Murfreesboro Tennessee Real Estate

In this episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee John delves into the September 2009 Market Statistics for Rutherford County.

A few years ago when real estate was booming, the difference between agents was much less pronounced.  However, in today’s more difficult market, your choice of Realtor could save or cost you thousands of dollars in the sale of your home.  Here are just a few areas where your choice of real estate agent can make a huge difference:

Market Knowledge

Today it’s a different world when it comes to pricing a house to sell.  It used to be that you could just price yours a little higher than the last one that sold in your neighborhood and your selling worries were over.  In the current market, if you don’t look at home inventory absorption rates when pricing your house, it can easily stagnate on the market for months; and in most cases, homes that sit end up selling for less than those priced correctly on the front end.

Marketing

Few agents possess the unique combination of money and knowledge required to stay on the cutting edge of marketing homes.  In addition to all of the traditional advertising outlets, today’s top agents need expertise in such areas as IDX technology, search engine optimization (both organic and pay-per-click), web video, and listing syndication, as well as the necessary resources to pay for proper implementation that leads to maximum exposure of your home to potential buyers. Marketing is a full time job. Agents who try to sell your home using a yard sign, the MLS, and a prayer just don’t have the right tools to be effective in today’s market.

Support Staff

If your listing agent is out showing homes and a potential buyer calls with a question about your home, who answers the phone?  Employing a real estate team to sell your home is now more important than ever.  Having a well-trained, live person answering every buyer call provides the best opportunity to convert that prospect into the purchaser of your home.  Other support staff, such as Listing and Closing Coordinators, make sure important details are covered in a timely fashion and that little issues are discovered and dealt with long before they become deal-killing problems.

The internet and social media have had a huge impact on how real estate information is shared. In this episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee John shares how the web has affected his real estate business and the effects the internet has had on Realtors in general both here in middle Tennessee and across the country.

If you just have to buy that short sale, here are a few tips to help you survive the process and hopefully close the sale. 

Have Patience

Short sales rarely close in less than 90 days and some banks regularly take six months or more just to respond to your offer.  If you’re not prepared to wait at least 120 days to get an acceptance, rejection, or counter to your offer, you’re probably better off staying away from short sales.

Make Sure the Short Sale is actually a Good Deal

Many consumers have gotten it into their heads that all short sales are great deals.  Check the comparable sales to see if the value of the house truly outweighs the time and potential headaches that come with the short sale process.  Keep in mind that many banks require the property to sell in as-is condition.  Also, unless it has already been approved by the bank, the list price means little.  A full-price offer is no guarantee the sale will be approved.

Submit a ‘Clean’ Offer

Don’t ask for a bunch of seller concessions in your offer.  Many banks have guidelines in place that automatically reject offers asking for such things as seller-paid closing costs, home warranties, and repair allowances.  Often the terms of the contract are just as important to the bank as the purchase price.

The Listing Agent will Make or Break the Deal  

You know you hate it. You're at a listing and fighting that measuring tape to go where you want it, how you want it, and stay in place. Agents meet the Sonar Ruler. This new iPhone App can measure distances of up to 60 feet by sending a short pulse (more like a clicking noise) to the wall of what-have-you and measuring how long it takes to return to the phone...and it's pretty darn accurate. I wouldn't measure inches with it by any means, but for measuring smaller rooms this inexpensive app allows you to get a very close estimation, which you're more than likely going to round anyway. I still haven't found a cheap solution for larger rooms, so you'll probably still need your tape measure if the home's got good sized living space, but for your typical bedrooms the Sonar Ruler iPhone App is just the ticket.

Buy it now for only $0.99 HERE.

Well, that's a very bold question. It could! The Canon EOS 7D not only expands on the functions of the uber-cool (and uber-expensive) Canon 5D Mark II but it actually simplifies them too. You can check out all the specs here.

For real estate agents this camera will put bothan 18mp (mega pixel) DSLR camera and a full HD video camera in your hands for under $2000 ($1700 for the body only or $1900 with the lens) making it about $800 cheaper than the 5DMKII. This is great for all you would be videographersout there who want to shoot video of your home listings or just post a video blog. The camera has a cool in-camera trim feature (only for the beginning and end of the video) and can record either 1080p at 30 fps (or 25 or 24) or 720p at 60p. It records with the H.264 codec which is now the web standard and outputs to a .MOV file, making your footage ready for upload to YouTube or what-have-you straight out of the camera. The built in mono microphone is expected to be "only OK" like the 5DMK2's and probably not as good as the Nikon D90's (but that's OK because you're all going to be using the stereo mic input anyway RIGHT). Here's some footage so you can see this baby in action.

And for those of you who think that looks to good to be true for your untrained or unskilled hands here's what to expect as a novice. And if you're REALLY concerned about the video functions of the Canon EOS 7D read this.

For your photos you'll love the addition of a built-in flash. For you real estate photographers out there, the wireless flash control will also be a great new feature, as will the 7D's new dual axis electronic level. As we all expected, it has autobracketing so HDR photography should be as easy as pie. The new custom controls feature will keep all of your favorite functions handy.

The EOS 7D also has a new viewfinder allowing a 100% view of your shot, making framing your shot easier and cutting down on Photoshop time cropping later. It has an upgraded autofocus and from what I can tell the low light sensitivity looks pretty darn good. What more could we ask for you ask. Essentially nothing. I'd prefer a full 35mm sensor the the APS-C CMOS sensor, but that's just personal taste because of my lens collection. Now it looks like I'll be adding a new wide angle lens to my collection to cope with the 1.6x cropping but other than that the 35mm Canon lenses should be manageable.

When and where can I get one you ask? The release date is "Late September", that reminds me of a song by some good friends (see player below), but word on the street is that pre-orders from Best Buy ship October 15th and I expect B&H will have a similar timeline.

So why do I think the Canon EOS 7D has the potential to change our industry? Simply put it can improve your pictures whether it's by sheer quality or wider lenses and will put the power of professional flash and/or HDR photography into just about any Realtor's hands (a quick study here can aid you with that). Meanwhile, real estate agents will be able to do videos of homes (which you'll post and syndicate via www.TubeMogul.com) and start or improve on their video blogs. This camera has everything you need in one handy-dandy little package that won't break the bank.

I've decided it's time to bring some real estate humor back to our website so I'm posting this video that our first blog subscribers saw a couple of years ago before our blog was hosted on our site. I'll be adding more humorous content soon. Enjoy!

In this episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee we interview some of the Nation's top Realtors to find out what they believe sets the best real estate agents apart and gets homes sold.

For those who didn't see the video on www.TuesdayMorningCoffee.com I explained absorption rate positioning. It's actually a very simple concept and I'm surprised more agents aren't using it. In essence you look at how many comparable homes are currently on the market, how many of them have been selling per month, and then calculate your odds of selling. For instance, if there are 42 properties in the $250-300K price range in North Murfreesboro and 3 are selling each month it will take approx. 14.3 months for all those properties plus yours to sell. In this case the odds of selling within a month are 7 percent.

Now realistically compare your home to the competition from a buyer's perspective (these are not necessarily homes in your neighborhood but all the homes your "profile buyer" will be considering). This allows you to set your price according to how long you’re willing to let you home sit on the market.

Based on this example the top 3 homes, what I like to call "the prettiest girls at the dance", should almost certainly sell within 30 days. The top 6 homes will stand a 50% chance of selling within 30 days, while the top 9 competing homes are looking at a 33% chance of selling within a month. Assuming you’re in a position to sell and your agent is marketing the home properly, the ability to sell rests in your hands. 

You can price the home to sit with the others or you can price your home to sell and move on. In this market you'll usually make up the difference of pricing competitively on your new home anyway.

This edition of Tuesday Morning Coffee is an explanation of how you can position your home to sell quickly by analyzing the absorption rates and pricing your property accordingly. It's not as complicated as you think and IT REALLY WORKS! No guesswork involded...the key is to not kid yourself on where your home stands amongst the competition.