Staging tips

I came across an infographic with some of the best suggestions for staging your home for sale whether you're using a professional stager or not.  The original article is here.

New Listing Watch -- fewer new listings and fewer price reductions

Listings continue to follow the annual path of fewer listings as we approach the holidays.  Total new listings in the last two week period was 168 compared to 177 during the same period a year ago.  If the trend of previous years repeats, we will see a continued decline in new listings until after the first of the year.  Both single family homes and condos are affected.  During the most recent two week period there were 72 new single family home listings compared to 75 last year.  For condos there were 96 new listings compared to 102 last year.

Here's a different view that shows we're following the same track as the last two years.  (This trend goes back more than two years but trying to show that on a line graph just gets too busy):

Not surprisingly, the number of new listings going into contract in the same two week period has dropped:

The number of price reductions is down compared to the same period a year ago.  For single family homes there were 12 price reductions during the latest two week period compared to 19 for the same period a year ago.  For condos there were 37 compared to 46 a year ago.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Listing Watch - it's downhill from here

This time of year we begin seeing fewer and fewer new listings until we hit the bottom just after New Years.  Total new listings for the past two weeks is just about the same as the same period last year:  282 vs 287.  That's down significantly compared to the prior two weeks:  282 vs 320.

And you can see from the above graphic where we're headed.

What's a little different this year vs last year at this time is the number of price reductions which is down.  For single family homes there were 18 price reductions during the last two weeks compared to 26 a year ago.  For condos there were  35 price reductions compared to 56 in the prior period.  Compared to a year ago the difference is 18 single family homes price reductions vs 26 a year ago.  For condos there were 35 compared to 62 a year ago.

A higher percentage of new single family homes listings went into contract in the same two week period compared to the prior period (17% vs 13%) but for condos fewer new listings went into contract than in the previous period (11% vs 28%).

Listing Photo Tip

Photos, arguably, are one of the most important aspects of real estate listings.  They are what potential buyers and buyers agents use initially to decide whether a property is worth spending further time to consider or whether they will just move on to the next property on the search results list.

Many listing agents understand this and demonstrate how important photos are by hiring a professional photographer.  But then they spoil the benefit of quality photos by making one small mistake.  They take a vertically oriented photo (taller than wide) and use it as the main/first photo in the listing.  Here's what happens when that photo is displayed on the MLS and other property search engines.  In going through new listings today I ran across several examples.  Here's one:

First, here is what the photo is supposed to look like:

Here's how it appears on the MLS:

The proportions of the photo are altered so that it is stretched to fit the predetermined size and layout the MLS imposes so the proportions of the property are incorrect -- looks like a wide, squat house.

Here's how it appears on Realtor.com:

The proportions are OK but, in order to fit the photo into their predetermined layout they have cropped the top and bottom.

Here's how it appears on Trulia:

Trulia also crops the photo but to an even greater extent.

Tip:  if you don't want the main photo of your listing to be mangled by search engines (over which you have no control), always use a horizontally oriented photo (wider than tall).  You may not avoid all the distortions introduced by the search engines but you'll make a better first impression.

(I've blurred out identifying information in these photos because the point here is to provide helpful information, not to embarrass the listing agent.  This property happens to be a multi-million dollar listing by an experienced and well-respected local agent but this problem can happen to anyone.)

New Listings Heading Down

As we speculated two weeks ago, we seem to have passed the peak of new listings for the year.  Total new listings for the past two weeks is down compared to the previous two weeks (340 vs 403).  Most of the decrease was in condos (189 vs 241) with single family homes remaining steady (151 vs 162).

Compared to the same period a year ago total for the past two weeks is down (340 vs 370).

There is every reason to believe we'll follow the same track for the rest of this year as we did in the previous two years.

With new listings down, the percentage of new listings going into contract in the same two week period has ticked up both for single family homes and condos compared to the previous two weeks and the same period a year ago.

Price reductions have increased for condos compared to the previous period (49 vs 34) but about the same during the same period a year ago (49 vs 46).  Price reductions for single family homes remained essentially the same compared to the previous period (18 vs 17) but are down compared to a year ago (18 vs 25).

If this year is similar to 2016 condo buyers may see a significant number of price reductions during the next two weeks.