Sorry but this is gonna take alot more than 500 words and you’ll have to refer back and forth to get the questions.
1. Lots of pendings are actually closed already. Every few months Sandicor sends a message out to agents asking them to update their closed listings. Alot of this comes from Open Listings (i.e. FSBO’s posted on the MLS), Onesy/twosy a year realtors, lazy realtors, more sellers accepting contingent offers and longer escrows being accepted. It really isnt an unusually high number.
2. Sales volume is down and some long time agents are feeling pain. Many have been through this before. Listings are coming in strong and since I work with alot of good agents that are capable of getting price reductions as a group we are probably better off than most. We keep hearing about lots more to come on the market.
3. Each agents piece of the pie is so small that a few milion dollar sales can make your year. Heck, I know people that have recently cashed checks deep into 6 figures for a single transaction. Barry Sanders always had great production on a lousy Detroit Lions team.
4. Some sellers are hanging on because it is a big disappointment to wave good bye to something you thought you had but never really did. Good agents provide their clients the data to connect the dots, the encouragement to do so and have the credibility to get them. Some agents try to buy masrket share by promising clients the moon which hurts them and their clients in the long run. My clients tend to be well educated and I make sure they have the data they need to make good decisions. They have lots of equity and are truly motivated to sell (i.e. relocating). They put thier trust in me and it is a heavy burden to carry. If you havent read my post on the “Rich is the man” thread you are missing out on a window into the life of a realtor trying to do the best thing for his clients. It was written from the heart.
5. To me it is volume and I follow/track my market areas religiously. Inventory, pending and closed sales. I ran some numbers to today and they were pretty scary. The question that seller’s will begin asking is not how much I can sell for but rather can I sell at all.
6.The buyers I am working with currently are bringing huge cash positions 30 to 50% down or even all cash) and high stable incomes. Rates dont affect them as much directly but they worry what effect rates will have on prices as weaker buyers are impacted. They are picky as to what they want and expect to negotiate hard. I’ve created some comps in the last year that havent made the neighbors happy.
7.Hopefully they are but I dont have much to do with this. I’m very fiscally conservative and birds of a feather tend to flock together. I don’t beleive I have any clients that are at risk unless they foolishly refinanced out of a good loan they bought with. Cant control that.
8. Foreclosure rate was so low because anyone in trouble could refi out for the last several years making % increases of little value. I’d look at the foreclosure rate and volume as a better measure as 2 is a 100% increase over 1. No personal experience but have heard of several. Typically they are recent homebuyers that were represented by poor agents. They typically overpaid even considering the high prices and had very risky financing. Others pulled out equity to finance lives they couldnt afford. Appraisals done recently that I find hard to beleive got past underwriters. You will be hearing the phrase short sale more and more.
Lastly, in PS’ last post I found the part about the agent coming up to her and saying “You did the right thing. You will be able to buy it back in 3 years for 25% less. Call me.” quite humorous. Some agents have no scrupples. I’m surprised she didnt tell him to @%$&* off.
