Baltimore Home Sellers Named One of Most Stubborn

Fortune.com recently had an article discussing the large price drops in most cities due to the bubble burst of the real estate market.

In the article, Nin-Hai Tseng used a Trulia.com report to discuss house pricing trends across the US:

f you’re a buyer or seller, here’s what to expect this spring: Detroit, with an average discount of 19%, led with the nation’s deepest price cuts during the initial listing, followed by other foreclosure hotspots including Miami, FL with 11%, Columbus, OH with 11%, Baltimore, MD with 10%, and Atlanta, GA with 9%.  Since these areas are already gravely depressed, the deep cuts could likely have long-lasting impacts on future home values.

The cities with sellers who didn’t cut deep enough during the first go-around and will most likely have to cut deeper are Phoenix and Mesa, AZ, Jacksonville, FL, Baltimore, MD and Chicago, IL.

What this says is that in general, many Baltimore home sellers are pricing their homes too high for the market to bear. Buyers are not responding, so the sellers lower their prices. When they are not lowered enough, and buyers still don’t respond, they reduce again. This, according to Fortune.com, makes Baltimore home sellers as a group one of the more stubborn, since they have to reduce more than one time before a sale.

To facilitate a quicker sale, many homeowners can price “ahead” of the market. This means lower than the other average sales in the neighborhood, because in many areas, prices are still declining. Houses that sell faster tend to sell for more than comparable homes who overpriced their homes at the beginning.

Hopefully our “stubborn” sellers will be stubborn no more!

For Baltimore real estate needs, make sure to contact me. I can help guide you in the right direction!

Trulia iPhone App Review from Realtor Perspective

This is the second posting in my series on iPhone apps for real estate searches.

The Trulia iPhone app is one that at first I wasn’t impressed with, but the more I used it, the more I liked it, and it became my favorite real estate search tool app.

The Trulia app only brings up 6 houses to begin with. Once you hit “refresh”, though, it does bring up many more. If you hit Refine, you can add price range, property type, beds & baths information as well.

What I really like about this one is that it pulls data DIRECTLY from the MULTIPLE LIST. So if there are 27 photos in the MLS, you can view all 27 photos on your phone if you choose. It tells you how much of a price drop there has been and when it happened. The MLS remarks are right there to read. The listing agent’s name, phone number, and email address are written there clearly for a consumer to be able to contact. When you touch the phone number, it immediately calls.

The bad: One downfall is that the only # listed is the office number, and many busy agents are mobile and rarely at the office. The other issue I have is that the actual Brokerage name is not listed. That should be a required field for Trulia to have entered, and I am not sure why it is not on there. We as agents must have our brokerage clearly displayed on any advertising, and find that when it is not there, and we do not have any control over this to be somewhat disturbing.

This app is much better than the Realtor.com iPhone app to view more photos and details of a property. I really like this app except for the lack of cell phone # and brokerage name. Two very important details that should not be left out.

*Also, another update, I did research on a street where I knew there were two listings for sale. Only one came up, but both did on the Realtor.com app, somewhat changing my theory. I am getting to the point where I believe you need to check multiple apps to have a true view of the market.*

Real Estate Agent Social Media Networking Presentation for Women’s Council of Realtors in Baltimore

Thursday was a wonderful day — great weather, great people, and I had a blast presenting at the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors (GBBR) to the Women’s Council of Realtors (WCR) on social media networking for real estate agents.

I was asked to present based on my experience and success using social media to enhance my Towson real estate business.

The four networks I discussed were Facebook, ActiveRain, Linkedin, and Twitter.

Although I also actively participate on Trulia and Zillow, I only had 20 minutes to present! On May 21, 2009, I have been asked to present a follow up because there was so much interest from the Baltimore realtors.

I met some fantastic people, and enjoyed speaking with many of the attendees afterwards. I am looking forward to the next presentation, and will also be teaching another 1.5 CE credit course on the same topic for GBBR on May 28, 2009.