Real estate agent news roundup

Home prices on the rise, bad boomers and agents packing heat - the latest real estate agent news is as crazy as ever. Curious what you missed while you were out selling homes?

Gather ‘round the old virtual water cooler, agents. It’s time for the real estate agent news roundup.

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Real Estate Agent News – Home prices up

Real Estate Agent News - Home Prices Going Up

Don’t you hate it when you read a national news item that is totally at odds with your local reality? You just know that your about-to-be listing clients are reading the same thing.

Redfin, for instance, put out a press release:

Redfin Report: Home Prices Up 0.6% in February, the Smallest Year-Over-Year Gain Since March 2012

Underneath that, they claim, in smaller font, that “Prices
fell more than 8% in San Francisco and San Jose. Newark, Milwaukee and Buffalo saw prices rise more than 10%”

So, your client in Laurel Heights in San Francisco, calls, excited about the increase in home prices in February, obviously missing the small print that effectively says “Yeah, they rose, but not for you, Skippy.”

Then comes the “real estate is local” lecture. For instance, in Denver, at least according to the MLS, inventory shortages are easing but sellers haven’t caught on that they now have competition because prices are up significantly.

What happens when homes are overpriced? “ … homes are sitting on the market longer,” according to an excellent blog post from Englewood CO agent Jim Brown. And, the same thing is happening in pockets throughout the country, like Orlando, Austin (even though February sales were the highest on record) and Detroit.

Despite the trends, only 10 percent of consumers think that prices will come down this year, according to Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey. So, sellers continue to wait for their home values to increase even more, as they, in reality, are starting a slow downhill slide.

There’s a marketing message in there for listing agents to spread to potential clients.

Get those buy vs. rent marketing pieces ready

Speaking of marketing, you may want to put together a cool infographic about buying vs. renting. According to our favorite queen-of-real-estate-doom-and-gloom, Diana Olick at CNBC.com, rents “… are now rising at the fastest pace in nearly a year.”

She goes on to say that the median monthly rent is now $1,472, which is an increase of $400 per year for the “typical renter.”

Marketing to tenants will be a particularly brilliant marketing strategy for agents who work in and around Orlando and Tampa, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Riverside, California and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Real Estate Agent News – Bad boomers

Imagine, a bunch of older Americans, who worked their butts off for decade after decade to buy their dream home who now happen to live in it and who also want to live out their days in it. Olick calls this a “trend.”

“The trend is removing an estimated 1.6 million homes from a
housing market already in critical need of more homes for sale.”

Ok, wait.

How can homes that aren’t ON the housing market be “removed”
from it? A pity she doesn’t explain that.

But, what’s bad news for the real estate market is sending the home improvement industry to the moon. Not only do many baby boomers want to stay in their homes until death they do part, they also have the bucks to do so.

Households headed by Americans age 55 and older spend significantly
more money on home improvement than other groups, according to a recent study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

In fact, that group accounts for “half of all current home
improvement spending,” according to Jessica Guerin at HousingWire.com. Most of the work they’re having done will help them live in the home into their 70s and 80s.

What, we wonder, will the lowered sinks, the lifts and the lowered
windows do to the home’s market value when the boomers’ kids go to sell these homes?

Real Estate Agent News – Bad a$# real estate agents

Did you read about the father-son agents in Hamilton, Ohio
who caught the bad guy that broke into one of their listings?

Gun-control advocates aren’t going to like this one. The robber said he was armed, with both a gun and a knife and punched the younger agent in the face.

As you can imagine, that ticked Dad off big time, so the senior agent pulled out his own handgun.

That and pinning the bad guy to the ground was enough to subdue him until the police arrived.

Both agents have concealed-carry permits and practice at the shooting range once a month. And, in this case, at least, it paid off. We didn’t have to see real estate agent news about dead agents.

Wishing you a gloriously productive spring!

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