More pot pouri

I promised some good news in the last blog, and we have some, but not exactly as I had hoped. Effective right now we are offering to place a photo and description of for sale by owner properties on our web site, free, no obligation. To the home owner this can be a very good deal since we get a lot of traffic and it's traffic looking for homes in our market area. Inquiries are directed to the home owner, we do not collect data, we make it clear we are not listing the property. Is there a quid pro quo? Well sure, but really painless. Home owner gets additional exposure to aid in the sale of their home. We get some really good feelings about our company, probably referrals should their buyer need a mortgage, maybe referrals to buyers, and possibly if the for sale by owner thing doesn't work out, first consideration for listing the property should it become necessary. This is a classic win/win opportunity for us and for you. We are naturally restricting this offer to our market areas, Glenn, Butte, and Tehama counties generally. Our legal counsel advises we get written permission from you to put your home on our site, so we will need that. Legal counsel also, in a carefully researched 4 page opinion, shot down our other good idea. We were going to offer to do the paperwork for your private sale for a very modest fee, but the chances for crossing the line into the "practice of law" are too great and developing an "agency" relationship simply for that purpose is not a practical solution. We suggest you get a book from Nolo, link on our site, and for about $30. you can have the legal requirements in your possession. We're doing all this because we think it's wrong to erect barriers to make it difficult for people to sell their own home. We don't feel threatened by this and certainly don't view this as competition. If we can help you we will. Our feelings mainly come about because we are absolutely certain our offices provide the best economic and marketing power choice should you decide to hire someone to sell your home.
On a mortgage note, we are going to be offering reverse mortgages beginning in May. We have been approached in the past by companies encouraging us to become originators of this type of mortgage, but the fees have been excessive and I'm not convinced it's the panacea they claim. We will offer these programs only after significant consultation with the senior borrowers, and with family members as well should that seem appropriate. The company we'll be working with is a major national mortgage bank and this is a new program for them.
On a local note, our Orland office is laying there like a lump. All of Glenn county, some 19 broker offices, did 1/3 the business in March this year compared to last year. Chico on the other hand is moving very nicely, about the same sales this year as last for March, and our own office can be described as hot. Only 20 geographic miles separating the two towns but a world apart economically. I've mentioned before that we have stat counters on the hits on our listed properties, and Chico runs between 4-5 times the hits on comparably priced property. A sobering factoid and maybe an indication that Orland prices have to come down some. Reading statistics is easy, accurately interpreting them is not.
Running long-
As usual, thanks for visiting