shelleydraper.com

Seems our Realtor-only tool for accessing the NEG MLS database has been hit by the early Spring forward bug. The full reports show the proper time, but when you update, the “Last updated” time is an hour behind.

I don’t think half the agents up here have a clue about IDX and broker reciprocity. If agents just have to help themselves to using our Company website(we know, it rocks) as their free MLS searching resource, they should at least educate themselves on the published rules and regulations before they pick up the phone or flame us from the website.

I got a call (preceded by several nasty emails) last Friday night from an irate local agent (that I’d never heard of) wondering why her listings were on my website and demanding that I remove them immediately. I tried to nicely explain “broker reciprocity” (circa 2000) to her, to which she proceeded to cuss me out, told me I would be hearing from other Realtors, and hung up on me. She then had several of her agent friends email from our website, asking why their listings were on our site. Read the rules & regs or ask your broker ladies. Frankly, it’s not my responsibility to educate you, especially when you conduct yourselves in such an unprofessional manner.

Then Tuesday morning, I was on the receiving end of another good ol’ Southern cussout and hang up call from a competing agent (that I know) for not having his listings on OUR Company website. He claimed one of his listers could not find their listing on a Google search >> our website. Um, first it sounds like you need to focus on your own website if your clients are using ours, and secondly, we filter all kinds of spammy listings (mobile homes, less than 3 photos, misleading/false data, missing/lazy/illegal descriptions, etc.) to make it a better browsing experience for our target audience. We also listen to user feedback on their buying and selling experiences and apply that data to our filters on an ongoing basis. What makes it on to our website is our business.

To summarize: In a period of less than a week, I was cussed out and hung up on by one agent FOR having her listings on our website, then by another for NOT having his listings on our Company website.

• Do we need a broker reciprocity class? Yes.
• Are there too many agents with too much time on their hands? Obviously, 400+ did not renew w/ our board for ‘07—we were due for a purge though.
• Why are other agents so concerned or threatened by our lil’ ol’ mom-&-pop, non-corporate website? Well, I just don’t know.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, is looking for a steady rise in existing-home sales. “After reaching what appears to be the bottom in the fourth quarter of 2006, we expect existing-home sales to gradually rise all this year and well into 2008,” he said. “New-home sales should continue to slide, but we look for that sector to turn around later in the year. When you put it all together, home sales may appear weak in comparison with the record surge in 2005, but they will be sustained at historically high levels that are in line with long-term demand.”

from the NAR - Existing-Home Sales To Improve, With Later Recovery For New Homes

Beer and wine will be served with a maximum of 3 drinks per person.

Received this message from the Board today. That’s a bit insulting for an old lady but I can live with it. Moreover, I will give the Board the benefit-of-the-doubt, in that, probably due to the lack of ticket sales, they pulled some pretty big teeth to make this quasi-cash-bar happen. Bravo, but bring it back to Brasstown next year and let my bartender make the call on how many drinks to sell me.

As listings grow old on the vine in this flush-with-inventory market and frustrated sellers reach for the slightest edge, the findings of several academics might offer guidance.

For example, a Canadian professor, as part of a broader study on real-estate sales patterns, found that homes where the seller was “motivated” took 15 percent longer to sell, while houses listed as “handyman specials” flew off the market in half the average time.

from The Seattle Times - New study shows which words sell, and which don’t

And we all thought “motivated” was a huge seller—not anymore. 15% longer to sell? That could be a pretty costly word in some instances. Buyers must be making one of two assumptions here:

• the price is currently too high as obviously the “motivated” seller will take less, and they’re waiting-it-out for a price drop
• the seller/agent initially overpriced the property in the first place, dropped it, and aren’t yet motivated enough to price it where it should be: what’s wrong here?

Either way, it must denote a lack of buyer trust for the “motivated” seller. Not necessarily “buyer-beware” but more like “buyer-look-elsewhere-first”.

Most importantly, it also means that buyers are paying a great deal of attention to the listing agent’s written remarks and most certainly applying their own definitions and actually acting on the perceived trustworthiness of the agent’s wording. I’m amazed that some sellers still let their listing agent get away with writing a few bad words, snapping fewer photos, grabbing an MLS number, kicking a sign in the ground and calling it a year.