November Home Sales and Prices Higher than Expected
November home sales saw the second-highest year-over-year increase in 2012, with a 15.7% rise from last November. October had a 17.8% increase, making sales this fall season unusually high. The November RE/MAX National Housing Report, a survey of MLS data in 52 metropolitan areas, also shows that home prices rose 6.9% higher than the prices seen in November 2011. The Median Price for homes sold this November was $163,750. Rising prices are due mostly to a dwindling inventory, which continued to drop across the country. The average number of homes for sale is now 29.1% lower than last year. Low inventory levels are having a negative impact on home sales in many markets, where there are more buyers than homes for sale.
The above is an excerpt from the monthly RE/MAX National Housing Report. Click here to read the full two-page report.
Tags: December, national housing report, NHR, remax report
About Keri Henke
Keri Henke is the Public Relations & Communications Coordinator for RE/MAX North Central.
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Monday, December 31, 2012
November Home Sales and Prices Higher than Expected - Sold Sign Blog
Thursday, December 27, 2012
RE/MAX Lands in China | ABOVE | The RE/MAX Magazine
By Deborah Ball Kearns
The network is still buzzing with the news that RE/MAX has expanded into China, Hong Kong and Macau, a move that capped years of hard work and an arduous search for the right master franchise leadership.
With a population of more than 1.3 billion people and a booming economy that’s second only to the U.S., China has a vibrant, developing real estate market fueled by the growing prosperity of its middle class. Affluent Chinese nationals are also investing heavily in real estate outside of their home country – namely in the United States and Canada.
The RE/MAX system is a clear fit for Chinese real estate entrepreneurs looking for a global brand that will multiply their opportunities to do more business, says Larry Oberly, RE/MAX Vice President of International Development. “RE/MAX agents understand the power of the international network,” Oberly says. “This expansion is a win-win for new agents in China, as well as RE/MAX agents in other countries who can grow their referral database in a major way.”
Even with the new RE/MAX China operation still in development – the first offices should open in early 2013 – many RE/MAX Associates are already working with Chinese buyers.
Tapping into the Chinese market
Gloria Young and Omar Kinaan, for instance, work as a team with RE/MAX Distinctive Properties in Menlo Park, Calif., and 40 percent of their clients are international buyers – mostly from China.
“Culturally speaking, Chinese people like to plan ahead – way ahead,” Young says. “Stanford University is one of the top choices Chinese parents consider for their children. It’s also the engine that drives the Silicon Valley’s venture capital and tech firms.
“When we point out all of these benefits, coupled with the outstanding public schools and laid-back lifestyle, Chinese buyers see the value in investing or buying real estate here.”
Young is Chinese; she was raised in Beijing and Hong Kong, and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. She is responsible for building relationships with Chinese buyers. She culls leads from years of international travel and referrals from friends and relatives who are still living in China. Kinaan, who has worked in real estate for nearly a decade, takes the lead on transaction negotiations and moving the process to closing.
Building on Momentum
Together, Young and Kinaan have created a successful business model, and now that RE/MAX has entered into China they expect to make even more connections.
“We share the mindset of focusing on quality instead of quantity,” Young says. “In our luxury market, we target an intimate circle of high-net-worth Chinese buyers as opposed to dozens and dozens of people.”
Kinaan adds that the RE/MAX global presence is one of the leading reasons Chinese buyers work with the team.
“Many affluent Chinese people travel the world and have heard of RE/MAX, although the brand isn’t yet up and running in China,” he says. “They’re more open to working with us than if we were affiliated with a lesser-known brand. Our office specializes in The RE/MAX Collection, and that’s another key advantage. Chinese buyers expect a sophisticated, luxury experience in all of their dealings, and that’s what we deliver.”
Working with Chinese Buyers
Young and Kinaan offer these tips to help prepare agents interested in working with this wave of buyers.
Partner with someone
“There’s a huge advantage to partnering up with another agent who already knows the language, understands the culture and has connections in China, because there are subtle yet important nuances to Chinese business relationships,” Kinaan says.
Listen closely and be patient
“Chinese buyers view the negotiation process as the beginning of the transaction,” Kinaan says, “so you need to have more patience and listen to really understand their objections.”
Do the research
“You have to do your homework, as you would in any transaction, and really take the time to understand the cultural differences and international lending and financing requirements,” Young says. “The more solution- and fact-oriented you are, the better your chances are of convincing Chinese buyers that they should work with you.”
Anticipate their needs
Young says the Chinese buyers she works with are typically looking for newer homes in great condition, modern architecture and a strong emphasis on Feng Shui (for instance, house numbers and their relation to good chi, sun exposure, furniture setup and location of entry door, among other factors).
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
RE/MAX Named No. 1 Real Estate Franchise by Entrepreneur
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WHHOOOOO HOOOO!!!!! Doing it again REMAX!
Monday, December 17, 2012
2012 November Home Sales Report - Mike Theo and David Clark of WRA
November Another Strong Month for Sales
MADISON, WI – Wisconsin home sales continued to grow at a robust pace in November, extending a strong growth trend that started in July last year. Existing home sales rose 24.8 percent last month, compared to that same month in 2011, according to the most recent monthly report by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).
After increasing for eight straight months, median prices dropped in November, slipping 2.3 percent to $129,900 compared to November 2011. “With 17 straight months of healthy growth in statewide home sales, there’s no doubt that the state housing market has seen a real bounce this year,” said Renny Diedrich, Chairman of the WRA board of directors. She pointed out that the year-to-date sales are up 21.2 percent, which is by far the highest levels seen since 2007, just before the recession officially began. “As we move into the slower part of the selling season, it’s encouraging to see such a strong growth in sales, and all regions grew by double-digit margins” said Diedrich. The Central region saw growth of 50 percent in November 2012 compared toNovember 2011, and sales were up 38.2 percent in the West region over that period. The Southeast region was up 24.5 percent, and both the North and Northeast regions grew at just over 20 percent in November. Finally, the South Central region experienced growth of 18.3 percent over the period.
“The decline in the median price in November follows a relatively strong uptick in October, so it’s difficult to say precisely what caused this volatility, but year-to-date, median prices are still up,” said WRA President and CEO Michael Theo. Through the first 11 months of 2012, median prices are 0.7 percent higher than the first 11 months of 2011. “This is a pretty good track record given the sluggish economic growth and weak job creation in the national economy this year,” said Theo.
The state inventory picture continues to improve with available homes dipping below 50,000 units for the first time since the WRA began tracking inventory levels at the end of 2009. This represents available supply of 9.5 months in November, which is a significant improvement over the 14.3 months of supply this time last year. “Given the strong growth in sales over the last year and a half, we’ve been expecting inventories to come down, and it’s encouraging to see strong improvements in some of our larger markets,” said Theo. Of the 24 counties classified as belonging to metropolitan areas, 15 had inventory levels below the statewide average. “In fact, Milwaukee County, which is the biggest county in the state, has just under six months of inventory, which is at the level considered by economists to be balanced,” said Theo. Still, housing affordability in the state remains high due in part to 30-year fixed-rate mortgages that are under 4 percent. The Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index, which measures the percentage of a median-priced home that a buyer with the median family income can afford, jumped to 270 in November, compared to 242 in November 2011. Assuming that the economy manages to stay out of recession, the statewide inventory should continue to stabilize, which will in turn lead to price appreciation. “As housing availability shrinks, using the services of a REALTOR® can help those ready to get into this market find the best values,” said Theo.
The Wisconsin REALTORS® Association is one of the largest trade associations in the state, representing over 10,500 real estate brokers, sales people and affiliates statewide. All county figures on sales volume and median prices are compiled by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association and are not seasonally adjusted. Median prices are only computed if the county recorded at least 10 home sales in the quarter. All data collected by Wisconsin REALTORS® Association are subject to revision if more complete data become available. Beginning in 2010, all historical sales volume and median price data at the county level have been re-benchmarked using the Techmark system which accesses MLS data directly and in real time. The Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index is updated monthly with the most recent data on median housing prices, mortgage rates, and estimated median family income data for Wisconsin.
Friday, December 14, 2012
6 Real Estate Niches Set to Explode in 2013 | Trulia Pro Blog
There’s no better time of year than the slow(er) holiday season weeks to start thinking and working to make your business better in 2013, including by investigating and vetting new niches that are poised to take off next year.
Here’s my short list:
1. Buyers
Obviously, home values are still down from their top-of-the-market peak, but they are on the increase – and that has deactivated many of the valid fears careful buyers had about buying into a declining market. Further, inventory is still flush in most areas and will continue to be plentiful this coming year as the banks allow their shadow inventories to trickle onto the market.
Buyers make for a fantastic niche because they have a unique set of questions, concerns and knowledge cravings that you can use in marketing to them, reaching them with your knowledge and insights on everything from neighborhood flavor to local market dynamics. Through blogs, seminars, and answering questions in online forums, you can reach buyers and position yourself in their minds as an expert in one fell swoop.
Most first-time buyers don’t have a pre-existing agent relationship, and they are out there actively looking for an agent that will communicate with them on their own level, answer their questions with respect and treat them like a VIP, no matter the size of their transaction. The bonus? If you serve them well, you stand to gain a client for a lifetime of transactions and referrals.
2. Former Foreclosed Homeowners
The peak foreclosure rate of the recent housing recession took place right around 2010, and most lenders require a minimum of 3 years’ “seasoning” on a foreclosure (or short sale) before they will issue a new mortgage. Newly able to qualify for a mortgage (again), home owners who lost homes to foreclosure will flood back into the housing market next year, having recovered from lost jobs, saved some cash, reduced some debt and paid a whole lot in income taxes over the past few years without the mortgage interest deduction they were so used to. Many will also be motivated to buy similar or better homes to the ones they lost at a price lower than they paid for their former homes, at the top of the market.
Agents who seek to market to this niche should be up to speed on:
- foreclosure and short sale seasoning requirements,
- other common credit and financial issues this group faces, and
- the local neighborhoods where distressed, yet desirable, listings are plentiful and now selling for well below what they sold for in the 2005-2006 time frame.
3. Style-Specific Buyers
Some buyers are super specific about their stylistic preferences: they only want a mid-century modern home, a log cabin, a Spanish-style mini-villa, a Tudor, or a glass-walled water view home. Marketing your expertise, inventory and/or specialization in these sorts of properties is like putting out a smoke signal to these sorts of buyers that leads them right to you.
4. Renters-for-Life and Stay-Putniks who’ve recently changed their minds
At the bottom of the market, it was in fashion in some circles to declare that home ownership was crazy and that the best practice was either to simply rent for life, no matter the income bracket, or to stay in the same home until, as a client of mine was fond of saying, “they carry me out in a pine box.”
Fortunately, the emotional tides that caused such vehement anti-home buying declarations have turned, right along with the shifts in the market.
But here’s the thing: these renters for life and home owners who had planned to stay put are financially conservative and will be more concerned than most with the long-term economic stability and projected future prosperity of the neighborhood and home values. Obviously, every buyer cares about these things, but these folks will be more aggressive in posing these questions to you and expecting data-driven answers to their concerns from the agents they choose to work with on both their purchases and their listings.
5. Urban Farmer Wannabes
There is a burgeoning group of urban and suburbanites who are dealing with digital depression, a desire to eat whole, local foods and the craving to do something with their hands. These trends, combined, are driving the movement toward urban farming. These are the folks who:
- will want yards, rooftops, terraces and other spaces amenable to planting raised beds, fruit trees and container gardens
- will want to know what the local ordinances say about front yard food planting; and
- might even want to keep a mini-herd of chickens, goats or even bees on the property.
These folks (and I am one – check out my beekeeping getup, here) seek resources and creativity for how to use the space they have, no matter how small or how large, to build the lifestyle they want. Being knowledgeable about permaculture values and urban farming are key for the agent that wants to market to this niche, as is sharing that knowledge with local urban farming and locavore-focused groups, sites and communities.
6. Lifestyle Design Aficionados
Increasing numbers of Americans are taking up the mantle of lifestyle design or lifestyle composition, working and living and owning homes in very flexible arrangements. These folks are often self-employed or freelance/contract workers. They want to be able to travel extensively throughout the year, and like to create a location independent lifestyle, even as they seek to get maximum leverage out of everything they own, as with pooling funds with friends or relatives to buy – or renting out rooms, floors, units or their whole home for a night – or a year – at a time.
In order to make their lifestyles work and flow as needed with economic cycles and the supply and demand forces for their own work, these people will be looking to agents skilled in helping clients:
- buy untraditional and multifamily homes
- work around their unusual income and employment situations and
- satisfying the competing and numerous priorities and wish lists that come with unique co-buyer arrangements.
Not convinced in the power of niche marketing? Don’t take my word for it – I just spoke with #1 New York Times bestselling author and marketer extraordinaire Tim Ferriss about what he’d be doing right now if he were a real estate agent. Here’s what he said.
P.S. – Take two minutes to update your Trulia profile to include your areas and niches of specialization right now, and we’ll automatically enter you to win a Mercedes E550. Yes, we’ll give you a car for doing a super-fast, high-potency favor for your own business. You’re welcome!
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Area foreclosure filings fell 32% in November - Paul Gores of the Journal Sentinel
Area foreclosure filings fell 32% in November
By Paul Gores of the Journal SentinelDec. 3, 2012
Foreclosure filings dropped more than 32% last month in southeastern Wisconsin, posting the lowest November total in six years and offering another possible sign the housing market is turning the corner.
Court records show there were 684 mortgage foreclosure filings in November in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties. That compares with 1,011 in the same month in 2011.
The drop-off was led by a big decrease in Milwaukee County filings. There were 384 last month, compared with 528 in November of 2011. That's a fall of more than 27%.
Through the first 11 months of the year, however, foreclosure filings in the seven-county area still were running almost 2% ahead of 2011.
Russell Kashian, a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater economics professor who tracks residential real estate in the state, predicted foreclosure filings would finish down slightly from 2011, driven by fewer business days for filing in December, stabilizing home prices and the reluctance of some banks to add more foreclosures that they'll have to write off.
"Right now there's a lot of pressure on bank capital, so writing it off probably isn't the easiest thing to do," Kashian said.
In a separate report Monday that looked at October data, the research firm CoreLogic said completed foreclosures - the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure - were down 17% nationally from the same month in 2011. Through October, the national foreclosure inventory had decreased 9%, CoreLogic said.
In Wisconsin, 1.9% of all homes with a mortgage were in some stage of foreclosure in October, down 0.5% from the same time last year and lower than the national rate of 3.2%, the CoreLogic report showed.
Economist Brian Jacobsen said "more and more investors are looking to real estate as prices have dropped."
"That could go a long ways to help mop up the foreclosed inventory," said Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist for Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls and an associate professor at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Jacobsen said the resolution of the so-called fiscal cliff could have an impact on what happens with foreclosures next year.
"If the fiscal cliff is resolved through eliminating the reduction in the payroll tax and cutting back unemployment benefits, delinquencies and foreclosures could pick up," Jacobsen said. "While there are some foreclosures that take place when the borrower is in the top tax bracket, most of them occur when the borrower is outside those tax brackets. Banks typically have forbearance programs where they delay foreclosure when the borrower loses his or her job, but the banks can't wait forever."
He said that "to the extent that borrowers have been using the extra money they have from the 2 percentage point reduction in payroll taxes or unemployment benefits to pay their mortgages, taking away that support will probably lead to more delinquencies and foreclosures."
Friday, December 7, 2012
6 Profile Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make | Trulia Pro Blog
Someone recently brought a Tumblr blog to my attention, the sole content of which is headshot after headshot of real estate agents – no text or commentary at all. The blog features nothing but photo after photo of agent pics that are apparently supposed to be funny in a laughing at you, versus laughing with you, sort of way.
Of course, we’ve all seen agent photos on an ad, sign or bus bench that make us cringe. But as I was flipping through this particular blog, that wasn’t the general flavor of the photos I was seeing. Sure, some of them were silly, and a few were definitely ill-advised. But others were clearly an isolated element of a bigger picture branding campaign made absurd by taking them out of context, and still others were pretty compelling conversation starters – like the agent who substituted his face for McCauley Culkin’s in a parody of the Home Alone poster.
Truth is, when it comes to marketing yourself as a real estate agent, I can think of many things worse than being branded as a light-hearted, creative marketer with a great sense of humor.
In fact, you know what’s worse? No one noticing your marketing at all.
In service of optimizing your own Profile’s power to get noticed in the right way by the right people, here are a few of the most common glitches, faux pas and plain old mistakes that we see agents make on their Trulia Profiles – and my suggestions for avoiding them:
1. Outdated or inaccurate.
Times change, and so do the basics that go on your Trulia Profile, like:
- your headshot
- your brokerage name
- your contact information
- your web address and social media handles
- your areas of specialization.
More importantly, what also tends to evolve over time is the way that you describe what you do in a way that is compelling – even magnetic – to the sorts of buyers and sellers you want to draw into your business. Imagine, if you will, that a buyer searches our Agent Directory, reviews your Profile, thinks “hmmm, that chap looks interesting!” and picks up the phone to call the number you have listed, only to get a “this number is no longer in service message?”
Not good.
Ensure that your Profile is updated and all the information on it accurate, at the very, very minimum. And this includes your picture, folks. I’ll say no more on that.
2. Generic.
Have you ever known an agent who has ads everywhere, really bad ads, like with animals or cheesy puns in them – and who just so happens to sell what seems like every other house in town? That’s because marketing your personal brand is largely about creating a singular message that buyers and sellers can’t forget, and staying in the fronts of their minds on all things real estate. That’s why, a “bad” but memorable Profile can – in some cases – actually be more effective than a plain vanilla, generic one.
That said, there’s no reason your ads must be bad to differentiate your marketing from the masses. When it comes to your Profile, standing out is largely about seeding your About, Experience & Skills, Specializations and other sections with messages that speak to the specific wants and needs of a sub-segment of local buyers or sellers that you want to build your business around, and that let this group know that you are uniquely qualified to relate to and serve them.
Call out things like:
- Personal and professional interests and skills that might be relevant or relatable to your target group of buyers or sellers, like the fact that you own horses, are an urban gardener or were an accountant, attorney or professional marketer, in a prior life.
- Geographic areas you’ve worked extensively in – and want to in the future – narrower than just your city or town, like a district or neighborhood
- Whether you work with primarily buyers, sellers, investors, women, seniors, second home buyers, first-time buyers or some other niche population
- Specific property types you have particular skill or experience with, like Victorians, new builds, condos, entry-level homes or multi-million dollar estates
- Data points that prove why you are uniquely qualified, compared to the other agents in your area, to do whatever it is you claim you are uniquely qualified to do! (See #3, below.)
Do a gut check on this – put yourself in the mindset of the target clients you most want to attract. peruse other local agent Profiles, then take a look at your own and ask yourself this question:
After a 3-second glance at this Profile, would I call me versus the other agents in town?
If your honest answer to yourself is ‘no,’ keep working on precisely how to message your differentiators in your Profile.
Look at every single character you enter as an opportunity to differentiate. Even the Profile form fields for your Headline and website address(es), for example, create opportunities for you to deliver one of these messages. For example, a local agent in my area who specializes in properties with ample acreage maintains her website on the url estatesandranches.com; another agent friend of mine in South Carolina goes under theheadline “The Fixer Upper Specialist.”
3. Fluffery sans substance.
This is your shot to strut your stuff, so feel free to be aggressive in how you promote yourself. But a Profile that is full of fluffy marketing claims, like “Best” “Number 1” “Top” “Million Dollar,” etc. with absolutely zero data points, hard numbers or specific examples to back it up will instantly trigger the average real estate consumers’ malarkey detector.
Consider including unique angles on your professional track record to back up your boasts, if you make them, like:
- My average listing sells for X% over asking
- My average listing gets 8 offers
- My average buyer client gets a 10% discount off list price
- I represented 75% of the buyers of homes on Magnolia Lane last year
Even Trulia Pro Josh Altman, who is actually on a show called Million Dollar Listing, devotes ample website real estate to photos and data points of his recent sales that prove his expertise at selling multi-million dollar luxury properties in Beverly Hills.
There are a handful of other ways to add proof points to your Profile, which also do double duty at bringing buyers’ and sellers’ attention to your Profile in the first place:
- answering questions on Trulia Voices
- writing blog posts, tagging them appropriately for your local markets and the subject matter
- asking your happy buyer and seller clients to add a quick, rave review, and even
- checking into the listings in your area of specialization as you visit them on caravans, broker’s opens, or while showing them to your clients.
4. Incomplete or lacks the basics.
I know this is obvious. But the fact that it’s obvious is irrelevant, as long as there are still Profiles that go uncompleted. I like to think that most of us know how essential it is to make sure our Profiles and every single internet presence we have contains the most basic contact information, like our phone numbers, websites and email addresses. So, maybe the reason Profiles are left incomplete is that right after starting the Profile, our cracker-jack agent got distracted or pulled off onto one of the million urgencies that fill up our days, and then simply forgot to come back to it.
That’s what I like to think.
Even if you *think* your Profile looked fantastic when you looked at it, oh, in the last millennium (which, btw, wasn’t that long ago!) humor me and click here to check it out again – just to make sure it’s complete and up-to-date.
5. Not responding to leads your Profile generates.
We agents go to the ends of the earth, around a few times and then circle back to generate leads. Yet time and time again, the data shows the ugly truth that we often fail to respond to incoming leads in a timely fashion – especially online leads. Here’s the deal: the buyers and sellers who come to Trulia and participate in the discussions on Trulia Voices or search the directory to find an agent are serious, and they often sort through, find a few agents who seem like they might be a good fit, review their Profiles and then reach out to a handful of agents at a time.
If you don’t respond to such incoming leads quickly, that’s the same, in this internet age, as not responding at all. You’d be surprised at the number of times I’ve heard buyers, in particular, say that the first agent who responded to their email was the agent they picked, primarily on the basis of their responsiveness. That said, it’s never a bad idea to use an hour of downtime on a slow day of the month to go back through old leads in the My Leads section of your Trulia dashboard, and email or call a few of them to see if you can be of any help.
6. Not having one.
If you don’t have a Trulia Profile, you are simply missing out on a completely free opportunity to get in front of masses of real-live home buyers and sellers in your area who are coming to Trulia to look for homes – and agents. Need I say more?
To pull or not to pull? | Inman News
To pull or not to pull?
Edina Realty calls decision to withhold listings from national portals a success
By Paul Hagey, Friday, December 7, 2012.http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=116673475" target="_blank">Multiple paths</a> image via Shutterstock." width="225" />Multiple paths image via Shutterstock.
When one of the largest real estate brokerages in the U.S. announced last year it was pulling its listings from national real estate portals like Realtor.com and Trulia, it got the industry's attention.
Some brokers have complained about the advertisements that third-party listing portals run next to their listings. But Minnesota-based Edina Realty Inc. was the first large brokerage to sever ties with all of them, saying the move was good for competition locally and it hoped to boost traffic to its own website.
Edina Realty, which operates in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul market, western Wisconsin and parts of North Dakota, claims the decision to stop providing listings to the national portals has improved Web market share and been good for business. But some Web metrics -- and an Edina Realty competitor -- say otherwise.
A 2,100-agent HomeServices of America Inc. subsidiary, Edina Realty had never syndicated listings to Zillow. The company shut off the flow of listings to Trulia in November 2011 and Realtor.com in May.
Edina Realty at a glance
No. of current listings (approx.) No. of agents Total No. of listings in market (approx.) Realtor.com, syndication status Zillow, syndication status Trulia, syndication status 9,000 2,100 23,000 Stopped, May 2012 Never syndicated to Stopped, Nov. 2011 Source: Edina Realty
Now, consumers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market no longer get a comprehensive picture of what homes are on the market if they start their home search on one of the three most-visited national real estate portals -- Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com.
Edina Realty says it represents about 20 percent of the listings in NorthstarMLS, the large regional MLS serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul market (the brokerage is a member of 14 MLSs all told).
Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com command close to a third of the real estate-related Web traffic market share in the U.S., if their various partners are included in the tally.
While several brokerages have stopped syndicating listings to third-party sites like Zillow and Trulia, it's more unusual for them to cut off the flow of data to Realtor.com, which is operated by Move Inc. under the terms of an agreement with the National Association of Realtors.
In January, a small San Diego-based brokerage, ARG Abbott Realty Group, pulled listings from Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. Realtor.com says ARG and Edina are the only brokerages currently withholding listings from the site.
U.S.-wide market share* of real estate-related websites, November 2012
Rank Company Domain Market share 1 Zillow zillow.com 9.21% 2 Trulia trulia.com 7.41% 3 Realtor.com realtor.com 6.22% 4 Yahoo Homes homes.yahoo.com 6.05% 5 Homes.com homes.com 3.18% 6 MSN Real Estate realestate.msn.com 1.83% 7 Rent.com rent.com 1.57% 8 AOL Real Estate realestate.aol.com 1.46% 9 ZipRealty ziprealty.com 1.29% 10 Apartment Guide apartmentguide.com 1.27% Source: Experian Hitwise *Does not include traffic from mobile devices
Thanks to its ties to the National Association of Realtors, Realtor.com enjoys nearly comprehensive listing coverage in most of the U.S., receiving listings data directly from more than 900 MLSs.
While Zillow and Trulia and other national listing portals receive listings from MLSs in some markets, they rely heavily on listing "syndicators" like ListHub and Point2 that gather up data from brokerages.
Since Edina Realty stopped syndicating to Realtor.com and other national portals, consumers who want to see listings represented by the brokerage must get them from an MLS-affiliated site -- either Edina Realty's website, websites operated by other brokerages affiliated with one of the MLSs that Edina Realty belongs to, or sites operated by MLSs themselves.
Edina Realty agents handled 21,814 transaction sides in 2011, representing the buyer, seller or both in home sales totaling $4.48 billion.
The brokerage has closed 23 percent more transactions through July than the same period last year, said Edina Realty President and CEO Bob Peltier.
Bob PeltierSome of this increase can be attributed to a healthier local real estate market -- closed transactions for the MLS as a whole went up 15 percent in the same time period, Peltier said -- but Edina Realty is outperforming the market.
Visits to Edina Realty's website (mobile included) were up 21.7 percent from July 2011 to July 2012, and unique visitors were up 17 percent in the same period, Peltier said.
"Every indicator we've looked at shows (cutting off the flow of listings to national portals) was the right move," Peltier said.
"I believe that consumers are using a variety of mediums to learn about real estate and that restricting information to a single channel will not modify consumer behavior," wrote Realtor.com President Errol Samuelson in a blog post about Edina Realty's move to shut off listings in May when the brokerage announced its decision.
Trulia management posted a similar response, pointing out that when listings don't show up on Trulia, they don't receive full national exposure to its millions of monthly visitors.
Zillow took a similar stance: "If a brokerage isn't marketing a listing on Zillow, it isn't seen across the largest real estate network in the country, or across the most popular platform of mobile real estate apps," a company spokesperson said.
Living without the large portals isn't easy. Operators of third-party listing portals are often able to devote more resources than brokerages to building consumer-friendly websites aimed at providing a wealth of information on neighborhoods and market conditions.
A recent review by real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting concluded that Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia have the best mobile apps for consumers.
And the portals have significant national brand awareness and draw lots of eyes, even at the local level. A brokerage that pulls listings from third-party websites may sacrifice leads and Web traffic to competing brokerages to homebuyers (both local and nonlocal) who know the big brands and not its specific one.
Brokerages that restrict where their listings go might also lose sellers who want to see their listings distributed to the most venues possible. Homebuyers not from a brokerage's area might not know to look at the brokerage's website, but rely on the national home search brands they know.
However, some brokers are irritated by both the data accuracy challenges many portals face and the fact that they're building their businesses on the backs of agents, the brokers' own moneymakers. (Edina Realty, for example, charges its agents 35 percent of their commission for leads generated from its website, according to one former agent.)
This month, Rochester, N.Y.-based Nothnagle Realtors, ranked by Real Trends Inc. as the nation's 37th-largest brokerage in 2011 based on 8,070 transaction sides, became the latest brokerage to stop syndicating its listings to Zillow and Trulia, citing, more or less, the reasons above.
Other brokerages have done the exact opposite.
For example, Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna -- ranked by Real Trends as the fourth-largest brokerage by transaction sides in 2011 -- said in February it would pay a seven-figure sum (between $1 million and $10 million) for special treatment of its listings on Trulia and Zillow.
And last June, the nation's largest brokerage company, Realogy Corp. subsidiary NRT LLC, announced it had signed agreements to add advertising enhancements to 100,000 property listings on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate.
Drilling down
Edina Realty is by far the largest broker in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., region with 21,814 closed transaction sides in 2011, according to Real Trends. (Its two competitors, Coldwell Banker Burnet and Re/Max Results, had 13,975 and 11,843 closed transaction sides in 2011, respectively). Edina Realty decided to stop providing listings data to Trulia late last year and Realtor.com in May because the company believed it could improve its local business, its search engine optimization (SEO) and its Web traffic.
Screen shot of Edina Realty's home page.Instead of marketing to third-party portals, Edina Realty decided to reinvest in a mobile-optimized website, Peltier said. The website -- redesigned last summer with real estate design and marketing consulting firm 1000watt Consulting to improve search and access to market data -- now has built-in customer relationship tools like live chat, he said. And the brokerage developed its own mobile apps for Android and iOS devices.
"I still believe our competition is local," Peltier said. So, the decision to take the brokerage's listings off national websites was a decision to focus on dominating its market, which includes Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., Greater Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
Visitors are spending more time on Edina Realty's website than they were a year ago, he said, and through the second quarter of 2012, customer service leads from its website are up 40 percent compared to the first two quarters of 2011.
"If it turns out we're wrong, we'll do something else," Peltier said. So far, it looks like it's been a good decision, he said.
Web traffic data from Web analytics firm comScore, however, shows that Edina Realty's number of unique visitors and the market share of real estate-related Web traffic in its Minneapolis-St. Paul market has nearly dropped in half since October 2011, the month before it pulled out of Trulia and seven months before it pulled out of Realtor.com.
ComScore, like its Web metrics competitor Experian Hitwise, measures the number of Web visits from within an area designated as a "demographic market area" (DMA). A total of 210 DMAs cover the entire U.S. The Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA includes all of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area and a handful of surrounding counties.
Hitwise and comScore data, it should be noted, are built off of samples, and rankings can vary from month to month. They're typically used to monitor trends, not precise Web metrics.
Hitwise builds its estimates off of a sample size of 10 million users in the U.S., which includes an unnamed number of "panel" users who allow the company to passively monitor their Web activity; comScore builds its estimates off of a sample size of 1 million U.S. "panel" users and a network of tagged domains that track data associated with traffic to a site. However, some industry watchers say the small sample size at the DMA level for these methodologies hampers their accuracy and precision.
Opinion is split in the real estate industry about which is the best Web metric to follow, and since they differ in the way they track data, as described below, they offer complementary insights into Web traffic patterns. Outside of tapping into a company's in-house Web metrics, these third-party sources offer the best unbiased results available.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., DMA, real estate-related Web traffic* rank metrics from comScore
Month, YearEdina Realty's rank Total unique visitors (real estate) Percent of real estate-related Web traffic October, 2011^ 3 159,000 17.1% April, 2012 ^^ 5 123,000 13.4% October, 2012 6 77,000 9.6% Source: comScore
* Does not include traffic from mobile devices
^ One month before Edina Realty pulled listings from Trulia
^^ One month before Edina Realty pulled listings from Realtor.com
^^^ Most recent data availableIn October 2011, the month before it stopped sending its listings to Trulia, Edina Realty ranked No. 3 in its market with 159,000 unique visitors to its website, capturing 17.1 percent of the real estate-related Web traffic that month, according to comScore.
In April, the month before it would pull listings from Realtor.com, Edina Realty had dropped to No. 5 on comScore's list with 123,000 unique visitors each month and 13.4 percent of the real estate-related Web traffic that month.
ComScore, which calculates Web traffic share by monthly unique visitors, groups associated sites like Zillow and Yahoo together. Zillow powers for-sale and for-rent listings on Yahoo Real Estate and sells targeted ads to real estate agents and brokers that appear on both sites. MSN Real Estate serves up framed Realtor.com search results.
Through October 2012, the most recent comScore data shows that Edina Realty website traffic share had dropped, again, on the list of most-visited real estate-related websites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA to No. 6, settling at 9.6 percent with 77,000 unique visitors.
However, a different set of data from Hitwise, which calculates Web share by bulk visits -- not by unique visitors -- shows that Edina Realty ranked No. 1 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul DMA in October 2011 and April 2012, but dropped to No. 2 in November 2012, down from 8.24 percent in October 2011 to 6.49 percent in November.
Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., DMA real estate-related Web traffic* rank metrics from Hitwise
Month, YearEdina Realty's rank Percent of real estate-related Web traffic October, 2011^ 1 8.24% April, 2012 ^^ 1 8.59% November, 2012 ^^^ 2 6.49% Source: Experian Hitwise
* Does not include traffic from mobile devices
^ One month before Edina Realty pulled listings from Trulia
^^ One month before Edina Realty pulled listings from Realtor.com
^^^ Most recent data availableBased on this data, Edina Realty, when its unique visitor traffic is compared to real estate-related networks, has lost ground, twice, after halting the flow of its listing data to Trulia and Realtor.com, dropping from No. 3 in the market to No. 5 in April and to No. 6 in October.
When total Web visits and distinct Web addresses are considered, Edina Realty maintained its position as the most-visited real estate-related website after pulling its listings from Trulia last November, but has dropped to No. 2 behind Zillow since choosing to stop syndicating to Realtor.com in May.
Hitwise data shows that Coldwell Banker Burnet, an Edina Realty competitor in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market, has gained Web market share in recent months. In November, the gap between the two narrowed to 3.72 percentage points as Coldwell Banker Burnet's website climbed to the No. 7 spot of the most visited real estate-related website in the market. In April, by comparison, the gap was 6.55 percent when Coldwell Banker Burnet ranked No. 10 and Edina Realty No. 1.
Agents on the ground
Regardless of the issue of Web dominance, Edina Realty has lost agents who aren't happy about the syndication change to other brokerages, said Marshall Saunders, co-owner of Edina Realty competitor Re/Max Results.
Saunders estimates that about 40 Edina Realty agents, many of them unhappy with the brokerage's decision to withdraw listings from Realtor.com, have joined Re/Max Results since May.
Lynn Clare, vice president of marketing at Edina Realty, acknowledges that the brokerage has lost some agents, but she points out that as of the end of August, the number of new real estate agents to join the brokerage is up 37 percent from the same period in 2011. Over a third of those new hires transferred from other brokerages, she said.
Erica Jodsaas is one former Edina Realty agent who left the brokerage because she wasn't happy about the recent changes in its syndication policy. She moved to Re/Max Results at the end of August. "It was a big decision for me," she said.
Ultimately, Jodsaas said, it came down to a business decision. Sellers want their listings to be seen in as many places as possible, she said, and she does, too. When Edina Realty pulled its listings from syndication, Jodsaas would have had to manually input each listing in each of the sites she wanted it to appear.
"I don't have time for that," Jodsaas said.
Business at Re/Max Results, Saunders said, has gone up significantly since June, the month after Edina Realty stopped sending listings to Realtor.com. It outperformed the market by 7 percent in that time, he said.
And, Saunders said, the number of unique visitors to the Re/Max Results website tripled in June (three times higher than it had ever been), a month after Edina Realty stopped sending its listings to Realtor.com, and has held steady ever since, Saunders said. The brokerage still ranks behind Edina Realty, however, in terms of DMA Web share, according to Hitwise.
Real estate-related Web traffic* share in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., November 2012
Rank Website Percent total 1 Zillow 7.56% 2 Edina Realty 6.49% 3 Trulia 6.28% 4 MLSonline.com 5.06% 5 Realtor.com 4.88% 6 Yahoo Homes 4.78% 7 Coldwell Banker Burnet (cbburnet.com) 2.77% 8 Homes.com 2.67% 9 MSN Real Estate 2.44% 10 Rent.com 2.31% Source: Experian Hitwise * Does not include traffic from mobile devices
Earlier this month, Re/Max Results signed an agreement with Trulia to promote its listings and agents on the portal. The gap left by Edina Realty directly inspired Re/Max Results to do the deal, Saunders said. "We see this as a huge weakness for Edina and we plan to take advantage," he said.
Contact Paul Hagey: All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
Make sure you read to the bottom! That's the good part! "Saunders estimates that about 40 Edina Realty agents, many of them unhappy with the brokerage's decision to withdraw listings from Realtor.com, have joined Re/Max Results since May."
With that being said, I wish all the major brokerages would just pull out together and we can take back control of communications with our clients! Don't the high ups in the country realize the kind of money they listing services are essentially stealing from hard working professionals in our industry?
What are your thoughts?
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Quick Tip: 7 Easy Ways to Create and Promote Events on Facebook | InmanNEXT
Networking is and always has been one of the very best ways for real estate agents to grow their business. Going to a mixer or local networking event in your area is always a great reason to dust off the business cards and work on your elevator pitch. But how about instead of attending an event, you create one?
With social media, it is easier than ever to create your own event. As you work on your 2013 business plans, one thing to think about is, ‘how many times am I going to get face to face with potential clients?’ Social media is the great facilitator for this.
Here are 7 keys to creating and promoting events on Facebook:
- Set up an event on Facebook. If you have a business page, set up your event there (not through your personal profile.) . This does two things – it tells people about your event and it also promotes your business page because you are driving traffic to your page!
- Include all the details on the event page. Make sure to include a link to purchase tickets (if applicable) and all the details – time, place, refreshments and more.
- Promote your event. Tweet that link out, email it out to your sphere, promote it from your personal Facebook profile, and more! Also make sure you invite people to the event using the “invite your friends” tab on the event page. Make sure you only invite people locally who could attend (not your entire friend list!)
- Create an ad. Because you created a Facebook event, you can also purchase ads around that event. For a minimal amount of money ($10 a day) you can create ads on Facebook to drive eyeballs to your event tab. Try running a 7 day ad.
- Post event updates on the wall of your event page. Post updates as the event gets near. Everyone who has RSVP’d for the event on Facebook will get a notification when you post. It also will show up in the Ticker on the right side of Facebook.
- Send an email update. Facebook allows you to send an email update to all attendees of the event – this is a great thing to do a day or two before with any last minute reminders.
- After the event post photos. Post photos to your Facebook business page and then post to the wall of the event that photos are on your page. Encourage people to tag themselves in your photos! Make sure in your admin settings on your business page that you allow tagging.
Are events a part of your 2013 strategy? Would love to hear from you – leave me a comment below!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
10 tips for drumming up new business during the holidays | Inman News
10 tips for drumming up new business during the holidays
Realtor Notebook
By Teresa Boardman, Thursday, November 29, 2012.http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=76330468" target="_blank">Holiday party</a> image via Shutterstock." width="225" />Holiday party image via Shutterstock.
The real estate market always slows down a bit during the holiday season -- especially here in Minnesota, where we can usually expect epic cold weather and a few feet of snow.
Over the years I've had some pretty strong fourth quarters. I am always ready for business, and try to be prepared for anything. We never know who is going to be in town for the holidays or who will have a real estate emergency.
Last year I showed a home on Christmas Eve and wrote an offer on the same home on New Year's Eve. The buyers were flexible, and so was I. We were able to work it out so that the transaction did not interfere with family holiday plans.
This year the inventory of homes on the market it at an all-time low. Being in sales can be tough. It's easier when there is something to sell.
Every year there are the people who are waiting until after the first to put their homes on the market. It would be nice if I could put them on the market today, but sellers are usually resistant to the idea. It's their decision, not mine.
There are several social events on my calendar, but I treat them as work time and prepare for them accordingly.
Business really picks up after the holidays, and I think January 2013 is going to be a busy one. Unless, of course, we fall off the fiscal cliff and go into yet another recession.
The holiday season slowdown is a great time for getting organized and cleaning up from last year. It's a good time to get ready for the new year while taking advantage of social and networking opportunities. Here is a list of things that can be done in those weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day that will help drum up business and help us prepare for the new year:
1. Attend holiday social events.
2. Schedule lunches, evening drinks or coffee with as many friends, neighbors, past clients, vendors and competitors as possible.
3. Revisit this year's business plan and fix it up all nice and pretty for the next year -- complete with measurable goals, tasks and a budget.
4. Write blog posts about getting a home ready to sell, how to price a home, and how to choose a real estate agent. Link to the posts from social media accounts like Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter to generate more traffic. Cold weather usually means a decrease in foot traffic and an increase in website traffic. People start doing their homework online months before they contact an agent.
5. Read a book or two. Create and keep a reading list all year long of business books and books with ideas or practical advice.
6. Make five phone calls each day Monday through Friday during the month of December, excluding the holidays. Call friends and past clients and wish them a happy New Year. That doesn't sound like much, but it is huge.
7. Take pictures of local businesses and parks all decked out for the holidays and share them on the Internet on social networks and blogs. There is gold in those photographs, and good karma too. They start conversations, and help promote local businesses and neighborhoods.
8. Buy items for my business like computer, phones or software to take advantage of seasonal discounts and tax deductions.
9. Use any spare time to tweak online profiles, websites and blogs and get rid of accounts that are not being used. Get rid of clutter on the computer, in the cloud and around the office.
10. Walk at least a mile every day. Walking burns calories, is free, clears the mind, and relieves stress. It is also a way to get from one place to another.
I have always started each day with a to-do list, and that is especially important when business is slow. I have to stay focused so that I don't squander my time in Facebook groups discussing "raising the bar" or trying to reform NAR.
I still do the to-do list the old fashioned way -- on a piece of paper, crossing off items as I complete them.
There are several social events on my calendar, but I treat them as work time and prepare for them accordingly.
Being out and about during the holidays, or any time of the year, is good for business. Even working in public places like a local coffee shop helps.
When business is slow we can not let it slow us down.
Most of us understand that technology can help us stay in touch with people and improve communication, but nothing beats going out and meeting people face-to-face. During the holidays there are numerous opportunities to reconnect with old friends and to make new ones.
Teresa Boardman is a broker in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the St. Paul Real Estate blog.
Contact Teresa Boardman: All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Good Content vs. Technology - Tech Hottips
Becoming an expert in social media is more about sharing good content than it is about technology. Let me repeat that for those who consider themselves technology challenged: becoming an expert in social media is more about sharing good content than it is about technology!
You can be a technology wizard with a fancy blog and Facebook page, but if you are not sharing good content, all the bells and whistles in the world on your websites won’t matter. A simple basic blog, Twitter account or Facebook page with interesting information to share will attract more visitors.
Finding good content can be a challenge. How do you find it? One place in which I like to find content is Zite, an app that is advertised as “a free personalized magazine for your iPad, iPhone or Android that automatically learns what you like and gets smarter every time you use it.”
When you set up Zite, you will first be asked to select the sections in your magazine. Zite will offer suggestions, but you can also enter your own ideas. I selected sections like Real Estate, Foreclosures, Interior Design, Housing and Connecticut. After reading an article in Zite, you will be asked, “did you enjoy reading this?” with “Yes” or “No” options. You also have a choice of Give me more from the author and Give me more about… Your answers will help personalize your magazine.
Once your Zite online magazine is personalized, you will have tons of ideas and links to share on your blog, on Twitter and on Facebook.
