto search engines such as Google and Yahoo! and
real estate consumer Web sites such as Realtor.com and Point2Homes.com.
He also includes tools like Google Earth, so potential buyers can see
what's nearby, and get access to neighborhood information.
"The
successful online marketing of real estate doesn't work unless you pull
out all the stops," says Tucker. "I've often had people - buyers and
sellers alike - thank me for offering as much information as I do. A
lot of sales have gone through because my listings were more complete
than the next guy's."
If you're planning to sell a home in the near future, log on to www.point2homes.com
to see how your listings can, and according to King and Tucker, should
appear. You can also use the site to find an experienced agent near you.