The National Association of Realtors for years has reported that the number one point of client dissatisfaction with their real estate agent is communication.

Clients' dissatisfaction with communication is usually lack of communication or communication that is not timely.

Realtors often feel caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to communication. More and more people expect an immediate call back. Some Realtors set specific hours for call back so they aren’t always interrupting other things that need to get done to answer the phone.

Many people think Realtors spend too much time on the phone. A difficult thing to get away from when clients, like so many people today seem addicted to incessant cell phone activity.

But, these days communication isn’t just about the phone. It’s about text messaging, instant messaging and email as well. More and more clients buying and selling real estate are communication multi-taskers who expect their agents to communicate via their communication channel of choice – an expectation that creates difficulties for some technologically challenged Realtors.

This is one of the strengths of working the real estate business with a team. Each of us can rely on our other team members to fill an immediate communication need if we are busy.

Keeping the communication flowing is not only important, it is a necessity these days with all of the challenges in getting transaction through the escrow process. The escrow process, which use to be a fairly smooth process, is now fraught with daily hiccups due to all the changes happening in the mortgage and real estate industries.

Great communication is one of our primary goals and continual challenges.

East Bay Russian Roulette Home Sales

East Bay home owners continue to gamble and lose more money on the sale of their homes than many U.S. citizens earn in a year.

Sellers refusing to face the reality of a housing market that is continuing to settle and a lending and mortgage industry that is experiencing weekly kaleidoscopic change are losing tens of thousands of dollars chasing the market down.

Without a doubt, our biggest challenge these days is trying to get sellers to face the reality of their local real estate market. Over 90% of the sellers we talk to want to over price their home for existing market conditions.

Sellers are holding on to their wishful thinking that there is that one “magic buyer” that will appear, fall in love with their home and pay more than market value to own the seller’s dream home. In most life situations 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, but with  dreaming sellers – it’s 3 out of 3 or hit the road Jack.

Mortgage Industry Continues to Change

WASHINGTON — U.S. federal regulators, in a dramatic move highlighting the
tenuous state of global credit markets, outlined a takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday morning, including giving control of the firms to their regulator and allowing the Treasury Department to purchase billions of dollars of the firms' senior preferred stock.

What’s this mean to YOU the local home buyer/seller? According to Dan Green of The Mortgage Reports – As of today, mortgage debt is government debt and by the transitive property of risk premiums, mortgage debt is now risk-free.  Therefore, conforming mortgage rates are down.

Wall Street Journal – The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will help ease mortgage rates for home buyers, say economists, home builders and housing experts. But it won't cure the housing markets biggest ailments: falling home prices and rising foreclosures.

Are there any glimmers of hope? The National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday that pending home sales dropped again in July, dashing expectations of a continuing rebound after positive results in June. And prices of existing homes fell 7.1% in July.

The National Association of Realtors is reporting a record 11.2 months of supply of homes on the market. Inventories in the 680 Corridor are mostly in the 4 to 6 month range.

Existing home sales nationally rose 3.1% in July over June's figure. The pattern of increased home sales suggests that much of the activity is occurring in parts of America where foreclosed homes are flooding the market and buyers are snapping up the deals.

Analysts at UBS are saying they don't expect a recovery in housing until mid-2009 and a Wachovia economist says, "We are not yet ready to call the current levels a bottom but clearly most of the declines are behind us."  Another housing market analyst says he thinks the market could easily sit at the bottom for at least a year.

The NAR reports new-home sales are projected to drop 8.8 percent to 464,000 in 2009 from 509,000 this year.

Homeowners hoping to wait it out until 2009 may have to wait longer. Another 5% drop in values and an interest rate hike of 1% could put a homeowner in a position of having to wait another two years to get what they could get today for the sale of their home.

Real Estate is Local - get our FREE Real Estate Market Detail Reports for YOUR East Bay community.

The Power of Pricing Drives Interest, Activity and Sales

Price Drives Sales. I think most would agree. In a down housing market or an adjusting real estate market, it is important to understand local real estate market dynamics, market trends and how pricing affects interest and activity.

The National Association of Realtors has collected data on real estate sales for decades, through up, down and stagnant markets. The data collected on the power of pricing reflects 3 key points:

• Number of showings is greatest if priced at or below market value
• Generates the most interest when it first hits market
• Starting high and dropping price later misses excitement & fails to generate strong activity

The image above reflects the general sales activity for tens of millions of homes in the U.S. over many, many years. We see that the first 3 weeks of listing a home are where the activity levels builds to it’s highest point. From the third to fifth week, while activity starts declining, the overall interest is still high. From week six on, interest and activity fade.

As I mentioned yesterday in the article on chasing the real estate market down, many sellers want to price their homes high to try and maximize their net gain on the sale of the home. When home sellers want to price their home higher than our recommendation, which is based on local real estate market trends and our years of experience, we get them to agree to reevaluate after two weeks on the pricing.

The graph shows why. If we adjust the price before the three-week apex of interest and activity, we can still catch the wave. Lowering the price at seven, ten or 12 means trying to rekindle interest.

More than 75% of home sales result from the local Realtors network and the MLS. When real estate agents have looked at a home several times and shown it to clients, the home can become jaded in their minds. A slight price reduction does not overcome this inertia.

To rekindle interest in a meaningful way means a significant price reduction. It’s the nickel and diming on price reduction that costs the home seller money in the long run.

Here is a successful pricing strategy we have used in the last two years with savvy, cooperative sellers.

• Set the initial price
• Present the home at the local Realtors Marketing meeting and have it on brokers tour
• Elicit pricing feedback from the real estate community
• Monitor interest and activity for 10 days
• If no offers come in – reduce price before two week deadline
• Monitor interest and activity for 10 days
• If no offers come in – reduce price before 4 week deadline
• Monitor interest and activity for 10 days
• If no offers come in – reduce price before 6 week deadline

This strategy works well to help find the pricing “sweet spot” for a real estate market that is still trending down and has yet to settle. This is different than chasing the market down. When a client is chasing the market down, they are usually waiting two months or more between price adjustments and they are less aggressive in their price reductions.

Finding the pricing sweet spot is a very pro-active and dynamic strategy. It’s not a – well, let’s wait and see campaign. It is a definitive campaign to aggressively find the top dollar price a market will bear for a specific home.

This image, also based on years and years of sales of millions of homes, shows the percent of buyers that will look at a home based on how it is priced. Note that only 60% of buyers will look at a home that is priced at market value. If a home is priced 10% above market value, visitors drop to 30% of interested buyers. If the home is priced 10% below market value, 75% of interested buyers will visit.

Currently, there is a three to six month inventory of homes on the market for most local communities. Buyers have a lot to choose from. 

A bigger ad in the newspaper is probably not going to bring more buyers to a home on the market. Fewer and fewer buyers are using the newspaper to find homes for sale. A more elaborate 4–color brochure is probably not going to do much either.

What will get your home sold is to work with an agent that has experience, knows the market, will tell you the truth, and networks like crazy with the other professionals in the local real estate industry.

I truly believe that all of our team fits this bill – BUT – I gotta tell you – Ginny Mees is absolutely awesome. If you are thinking of selling your home – be sure to include Ginny on your short list of Realtors to interview. Email Ginny (925) 895–2694

How do I buy a home in America? by Paul Mees

Europe has historically been one of the largest investors of real estate in America. Recent figures from the National Association of  Realtors, show Europeans are still one of the top five foreign investors in United States real estate.

The low valued dollar and the many real estate bargains attract a stream of foreign investors who would like to profit from the housing situation in the U.S. Foreign investors also discover that buying  real estate in America is a fairly easy process. On this site I will describe several aspects of buying real estate in America. It is important that you are represented by an experienced broker (Realtor) who is specialized in the area where you want to buy and knows how to deal with foreign investors who are not an American citizen or resident.

Before we continue I would like to introduce myself: my name is Paul Mees and for the last ten years I have lived, and worked as a Realtor in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am one of the partners of HarperMees and Associates. My wife, Ginny, and I own properties in California, Mexico, the Netherlands and Italy. In the past ten years, we have gained a lot of  experience through buying and selling of homes internationally. Our team of realtors is ready to assist you with the purchase of your dream home, or investment property, in America.

Complete 9 Page Document – How Do I Buy a House in America?