Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Condomania

Let me start out by saying I'm a fan of condominiums.
Here's why. No yard work and little maintenance. You pay a fee someone else does the work and you can enjoy those couple of hours off.

And if you're a fan of condominiums now would be the time to buy one.

There is an absolute glut of them on the market. I mean from Sarasota to Palmetto there are literally thousands of resales and boat loads of new builds.

The seller's though need a little lesson in pricing. Drop your prices now, that is what will stimulate the market.

There is several years of supply on the market. For seller's you're either on the market or in the market. In you sell, on you languish with the thousands of other overpriced houses and condominiums.

For buyer's it is a kid in the candy store time. You can pick and choose to your hearts content, from beach front to golf courses.

Here is a word for the wise if you are looking at the builder's inventory also get a real estate agent to look up the resale inventory.

I have seen instances where the builder's are asking in excess of 50 percent more for their unit compared to other similar resale units in the complex.

In this market the resale unit might well have been bought by an investor and never lived in.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Monday, April 28, 2008

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

A lot of people have been focusing on the negative when it comes to real estate.

Time to look at the positive.

Here I sit as a buyer's specialist in Palmetto, Florida on the great Gulf Coast of this state.

Within a couple of miles of my office are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world from Siesta Key to the sugar white sands of Anna Maria, Island.

Outside our door is the Manatee River and the Regatta Point Marina.

It is sunny and warm naturally.

The gulf waters are warm and clear. The dolphins are playing beside the boats cruising down the intracoastal waterway.

Prices go up, prices go down, taxes go up and taxes go down.

But you know why people will continue to move here. Well just look at the descriptions above.

Enough said.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.779.5149
greg@teamworksfla.com

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Sales down, prices down for March

Everything will sell at a price-the trick is to get the prices down so sales will rise.

In Sarasota and Bradenton the market fell 15 percent in March year over year and the median house price fell 18 percent year over year. The median house price is now $239,300.

What is the lesson here for sellers? If you don't price it right it won't sell.

In addition you need to price it right the first time or the property will sit on the market for months and months.

The good news is that buyers have a lot of choice and prices are continuing decline. With the exception of the under 200k range in our area where homes are moving at a brisk pace.

The general rule of thumb in this market is 80 percent of the homes listed are on the market, 20 percent are in the market, as in they are priced to sell.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

It is all about price

For those homeowners whose houses have been languishing on the market for the past six months or so or maybe even more than a year I have some advice.

YES IT IS ALL ABOUT PRICE!!!

From Anna Maria Island to Longboat Key and back through Manatee and Sarasota counties you see a bunch of homes where the owners were unwilling to drop their prices.

They were told to do so by the first real estate agent they hired. They probably punted them to the curb and right now I have seen homes on their third and fourth agents.

Why? They think selling their home is all about marketing. No, it's not.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PRICE.

Even in this very strong buyer's market I have been involved in multiple offer situations. I have seen houses and condominiums have contracts within hours of a price reduction.

Everything will sell at a certain price.

As a buyer's specialist I have clients like a lot of agents ready and willing to purchase properties, they are just waiting for right price.

So what do seller often do. Keep the price high so they have negotiating room.

This is wrong headed thinking.

The short sale, foreclosure and astute seller down the road is dropping their price every 30 days or less.

Here is the analogy. How do you stop a Slinky going to down the stairs. You get ahead of it. Same with pricing your house to sell. You need to be the best deal on the market.

In the market for seller and buyers there is only one thing to know.

IT IS ALL ABOUT PRICE.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Waiting to pull the trigger

The waiting game.

So you've found the house you want but the price is higher and you think the market is going down.

What do you do? Wait to see what happens, there are a lot of houses out there right?

Well yes and no. In Manatee and Sarasota counties where I work there are a lot of homes on the market, thousands and thousands. There are more three bedroom, two bathroom, two car garage homes than you can shake a stick at.

When you get in to unique properties the inventory drops considerably. If you are looking, let's say for an open bay or open river view under $1 million your choices start to go down and you are not the only person looking.

I have had a couple of clients recently hesitate to pull the trigger and make an offer only to find out they weren't the only one looking for that unique property and someone else bought it.

This is a basic premise. In order be in the game you have to make an offer. The other side can either accept, reject or counter and none of those knock you out of the game.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Friday, April 11, 2008

Bargain basement starting to dry up

Lately it looks like a lot of investors have been scrambling to pick up the bargain single family homes under $200,000 in Manatee County.

With the exception of some great deals in the high end the rest of the market has been freezing or extremely cold.

The three bedroom, two bathroom under 200k market on the other hand is moving from warm to hot.

That market was never freezing but it certainly cooled off considerably over the past year or so.

Solds for homes in that range from across the county from in the past month show there is an 18 month inventory on the market. Pendings show just slightly over nine months.

Some of the more desirable communities have a lot less inventory and it is shrinking fast.

Six to nine months inventory is a neutral market. Nine months or more is a buyer's market.

Ancedotally agents have been telling me and I have seen all resales houses in good locations and in good shape under 200k (excluding potential tear downs or extreme makeover candidates) being snapped up fast.

As that market drys up the next market likely to start thawing will be the 200 to 250k range.

We haven't ended the ice age as far as the local real estate market goes but the latest market information shows there is some thawing around the edges.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Loyalty, it works both ways

OK, you have decided to jump back in to the market and buy one of those bargain basement houses out there.

You're driving around calling on every real estate sign you can see that may be in the price range you are looking for or you're on the Internet like crazy.

Stop, take a deep breath, and think about what you are doing.

You are spending hours of your precious time and probably enough gas to make a mortgage payment to do something others would gladly do for you.

There are number of Realtors in the Sarasota, Manatee County areas who are buyer's specialists/agents. All they do is work with buyer's trying to find the best property for the best value.

I'm one of them. I work on a team with three others.

National statistics show it takes considerably more time for agents to work with buyer's then seller's. You will find quite a few agents who don't like working with buyer's, they often use the expression "buyer's are liars."

That is wrong headed thinking. Buyer's are people we sit down with and talk to them about what they want and need in a home. We help find them the appropriate financing and guide them through the home buying process.

On our team we ask them to sign a buyer brokerage agreement. We refer to it as a customer loyalty agreement.

Often clients say they are in contact with four or five agents. Think about this. Do you really think those four or five agents are doing their best and giving their all to someone who is playing Realtor Roulette?

On our team for instance the buyer's agents only work with a couple of clients at a time. Yes we do have business coming in.

The reason is to do it right it takes a lot of time, effort and research to find clients the appropriate home particularly when there are literally thousands to chose from.

Which is why we have clients sign a buyer brokerage agreement, it basically says our brokerage will get paid after we put all the time and effort into finding a buyer a home.

We're loyal to our clients and they give us the same in return.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Friday, April 04, 2008

Real prices, real people

Right off the bat, yes real estate is a local market.

That being said there are some general rules of economic reality that apply everywhere including, Anna Maria Island, Sarasota and Manatee Counties where I work.

In a buyer's market 80 percent of the homes listed are on the market but not in the market. They are overpriced.

In a seller's market the reverse is true.

So in this market, in this area which is in a very strong buyer's market, we have lot of seller's who believe that the real estate fairy is going to come down and scoop up their overpriced home.

Sorry to break the news but there is no real estate fairy.

Some of the seller's also believed that Europeans and Canadians would rush to our market to purchase their overpriced homes.

Ditto on this. Those European and Canadians in this market didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

In fact a lot of them I meet area are quite a bit more astute then your regular shopper when it comes to real estate prices across the globe.

That's why they have money to spend on real estate.

As we head towards the bottom of the market, the sellers to hit it first will be those in the 20 percent that know the market. Those homes will sell first and faster.

The other 80 percent either can wait a year or so for the market to rebound or join the minority who will actually sell their property in the near future.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworksfla.com

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Season is over the reality check begins

On the Gulf Coast of Florida snowbird season is wrapping up.

The roads from Palmetto to Sarasota will be getting a little less hectic and the restaurant line ups a bit shorter.

And real estate agent and their clients are in for a reality check.

Many of the listing agents I talked to went on about the increase in activity in the market.

The reality is showings from tire kickers with dreams of grandeur while on vacation are one thing but actual sales are another.

Sales were down again in February and March isn't looking great either for the Sarasota/Manatee area.

What this means for the consumer is prices should probably keep falling a little longer possibly to the end of the second quarter.

After that the vision gets a little shaky. We could see some stabilization in pricing.

Anecdotally I have seen beach front lots drop considerably but the ones I looked at recently the price tag appears to have pretty much hit bottom.

For the luxury crowd this means the time for buying is now before that price tag starts to climb up again.

It will take a lot longer for the mid price range market to stabilize with the large amount of inventory out there.

For the unique properties like beach front and waterfront, well that stabilization might be quite a bit closer.

All the best
Greg Owens PA
Keller Williams Realty of Greater Manatee
941.932.6343
greg@teamworkslfa.com