Friday, June 08, 2007

Saving the Sacramento Real Estate Market with Night Lights & Kings Magnets

From the Sacramento Bee:

A magnet for sales

What do real estate agents really need to boost sales? The answer was on display this week when members of the California Association of Realtors came to town to lobby the Legislature -- and roam a Sacramento Convention Center expo. Sure, there were the perennial title insurers, sign post makers (Show special: $29.95) and lenders -- "Loans, we have loans." But look what else was on display in the exhibition hall:

• Night lights on top of For Sale signs. In a tough market that requires every competitive edge, it "provides up to 150 more selling hours per month," the advertising brochure said.

• The pocket mortgage calculator. People are always asking, "How much?" The salesman whipped out his calculator, punched in a $300,000 loan at 6 percent and had the answer in three seconds flat. Sold!

• A cell phone headset that eliminates in-car noise, crying children and fellow agents in cubicles. "It's what they use in NASCAR," said the saleswoman.

• Refrigerator magnets, also known as "lead generation tools." Said a Minnesota-based salesman: "The Sacramento Kings (magnet) is one of our most popular products."

No kidding, you say.

"At least in this area," he said.
From the Modesto Bee:
"In this market, it's vital to be priced right from day one," said Daniel Maez, a Realtor with Century 21 M&M and Associates.

Kathy Rodriguez, a broker with California Prudential Real Estate, said a seller wants his or her house to be priced in the lowest 10 percent of similar homes on the market. "In today's highest inventory, less than 10 percent of the homes on the market are going from active to pending to sold," Rodriguez said.
...
Mike Kline, a broker with ReMax Executive, said many sellers have a tough time setting a realistic price in today's market. "Our marketplace has changed, and you are no longer going to get the same price you got in November of 2005," said Kline, who has worked in the real estate business for 35 years.
From Forbes:
Market corrections follow three basic recovery patterns. A V-shaped recovery where a market experiences a sharp, fast decline but comes out strong once it hits bottom; a U-shaped recovery, where prices decline gradually and recover slowly; and an L-shaped curve, a hard, fast fall with paltry price bounceback following the market trough.
...
Slower recovery rates are expected in markets such as Minneapolis and Boston, where a slumping local economy, slow job growth and negative migration numbers hamper long term prospects. Along with other U-shaped markets like Sacramento, that have double-digit subprime lending share, Zandi says it's going to be harder for these markets to get going again.
From the Sacramento Bee:
Still going ... going ...

That big foreclosure auction on June 23 at Cal Expo is drawing "good, but not great" response, said Robert Friedman, chairman of the Irvine-based auction firm, Real Estate Disposition Corp. Friedman said 220 bidders have registered for 107 area houses being auctioned.
From the Stockton Record:
According to Shelly Cannon-Keely, office specialist in the Stockton office of commercial real-estate brokerage firm CB Richard Ellis, as the soft housing market has affected the office sector, the vacancy rate for all types of office space in San Joaquin County rose to nearly 7.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.

5 comments:

patient renter said...

If only someone had told my neighbor about the nightlight thing before they gave up on trying to sell their house.

norcaljeff said...

I wasn't certain a college degree was needed for realtors to do their job...then I read the SacBee article today and confirmed my suspicions. Maybe they can take jobs as meter readers for PG&E and bring clients with them to show houses on their routes.

Cmyst said...

These folks could never get jobs as meter readers. That's considered a good, blue-collar job with above average pay and if you are hired on by SMUD, at least, as a regular worker vs. a temp, you get good benefits as well.

Wadin' In said...

Only "220 bidders have registered for 107 area houses being auctioned."

Maybe that is because the auction allows shill bidding up to the selling lender's undisclosed reserve price. It is right in the auction rules. Check this statement out from a "winning" bidder at the US Home Auction in LA last month, posted on Ben's blog:

‘I was trying to get it for under $300,000, but another bidder stayed right in there with me,’ he says of the competition, which he finally won with a $320,000 bid.”

He was probably bidding against the seller's shill, to drive up the price! FUGLY stupidity.

norcaljeff said...

Cmyst, lol, thanks for the correction, I think you're right. My apologies to the meter readers out there for the analogy.