Proactive Reactive or Passive Seller Which are You

As an active Real Estate Broker licensed in Portland Oregon I get all kinds of questions about Real Estate in Portland and in general. One question that I have been getting quite a bit lately is ” How’s the Portland Market doing now?, I hear it’s kind of slow! “.

 I just love this one. I am always kind when I answer matter of factly that ” you know of course all Real Estate is Local”. I then go on to ask the key question. Are you currently trying to sell your home? If not, are you considering it in the near future.

No matter what the response, Yes, NO or Not Sure I answer back ” The kind of market you encounter will be dependent upon rather you are a Proactive, Reactive or Passive Seller.” Have you given any consideration to that?

The statment is a pretty big mouth full and not easy to swallow in one quick setting. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to explain just what I mean.

A Passive Seller is often a person who has come into the market with a attitude ” I’ll Sell if I can get my price!” From a Real Estate Broker’s stand point this type of Seller is one of the most difficult people to help. Their motivation is often low and more often than not they are unhappy with the results that they are recieving. Heaven help you when the Listing contract comes to the end as the Seller will almost always unload on you. Truth of the matter they are mostly right. If the agent had been stronger and or more informative or even to step away they may have been able to secure a listing with a Proactive Seller the most desireable kind.

A Reactive Seller is often the kind of person who reacts to stimulii but not before. Let me give you an example : Bob puts his home on the market a little bit to high of a price. His agent is thinking that as time goes on he will work on the Seller to get that price down. Meanwhile Sam a neighbor of Bob’s just down the steet decides to put his home on the market thinking that ” If Bob can get that price, then I can certainly get that kind of price given that I have so much more to offer.”

Sam’s house comes on the market and Bob wanders through a few weeks later during an open house. Bob is astonished at what he sees. Sams house is fabulous. Sam must be delirious, why would he put his house on the market at such a low price when it is much better than mine. Bob calls his agent. Bob’s agent reminds Bob of the conversation at the time they listed. Rember Bob how I told you that price was to high? Bob says he will think it over. Instead of being Proactive and making the imediate desicion to adjust his price, Bob waits for the following weekend to try and catch Sam at home. No luck Sam and familly have gone away for the weekend. Finally by the following weekend Bob is able to talk to Sam. He quickly asks Sam about the choice of his price and finally gets around to asking Sam if he would consider raising it up a little. Sam’s response floors Bob, ” can’t do it old buddy, I’ve already sold her to that couple that came through the same day you were over.” Are you kidding Bob exclaims! Don’t you know that you sold it to cheap? Not according to all of the comps I have seen, fact is I was going to come down and talk to you Bob, don’t you know that your price is to high? Bob the Reactive Seller calls his agent and requests a price reduction.

Now the Gold Standard when it comes to Real Estate Sellers is the Proactive Seller. This is the type of Seller I am always looking for. They are curious and realistic. They understand that selling your home is marketing. Truth is that if there are 3 bottles of Milk at the store and two of them are $3.05 that most Buyer’s will pick up the one bottle for $2.75 every time. A proactive Seller will read over the Comps with their agent. Together they will look through the home and take suggestions and critisims to heart. Once the house is ready to put on the market, I will set my Seller’s up on mys Portland Oregon Real Estate Neighborhood monitoring site where they can see all the homes on the market, Save them to their favorites list where they can keep track of their neighbors status for price reductions and or offers. At the same time my Seller is ready to adjust so am I. You see the Proactive Seller fully understands that hiring an Agent is two fold, Looking for the expierience and knowledge that will enable them to represent them and for an agent that is on the same page. Yes there are Proactive, Reactive and Passive agents as well. Who do you want working for you!

Hot Buys and Old School

I am a little bit of an “Old School” Agent. I still believe in the personal touch. I rarely show a home for sale that I have not personally viewed first.

To do this means that I am out daily viewing homes.  I not only preview homes that meet my clients needs I also am looking for homes that are ” Hot Buys ” and ” Fixer Uppers “.

While previewing a series of listings in North Portland for a few of my clients who are constantly looking for that next great College Rental property I came across this gem.

At first blush I was prepared to discount it as just an OK house given that it was listed as a 2 bedroom even though at this price it still would be an Ok deal given the high rental rates of properties close to the University of Portland on the Bluff.

But I was intrigued and had to take a look. This home is a split entry and split entries tend to have bedrooms in the basement. As a College rental it also makes sense as the split entries often have a family room as well.

Sure as can be it did have that family room in the basement. It also has an attached room with a closet but no door. Ah that’s the reason for no door, it does not have a Window for that all important Ingress Egress for fire  safety.

Wow oh wow, after a quick check I see that this place has been reduced a couple of three times at $20k each. Not only that it looks as if they have just upgraded the appliances in the kitchen. They obviously didn’t realize that for a very modest amount they could easily add the window and the privacy door for mere fractions of pennies on the dollar over what they have discounted from. A pretty simple upgrade may make this into a nice 3 bedroom and today’s HOT BUY!

Downtown Portland Oregon Condo Foreclosures on the Market

Can Oregon Seller’s Accept Multiple Offers?

Lately I have seen something you never seen before. That’s right a Seller who accepts not one not even two but several offers on the same piece of property. This just does not seem possible.

After all they only have one home to sell yet Seller’s are accepting offer after offer. Not only that but their Real Estate agents and Brokers in Portland Oregon are encouraging them to do so. How can this be? Someone is bound to be upset.

Yet the Buyer’s do not seem to mind. They go about there way sometimes spending money on several inspections with a hope that they will not have spent the money for naught.

What kind of State is Oregon you wonder? Why its the State of Short Sales of course. In Oregon the Seller is allowed with disclosure to accept multiple offers on the same piece of property. The two page short sale addendum which accompanies the offer sheet spells it all out for all parties.

Short sales as we all know comes about when there is not enough equity in the property for the Seller to pay off the lean against it. Hence he must sell it Short of the full amount owing. The acceptance of this offer by the Seller then must be sent to the Lender for their acceptance.

No seller likes to sell short and walk out of closing without some sort of profit nor do Lenders. For lenders they are often asked to take significant losses to accommodate the sale. Hence they are not always in that big of a hurry to do so. In fact in some cases if an offer is submitted to quickly the immediate thing that pops into both Seller and Lenders minds is ” I wonder if we could get more? “

In regards to Oregon Law and Short Sales the Seller is allowed to take as many offers on one piece of property as they can get. For Agents representing Seller’s of Short Sales it is our responsibility to treat all parties fairly and honestly and to notify all interested parties in the Short Sale it’s true status.

This means that if you get an offer or even if you get multiple offers, you are to update the status as offers accepted and submitted to the Lender. The Property is to remain as an Active Listingthroughout the process until the Lender or whomever is being asked to sale short be it First Second or even a Third lean or more has accepted the offer.

$50,000 For You and your Portland Oregon Home?

Been looking for that perfect home in Portland Oregon but don’t quite have enough money to swing it? Perhaps you do have a bit of money for the down but there are just too many repairs to make it work?

Well this could be your day! Thanks to the Portland Development Commission and Uncle Sam under the Neighborhood Stabilzation Program $50,000 secondary loans will soon be availlable.

For more information about What it is and How can you get your Share stop by my web site at www.portlandrealproperty.com/50000foryou  for the details.

While your there be sure to check out all of the links. This truly is one stop shopping. Got a link idea you don’t see covered on my site? Drop me a line and tell me all about it. h.hamilton@remax.net

Portland Market Report for March 2009

Market Action Report , Source : RMLS Oregon for Residential Listings

The Portland Metro market activity continues to grow in 2009 although it is still slightly behind 2008 levels for the same reporting period last year.

March 2009 closed sales grew by 382% pending sales were up 28.3% over February 2009.

Inventory levels also dropped to 12 months, it’s lowest since October 2008. Average and Median sales price however continued to drop by 11.8% and 14% respectively for the month of March as compared with February.

 

                                Current Month                        Year to Date

New Listings                141                                         477                   Area141 ( North Portland )

                                    355                                        1,064                 Area 142 ( Northeast Portland )

                                    423                                        1,376                 Area 143 ( Southeast Portland )

Pending Sales                82                                            193                 Area 141

   2009                         180                                            430                 Area 142

                                    230                                            573                 Area 143

Closed Sales                  68                                            132                 Area 141

                                    117                                            303                 Area 142

                                    169                                            423                 Area 143

Average Sales          $216,600                                   $232,000            Area 141

Price                        $290,000                                   $296,000            Area 142

                               $237,400                                    $239,000            Area 143

Median Sales                                                              $229,600            Area 141

    Price                                                                       $260,000            Area 142

                                                                                   $210,000            Area 143

Days on The                                                                    114                 Area 141

    Market                                                                         130                 Area 142

                                                                                        149                 Area 143

All information is deemed to be accurate but not guaranteed and is only a partial amount of information provided by RMLS. Use of this information is for entertainment only and should not be used as a basis for conducting real estate activity.

Comments

It’s Really Pretty Simple

Some of us seen it coming. Some of us even predicted that it would come. Yet many of us did not even notice while even more didn’t seem to care.

Yet from that very first step the handwriting was on the wall. That first step towards cheaper goods. That first sale that caused your jaw to drop. Wow what fantastic bargains those seemed to be.

Fast forward to today. I stepped into a local retailer known for there periodic sales on clothing goods. Thinking to myself that it might be a good time to pick up on a few good long sleeve dress shirts before the rush towards summer attire.

My jaw hit the floor. Oh there were sales all right. 40% off or more for these modest shirts most made in Pakistan, India and China. Today’s price after discount $29.00.

Are you kidding me? That’s your sales price? Even adjusting for inflation the standard American Made shirt today would only retail out at about $19 to $25 before any sale.

Ahh but now I seem to remember. Back in the day when those manufactures were shutting down the factories while shouting to the rooftops ” It’s really pretty simple Americans want a bargain.” That’s corporate speak for we can make a greater profit by buying goods and products over seas.

So what happened? Well as I said some of us seen it coming and even predicted it. As the economy went into a tail spin the American Dollar was devalued. With the spiraling downward trend of the dollar goods, products and services offered by these over seas nations became more expensive. Hence the $29 dollar bargain.

My corporate rant for the month.

Comments

Top Ten Must Ask Questions Before Listing With an Agent

The one thing that most Attorneys , Medical Dr.’s and Real Estate Brokers have in common is expertise in their fields with very little Star Power.  I am talking about the type of Star Power that gives you instant recognition and authority. Certainly yourTitle presumes you have the knowledge and ability to carry out the work. How many of us though have been terribly disappointed in the performance of someone we had hired and presumed that they would perform the way we anticipated?

Of the many questions you could ask while interviewing a Real Estate Agent to List and Sell your home, these TOP TEN are a must have for your list.

1. How long have you been in the business? This speaks to experience. Although everyone needs to get their start and experience some where. Do you really want someone practicing on you?
2. Do you work with Buyer’s and Seller’s or both, what percentage? Showing property to Buyer’s is very time consuming. I want to know my Agent will have the time to market my home.
3.  How many Listings do you have. Having other listings can be a good thing as it allows the agent to rotate advertisements from listing to listing so as to not give your home that over advertised feel. Buyer’s can recognize ads that they have called on before. An Agent having to  many listings can cause the Agent to become lazy and concentrate marketing only the easiest of the listings. ( Tip : be sure to call the Agent about a listing they are currently marketing. The length of time and how they respond will tell you allot about how they will market your home ).
4. Will you reduce your commission. Beware of a yes response. An Agent that is willing to reduce commission may be saying to you that they do not believe in the value of their service. How well do you think this Agent will fight for you when negotiating any offers made on your home, especially low-ball offers or those with special conditions attached.
5. What methods will you use to market my home? What is the track record of success for each of those methods? Putting 1 ad in a paper that gets 50 calls and 10 showings is far better than 100 ads in a publication that gets no results. It is definitely not the Cost of advertising but the Results of advertising that matters.
6. Do you have a Web Site and or a Blog Site ? A personal Blog or Web Site is not the same as a generic Web Site owned by the company where the agent works. With 75 to 85 % of all Buyer’s begining their home search on the Web today it is imperative the Agent has a strong web site with the ability to capture Buyer prospects. ( Tip : Log on to the Agent’s site and try it out. How many clicks until you can see a property for sale. Are there lead capture forms on the site asking you to leave your information. Or is the site just a brag sheet and personal promo for the Agent? )
7. What is the Agent’s Sale to Fail ratio, also known as expired listings. Just because the Agent is capable of filling out a form to list the property, does not mean they have done their job. One of the most important factors governing the potential marketing of your home is to get the Listing/offered sales price right.
8. What is the Agent’s Sale to List price ratio? Did they ask you to reduce the sales price during the term of the listing? A good Agent will stick with their convictions and not take over priced listings ( called buying the listing ). That technique ( Tell the Seller anything to get the Listing ) is still taught throughout the industry. It does not stay true to the agents obligations to you their future potential client that of telling you the truth.  Remember this, Buyer’s are not stupid, they are willing to pay a fair price and they have the tools to verify it.
9. How far do you Live from my Home. It is important to get a sense of the Agent’s ability to show your property on a moments notice should the occasion arise. An Agent having to drive over 45 minutes to your home may be less inclined than an Agent living within 20 minutes or so. ( Tip : It is not however, important at all where the Agent’s office is located. Buyer’s are concerned about the location of the house not the Agent’s office. Most of the Top Producers today will not be spending significant amounts of time in their Principal Broker’s office.  Many Agent’s today work from a home office. )
10. Herb, what time can you come out today to list my home? If you are going to choose to work with the best you should check my schedule first for I am always out marketing my listings for Sold.

www.househuntportland.com  Let your next home find you!

 

Comments

The Confused Dog Look

Pardon ME if I give you the confused Dog look . But I ran into something a while ago that definitely was perplexing. Do you have your ears perked up!

I was doing a little Surfing on the Net. I was looking for Real Estate agents web sites hoping to find some that would be interested in exchanging links. A great way to get additional Exposure for your Listings by the way.

I came across what appeared to be someone advertising a couple of properties for sale in an area that I really like. The odd thing is thAT IT appeared to be a real estate add but no mention of a company name. I made a quick enquiry by email and sat back to wait. The following day I received by email a list of about 20 properties for sale including the ones that were in the add.

The add included such things as Price, descriptions, and address. It looked as if the email message had been sent from somewhere in the Midwest. And because I am in Portland Oregon I immediately thought ” Ahah! Must be and Investor dumping properties.” But wait a minute, I think  I recognized a couple of the addresses. I quickly checked our MLS and found that about 1/3 of the properties on the list were Listed for sale with a variety of different local real estate companies. In fact of those that were listed, they had been on the market for quite some time. I then checked the tax records and noted that all of the Owners were different. No where in any of the MLS listings was there any mention of the person who sent me the email.

The email that I had recieved was somewhat like the following. ” Thanks for inquiring about the properties I have for sale. Read them over if you want more information about 1 or more please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks Martha ”

Anybody run on to this before? What do you Think? And don’t just give me that Confused Dog Look either.

Investors_let_Your_Next_Investment_Property_find_you_with_this_Real_Estate_Investor’s_web_site 

www.portlandrealproperty.com  Looking for more Portland Oregon Information?

Comments

Becky the Bomb

I guess we all know how difficult a busy RE/MAX_Office  can be and ours is certainly no exception. It has to be a tedious job coming into a Real Estate office daily just to handle the phones. As Agent’s I guess we all get so busy it is easy to overlook all the wonderful things these hard working people do for us to keep the machine running.

That’s why it was such a shock to us all that morning when we came into the office and found that Sandy ( dear dear Sandy ) had quit to pursue other career opportunities. ( Translation was offered more pay somewhere else ) I didn’t even have a photo of Sandy after all these years and all the parties and gatherings. I felt like a schmuck.

The following weeks were tough. Temporary staffing were sending people out daily and sometimes 2 per day.( I told you we are a busy office.) After 3 months of this I was greeted one morning by Becky. I had been a little late getting in and apparently she had already introduced herself to the rest of the group.

” Hi I’m Becky, your new Receptionist ” she said. Before I could stop myself I blurted out ” For how long? ” Becky was quick to respond. Yes she had heard about the last 3 months and all of the turmoil that it had caused in what normally was a smooth running operation. ” Get used to this Face ” Becky declared . Yep she definitely intended to be here for the Long haul.           

” Great ” I exclaimed. I didn’t know what Becky’s skill levels were but I presumed if Management had hired her, she must have had a good resume. Besides , anybody was better than a constant daily change of temporaries . With that Becky promptly sat down at her station and I went into my office to get a little work done.

I guess it was a good three days before I got back to the Real Estate office again. I was eager to see how Becky was fitting into the job. To my surprise I was met by a Young lady who introduced herself as Jenny. I was just starting to form the question when the Broker came around the corner so I asked him. ” Where’s Becky? ” I don’t know he said she went home for lunch and she never came back!

Till this day we have never heard from her again. Talk about Over Promise and Under deliver!

Comments