Monday, July 24, 2006

A 'Bitter Pill to Swallow' for 'Hungry Agents'

The Sacramento Bee checks up on area real estate agents.

[I]n a trade so often marked by optimism, they're steeling colleagues for the unpleasant but necessary task, they say, of persuading homeowners to quit balking and lower prices. But not to "rock bottom," they add, which invites insulting offers from emboldened buyers.

"As agents, we have to do that, said Tina Ledbetter, a Roseville resident who's been in the business 30 years. "But it's a hard pill to swallow."

Amid the lagging sales prices and 14,600 homes for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties at the beginning of July, Ledbetter and other top sellers recently advised 80 colleagues on survival techniques as today's tougher market increasingly winnows out the weak and unprepared. Some agents said they're already seeing associates departing for more lucrative work...

Ledbetter told agents they should be basing their asking prices on actual sales prices received elsewhere. That's the opposite of the boom-era and still-common practice of basing prices on others' asking prices. What Ledbetter's advice typically means is lower initial asking prices.

In a sales report last week, Mike Lyon, head of Lyon Real Estate, estimated that only one in seven homes for sale in El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties is priced to sell.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

14,600 at the beginning of July? Try 16,340. (Number from http://sacramentohousingbubble.blogspot.com/)

Anonymous said...

That is a ____load of inventory!

Garth Farkley said...

divotmaker,

May I humbly suggest you share your observations and comments re inventory and components with Max at Sacramento Housing Stats. He is a very gracious fellow, in my experience. And he also seems to be eager to be accurate as well as intellectually honest.

No. He didn't pay me for this comment and I don't even know who he is, except I've written a few comments on his blog and he's always polite and friendly. Not to mention cool graphs and a fun flipper page.

Anonymous said...

one in seven sounds about right,and i will say that that is about the same percentage i see in sonoma county.

Anonymous said...

21,000 listings?

HOw long would it take to sell the current inventory?

Anonymous said...

How many homes are for sale in Elk Grove, the home of overpriced housing?

Anonymous said...

Reno, NV has 6000 homes for sale for the first time. Reno has more houses for sale than the entire peninsula of San Francisco!!! We have padlocked houses everywhere. Check out http://www.benengebreth.org/housingtracker/location/Nevada/Reno/

So Reno is a second home and speculator mecca, or at least it once was. Salaries are not so great here and the prices were too high at the start of the bubble!!! So the crash here will be loud and powerful. Just the way it is.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the link. Check out http://www.benengebreth.org/housingtracker and scroll down to Reno. This site is a little different regarding some cities than others I have seen. However, like the others, it shows a relentless upward climb of inventoryl.

Anonymous said...

1,518 homes in 95624, 95757, and 95758 in Elk Grove?

Sounds like this is one year's worth of inventory.

That is SAD!