An important component to engaging customers that are further out than 30 days from their purchase is trying to show your value through the entire process. It is often difficult to know what to talk to a customer about if you're not talking about getting a mortgage or finding a house.
In an article on MSN Real Estate, Liz Pulliam Weston gives suggestions about the important issues for buyers to take care of well before they are ready to purchase.
She gives buyers advice 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, and 2 months out regarding how to get their financial house in order so they can purchase when they want to purchase.
I'm not suggesting that you use her suggestions verbatim but they will make you think about what kinds of things you can discuss with a potential buyer very early in their home search process.
We talk all the time about the dreaming stage and scaling for the consumer. Here are some ways to engage them through these tricky times.
Here is a link to the article to which I refer.
Enjoy and comment back here about what you think!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
It's important to have something to say...
Consumer's Big Question
Consumers are still on the web, still looking for opportunities, still in that dreaming stage but seem to have one really big question looming...
Should I wait for the market bottom?
MSN real estate's Melinda Fulmer has some advice that you can use when talking to your consumers about buying now.
The housing market will continue its downward spiral, forecasts say, and that means opportunities for buyers. But waiting for the market bottom may not be the smartest strategy. Here are 5 reasons to buy now --
The latest housing headlines are far from encouraging: Foreclosures are up, home prices are down and new-home sales are at record lows. All this dismal news has many buyers sitting on the sidelines, afraid to make a move. But, economists say, waiting for the bottom may not be the smartest strategy.
For many buyers, there's no real need to wait for the market as a whole to officially bottom out, says Delores Conway, director of the Casden Forecast at the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "Real estate is local," Conway says, and therefore what constitutes the bottom for the country is meaningless for those looking to buy and sell homes in their own neighborhoods.
5 REASONS TO BUY
1. Prices in the neighborhood you are interested in are relatively stable. Either they are holding their own or increasing, or the pace of decline is slowing significantly. If you have to move and don't like apartments, the small penalty you pay for missing the bottom may not mean much.
2. You plan to stay in the home for more than five years. If you can stick it out that long before selling, economists say you’ll probably ride out any downturn and come out ahead on price.
3. Your rent rivals a mortgage payment. If you can afford to buy, it can give you one bonus that renting can't: the mortgage-interest deduction on your taxes.
4. You've found the right house in the right area for you. The schools are great. You love the area and know it would be hard to find another house like the one you have your eye on. In a better market, you would most likely have much more competition for that home.
5. You've built equity in your house and are moving to a place where homes are cheaper. In your new market, your money will go a lot further.
Here's a link to the entire story.
As you build relationships with your consumers, remember that being able to talk about the current conditions and the advantages of acting now rather than hiding from the market can be invaluable in building that trust.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Build the Relationship First
We are hearing from around the country that real estate consumers are 'sitting on the fence' much more than in recent past. This may well be because of negative media, fluctuation in interest rates and a general uneasiness about the overall economy. We must take more time to build the relationship since buyers may not be ready to engage immediately. Patience and good old fashioned relationship building is the key. Nothing beats a face to face interview with your customers. Less by phone and email and more face to face is the key. They need to get to know, like and trust us before they will commit to working with us. This also means being careful of the hurdles we throw in front of them that are industry centric and not necessarily customer centric. Meet with them, learn about their families, their wants and needs and even show them a few homes so they can comfortably get a feel for the market and we can build the relationship for the distance. If they are not ready to jump, incubate, incubate, incubate until they are ready. Some of our best customers are the ones we already have. Be prepared to move the needle from a 90 day closing to 120 days or even out to 210 days to make sure we don't lose them at the very time they make the decision to engage. The real estate business is personal again. Be Patient, build the relationship, remove the hurdles and let them do business with you.
Dave Clark
Regional Vice President
LendingTree Broker Network
News we've been waiting for?
So the NAR is reporting that sales are up based on the February 2008 numbers. What does that mean for your production?
It means the buyers are stepping up, finally. So get out there and take advantage. Get the phones ringing in the homes of the customers you have been handed over the past 6 months and turn them into transactions.
Now is the beginning of your best year ever, but only if that is what you expect!
Here is the whole story from today's CBS Marketwatch:
ECONOMIC REPORT
Home resales up first time in seven months
Median sales prices plunge record 8.2% in past year
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:01 a.m. EDT March 24, 2008
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Boosted by a record decline in prices, the U.S. housing market showed signs of stability in February, with sales of existing home rising modestly for the first time in seven months, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.
Resales of U.S. homes and condos rose 2.9% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.03 million, ahead of the 4.85 million pace expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. See Economic Calendar.
It's the strongest sales pace since October. Sales are down 23.8% compared with a year ago.
Inventories of unsold homes fell 3% to 4.03 million, representing a 9.6-month supply at the February sales pace. Inventories are not seasonally adjusted, but a decline from January to February is unusual.
The median sales price plunged to $195,900, down 8.2% from a year earlier, the largest price decline recorded. Prices of single-family homes fell 8.7% in the past year, also the most since the records begin in 1968.
Since the credit crunch first hit in August, resales have been "stuck" in a narrow range around 5 million, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate agents' trade group.
Sales rose in three of four regions, with the West still lagging. Sales rose 11.3% in the Northeast, 2.5% in the Midwest and 2.1% in the South. Sales fell 1.1% in the West.
Median sales prices are down 13.4% in the West, largely because the market for jumbo loans above $417,000 remains frozen, Yun said.
The median sales prices can be affected by the mix of home sold regionally and within different price ranges. Two other home price indexes that track resales of the same home over time will be released on Tuesday.
Sales of single-family homes rose 2.8% in February to 4.47 million, the second increase in a row and the fastest sales pace since August. Inventories of unsold single-family homes fell 5.5% to 3.43 million, a 9.2-month supply.
Sales of condos rose 3.7% in February to 560,000 annualized. Condo sales are down 29.7% in the past year. Inventories of unsold condos rose 14% to 604,000, a 13-month supply.
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
