Notice Anything Different Over At RE Technology?

The website devoted to chronicling the changes in technology that impact the real estate industry has finished a refresh of their branding efforts and the new logo is now up across all their outlets. CEO Victor Lund told HousingWire, "The letter ‘t’ in the company name is designed to form the trunk of a tree, representing our deep roots within the real estate industry. [It] reflects our core ideals of knowledge and growth for real estate professionals as well as our own expertise grown through many years of experience." The same depth of content for agents and brokers is still front and center on their homepage, but the company is taking its own credo to heart and keeping up with the changing trends of the public.

Foreclosures, Not As Big An Impact As We Thought

Today CoreLogic released a report that shows completed foreclosures for the month of April are down 24% compared to a year ago. That makes it seventeen straight months that foreclosures have declined across the country. There are a little over a million properties at some stage of the foreclosure process during any given month, which is plenty to be sure, but the number is steadily decreasing. Florida and California are still the states that have the highest number of foreclosures and any of the states that require a judicial foreclosure process are also towards the top of the list. But all that talk about a shadow inventory flooding the market doesn't look like it is going to materialize. The lenders have streamlined their foreclosure alert teams (okay, so they don't call them that) and many of the properties that could have become foreclosures are going the way of the short sale. Banks got smart fast.

Curb Your Enthusiasm For Housing's Return to Normalcy

Could rising interest rates improve the housing market? Last week's article by real estate reporter Nick Timiraos for the Wall Street Journal listed four reason why we shouldn't get too excited that housing is going to make a rebound and one of the items on the list suggests interest rates would need to rise before a true turnaround can be achieved. The thinking goes that if interest rates rise fewer people will want to refinance so banks are going to have to turn elsewhere to keep cash coming in the door. And that means they just might ease up the lending standards and give a guy a loan. Go here to read some of the more unexpected reasons why housing needs to think outside the box if it wants to get back to normalcy.

Pocket Listings: A Temporary High

A perennial conversation around real estate agent circles is whether or not pocket listings are a force for good or evil. Some say they should be allowed because it usually benefits the buyer/seller if the agent reduces their commission while others say it isn't a fair practice to keep houses off the 'fair' market economy. The recent NAR Mid Year conference asked some important questions about the subject, but  that conversation as well as any of the other discussions we've seen still focus on some of the old ways of doing real estate.

As the industry undergoes the massive upheaval and moves away from a property-centric model towards one that emphasizes what people want to buy many of the issues surrounding off-market listings fall away. Once sellers (and potential sellers) see what Buyers are looking for it becomes less about protecting privacy and more about getting the attention of that Buyer's real estate agent as soon as possible.

What Today's Buyers Are Thinking

Every quarter the real estate firm Redfin surveys buyers that are actively working with their agents to get a sense of the buyer mood and the latest report has a few slivers of good news for sellers. Namely, that buyers realize they're going to have to pay more in this 'sellers' market. The survey pulls from twenty-two major cities where Redfin operates and polls approximately 1,300 people who have toured homes with Redfin in the past three months. Besides the fact that more buyers realize they're going to have to pay more, other trends that percolated up from the data include the attraction of low interest rates and the belief that prices are only going to rise so it is better to buy now than to wait. Go here for the full synopsis with a few charts that explain it all.

The Best Way To Secure A New Listing

In this age of extremely low inventory it seems not a day goes by without a real estate expert claiming they have the best/most fantastic/sure-fire/no-fail ways to attract new sellers. or generic tips to win new listings. 

Those approaches work some of the time, but require a huge investment of time and money for the real estate agent and resemble a scattershot method—just throw the everything out there and see what sticks. Too many resources are wasted on leads that aren't going to go anywhere. 

Really, there is only one guaranteed way to convince a seller to list with you: demonstrate that you have direct access to buyers who want to buy a house like theirs. With BuyerMLS agents can skip the direct mail approach, leave behind the excessive drip marketing emails, and say goodbye to hosting repeated open houses. Showing up to a listing presentation with a list of pre-qualified buyers at the ready is the biggest advantage an agent can bring to the table and with BuyerMLS the process takes less time than a phone call. Agents such as Brian Preston (Wayne, PA) and Sue Adler (NJ) can prove they have the buyers!

NAHREP: 3 Million New Home Owners Could be on the Horizon

Today, NAR reports that "The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals estimates that immigration reform could bring an estimated pool of 3 million new home owners into the market. The nonprofit trade association estimates that current legislation proposing to give legal status to some immigrants has the potential to generate $500 billion in real estate transactions over a five-year period." Full article here.

This is an interesting tie to the Immigration debate raging in Congress today and one worth keeping an eye on since the "supply/demand" for real estate is essential to the market's functioning well.

Here's a great infographic from NAHREP on this hot trending topic.

WSJ: Existing-Home Sales Hit Highest Level Since November '09

ALAN ZIBEL And SARAH PORTLOCK from the WSJ report today that "the housing market continued its rebound last month, with sales of previously owned homes reaching the highest level in more than three years and a shrinking share of foreclosures purchased." Full article here (subscription required).

In spite of the statistical jubliation here, the authors also state that "the results were slightly below expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast sales would rise by 1.4% on a monthly to a pace of 4.99 million. The previous month's figures were revised upward to a reading of 4.94 million."

We at BuyerMLS believe this is clearly attributable to the lack of inventory, which is a nationwide phenomenon. Real estate professionals will likely find the upcoming quarters challenging to get the inventory needed to make their sales numbers. Tools like BuyerMLS are naturals for helping "farming" efforts to win new listings.

Markets Getting Too Hot? Financing Constraints, Inventory Shortages Should Help Keep Them in Check

Our friends at Forbes posted this great article, by noted real estate expert Ken Harney, which carefully balances many of the issues facing real estate professionals today as well as buyers and sellers.  Of primary importance is this section: when contrasting the difference between real estate "booms", Harney states the powerful truth that this time IS different as it pertains to inventory: "There’s another key difference: Although inventories of homes listed for sale were tight during portions of the boom years, they were generally not as severe as  today’s shortages." Read on for more. 

Get the full article here (no subscription required for this one).

Have some housing markets gotten too hot, too fast?

"Looking solely at recent price changes at first glance, it makes you pause and wonder. Entire swaths of California are seeing double-digit annual price jumps seem eerily similar to the boom years. Markets in parts of Florida, Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere are also seeing rapid price gains that might cause you to ask: Could this be déjà vu all over again?

Take Santa Barbara, California, as an extreme example. According to the latest multiple listing service data from realtor.com, median list prices in this high-cost, highly sought after enclave on the Pacific were up by 56.2 percent year over year. Between February and March alone list prices soared by 15.2 percent, bringing the median to $795,000, California’s second most expensive major market after San Francisco.

Get the full article here (no subscription required for this one).