A couple of days behind schedule for this post, but I wanted to get the month-end sales figures for our market area included. We'll do those first, and keep in mind that these are only mls reported sales and do not include any private transactions or non-member real estate agent transactions. Single family residences: Greater Chico area, 80 recorded sales, 74% of 8/2005; Glenn County, 10 recorded sales, 42% of 8/2005; Paradise, 25 recorded sales, 63% of 8/2005; Magalia, 10 recorded sales, 50% of 8/2005. We'll have to continue guessing together what this really means, simply a return to normalcy or a genuine slump. What makes it look really bad is the huge inventory on the market. My opinion holds on the reason for that, simply a great number of people fearing that they've missed cashing out on the substantial value run-up of the recent past and reluctant to face a new reality. The market is not nearly as bad as the media would have you believe, but normal doesn't make exciting TV or sell newspapers. Interest rates on the 10 year treasury notes, the touchstone for the mortgage industry, hit a 5 month low today. In other words, mortgage interest is very good indeed and favors a buying decision. Some of our prospective buyers share with us their opinion that house values are going to decline. How they know this when those of us in the business with a ton of data available don't have a clue what the future holds is beyond me. I do know though that conventional wisdom holds that when the general population thinks something is going to happen, e.g. to stock prices, commodity prices, etc., generally it already has. Bottom line in all the viewing with alarm that you see and hear; if you want or need to buy a home, do it; if you want or need to sell your home, price it realistically and it will be sold. Whatever the figures and percentages outlined above may say to you, the essential message is that 125 homes listed on the mls changed hands in just a segment of our market area, and probably a great many more that are recorded privately.
Since we introduced our cash back to buyers program we've had a bit of attention from our competition. Essentially they think we're not playing fair. That of course is true if they're considering their interest. Considering our client's interest however we're not only fair but downright generous. We keep saying the same thing, percentages of home value have no relevance in computing a fair commission for the professional marketing and sale of residential property. There have been some moves to prevent us from doing what we're doing, right up to the brink of conspiring in restraint of trade. That's department of justice talk for attempts to limit your choices in choosing representation. Many of these folks are purely money driven without regard for client interests, and they fear that if you discover you can do better for yourself with alternative programs you will choose the alternative. We think you should have all kinds of choices. We're only one of them. We really hope that you find our web site helpful and informative. We've provided access to home valuation right on site, access to all mls properties in our area, a link to a source of information if you want to go it alone, and phone numbers we hope you'll be comfortable using if you simply want to talk to someone in real estate.
This has gone on long enough. Next week I want to talk a little about the original purpose of the mls, and the NAR (National Association of Realtors), and the current state of affairs.

Zillow is in place

We just came on line today with our newly empowered site. No really dramatic appearance changes for those of you have visited before, but oh boy! under the hood. Most exciting of course is the fully integrated access within our site to the massive data base of zillow.com. No links, no messing about. Just type in your search address and up pops your data. Some elements of zillow are still not available since this thing is still in beta, but as they're added for us we'll incorporate them for you. Some cautionary notes for you. Zillow is very, very good and amazingly accurate most of the time, however use the data provided as a guide and not as carved in stone, and always in conjunction with a more formal Comparative Market Analysis provided by a knowledgeable local real estate agent if you're going to base a financial decision on the figures. With that caution it still offers a valuable addition to your own knowledge base of your current or proposed property. An assurance for you about the use of this site. At no time will this company attempt to collect, retrieve, or store data about your visit, nor will we contact you except in response to your request.
We're still in the announcing stages of our cash back program for buyers, the major ads won't break until the 24th & 25th, but we're hearing some of the sounds of discontent from our fellow real estate folks already. Small wonder I guess since it seems only logical to seek out the full service professional willing to give you half of their commission just for using their services instead of someone else's. I think I'm supposed to say "give you an amount equal to 50% of their commission". The obvious disclaimer here is that we don't give you anything if you buy one of our listed properties, after all we only charge $4995 for the entire process so the savings are already built in. There are well over 1000 other properties listed in our market area so you really can't miss. Buy one of ours with no fat built in or buy one of the others and we'll give you 1/2 the fat. We'll soon give you a pdf guide for sellers on the site. No big deal really, but sometimes in the trauma of scheduling a move or the disruption of normalcy a little reminder might suggest something that enhances your property in the eye of the prospective buyer. We want our site to be a trusted destination for sellers and buyers alike so if you have any suggestion for information that would be helpful, please let us know, on the blog, email, phone, whatever is comfortable. Let us know if you enjoy the zillow addition.

Cash Back to Home Buyers

This is the blog I promised last week and I wish I had allowed a little more time for organization, ad campaigns and such, but a promise was made so here we go. Well in a minute. Remember I said we'd provide a link to forms and things for the self help folks, and almost the next day we had a link on site to nolo.com. About $25 bucks for hard copy or download real estate guide and forms. Our web administrator is working feverishly, or so they tell me, to get our zillow interface into our site. They said this week.
Now. For home buyers. If we are engaged to help you in the purchase of a home listed by an office other than ours, MLS, etc., we will pay you an amount equal to 50% of the commission we receive. Example: purchase a $400,000 home paying 2.5% to our office, we receive $10,000, we pay you $5,000. Just that simple. The only "rule". You must provide us a signed document called a Non-Exclusive/Non-Compensating Broker/Buyer agreement, dated, prior to us showing you any property or engaging in any act on your behalf. This document simply is your agreement to allow us to represent you, binds you in no way, but does establish a date from which we can protect the commission from claims by other agents. And since you're getting half of it, you surely don't want to lose it for an oversight. You can do the math for any scenario of home price and commission percentage, but in all cases this is the single best thing that's happened for home buyers. Full professional handling through the whole process, right up to signing docs in escrow. Because we're also a mortgage broker, should that help be needed we can probably save some more money for the buyer. We can't offer to pay anything out for homes listed by our office since our flat fee of $4995 for in-house sales doesn't have any excess built in to give away. We've been committed to keeping home equity where it belongs, in the hands of the homeowner, charging reasonable fees for a professional service. We're excited to be bringing this substantial savings opportunity to home buyers who choose homes listed by other offices.

Some More About MLS Behavior

In a previous blog I mentioned that if you wanted to do your own thing and sell your home without an agent you could go by your local MLS and pick up the forms for a few bucks. Then My MLS in its wisdom, by committee no less, announced they would no longer sell forms to non-members. I noted this seemed a particularly shortsighted move. Yesterday, while visiting our MLS office on other business, I watched a non-member come in, approach the counter, and leave angrily. I asked the staff member what that was all about, and she said he had called her stupid and stormed out when she told him as a non-member she couldn't sell him any forms. While his rudeness can't be excused his attitude is understandable. He came in probably not liking real estate people and left hating them. I asked a senior staff person why they had implemented this policy and she said one of the members put the idea forward to stop the "competition" of private sales. She said also that the office was afraid of legal liability because people came in asking what forms they need and answering the question could expose them. Probably true, but denying access is not a necessary step to avoiding liability, simply tell people they need to identify the forms they want to buy. By this time today the irate citizen has probably told at least ten of his friends what a bunch of jerks real estate people are, and a bunch of "feel good" ads are not likely to reverse the impact. I've applied for the right to put a link on our website to a quality form and information provider. If it interests you, watch for it. You'll enjoy it.
Now some great news. We're going to be one of the sites that are permitted to integrate zillow.com data. That means access to that incredible data base without leaving our site. My web administrator tells me it's about 35-50 hours worth of programming time to implement and we should be getting close. We're excited since it should add a great deal of value to our visitors.
Even more exciting news is coming in the form of substantial cash savings to home buyers. Our drive has been to provide full and high level service to home sellers at substantial savings. Now we're going to bring buyers under the umbrella. Complete details of the business model will be posted here next week, in our print advertising also next week. If you're not in our market area none of this will benefit you directly, but you might want to shop around in your own home town for someone who will adopt our model.

Dry old numbers

I waited until close of business for July to do some sales comparisons for our area. Dry stuff but important if you're waiting for your home to sell, or waiting to buy one. These are all single family home figures for MLS only, no private sales, no condos, no mobile homes. Mobiles and condos are scheduled for future inclusion in the MLS count which will muddy the water for future comparisons. Greater Chico area 06 YTD, 511; 05 YTD, 660. Glenn county,(mainly Orland/Willows), 06 YTD, 102; 05 YTD, 120. Magalia 06 YTD, 77; 05 YTD 147. Paradise 06 YTD 180; 05 YTD 266. Do the figures have some meaning? Probably, but we can guess along together. Magalia suffered the greatest percentage loss and is farthest from occupation centers. Paradise is next farthest and suffered the next greatest loss. Chico is an occupation center and suffered the next greatest loss, while Glenn county suffered the least loss in sales and both major towns are freeway access communities. Coincidence or meaningful, I don't know. Fuel prices are impacting families greatly, particularly now with the surge in food prices. Utility bills in the heat wave are through the roof. We're paying PG&E well over the $1,000 a month mark for two small offices and one average home. I remember when we were a whole lot younger and we were sailing in Newport, CA harbor on a small sailboat we had just contracted to buy with the guy who sold it to us. He looked around and said " I wonder what the poor people are doing?" I told him two of them were sitting in the boat with him. Well here it is many years later and we're back in the boat.
Interest rates do not appear to be a major factor in buyer decisions. An appraiser acquaintance told me his office was picking up business, but most of it foreclosure work. Don't like to hear that. The trauma that people go through in that situation is a heartbreaker, never mind that they maybe reached a little too far and are now trapped. I hope those of us in the business have the chance to help them, but in an economy where it requires two incomes to buy a house, there are not many options available. This thing is starting to sound gloom and doomy, and that is not the intent or my reaction to circumstances. Real estate has always been cyclical and will always be so. If you want or need to sell a house, this is as good a time as any to do it. Likewise for buying. Anyone who believes they can pick the top or bottom of any market has probably never felt the thrill or chill of watching their stock portfolio expand or evaporate, seemingly without human intervention, so if you're in the mood to buy or sell, go for it. Just plan carefully and choose wisely.