Best Closing Gift - The Home Warranty
The Best Closing Gift Money Could Buy: "Leaving a lasting impression on your clients doesn't need to take a lot of time or effort on your part. Forget about the Just Moved postcards, magnets, and basket of goodies on closing day. Today's sophisticated and tech-savvy buyers and sellers appreciate closing gifts which are thoughtful, creative, and most importantly, usable.
Giving a home warranty as your closing gift will not only "wow" your clients and let them know that you appreciate their business, but it will also decrease the post-sale liability on your end. "Coverage on the home while on the market is important because it takes the liability off of the Realtor and gives (us) a great selling point." said David Flory of RE/MAX Professional Group in Houston, TX.
Many brokers are now incorporating a new listing procedure into the mix. Agents will have to offer a home warranty as part of their listing procedure and first meet with new buyers. They will be required to document the fact that the sellers or buyers either accept or decline the home warranty offer. This documentation may get you out of a very difficult situation. But wouldn’t it be better to avoid a difficult situation all together?
Imagine that your buyer closed on a house and a month later, you get a call from them stating that their heating system stopped working and it would cost $3,000 to fix. You look through their file and sure enough you offered a home warranty to them, but they declined and you have the paperwork to back it up. Your clients will have to pay out of pocket to fix the heating system. By giving a home warranty as a closing gift to all of your clients, this not only will help them out in a time of need, it is also a gift to you. Your closing gift will make you look like a hero in your clients eyes. "
Survey Says.... Bubble Will Burst
RealEstateJournal | National Housing Bubble Will Burst, Consumers Say: "More than 70% of U.S. consumers believe a national housing bubble will burst and home prices will collapse within the next year, although 56% believe it's unlikely to happen in the area where they live, according a new survey.
The Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index study, released yesterday, found that 71% of the 1,004 adults surveyed believe a bubble exists and could burst within the next 12 months. Only 24% believe it's unlikely to happen and 5% said they didn't know.
However, most consumers don't think it will happen where they live -- at least not in the next three years. The survey found 56% believe it's unlikely to occur in their residential area, while 42% believe it could happen and 2% didn't know. The survey found that 32% believe a bubble exists and will burst in their neighborhood in the next 12 months."
Survey Shows Buyers Have Confidence in Their Agents
What Buyers Are Really Saying about Their Agents: "-- Buyers rated each of the transaction service providers
(lenders, real estate agents and title) extremely high.
Respondents were asked to assign a grade rating of either A
(excellent), B, C (average), D or F (unsatisfactory). The
rankings were converted to a grade point average (GPA) where A
is a 4.0 and F is a 0.0.
a. The title grade overall was a 3.87 GPA, with 88 percent of
respondents giving an excellent score.
b. Real estate agents were rated excellent by 85 percent of
all buyers, with an overall score of 3.79 GPA.
c. Lenders received a 3.57 GPA with 73.1 percent of home
buyers assigning an excellent rating.
Home buyers also were asked, "What one facet of the home buying process needs most improvement?" They responded predominantly with two themes: the amount of paper involved, and the amount (or lack of) communication in the transaction.
"In this day and age of technology, buyers expect much greater use of technology and less paper -- and they expect better communication from the parties in the transaction," said Dr. Ted C. Jones, senior vice president and chief economist, Stewart Title Guaranty Co., who formulated the survey and analyzed the results. "These findings validate the title industry's push towards a paperless process with electronic signatures and transaction management via the Internet."
The survey's executive summary, instrument and complete customer comments may be found online at
http://www.stewart.com/page.jsp?pageID=1516."
Builder confidence hits lowest point since 1996
Inman Real Estate News - Builder confidence hits lowest point since 1996: "The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index sank four points from march to April reaching 50 – the lowest point since February 1996 when the index slipped to 49 – the home builders group announced today.
A index of 50 indicates an equilibrium in builder confidence – any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good, while a number below 50 indicates that builders view sales conditions as poor.
All three component indexes slipped this month, with the largest decline registered for current single-family sales. That component declined five points to 54 in April, while the component for sales expectations in the next six months was down four points to 58 and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers declined a single point to 39, according to the announcement.
The index is derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has conducted for about 20 years. Builders are asked whether they view single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as 'good,' 'fair' or 'poor.' The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as either 'high to very high,' 'average' or 'low to very low.' Scores for each component are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index."
Happy Easter!
He is Risen!!!
Remax.com challenges Realtor.com with IDX Technology
RE/MAX Unveils New Network of IDX Web Sites: "RISMEDIA, April 11, 2006-RE/MAX International this week unveiled its new network of broker IDX (Internet data exchange) Web sites, offering consumers more than 2 million property listings-whether they are RE/MAX listings or not-at www.remax.com. The IDX is an Internet-based exchange of property listings data among real estate brokers.
'We are very pleased,' says Kristi Graning, senior vice president, IT and eBusiness. 'We've been receiving some great comments, and our leads and traffic are both up.'
The IDX is being introduced to RE/MAX's offices in a three-phase rollout:
- First phase-the top major metropolitan areas (already complete)
- Second phase-identifying and bringing in the next level of markets (now underway)
- Third phase-continuing to identify markets to join the network (should be complete by the end of the year) "
Tips for Pricing your Home in a Cooling Market
RealEstateJournal | Tips for Home Sellers In a Cooling Market: "
The Right PriceThe next, and often most challenging, step in a cooling market is appropriately pricing a home, says J. Lennox Scott, chief executive of John L. Scott, a real-estate firm in Bellevue, Wash. Sellers no longer can assume the home will sell for slightly more than the last comparable sale in the neighborhood. It might even sell for less.
A competent real-estate agent should be able to gauge the market, but sellers also can do some research. Mr. Scott suggests looking at recent comparable sales in the neighborhood, and determining what percentage of those homes sold in the first 30 days on the market. If less than 20% sold, you're likely in a softening market. If 20% to 30% sold, you're in an equilibrium market. Over 30%, you're in an appreciating market.
Sellers in a softening market might price their homes at the same or a slightly lower price than the last comparable home in the neighborhood that sold. (Be sure to factor in size, features and other things that could affect the price.)
Time horizon also matters. If you have several months to sell, you might try setting the price a bit higher. But there's a danger to that, says Phyllis York Brookshire, chief operating officer of a brokerage in Raleigh, N.C.: "There's always some backlog of buyers right when you put the home on the market." If you price your home too high, you might miss out on those buyers.
Finding good sales data can be difficult for individual sellers not working with an agent, but it's getting easier. Zillow.com can provide some helpful comparable sales data, though it doesn't include sales in every area."
