Fort Lauderdale Real Estate » Sellers

Selling Your Fort Lauderdale Home Or Fort Lauderdale Condos -Is YOUR Fort Lauderdale Realtor Ethical?

Barry — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:18:52 +0000

When selling Your Fort Lauderdale Homes Or Fort Lauderdale Condos, do you know if your Fort Lauderdale Realtor is considered ethical by other Fort Lauderdale Realtors?

Who are you hiring-do you ever really know for sure?

What if you hire the WRONG Realtor?

Seller situation:

You have listed your Downtown Fort Lauderdale Home or Fort Lauderdale Beach High Rise Condo with the most popular agent on Fort Lauderdale Beach. He has a proven history of selling high rise waterfront condos in both Fort Lauderdale Beach and in Downtown Fort Lauderdale, and often will bring the buyer to the deal as well. This is called dual agency. This is when the same agent represents both the buyer and the seller.

So, that means he is really good at what he does. It appears so doesn’t it?? After all, how many other Fort Lauderdale Realtors are able to bring as many buyers to their own listings? If he is successful, somebody is getting a discount on the commission. Sounds good, doesnt it?

Ever wonder where he is getting those buyers?

Ever wonder why you have so few showings by other Fort Lauderdale Realtors?

Do you think it is just because of the current state of the market? Think again!

Don’t you wonder why so many similar listings are expiring, or are being withdrawn from the market due to little or no activity?

How many times do you think another Fort Lauderdale Realtor will show that agents listings when attempts are constantly made to steal their clients?

If he really had that many buyers wouldnt he be showing and selling the Fort Lauderdale Beach High Rise waterfront condos that others have listed as well? But, that is not happening!

Most of us in the business know each other. We compare notes. We warn each other about the unethical among our ranks. We hesitate in showing the Fort Lauderdale property listings of the unethical.

You, the Sellers, suffer because you lose valuable traffic. In most cases it is not the listing agent who brings the buyer to the table. It is usually another Fort Lauderdale Realtor.

When you hire an agent that other agents do not want to work with, you have a problem. In this market, this particular problem can be a very large problem.

If the Realtor is negotiating for both parties, does he have your very best interests at heart? How can you be sure?

So, do you still want to hire that popular Fort Lauderdale Beach High Rise Condo Agent?

Are you sure?

We, the other Fort Lauderdale Realtors, spend a great deal of time and money prospecting for Fort Lauderdale home buyers, this is our business, this is what we do for a living.

We spend many days, weeks and months working with these buyers, unpaid, looking for their perfect new Fort Lauderdale homes and condos.

The article you are currently reading is an example of how easily I can reach out to the general public/consumers and flex my substantial marketing muscle here in Fort Lauderdale.

You found this article, didn’t you? I reach Fort Lauderdale home buyers just as easily. Thousands of consumers visit this site daily. Some days we receive well over 5,000 visitors to this website.

That’s not chicken-feed folks! That’s a lot of potential buyers. Ask you current or prospective Fort Lauderdale Realtor how much traffic his website gets.

Imagine for a minute you were any of us. You have months of unpaid work into a client and this hotshot snakes the client.

Would YOU ever show one of his Fort Lauderdale High Rise Condos again?

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Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates Steady

Barry — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:19:41 +0000

I was waiting..and waiting..and waiting to write a post about what the Federal Reserve should do about interest rates and had to stop pending their announcement.Â I did not want to venture a guess and it’s a good thing that I did not.Â

Although reducing the rate may help out some homeowners and borrowers, especially those with Home Equity lines, it could actually have an unwanted effect and result inÂ higher mortgage interest rates for the rest of us.

Luckily, I bit my tongue in trying to hurry a post and make a prediction. In a statement that was released yesterday…

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate at 2 percent.

Strains in financial markets have increased significantly and labor markets have weakened further. Economic growth appears to have slowed recently, partly reflecting a softening of household spending. Tight credit conditions, the ongoing housing contraction, and some slowing in export growth are likely to weigh on economic growth over the next few quarters. Over time, the substantial easing of monetary policy, combined with ongoing measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate economic growth.

Inflation has been high, spurred by the earlier increases in the prices of energy and some other commodities. The Committee expects inflation to moderate later this year and next year, but the inflation outlook remains highly uncertain.

The downside risks to growth and the upside risks to inflation are both of significant concern to the Committee. The Committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth and price stability.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Christine M. Cumming; Elizabeth A. Duke; Richard W. Fisher; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Sandra Pianalto; Charles I. Plosser; Gary H. Stern; and Kevin M. Warsh. Ms. Cumming voted as the alternate for Timothy F. Geithner.

I guess the Fed needed to quickly make an announcement and move on to bigger and much more pressing issues. Like what in the world are they going to do with AIG?

I’ll keep you posted.

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Analysts Call For Continued Housing Price Decline

Barry — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:41:43 +0000

If you are seeking to sell your home, you may want to take notice of what is going on in the financial markets. The pricing of your home will most assuredly be affected, that is if you have a real estate agent who has any clue as to what they are doing.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co Inc will cause liquidity in the credit market to shrink, resulting in lower home prices, prominent U.S. banking analyst Meredith Whitney said.

The Oppenheimer & Co analyst also expects fewer mortgages to be available for prospective homeowners, as she sees no hope for the return of the mortgage securitization business.

“All this creates a recipe for meaningfully lower U.S. house prices,” Whitney said.

The magnitude of houseprice declines in the next few years could likely exceed expectations of both the markets and the companies, she wrote in a note issued late Monday.

“The fact that all banks under our coverage have unrealistic HPA (housing price appreciation) assumptions will in our opinion lead to a material and protracted writedown and capital pressure scenario for banks well into 2009,” Whitney said.

Since the onset of the credit crisis over 14 months ago, less than $100 billion worth of mortgages have been securitized and, accordingly, homeownership stands at 68 percent, Whitney said

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Why Should You Ignore The List Price Of A Home?

Barry — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:59:51 +0000

So much is made of statistics saying one thing and real estate agents saying another. But the numbers don’t lie. They may tell a story that an agent doesn’t want to hear, but they most assuredly don’t lie. Sellers listen up. If your home isn’t selling you had better make sure that your agent isn’t ignoring relevant market data.

The market numbers for August 2008 came out here locally and while the volume of sales hasn’t taken a significant beating, there are some things in the numbers that you really need to take notice of and I doubt you will read anywhere else.

This information should be important to both buyers and sellers. Buyers will want to know this information when looking at a prospective home and sellers really need to know this and question their agent to see why they weren’t told this.

In reviewing the August 2008 data, it was determined by local MLS data that the average sale price of a home was only 88% of what the home was listed for at the time of the sale. Well at first glance you maybe inclined to say..well that’s not that bad. It’s only 12 percent below what the seller was asking. Okay, so if the average home was listed at say $300,000.00 you’re talking a discount of say $36,000.00. Not bad eh? But wait (spoken in true infomercial voice)…it gets even better…or worse depending upon which side of the table you are on.

When the MLS calculates this data it is based upon the list price at the time of the sale. Right now the average home has been sitting on the market for as much as 120 days…4 months. During that time, the bright agent the seller hired more than likely has followed suit and followed the same old tired real estate agent marketing plan of reducing the price over and over again.

So by the time the house actually sells, the actual listing price at the time of the sale is far less than what the “original” list price was. See the picture here? Mr IM A. Good Agent told the sellers that he believed the house would sell for “X” dollars. Then in a couple of weeks when there have been no offers, Mr. Good Agent opened the Realtor playbook and told his seller that he needed to lower the price…and I bet never said he would also lower his commission for not selling the house as he said he would but that’s another article.

Then this scenario repeated itself a couple times over to the point when the property did get an offer, albeit far south of the original list price. However when the data is reported, Mr. Good Agent appears as though he did a great job and only cost his seller a 12% decline in the expected sales price when now you know in fact that the discount taken was FAR more.

Moral of the story for sellers, settle in and buckle up…you’re in for a bumpy ride if you list with the Mr. Good Agent type. If you’ve already been seeing this modus operandi now you know you’ve been suckered…sorry.

Moral of the story for buyers, ignore the list price of a home. Do your own homework. Check how long the home has been listed, see how many times the home has been reduced, and make your offer with the comfort of knowing how the game is played and how these agents are pricing their listings. Know where you are in the cycle of price stepdowns.

If you’d like some assistance, please feel free to contact me and I would be more than willing to provide you with any help that you might need.

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The Deflationary Crisis And Its Affect On The Housing Market

Barry — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:45:46 +0000

[See post to watch Flash video]
Mad Money’s Jim Cramer of The Street.com is saying that the Federal Reserve is ignoring the current U.S. deflationary crisis and is trying to “reinvent” the economy by actually destroying it.Those are some pretty strong words but then again, Cramer has not been one to be shy about stating his opinions.

“If the government used home prices in the CPI reading, you’d see the biggest deflation since the ’30s”

Cramer predicts another 10% to 15% decline nationwide, and 40% to 50% peak to trough declines in bubble markets. He calls the Fed “reckless” and actually goes further and says that the Fed is a “radical right wing” organization.

What does this mean for those in the real estate business and for those in the market for a new home.

Well, that depends upon who you talk to. Real estate agents who primarily “list” homes and do little else are in for a tough time in the near future if Cramer’s predictions hold true. Accordingly so will the seller clientele of these so called “listing agents”.

If prices continue to trend downward as Cramer and other economists feel is likely, it will become increasing hard for listers to actually sell homes. If the market continues to decline as Cramer says and it drops an additional 20% or more, you are going to find sellers wiped out and in order for them to sell they may have to bring large sums of cash to the closing table.

Not a position I would like to be in if I was a seller or an agent representing a seller. The last place you want to be is continually chasing the market down by lowering prices time and time again. I call it “seller’s blood”.

On the other hand, if you are a buyer looking for the proverbial “good deal”, I would make sure I hooked up with a really aggressive buyer’s agent who can smell “seller’s blood” and can read all of the data about a market and close in for the kill shot!

This kind of data is devastating to a seller. Unrealistic real estate agents like to call this media doom and gloom and hang their heads on a real tired mantra that all real estate is local. Meanwhile the real world knows otherwise.

Fact, before you buy IN ANY MARKET, check the days on market of any listing you are interested in.
Fact, before you buy IN ANY MARKET, check the absorption rate of the current market that you are interested in.
Fact, do a comprehensive regression analysis on the impact of declining prices in the market that you are interested in.
Fact, check the ratio of foreclosures / distressed sales to conventional sales in the market that you are interested in.

You go in armed with this kind of data when looking to make an offer on a home anywhere in the country and you can be reasonably sure of making the best deal that you can. yes, there are certain markets where deflation and downward pressures have not affected the sales prices of homes.

Let me know when you find that market. We’d all love to know where it is!

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The Top 10 Reasons You’re Not Getting Any Offers On Your Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Home

Barry — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:03:45 +0000

Have you asked yourself why you’re not getting any offers on your Fort Lauderdale real estate home or condo?Â Well the answer is really pretty simple. Either you as the Seller are not doing what your agent advised you to do, or your agent either does not know what to do in order to get your home sold. I don’t like to mince words. I like the direct route. It may not be popular, but it’s the truth.

Despite what you may have been told and may have heard, homes in Fort Lauderdale and throughout South Florida are indeed selling. Maybe not at the feverish pace of a few years ago and maybe not at the rapidly appreciating prices we enjoyed in that same time frame, but they are most assuredly selling.

So just how do you get into this increasingly exclusive club of successful homeowners who have been able to get their home sold? No one has a crystal ball but if you read the Top 10 Reasons No One Is Making An Offer On Your Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Home Or Condo below and recognize that you or your agent recognize any of the reasons as being applicable, well then you may want to take the steps necessary to remedy these problems.

1. Failure To Recognize That It Is A Buyer’s Market: Have a good cry, throw a tantrum, get it out and click your heels three times with your red ruby shoes. In other words do what ever you need to so that you and your agents come to grips with the fact that you have to understand what kind of market we are in. Make sure your agent understands the absorption rate and can explain it to you and how it impacts your ability to sell your home. (If they don’t know…well you may have to make a decision)

2. Price, Price, Price!: Has your agent performed a regression analysis on your property? Here’s a hint, the CMA they prepared or offered to prepare isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if a comprehensive regression analysis was not included. As many of my regular readers know, the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog produces a lot of Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Market Reports and statistics.

These free reports are a very handy in helping sellers see where the market is and more importantly where it is headed. Often the single biggest reason your home is not getting any showings and not selling is because the home is priced wrong.

If the relative pricing data in the market is not properly used, you as the seller will be left without a chair in the real estate version of musical chairs. Price your home right and it sells. Don’t and it sits. Eventually your agent will keep lowering the price (with your approval) to a price it may eventually sells at.

Months and months later you may get an offer that you decide to take which if you had a comprehensive regression analysis performed you may have been able to price it right at the beginning.

3. Buying Into The Low Ball Offer Myth: Repeat after me. This is a Buyer’s market. I am not in control. All offers should be respected and reviewed. Your asking price is meaningless! Repeat it again! No… I won’t call you useless and weak, but I may suggest you drop and give me 20…if there is anything I despise more than an incompetent real estate agent, it’s the incompetent real estate agent who does not recognize that ALL OFFERS ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AND NEGOTIATED.

Too many agents end up chasing away potential buyers by saying that either they or their seller is “insulted” by the offer. Utterly ridiculous! If you get an offer, any offer, it’s time to review every aspect of it and then roll up your sleeves and begin negotiating. I don’t mean by fax after fax.

If possible set up a meeting with the prospective buyer and why not have everyone get in a room and see if a deal can be hammered out. Most agents will never agree to this because they have no idea as to how to conduct a negotiation meeting. (If they don’t know…well you may have to make a decision)

4. No One Knows Your House Is For Sale: Ever go to a movie? How about go shopping for some new clothes at your local mall? Ever eat at a new restaurant? Of course we all have. How did you know to go there? Easy answer here. They advertised and marketed and let you know they were open for business and wanted your business!

It amazes me that most agents have no idea or budget to market your home. Isn’t that the main reason you hired them and agreed to pay 6% of your hard earned yet rapidly disappearing money? Buyers can only buy what they know is for sale. This sign in the ground…is that marketing? The empty open house?

C’mon, that’s so yesterday. I hate to break it to you but most agents out there get your listing, enter the data on the MLS, put it on a couple free web sites, make a flyer on their home computer and call it a day and wait around to see what happens. Most agents consider their sale done.

They got you to sign on the dotted line. They feel that now having you locked up that it’s money in the bank. If your house sells by some stroke of luck they will get a big payday. If it doesn’t..well it did not cost them anything. Think I am wrong? Email me and I will send you articles, some even from the National Association Of Realtors, telling agents exactly that.

These people are called “listers” and their ONLY job is to get you to list your property with them and then hopefully someone else will sell it. Hey, don’t blame them, it has worked that way for decades. Want to see your agent squirm? Ask them to bring over their marketing campaign for your review. Tell them you want to see how they intend on marketing your property.

5. Foreclosures, Distressed Sales And Bargains: Everyone wants a deal when they buy something…or at least the appearance that they got a great deal. Here’s a scary statistic I bet your agent does not know..well maybe they do now since they have probably been reading the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog…but that stat is that over 40% of the homes being sold are foreclosures or distressed sales of some sort.

Hmmm…with banks and some sellers being truly motivated and ready to aggressively cut deals, how are you going to compete? Don’t think you have to? think again. Remember I mentioned that thing called a regression analysis above? Well here’s a pop quiz for you and your agent. What do you think happens to the perceived and real value of your home as banks and distressed sellers in your neighborhood dump their homes at unbelievably low prices?

Now you know why the flowery CMA does not mean squat. Please tell me you are not falling for that line that some agents are feeding sellers that foreclosures don’t get used as comparables by appraisers. Listen to this if you want some real eye opening, fact based info as to how a home is appraised and looked at by the buyer’s lender.

6. Pictures,Videos, And Virtual Tours: In no other business except maybe modeling does the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” mean so much. In real estate it has been proven that prospective buyers love pictures and lots of them. Many buyers will eliminate from contention those homes that they can not see pictures of online.

Now for the kicker…since we all know this, are you sure your home has been photographed and videotaped so that buyers can preview your home? Don’t just assume it. Call your agent and tell them you need to see them to email you over your listing complete with pictures. You may be surprised at how many agents take no pictures and how many agents take just a few.

You have to be marketing people!! Sales is a marketing business!! Buyers want to see pictures. If you are not doing that which entices buyers then you or your agent are not properly marketing your home for sale.

7. Does Your Real Estate Agent Have A Major Presence On The Internet?: Why is it important to hire an Internet savvy Fort Lauderdale real estate agent? Well Over 85% of all home searches start on the Internet. Homes for sale in Fort Lauderdale need to be marketed online. they must be searchable so that prospective buyers may find them. Somehow you found your way here to the Fort Lauderdale real estate blog.

We show up very high in the search engines. We show up very high for those keywords that buyers will be searching. We show up very high in the neighborhoods where we are marketing. Here’s a big mistake a lot of sellers often make and most real estate agents count on. If they ask a real estate agent if they have a website almost every agent will say yes.

Everyone has a website. Some have two or three or more. The problem is no one goes to their websites. It’s basically a tombstone on the Internet superhighway. Ask them to show you where they show up for google for “insert city name” real estate when searched, how about city name homes, how about city name foreclosures…don’t fall for the trick..here’s my name, I show up for. No one ever searches an agent’s name.

Bottom line you have to have a major presence online and you need to know what you are doing in the online world. Only 1-3% of ALL real estate agents even have a blog…so that really makes it easy for you to weed out the non-savvy (no online presence) real estate agent.

Over 25% of all Home Buyers FIRST saw the home they purchased on the Internet. If your Fort Lauderdale homes are not heavily marketed on the Internet, you are missing thousands of potential buyers.

8. Your Home Isn’t Move-In Ready: Competition in the real estate market is absolutely fierce right now. Buyers have their pick of the litter and can be very picky and demanding. No they don’t want a fixer-upper…investor’s excluded. They want a home that is ready to be their home at closing.

If you are not offering a home that shows to be ready for a new owner and their family then your home may be passed over. Is everything about your home up to code? Are all necessary repairs completed? Do you know if your roof will pass inspection? What is the useful lifespan of your roof and major components like the HVAC unit? Do you have updated electrical service instead of fuses?

These are the questions that will get your home eliminated from contention if not satisfactorily addressed. You need to put yourself in the buyers shoes. Would you buy this house and if so why? Do not leave it up to your agent to find out this information.

Most won’t, it does not benefit them to do so. Demand that they create a comprehensive package about your home that people can download. Accordingly that would also mean that they were marketing your home online…where the buyers are!

9. You’re Home Isn’t Accessible: Remember in # 4 above where I wrote that you have to make sure that people know your home is for sale? Well one of the biggest problems in selling a home is when you are tied up with a real estate agent who does not answer their phone calls or emails or does so in a very untimely fashion.

Many real estate agents have left the business altogether and many who have remained have decided to get other jobs to try and make ends meet. That’s fine but the problem occurs when a prospective buyer of an agent representing a buyer (buyer’s agent), tries to get a hold of somebody for information about the house.

You would be amazed how much business is lost simply because of agents who don’t answer their phone calls or don’t return phone calls. Not to blame everything on your agent, but if you don’t allow a lockbox or restrict showing hours because you may be inconvenienced, then you as the Seller are just as much to blame.

The home must be able to be shown and agents must answer the phone and return calls and emails or your home will be passed over and removed from consideration.

10. No One Cares How Much You Spent To Improve The Property Or What You Paid For The Property: Yeah, I know ..it hurts, get over it, remove emotion and make this business transaction work. If you don’t NEED to sell then don’t. If you do NEED to sell then make sure you do what is necessary to ensure that you have the best chance of selling the property.

In a Buyer’s market, you are not going to convince a buyer to pull the trigger. They have way too many options and so many owners are offering incentives. You have to be better. Save the incentive and do what is necessary to sell the home. If you do all of this and your home still does not sell, then refer to #2 above and make sure that you are priced correct.

Not be the bearer of bad news but in this market, with the amount of inventory that we currently have and with all of the foreclosures impacting value even further, you need to have an aggressive marketing strategy and a sincere commitment to sell your property and to do so without becoming emotion about the realities of today’s market.

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40% Or More Of Homes Sold Are Foreclosures Or Distressed Properties!

Barry Cunningham — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:24:31 +0000

[See post to watch Flash video]
While actual home sales may have had a modest gain this past month, the gain was bittersweet as it is attributed to the declining prices in many markets across the USA.At least a 40% or more of the homes sold nationally last month involved foreclosed homes snapped up at bargain-basement prices or homes sold at a loss by lenders or owners who had no alternative, according to theÂ National Association of Realtors.

These so-called distressed sales helped depress home values across the country, feeding into a downdraft that is making it increasingly difficult for many Americans to sell their homes for more than they paid. This “upside-down” phenomenon is being felt by many homeowners who now find that because of declining values their homes are now worth a lot less than they owe on them.

Nationally, prices of previously owned homes were 7.1 percent lower in July than a year earlier, the NAR reported on Monday, with the median value falling to $212,400, from $215,100 in June.

And there were signs that prices would continue to spiral downward for months to come. The number of homes and apartments for sale jumped 3.9 percent in July, adding to the supply glut that has bedeviled the housing market for months.

â€œItâ€™s cold comfort to know that the banks are succeeding on selling their houses at prices that are pretty breathtaking,â€ said Robert Barbera, chief economist at the research and trading firm ITG. , referring to banks that have repossessed foreclosed homes from owners who could not pay their mortgages.

Indeed, a big portion of those sales, 40 percent or MORE â€” stemmed from properties where owners were forced to sell at a loss, via short sale, or were dumped by lender REO departments. The NAR data appears to underscore the fact that desperation appears to be driving sales, which means prices are not likely to rise anytime soon.

“A year ago, sales of distressed properties made up less than 10 percent of total sales”, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the NAR.

Distressed sales once accounted for so few transactions that economists for the NAR did not even measure them as a separate category until this year. But in July, the sales made up their largest percentage to date. Are you kidding me???

â€œIn places like California or Florida, many of the homes that are listed for sale can be classified as distressed,â€ Mr. Yun said. Duh!!

And many Americans may be waiting for prices to drop even further. The wave of foreclosures, coupled with tighter lending standards, has scared off many would-be purchasers from the market, which has entered its worst slump in decades.

â€œThere is still a considerable distance to travel before prices sink to levels necessary to balance supply and demand in the housing market,â€ Joshua Shapiro, chiefÂ U.S. economist at the research firm MFR, said yesterday.

We have been talking about supply and demand economics for months and not many real estate agents seam to understand this or even want to understand this.

Recently we had Peter Schiff on the show and his assessment was spot on. Realtors listen up. Real simple, high levels of inventory, mandate lower prices. Lower prices and buyers respond. Get the picture?

Hold on, the news could actually get worse. Today, Standard & Poorâ€™s will release its Case-Shiller home price index for June, considered the most reliable indicator of the nationâ€™s home values. The Commerce Department will also release figures for sales of newly constructed homes in July.

This should make for an interesting week!

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Whaddya know? Pricing Your Fort Lauderdale Home Or Condo Right Actually Does Work!

Barry — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:05:15 +0000

While there may indeed be that speck of white light in the tunnel, I would not go out and make plans to celebrate just yet. Based upon numbers released yesterday from the Florida Association of Realtors the sales of existing homes increased in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market and throughout Broward County by 4 percent in July.

The Realtor group attributed the increase in sales to buyers in the market finally responding to the lowering of home prices. While the number of homes sold only rose by 4% it was the area’s first upward bump in sales on a year-over-year basis since October 2006.

The median home price is still in the tank as home prices fell almost 20%. the median home price in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market dropped from $373,700.00 last year to $303,500.00 now.

So have we hit the proverbial “bottom” of the market that so many seem to be waiting for? Apparently not! Most analysts predict that the housing decline likely will continue well into 2009. The simple immutable laws of supply and demand pretty much are at work here in the Fort Lauderdale home sales market.

We have talked about it many times and actually warned a lot of our fellow real estate agents that if their clients don’t absolutely have to sell right now, then their homes should not be on the market.

The seller “looking to see what they can get” is going to be a bit embarrassed. Many, if not most of the market pricing is currently being driven by the tidal wave of foreclosures and bank owned properties in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market. These homes are being aggressively priced by lenders seeking to liquidate the inventory off of their books or by homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure via a short sale.

The average homeowner can’t compete price-wise with the discounting taking place in the market. Sellers often are seeing offers well below asking price and inexperienced agents are not educating their sellers and the myth of the low ball offer is perpetuated. Here’s a hint…there’s no such thing as a low ball offer in a buyer’s market!

“For the average seller, these are tough times,” said Mike Larson, a housing analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. “There are always people out there willing to undercut you, making your life that much harder.”

“People are responding to lower prices,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. But he said there is “too much uncertainty” about the housing market’s future to mark a definite bottom.

Thanks Larry for the heads up…so does that mean the $40 Million advertising campaign that was panned a long time ago is actually wrong? Will the NAR take culpability for telling the average homebuyer that “now’s a great time to buy”?

How about just re-tooling to campaign and telling the truth. “Now is a great time to buy a home…if you know what you are doing, buy on your terms and offer the price you feel will protect you as prices continue to drop.”

Now there would be a campaign I could get behind and support. That and..”it’s a great time to buy a low priced foreclosure if you know what you are doing and know how to due your due diligence or know a real estate agent who can guide you through the process”.

That would make a lot more sense, but alas, a lot more real estate agents would be out of work.

I wonder if that’s necessarily a bad thing!

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Fort Lauderdale Homes : Absorption Rate Indicates 23 Months Of Inventory

Barry — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:31:12 +0000

If you are looking to buy a home in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market or if you are looking to sell a Fort Lauderdale home, there is a key stat that either party should avail themselves of. That stat is called the “absorption rate”.

The absorption rate is a direct analysis of supply and demand. It forecasts how long it will take to sell the available inventory in a market using the current level of sales When it comes to understanding the climate of the Fort Lauderdale real estate market, one thing rings true. Itâ€™s absolutely a buyerâ€™s markethere in Fort Lauderdale and throughout the South Florida real estate market.

An overwhelming abundance of inventory, coupled with slow buyer activity and you have the makings of the perfect storm of supply and demand economics. Simply stated, Buyers in this market can choose to be discerning and write offers on their terms.

A buyerâ€™s market can be in part defined market by absorption rates. The Fort Lauderdale real estate market absorption rate is the mathematical relationship of supply and demand. The Fort Lauderdale real estate market absorption rate is the number of months it would take to sell the entire inventory of homes in the area if the current pace of sales were to stay constant.

Here is a short video explaining absorption rates as it relates to the current data in this metropolitan area:

So, is it a good time to buy Fort Lauderdale real estate market homes and condos? Knowing your area’s Absorption Rate, helps to track trends. Understanding the market and where it is headed is part of our job as real estate professionals.

Understanding the area’s absorption rate will help you prepare an offer to buy a property that reflects your knowledge of the market and your ability to convey to the Seller the position that they are in.

This can often validate your offer price and show a Seller that it is in their best interest to accept the offer that you are presenting. Don’t assume the Seller knows. Many real estate agents do not understand absorption rates and may not have explained this data to their Seller clients.

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I Guarantee To Sell Your Fort Lauderdale Home In 30 Days Or Less

Barry — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:50:07 +0000

Do you know how long it will take to sell your Fort Lauderdale home in this current market via conventional sales methods? Are you prepared to wait 6 months or more to see the sold sign in your front yard? Well if you can’t answer yes to either of these questions, you may want to re-assess what you and your current agent are doing to get your home sold. In fact, you may even want to fire your current real estate agent…if you even can!

Altos Research, a national real estate research firm released a report earlier this week and it confirmed information that many of us here in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market already knew. It’s taking a long, long time for homeowners to sell their homes.

The Altos report found that homes for sale here in South Florida are taking on average as more than 5 months for homes on the market to sell. The average days on market for homes to sell in the Fort Lauderdale real estate market is the slowest in the Country. Often the home that does sell, has been reduced in price several times before it actually sells. This phenomenon is known as “chasing the market down”. No it’s not a game and it’s most assuredly not a good thing to have to be involved in.

Let me explain what “Chasing the Market Down” is.

You priced your home at $260,000.00 on February 1st, which was what your agent thought was market value then. Between February 1st and April 1st (60 days on market) several homes in your area sell, your market price drops to about $235,000.00. You do not realize the impact this has on you and are still convinced your property is worth $260,000.00. Your agent has mentioned a price reduction, you have resisted. You really believe your home is worth $260,000.00, after all, it was worth over $325,000.00 last summer.

On April 15 you agree to reduce your price to $240,000.00, which seems like a considerable reduction, after all $20,000.00 is a lot of money when it is coming out of your pocket. But is it? You are now priced at $240,000.00 and the market value is $235,000.00.

Another 30 days goes by and still…no showings and no offers! You wonder what is the agent doing to sell your home? Your agent has suggests that another price reduction is in order, even though you JUST reduced it $20,000.00 a month ago. What is going on? This is serious!

You finally agree to reduce your price to $235,000.00 on May 1st, but uh oh…another month has gone by since market price was established at $235,000.00. Have you asked for and received an updated valuation? You should be getting an updated valuation every 30 days at minimum. Since you have not received one you don’t realize that the market has dropped yet again and it’s painful to realize that your REDUCED price of $235,000.00 is now overpriced as the market shows a value of $215,000.00.

What started out as a “let’s see what we can get” act of futility now finds you chasing the market down.

As you chase the market down, you realize if you had priced the property correctly at the outset, it is very likely that you could have actually sold the property and moved on with your life. As it is now, your sitting on a property whose value is falling in a declining market.

Many real estate agents and many homeowners are not grasping the reality of the economics of the current real estate market. For some reason the simple laws of supply and demand are ignored. The housing crisis in the Country has been felt harder here in South Florida than just about any other market in the nation.After a record period of rapid appreciation in the last 5 years or so, home values have steadily declined over the last 24 months.At the same time an unprecedented number of foreclosures, coupled with a decrease of willing and able buyers who are having problems qualifying because of the tightening of the belt by most mortgage lenders…and you are left with a veritable picture of the perfect storm of supply and demand.Here’s the problem.

The sooner local real estate agents embrace the immutable laws of supply and demand economics and professionally advise their cozened seller clients, the sooner this market will turn around for them.To have a dog in the hunt in a market like this you must be competitive. High levels of inventory, coupled with decreased demand, MUST equate to lower prices. There is simply no gray area here.

Sellers if you want to sell your home quickly you can. I am sure of it. I guarantee it. It’s very simple. You just have to price your home according to what today’s buyer is willing to pay.Having the ability to properly value a property is the agent’s responsibility. Taking a big bite of the reality apple and accepting what your home is really worth in today’s market, well that’s clearly your responsibility.

We are in what is described as a buyer’s market. there are indeed buyers ready, willing and able to purchase your home. If you want your home sold in 30 days or less, call me, email me or fill out the contact form below. I guarantee I will sell your Fort Lauderdale real estate home or condo in 30 days at the price you agree to sell it for.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s simply a matter of supply and demand.

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