2007 March | St Louis Real Estate Voice

Archive for March, 2007

Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.31.2007

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch - March 23rd, 2007

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

St. Louis Real Estate Market Report for the week of March 23rd, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report for March 2007

Report formatting information

Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.24.2007

St. Louis Real Estate Tax - higher tax bills might be coming!

Filed under: Real Estate News

St. Louis Real Estate Roses St. Louis Real Estate tax assessors must have rose colored glasses!

“Higher tax bills might be coming. . . Under a complicated valuation scheme, some owners will pay more.” - by Clay Barbour - St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Good Lord, all I was doing was enjoying my bagel and coffee this morning at The St. Louis Bread Co., when I glanced at a discarded newspaper and choked on the headlines. I don’t read the paper often, especially the St. Louis Post Dispatch, however, that headline deserved my attention.

Here are some of the highlights:

median values of St. Louis County homes increased 22% during the past two years.
the average median value of a St. Louis County house - as of Jan 1, 2007 - was $162,300

Since I’m both a home owner (taxpayer) and a Realtor, my curiosity really peaked. It peaked enough to send me directly to my computer to jump on the Realtor data base (MARIS) and run some statistics myself. Clay, did you bother to ask them about their data base? or if they have heard about the bubble? or did you just grab their press release and run with it?

Fantasy vs. Reality

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Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.20.2007

St. Louis Real Estate Voice vs. St. Louis Post Dispatch

Filed under: Real Estate News

St. Louis Real Estate Tax Assesment: my phone call to the snowman!

I spoke with some very nice people that became very nervous when I made it clear about the purpose of the call, then the transferring began. I finally landed . . .thud. . .on Russ’s telephone. . .a very nice man. I told Russ about my interest in the St. Louis Post Dispatch article and identified myself as a Realtor. I told him I was curious as to why my data was so different from the St. Louis County Records?

Me: Russ, why does my data differ from your data.
Russ: Ours is older, we have lower values and we are trying to catch up.

Me: Huh?
Me: I looked at the same time period specified in your report. . .how could your data be older?
I broke the data down by SOLD, and School District, and Median Value.
Russ: Right, but you have fresh data, ours is older and we have lower values and we’re trying to catch up.

Me: So how do I explain to a client that his home really didn’t appreciate 20% over the last two years?
He thinks I’m trying to low ball him to make a quick sale or your trying to screw him!
Russ: Tell him we have older data, lower values, and are trying to catch up!

Me: OH! OK, well thanks for your time explaining it to me.
Russ: Sure, no problem.

So, my interpretation of this is that they have lower values, older data, and are trying to catch up. . .just look out for the KETCHUP!

Click here to read Part 1

Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.20.2007

Challenges Unrepresented Sellers Face In Today’s Market

Filed under: For Sellers, Unrepresented Seller(FSBO)

I’ve just spent the better part of a day talking to “unrepresented sellers”; (can you say FSBO??) These sellers are in the real estate marketplace unrepresented for usually one of four reasons.

Number One: The Neighbor
They remember a couple of years ago, maybe back to 2003 or 2004, when their neighbor down the street sold his home unrepresented in 45 days or less, AND for asking price. The neighbor put a sign in the front yard, put an ad in the local paper and held an open house every weekend. That worked then.

Number Two: The Agent
They have had their home listed within the last year, with little to no activity, no showings, or offers. They don’t know if their agent did a good job or not, all they know is the house didn’t sell with an agent, so why should they do that again?

Number Three: The Commission
They’ve talked to real estate companies, and agents and understand that they will have to pay a COMMISSION of somewhere between 5-6% if an agent lists the home. In a moderately priced home, the homeowner possibly feels that they cannot afford to pay a commission. In a luxury, higher priced home, a 5-6% commission seems like one hell’uv a lot of money, and what exactly did that agent do to earn that money??

Number Four: The Try
They are just going to “try it for a while” and then if it doesn’t sell, they will list it with somebody. Maybe their best friend, or a relative who is in real estate.

A sign in the yard is important still, and possibly an ad in a local newspaper. Open houses are important to the unrepresented seller, as the only means to show the home to potential buyers. However, if the unrespresented seller is not doing something to drive traffic to their sign, ad or open house, why bother at all??

Yes, many unrepresented sellers can use the internet to advertise, including using the Multiple Listing Service in their city for a small fee. Web sites such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Owners.com, FSBO.com, etc… can be used, but you usually have to pay fees to some of these web sites to get listings “featured” or “enhanced” to really showcase your home and make sure that it is on one of the first pages of homes when someone does a search on the site.

Most unrespresented sellers, in an effort to save money, don’t do this, even though statistics show that about 80% of all home buyers start looking on the internet. An internet presence, with pictures, virtual tours, and great descriptions of the home are needed, coupled with an ability to get your internet presence “seen” by the major web sites and search engines.

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Posted by art | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.19.2007

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch - March 16th, 2007

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

St. Louis Real Estate Market Report for the week of March 16th, 2007

St. Louis Real Estate Benchmark Report March 2007

Report Formatting Information

Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.17.2007

St. Louis Real Estate Market Watch - Just the facts ma’am!

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Successfully Pricing Homes in a Shifting St. Louis Real Estate Market

The Anatomy of the St. Louis Real Estate Market

It really doesn’t matter what the national statistics are indicating. We live in a place called St. Louis and we have our own profile that should be analyzed and acted upon. In an effort to become more than a pretty face on a refrigerator, the The St. Louis Home for Sale Team will provide a weekly St. Louis County Market Report to study, question, comment on and plug into your analysis.

We look at the St. Louis County market weekly and break the report into 17 price ranges:

$100,000 - $125,000 - $150,000 - $175,000 - $200,000 - $250,000 - $300,000 - $350,000 - $400,000 - $450,000 - $500,000 - $550,000 - $600,000 - $650,000 - $700,000 - $750,000 - $800,000+

The report shows the last 6 months of results and compares the data to the same 6 months of the previous year.

The Market Analysis includes data on:

Number of Active Listings (Current)
Pending Sales (Going to closing)
Pending Ratio (Active vs.Pending)
Sold (Last 6 months)
Expired (Last 6 months)
Average List Price
Average Sale Price
Days on Market (DOM)
Months worth of Inventory (Based on current pending rate)

Buyers Market: > 7 months of listing inventory

Transitional Market: 5 - 7 months of listing inventory (sometimes called a “balanced” market)

Seller Market: < 5 months of listing inventory

Average % Sale Price/List Price (0-30), (31-60), (61-90), (91-120), (120+)DOM
Notice that your paying a penalty for over pricing. . .hey. . .it’s a fact!

The Benchmark Report is produced monthly for:

Single Family Residence
Ranch Style
1300 - 2000 sq.ft.
3 Bedrooms
1.5 Bathrooms

It is important to remember. . . that it’s impossible to “Time the Market”, it doesn’t matter what happened in 2003/2004. If you want to avoid turning up in the “Expired Listing” column when the market rejects your home, then accurate pricing is the key to selling fast. To find out more about “Successfully Pricing Your Home” email “The St. Louis Home for Sale Team” and be sure to subscribe to our blog for weekly updates.

It’s your money.

Market Report for March 09, 2007

Benchmark_Report for March, 2007

Posted by doug | Read More | Your Comments Are Welcome! | 03.16.2007