Top 10 Hottest Markets In CT & Why Your Buyers Need to Buy Before 2020
IBM sues Zillow over multiple charges of patent infringement
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is suing real estate tech giant Zillow over seven charges of patent infringement related to a host of computer processes that Zillow uses to run its website.
The lawsuit alleges that Zillow essentially built its business on the back of IBM’s inventions. IBM, in the suit, says it first contacted Zillow to negotiate over the use of patent technology in 2016. Over the course of the next three years, it reached out to Zillow multiple times, each time informing the company of different patent technology it was using on its website and mobile app.
A spokesperson for Zillow told Inman the company believes the claims are without merit.
Manor deemed 'haunted' by a court of law returns to market
New York’s most notorious haunted house has hit the market for $1.9 million.
The home, a 15-room Victorian manor on the Hudson River, first made global headlines in the 1980s after Wall Street bond trader Jefrrey Stambovsky bought the Nyack, New York, house and sued its former owner, Helen Ackley, for not disclosing that it was full of ghosts and poltergeists.
Based in part on the fact that past owners played up the home’s haunted history for paranormal walking tours, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the house was indeed haunted in 1991.
5 things every agent must do to reach the next level
1. Learn to proactively generate leads
Build a sphere of influence around the people you already know and can ask for referrals and hosting open houses that draw attention and yield new clients.
2. Use social media to build and expand your footprint
Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. LinkedIn. Reddit? In a landscape where social media platforms are consistently being created, updated or shuttering (Vine), it can be hard for real estate agents to decide where to build their digital footprint. Try them all and use the ones that work best!
3. Defeat your fears about content creation
New agents must focus on social media and free blogging platforms as hubs for their content because they likely don’t have the budget for a customized website yet.
4. Understand your personality and use it to your benefit
Many agents study the top producer in their office and try to replicate their actions. But adopting a cookie-cutter approach to lead generation and business simply doesn’t work.
Instead, agents should take the time to study their personality and tailor their business tactics and interactions to what naturally fits.
5. Optimize your schedule by identifying what’s ‘truly important’
It’s not about getting everything done — it’s about focusing on the priorities that get you closer to your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime goals.
6 Steps To Price New listing
How do you set a proper list price that will both satisfy your seller and attract qualified buyers? You find that magic number in the six steps to pricing a new listing:
1. Push the envelope, but have a plan ‘B’ in place
When it comes to listing a house, you must be aware of the fine line between “priced to sell” and “priced to keep.”
2. Think ‘multiple’
Every listing agent’s goal is to wake-up in the morning and find multiple offers in their inbox. They might all very well be below the list price, but with every offer, you are now able to send out multiple counteroffers that will certainly assist in bringing out every buyer’s bottom line.
3. Don’t use ‘fake’ or false data
Someone once said that there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
Many agents pull or rely on comps or data from sales that have no relevance.
4. Avoid monkey see, monkey do
When it comes to finding the best price listing for you client, don’t fall into the “monkey see, monkey do” syndrome. It’s very important that you price your listing based on what you believe is the best price, not what other active properties are listing.
5. Be proactive not reactive
Our market is in a constant flux. Interest rates rise, demand falls. Demand falls, prices become stagnant. When stagnation hits, creative and innovate marketing, as well as proactiveness, must happen before the other properties in the area make the same adjustments.
6. Be prepared to walk away from a listing
There will be times when you and the seller will be too far apart in agreeing on a list price to anticipate a positive outcome, and your best course of action will be to simply walk away.
In the end, there will be two disappointed and frustrated people. You, for spending all your time and resources on a listing that did not sell, and the seller, for wasting valuable market time with zero results.
Know when the best option might be to walk away.
Are open houses worth it? How to ensure they’re not time-wasters
1. Successful open houses begin with thoughtful preparation
Knowing which day to hold the open house is important.
Don’t schedule it on a day when a local event such as a football game, golf tournament, or street festival is held. Don’t schedule it on a holiday, when people are likely to be away on vacation.
2. Plan your advertising and promotion for the open house
You need to know how to get actual prospective buyers and their agents to the open house.
The list should include the following:
• Online marketing — Advertise on all of your social media sites including your business Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as your own web site.
• Broadcast emails — You should send an email to your client and prospect database as well as to your agent network including those in your firm, local Realtor association, and Multiple Listing Service.
• Postcards — Send postcards to the neighbors and other select contacts in your database informing them of the open house.
• MLS open house announcement — Most MLS systems provide an opportunity for you to announce your open house. This is probably the best way to reach agents who might have buyers looking for a home in the area where your listing is located.
• Signage — Place an “Open House” sign in your listing’s front yard next to your “For Sale” sign. Balloons or colorful pennant flags work great in bringing attention to the sign. Make sure you have pointer signs at various locations including at the front of the neighborhood and nearby road intersections. Remember to follow all local and homeowner association sign ordinances when installing your signage.
3. Managing your open house
Remind your client that their property needs to be clean and “ready to go” for this event.
House completely clean and no unpleasant smells in the house.
You might want to utilize an electronic open house registration program that you download to your smartphone or laptop.
Provide refreshments.
Don’t just “stand around” or sit on the family room couch during the open house. Walk around and ask questions about what the buyers are looking for in a home and what their time frame for purchasing a property is.
Listen for feedback — positive or negative. An open house can provide an opportunity to “hear” what people think of the home and share what they like and don’t like about it.
The attendees can also tell you their opinion of why the house has not sold. Is it priced too high? Is there something wrong with its appearance or features? Is the backyard not large enough? Ask, and they will tell.
4. Be prepared for the ‘looky-loos’!
Not everyone who comes to an open house is a potential buyer.
Don’t do an open house just to do an open house.
4 reasons your buyer clients need to purchase before 2020
1. They can take advantage of year-end tax benefits
When your clients choose to buy this year instead of next, they’ll see the resulting tax perks sooner. If your clients purchase a home this year and make energy-efficient upgrades, they can get tax breaks that will be less next year.
2. Prices are down in some markets
Analysts also say some factors make the current housing market particularly favorable to people who are ready to buy.
3. Mortgage rates are declining
Mortgage rates are probably top-of-mind concerns for many of your buyer clients. The rates they receive depend on factors both within and outside of their control.
4. 2020 could bring even more uncertainty to the economy
Half of the real estate economists and experts surveyed by Zillow in late July believe that a recession will occur in 2020.
At the close of a sluggish home sale season, here are the 10 towns where real estate is hot in Connecticut
A third of buyers and sellers don't want to live in a political minority
An estimated 38 percent of American homebuyers and sellers reported reluctance to move to an area where their views would be in the political minority.
Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the age group that is the least hesitant and most enthusiastic about the prospect of moving somewhere where they’d be in the political minority.
Just 16 percent of people aged 65 and older reported enthusiasm about being a political minority.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is suing real estate tech giant Zillow over seven charges of patent infringement related to a host of computer processes that Zillow uses to run its website.
The lawsuit alleges that Zillow essentially built its business on the back of IBM’s inventions. IBM, in the suit, says it first contacted Zillow to negotiate over the use of patent technology in 2016. Over the course of the next three years, it reached out to Zillow multiple times, each time informing the company of different patent technology it was using on its website and mobile app.
A spokesperson for Zillow told Inman the company believes the claims are without merit.
Manor deemed 'haunted' by a court of law returns to market
New York’s most notorious haunted house has hit the market for $1.9 million.
The home, a 15-room Victorian manor on the Hudson River, first made global headlines in the 1980s after Wall Street bond trader Jefrrey Stambovsky bought the Nyack, New York, house and sued its former owner, Helen Ackley, for not disclosing that it was full of ghosts and poltergeists.
Based in part on the fact that past owners played up the home’s haunted history for paranormal walking tours, the New York Supreme Court ruled that the house was indeed haunted in 1991.
5 things every agent must do to reach the next level
1. Learn to proactively generate leads
Build a sphere of influence around the people you already know and can ask for referrals and hosting open houses that draw attention and yield new clients.
2. Use social media to build and expand your footprint
Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. LinkedIn. Reddit? In a landscape where social media platforms are consistently being created, updated or shuttering (Vine), it can be hard for real estate agents to decide where to build their digital footprint. Try them all and use the ones that work best!
3. Defeat your fears about content creation
New agents must focus on social media and free blogging platforms as hubs for their content because they likely don’t have the budget for a customized website yet.
4. Understand your personality and use it to your benefit
Many agents study the top producer in their office and try to replicate their actions. But adopting a cookie-cutter approach to lead generation and business simply doesn’t work.
Instead, agents should take the time to study their personality and tailor their business tactics and interactions to what naturally fits.
5. Optimize your schedule by identifying what’s ‘truly important’
It’s not about getting everything done — it’s about focusing on the priorities that get you closer to your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and lifetime goals.
6 Steps To Price New listing
How do you set a proper list price that will both satisfy your seller and attract qualified buyers? You find that magic number in the six steps to pricing a new listing:
1. Push the envelope, but have a plan ‘B’ in place
When it comes to listing a house, you must be aware of the fine line between “priced to sell” and “priced to keep.”
2. Think ‘multiple’
Every listing agent’s goal is to wake-up in the morning and find multiple offers in their inbox. They might all very well be below the list price, but with every offer, you are now able to send out multiple counteroffers that will certainly assist in bringing out every buyer’s bottom line.
3. Don’t use ‘fake’ or false data
Someone once said that there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.
Many agents pull or rely on comps or data from sales that have no relevance.
4. Avoid monkey see, monkey do
When it comes to finding the best price listing for you client, don’t fall into the “monkey see, monkey do” syndrome. It’s very important that you price your listing based on what you believe is the best price, not what other active properties are listing.
5. Be proactive not reactive
Our market is in a constant flux. Interest rates rise, demand falls. Demand falls, prices become stagnant. When stagnation hits, creative and innovate marketing, as well as proactiveness, must happen before the other properties in the area make the same adjustments.
6. Be prepared to walk away from a listing
There will be times when you and the seller will be too far apart in agreeing on a list price to anticipate a positive outcome, and your best course of action will be to simply walk away.
In the end, there will be two disappointed and frustrated people. You, for spending all your time and resources on a listing that did not sell, and the seller, for wasting valuable market time with zero results.
Know when the best option might be to walk away.
Are open houses worth it? How to ensure they’re not time-wasters
1. Successful open houses begin with thoughtful preparation
Knowing which day to hold the open house is important.
Don’t schedule it on a day when a local event such as a football game, golf tournament, or street festival is held. Don’t schedule it on a holiday, when people are likely to be away on vacation.
2. Plan your advertising and promotion for the open house
You need to know how to get actual prospective buyers and their agents to the open house.
The list should include the following:
• Online marketing — Advertise on all of your social media sites including your business Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, as well as your own web site.
• Broadcast emails — You should send an email to your client and prospect database as well as to your agent network including those in your firm, local Realtor association, and Multiple Listing Service.
• Postcards — Send postcards to the neighbors and other select contacts in your database informing them of the open house.
• MLS open house announcement — Most MLS systems provide an opportunity for you to announce your open house. This is probably the best way to reach agents who might have buyers looking for a home in the area where your listing is located.
• Signage — Place an “Open House” sign in your listing’s front yard next to your “For Sale” sign. Balloons or colorful pennant flags work great in bringing attention to the sign. Make sure you have pointer signs at various locations including at the front of the neighborhood and nearby road intersections. Remember to follow all local and homeowner association sign ordinances when installing your signage.
3. Managing your open house
Remind your client that their property needs to be clean and “ready to go” for this event.
House completely clean and no unpleasant smells in the house.
You might want to utilize an electronic open house registration program that you download to your smartphone or laptop.
Provide refreshments.
Don’t just “stand around” or sit on the family room couch during the open house. Walk around and ask questions about what the buyers are looking for in a home and what their time frame for purchasing a property is.
Listen for feedback — positive or negative. An open house can provide an opportunity to “hear” what people think of the home and share what they like and don’t like about it.
The attendees can also tell you their opinion of why the house has not sold. Is it priced too high? Is there something wrong with its appearance or features? Is the backyard not large enough? Ask, and they will tell.
4. Be prepared for the ‘looky-loos’!
Not everyone who comes to an open house is a potential buyer.
Don’t do an open house just to do an open house.
4 reasons your buyer clients need to purchase before 2020
1. They can take advantage of year-end tax benefits
When your clients choose to buy this year instead of next, they’ll see the resulting tax perks sooner. If your clients purchase a home this year and make energy-efficient upgrades, they can get tax breaks that will be less next year.
2. Prices are down in some markets
Analysts also say some factors make the current housing market particularly favorable to people who are ready to buy.
3. Mortgage rates are declining
Mortgage rates are probably top-of-mind concerns for many of your buyer clients. The rates they receive depend on factors both within and outside of their control.
4. 2020 could bring even more uncertainty to the economy
Half of the real estate economists and experts surveyed by Zillow in late July believe that a recession will occur in 2020.
At the close of a sluggish home sale season, here are the 10 towns where real estate is hot in Connecticut
A third of buyers and sellers don't want to live in a political minority
An estimated 38 percent of American homebuyers and sellers reported reluctance to move to an area where their views would be in the political minority.
Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the age group that is the least hesitant and most enthusiastic about the prospect of moving somewhere where they’d be in the political minority.
Just 16 percent of people aged 65 and older reported enthusiasm about being a political minority.