Everybody wants to know how the real estate market is doing?

Whether you live in West Chester, Oakley, Fairfield,  Beckett Ridge or elsewhere, the market is showing signs of life.

So I took a ”snap shot” of Sunday Open Houses for June 29th as well as active listings and pending sales for single family homes in the following areas:

Data from Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service

Open Houses were fairly robust yesterday.  But don’t despair if you had an open house and nobody walked through- it is just one of many tools to sell your property.

The mathematically inclined are now dividing the number of active listings by the number of pending slaes to figure out “absorption rate (how many months of inventory) but the real number - sold/closed properties- needed for that calculation won’t be available for a week or so.

Buyers certainly have a lot of options in the Lakota School District.

Add up the active listings for Liberty Township, West Chester and Beckett Ridge to find 793 single family homes for sale - so if your home is not priced correctly…buyers definitely have a lot of options and may skip looking at your property.

Remember the inventory snap shot is just a picture of a moment in time- and the local real estate market fluctuates on a daily basis.

If you crave more detailed information, want to be better prepared before you list your home or are just a nosey neighbor looking for information- email or subscribe now for the latest updates.

Related Articles: 3 Key Words; Savvy Buyers

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How would you like to pick and choose the rooms to your dream home on the internet?

Julia, the author of the delightful Hooked On Houses blog, is currently running a “fantasy house” contest featuring this year’s Homearama homes.  Everyday she features a different home and readers can vote for their favorite one.

Piggybacking on her idea, I’m thinking how neat it would be for buyers to surf through homes clicking on their favorite rooms and build/design their “virtual dream home”.  Then hit the “submit” button and somebody would find the combination of rooms that meets your needs and notifies you when you visit the property.  Pretty cool?

Or if you are tired of schlepping around Sunday Open Houses- you could click on the open house(s) of your choice and using a mini-cam and the realtor (or homeowner) could take you on a tour of the property- answering your questions along the way. Like what you see- then make an appointment to walk through the property.  You don’t like it- move on the the next virtual open house.

In a perfect world, the virtual tours and/or selection process should limit the actual properties buyers have to walk through to 2 or 3.   

However, sometimes when fantasy meets reality and buyers tour the properties….and….you guessed it…..the great-room isn’t as large as it appeared on the internet.  Oh and the pet odor in home #2- the buyers had no clue about the two “mini horse size” dogs currently in residing in the house.  And home #3-well even though it is exactly what you designed- seeing in real life is a sort of a nightmare.

Let’s face it- sometimes things do look better on a computer screen than they do in person.

Don’t give up!  We are still doing business the way it has been done for a long time, making appointments and walking buyers through multiple properties.  But I think the time is coming when more homes will have virtual tours available- not the predrecorded tour - but the type with a real person using a live video camera walking through the home while communicating with you.  Maybe the tour would start with a drive around the community so you could see if you like the neighborhood.  Let you mind wonder  and you begin to understand that fantasy open houses and tours are only the beginning of the real estate experience that can be tailored to each individuals needs.

Personally, I think the fantasy tours will become a normal everyday occurrence in real estate and wouldn’t that be a buyer’s dream come true.

But until then -if you need some old fashioned real estate help- call, twitter, email or have your people contact my people….I’ll help you find your “dream home”.

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Correct pricing for real estate is not as simple as hitting a button in the Multiple Listing Service system and getting the answer!  

Recently a fellow blogger wrote and an excellent blog highlighting the need to price properties ”right”. 

Since I am always on the pricing soapbox, I was intrigued enough to read the entire article.

The blog quotes numbers from the greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service with List to Sale percentages for Hyde Park and Oakley. Unfortunately the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) provides an incomplete picture and this article is a great example why agents and sellers need to dig deeper in order to obtain the real numbers.

Let me explain, the MLS provides a standard report showing the List Price to Sale Price ratio (LP/SP).  The number is misleading because it reflects the List Price (LP) prior to the sale.  So if a property was listed for $200,000 and the final pricing just prior to selling was to $189,000 and the actual sale price was $179,900- the LP/SP  percentage would be $189,000/$179,900 or 95.19%.  In reality the real LP/SP $200,000/$179,900 should be 90%.

Detailed review of the Oakley and Hyde Park single family home sales which closed between 05/15/08-06/15/08 indicates a much higher loss on properties with a high number of days on market (DOM): (Data from Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service)

Homes on the market 30 days or less:  MLS stats for List Price(LP) to Sale Price (SP) - 96.79%.  Actual Opening Price (OP) to Sale Price (SP) -96.71%. (No surprise here- the quicker the sale,  the higher the selling price.)

31 - 60 days:  MLS stats for LP to SP- 93.94%. Actual OP to SP- 90.19%

61-90 days: MLS stats for LP to SP- 96.60%.  Actual OP to SP- 86.12%.   (Longer market time- lower sale price)

91- 120 days: MLS stats for LP to SP- 95.14%.  Actual OP to SP- 95.14% (only one property closed in this price range)

121+ days:  MLS stats for LP to SP- 95.64%.  Actual OP to SP - 83.04% 

As you can see the Selling Price(SP) to Opening Price (OP) is substantially lower the longer your property sits on the market.

Sellers need to have the whole “picture” before deciding on the correct List Price.  Since most Multiple Listing Services do not provide detailed statistics, an agent usually spends hours preparing a comprehensive pricing presentation. 

If you are trying to price your property based on reviewing the standard printout from MLS,  ask for more detailed information.

My fellow blogger is correct- pricing is critical from day one.  Just make sure you have all the facts before deciding on the opening price.

If you would like the work sheet of closings for this blog- let me know by email and I will be glad to forward to you.  Or give me a call 513-300-4090.

Related Articles: Express Lane; 3 Key Words; Real Estate ABC’s

Seach For Dream Home 

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This morning an article in the Toledo Blade by Gary Pakulski went to great lengths to describe the state of Cincinnati’s economy and the status of downtown.

An open letter to Gary Pakulski: 

Dear Mr. Pakulski,

Your article was thoughtful and well written and somebody in Toledo is probably shaking their head about conditions in poor Cincinnati. 

Too bad- while you are suffering along with the southeast Michigan’s stumbling economy- we’re doing just fine down here. 

As an example, yesterday’s “Urban Tour” was an eye opener.  Not only did we see a wide variety of condos and flats- we saw tons of people looking for the move into the city in lieu of retiring in the burbs. A quick search of the greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service shows a wide variety of condo type properties available within the City -511 and an additional 168 pending sales.  However the most interesting number covers new construction. 238 of the 511 listings are new construction (newly built or new redo’s in existing buildings) and of the 168 pending sales- 127 are new construction.

Not exactly a  dead market by any standards.

Yes we do have our problems (see related articles) and yes it will take a lot of time for a sufficient number of new residents to support grocery, cleaners, drug stores and such.  But if yesterday is any indication of the level of interest - the extended downtown Cincinnati area is definitely on its way to a residential  revival.

In closing Mr. Pakulski, reviewing and reporting on data is useful, but walking around seeing the activity reveals the reality contained within all the statistics.  Come visit and I will be glad to show you around.

If you missed the Urban Tour or need more information about downtown living- call or email. 

Related Articles: Downtown -Chicken or Egg; Winning Formula: New Downtown Skyscaper

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With all due respect Mr. Friedman, the real estate world is not flat!

In his well written and often quoted book, “The World is Flat”  author Thomas Friedman argues the fact that events and businesses are impacted not just by events in the United States -but by circumstances all over the world.  And, most of the time, I agree with his premise.

However, when it comes to Cincinnati, West Chester, Fairfield, Mson and other local residential real estate, the world is not flat, allowing local markets to be just that -local markets.

Look at the State of Ohio.  The statewide unemployment rate for April was 5.5% but the rate for Cincinnati was 4.6%.  Do you think the greater Cincinnati area might be better off than other parts of the state?

Media coverage of the housing market is ”big” picture coverage.  The woes of Las Vegas, Phoenix and California market show entire neighborhoods engulfed in foreclosures.  Drive around our area and you will find problem properties, maybe even a street with a few foreclosed or abandoned houses -but whole subdivisions under foreclosure- not in our market.                                                                                                                   

The Chicken Little’s of the press don’t sell papers or magazines unless the sky is falling and they have attached many of the country’s woes to our marketplace.

Are we in a different real market today- you bet we are!

Is pricing more critical than 3 years ago -yes.  Can buyers go in and offer 50% of the list price and get a deal- doubtful.  Is your home’s value higher or lower?  The answer to that depends on a myriad of variables - and I will be glad to discuss and help and make an informed decision. Call 513-300-4090 or email your questions.

Related Article: Winning Formula, 3 Key Words in Real Estate

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