People Using Internet, But Their REALTORS Don't

Even in 2007 my field continues to be full of laggers and disbelieving real estate agents in regards to the use of the Internet as a tool to sell their client's homes. Check out these alarming statistics from Inman News:

"In the latest National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, based on a survey of 7,500 home buyers and sellers, 80 percent of home buyers used the Internet in searching for a home, up from 77 percent in the 2005 survey and 74 percent in 2004.

Meanwhile, a 2006 survey by media research firm Borrell Associates Inc. found that 61 percent of real estate agents do not advertise on the Internet and 87 percent of agents do not buy keyword advertising from the Google or Yahoo search-engine companies."

If your REALTOR is not using the Internet to sell your home, you are not getting what you deserve. The Internet is how the world buys and sells homes today! Be sure and ask a lot of questions before you list your home with just any agent. Make sure you REALTOR is tech-savvy, understands the Internet consumer and their behavior patterns, and has a ton of digital selling experience. If they don't, move on quickly.

Use the following minimum standards to evaluate your REALTOR's ability to sell your home in this new century:

1. How many personal websites do they own and use? Who conducts their Internet marketing? Do they have any paid Internet advertising? What amount of traffic does each site receive every day? If your house isn't out there and not being Internet marketed, no one will find it! You'll have less buyers and as a result get less money for your home.

2. Is the REALTOR prepared to send out e-documents in response to email and website inquiries? This should include the listing, plat maps, pictures (both video and still), CD's, relocation packets for the area, statistics for schools and other important buyer concerns, business cards, e-flyers, and anything else an inquiring buyer from out of the area may need know to make a decision to purchase your home. Most REALTORS can't do these tasks because they don't have the technology and wouldn't know how to use it if they did. Make sure your agent is firmly planted in the 21st century - like the buyers!

3. Agents must have a very fast response time on the Internet. Internet users want immediate results, so make sure your REALTOR gives it to them. Otherwise, the buyer will buy somebody else's listing - from the agent who answered the buyer's inquiries when yours didn't.

A final note: I have 20 websites wherein I actively advertise my listings 24/7/365 across the world. A good half of the buyers for my listings now originate from these websites. Old fashioned newspaper ads, homes magazines, and other low-tech methods DO NOT WORK with today's mainstream buyer, instead they are designed to showcase the REALTOR's face to the local market. How does that sell your home to buyers from across the globe? The answer is, it doesn't. Interview your REALTOR carefully, hire the person who you best resonate with, and then get ready for sales success!

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Romancing the Sale

I just discovered a really good article advising home sellers on 20 points to make their home more salable to potential buyers. I agree wholeheartedly with every point made. However, there are a few other things that I have found to be critical when selling/staging a home:

1. My sellers receive many compliments when, right before a showing, they bake a cookie or two in the oven. Just keep a a Toll House Cookie roll handy in the fridge. 30 minutes before the showing, take one cookie and bake it up. The warm, welcoming odor is a hit every time. If you can, bake up a bunch of cookies, leave them on a plate with a note for the potential buyers such as, "Thanks so much for touring our home!" This technique is unbelievably charming and totally unforgettable.

2. Make sure your curb appeal is top notch. Nothing sitting out, lawn is perfect, flowers watered, and anything else that entices buyers inward. An important part of this is the front door. Be sure to have it looking its very best.

3. Keep windows shiny clean. This is something that adds a million bucks to buyers' impression of your place, even if they don't know it. Shiny is good, VERY good. Make sure kitchens and bathrooms are sparkling, too.

4. Always leave for showings. The buyers' agent knows what they are looking for, but you don't. Let the agent do their job with your buyers. They will appropriately point out all the issues that the buyer will want to see. Further, when you stick around like a bad fungus, showing minute features of the home that the buyers may not care much about, you create a an uncomfortable situation. Then the buyer just won't think the new place feels like home.

See 20 other great tips at: Broker Agent News

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

The Tax Consequences of Flipping Real Estate

Anybody who is thinking of "flipping" properties should read this sensible and informative article in Broker Agent News before they even consider starting out. Be sure and consult your attorney and tax professionals as well.

Tax Consequences of Flipping Real Estate - If you're not careful, you'll be making huge profits - for the IRS!

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Goodbye 2/28 Loans, We'll Miss You!

Freddie Mac announced this month that he would no longer be buying risky 2/28 loans. Most of us know these loans as the kind that borrowers with damaged credit take on in order to purchase a home. In fact 4 out of 5 sub prime loans are 2/28's. This loan helps the buyer get into a house with two years of low fixed payments. At the end of 2 years, the loan switches to a variable rate potentially making the home owner's monthly payment shoot sky high. The game plan with these loans is that buyers will improve their credit during the 24 months of fixed payments, then refinance into a 30-year fixed option at the end of the 2 years.

I guess Freddie has found these loans to be too risky, hence too expensive. Foreclosure rates are enormous with these loans, so it was only a matter of time before it came to this. Freddie claims that he will be think-tanking new kinds of loans for borrowers with troubled credit, but what that is and who it will serve remains to be seen. Article in REALTOR Magazine

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

5 Reasons Why the Real Estate Market Trumps the Stock Market

This author presents 5 excellent "comfort reasons" why people consistently choose to invest in Real Estate over stocks. Do you agree with is assessment? Read more about it here ...

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Top 7 Habits of People with Great Credit Scores

As a student of credit practices and score raising, I was impressed when I read this article from Broker Agent Magazine. The 7 tips they list are spot-on when it comes to improving and keeping an awesome credit score. I personally fell into the number one problem, thinking that I was actually doing the right thing for my credit! Read the article here

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Eye in the Sky - Google Earth v. 8 is out!

I just happened to stumble upon this newest version of Google Earth and it is extraordinary! If you don't yet have this tool, download it here at Google Earth. It takes some time and some fiddling to download and install, but it is well worth every second you spend to get it going. If I had grandkids (if only - sigh) I would be showing them the many great wonders of the world with this incredible tool.
This picture above is an overview of my neighborhood in the the summer months. I am told that Google updates its satellite images every 6 months, although I had no trouble observing the Katrina devastation shortly after it happened. If you don't have this yet, go get it right now and have a ton of interesting fun.

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

When "Seller is Willing to Pay Closing Costs" Doesn't Mean Seller Will Pay Closing Costs

REALTOR Magazine is reporting that as many as 30% of home buyers nationally don't put any money down when buying a home. As an experienced Utah REALTOR, I actually found that number to be shockingly low. I don't have the official Utah numbers, but I can relate that most (maybe 90%) of my buyers do not put any money down on their new home. Further, nearly 100% of these buyers ALSO finance in their closing costs. In Utah we call that concept "Seller's Concessions."

Say for example a purchaser makes an offer on a $100,000 home. In the old days, the buyer would be expected to bring 20% of that, or $20,000 to the table, and finance the other $80,000. But over time, home ownership was declining because it was more and more difficult for families to scrape together this kind of money. "No Down Payment" programs sprung out of the country's need for more Amercans to own homes. My buyers who do have cash, and could potentially put the cash into the purchase, are opting instead to keep the cash for things like window treatments and other move-in expenses. Of course, this raises the payment significantly, but current generations are not worried about being in debt like their grandparents were. So, as long as the payment works correctly into the proper debt-to-income ratio, the buyer is good to go with no significant raise in their loan's interest rate. Many more people who otherwise couldn't, now own homes because of these programs.

Something else that is very common in Utah is to finance in the closing costs as well. Typically we verbalize this concept in the contract with a phrase such as: "Seller to pay for buyer's closing costs and fees, not to exceed 3% of the purchase price." It's likely sellers will get themselves in a wad over this, but this verbiage is actually misleading.

Let's take our example, the $100,000 home. The buyer wants to finance the full amount (no down payment). Further, this buyer does not have the cash to pay the lender's closing costs (around 3% of the loan amount) so they are asking for the sellers to pay them. When we write the contract, however, we would write it for a purchase price of $103,000 to compensate for the full amount the buyer wants to finance.

At funding, distribution looks like this: $100,000 goes to the seller, $3,000 goes to the lender making the loan, and the buyer finances $103,000. The seller still gets the same amount of money in the sale, but the buyer is financing more. Surprisingly, there is still no appreciable increase in interest rate, even though the lender is now assuming ALL the risk.

The problem with this scenario is now the buyer has paid 103% of the value of the home. They are immediately upside down. Discouraging, but the truth of the matter is that there are many more homeowners in our country now because of these kinds of loans. So many people in Utah choose this option that unless they have held their home long enough to pay down the balance, or enjoy substantial increased appreciation, they can't sell the house for what they owe. Ouch.

This is so common in Utah that we now sport the number 1 spot in foreclosures in the country. People can't sell the house for more than it is worth, and they don't have the money to make up the difference. So, they walk away from the house and either short-sale it or allow a foreclosure.

When buying a home under these conditions, be careful and ask questions. Make sure you understand your loan product and that your REALTOR asks a lot of questions of your behalf.

Click here for the full REALTOR.com article.

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Absentee Landlords Beware!

Check out this interesting story in Inman News. It exposes the activities of scam artists who search out unkempt homes in quiet neighborhoods. This supposedly signals that the owner is likely to be an absentee landlord. Once found, the criminals forge a quit claim deed in the seller's name which allows the crooks to take control of the property. Next, they inform the renters that there are the new owners and boot the renters out. From there it's easy to sell the place before anybody is the wiser. Long distance landlords often have no idea their investment property has been targeted until it is too late. Read more ...

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

The Dumbest Client I Ever Had

She was a REALTOR. A very good one, actually. She was also my client. One morning, while she was driving one of her favorite neighborhoods looking for new listings, she came across a house. A very nice house. And, it was for sale.

Within an hour she had made an appointment to see it. By noon I was writing the contract for her. It was a full price offer. She was so taken with the house that there wasn't really any way to talk sense into her about offering even just a little less. This, even though the listing said straight out, "Seller will consider all offers" which of course is REALTOR code talk for, "Seller is really, really, really desperate."

Much to my client's glee, the seller accepted the offer the same day. It was a short contract, so I got to work coordinating the lender, home inspector, geologist, title company, and movers. When the handsome home inspector couldn't keep his appointment, she foolishly brushed it off. "I'm sure the house is fine" she excitedly declared to all her friends. Oy.

The house closed and she moved in on a sweltering August day. She immediately discovered that the air-conditioning didn't work, the garage door wouldn't close, the light switches did not operate any known light fixtures, the sprinkler system was hard wired into a socket in the basement ceiling, the appliances weren't green tagged, the back door would not open, the roof leaked at the skylights, the hot water heater wouldn't stay lit, one side of the driveway was 3 inches lower than the other, and her daughter had an encounter with an enormous hobo spider named Joe who was none too happy with the new occupants.

You might be wondering how I know this. I know because only a fool has themselves for a client. Yup, my client was me. Due to buyer infatuation and various other buyer stupidities, I broke rules that I would never, ever, EVER let my clients break! Dum-BO.

The moral of this story is (everybody say it together): always get a home inspection when buying a home!

(By the way, I still like the house. I've actually become very handy because of it. That's it, up there in the corner. :-)

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

Reverse Mortgages Taking Off

Everybody's heard of the new fangled mortgage called a "Reverse Mortgage", yes? They are primarily designed for people 62 or older who are "house rich and cash poor." A reverse mortgage allows the owner of the home to take the money out of the home over a several year period. The idea being that your house will pay you cash to take care of expenses you incur in your later years. It seems like an okay idea until you're tapped out. Then what? Just my opinion, but I would consider a reverse mortgage ONLY as a last resort in a desperate situation.

To find out more, put "reverse mortgage" into a search engine, or see this thoughtful article on this subject on the HGTV website. Also, AARP has dedicated a website to the subject at AARP Reverse Mortgages. Check it out.

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

51% of Women Now Single; Make 83% of Consumer Decisions

I heard just recently that the majority of American woman are now single. I guess some folks are figuring out what many of us have known for a long time - Independence, both financial and time wise, is a lovely joy. Not that marriage isn't, mind you. I did that for 20 years. I just happen to like Independence better. Much better.

And apparently I am not alone. Many women over 40 are relishing the "me" years. Not so much because they have become selfish (can a mom really ever do that?) but because they feel as though they are closer to accomplishing what they think is important in life. The kids are grown and there are no ties to bind. For me, it is a blissful world where I feel totally in control of every interesting and wonderful decision I make.

And speaking of decisions, did you know that American women make 83% of consumer decisions? I read this recently in a REALTOR Magazine Article. This article points out the 10 top items women want in a home:

1. De-stressing areas. Women want options in the master bath.
2. Rear foyers are important. Don’t call it a mudroom and do include lots of storage.
3. Don’t forget that people gather in the kitchen, and size matters.
4. Consider unique needs of blended families who don’t want to share bathrooms.
5. Busy women demand closet organization systems.
6. Women crave kitchen storage. They are cooking less, not eating less.
7. Natural light makes her happy: in the master suite, over the bath tub, and in the shower.
8. Outdoor maintenance is a burden to women, so use things like maintenance-free decking.
9. Women like change, so incorporate flexibility into designs.
10. Home-based businesses are female dream jobs, so include home offices where it can happen.

I can't say that I disagree! I see this in my clients and in myself. Home builders and REALTORS - take note!

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker

It's my first blog, so go easy on me

I'm just finishing up my new website and getting ready to post it to all my real estate URLs. It's been a grueling labor of love, but I was especially excited to add this blog to it.

Every day I come across interesting "home" stuff that always makes me wish I had a way of sharing it all with my clients. Posting to the websites is cumbersome, especially on my time table. This way I can quickly post whatever it is I find that interests me in hopes it interests you too.

Other exciting new additions to my website include a "family album." If you are a past client, I'll be calling you to take a picture of you and your new home. I know, I know, you don't want to. But, you are like family to me and I'm determined to get my family album going! Be ready ....

Your comments are always welcome here, as are you. Paix - Jennifer

Jennifer Bunker, CRS, GRI
Utah Real Estate Broker