They are everywhere!

Take a look at the “For Sale” signs in your neighborhood and if it is like mine almost everyone has a “Price Reduced” rider attached. Why are price reductions the number one daily activity on MLS and what can someone putting their house on the market this autumn do to avoid having to do weekly price reductions? Take a look at my column at Rocklin & Roseville today, “Price Reduced!” and see if I have the right answer. BTW, when you are there take note of the new and easy to use RSS feed for my column and the online newspaper.

Today is one of the special days of the year, Halloween. The energy level and excitement it generates in our children is amazing. Have a safe and Happy Halloween.

The Gift of Time

I started a Blog entry today about price reductions. It is a topic I have some passionate feelings about and before I knew it my entry was way too long for the blog so will continue to work on it and post it next week in my Rocklin and Roseville column.

I have an unexpected day off as some buyers I was scheduled to work with today had to head home unexpectedly. I was looking forward to meeting them as they are a referral from Jennifer, who is a new friend and someone I enjoy spending time with. At the same time having a day to spend with my “boys” during this glorious time of year is a real gift and we are going to celebrate by attending Mikie’s soccer game this morning and being outside as much as we can all day long.

Hey, if you are out and about tomorrow in the Natomas area, stop by and say hello and see a great family home. I am holding an open house at 339 Alcantar Circle (map) and would love to have some visitors. It is a great house with all sorts of surprises so come by, see it, say hi and get some trick ‘r treat candy too!

The Gift of Time

I started a Blog entry today about price reductions. It is a topic I have some passionate feelings about and before I knew it my entry was way too long for the blog so will continue to work on it and post it next week in my Rocklin and Roseville column.

I have an unexpected day off as some buyers I was scheduled to work with today had to head home unexpectedly. I was looking forward to meeting them as they are a referral from Jennifer, who is a new friend and someone I enjoy spending time with. At the same time having a day to spend with my “boys” during this glorious time of year is a real gift and we are going to celebrate by attending Mikie’s soccer game this morning and being outside as much as we can all day long.

Hey, if you are out and about tomorrow in the Natomas area, stop by and say hello and see a great family home. I am holding an open house at 339 Alcantar Circle (map) and would love to have some visitors. It is a great house with all sorts of surprises so come by, see it, say hi and get some trick ‘r treat candy too!

The Gift of Time

I started a Blog entry today about price reductions. It is a topic I have some passionate feelings about and before I knew it my entry was way too long for the blog so will continue to work on it and post it next week in my Rocklin and Roseville column.

I have an unexpected day off as some buyers I was scheduled to work with today had to head home unexpectedly. I was looking forward to meeting them as they are a referral from Jennifer, who is a new friend and someone I enjoy spending time with. At the same time having a day to spend with my “boys” during this glorious time of year is a real gift and we are going to celebrate by attending Mikie’s soccer game this morning and being outside as much as we can all day long.

Hey, if you are out and about tomorrow in the Natomas area, stop by and say hello and see a great family home. I am holding an open house at 339 Alcantar Circle (map) and would love to have some visitors. It is a great house with all sorts of surprises so come by, see it, say hi and get some trick ‘r treat candy too!

State results don't tell local story

The recent release of September real estate activity by the California Association of Realtors indicates that sales are down from last year but prices are up. While prices being up may be true for many cities throughout the State not many in our Greater Sacramento area saw price increases from last year. In our area prices have been down. Just to give a few, the city of Sacramento median price in September was $330,000 down 2.94 percent from a year ago. Roseville on 199 closed transactions has a 17.9 percent decline in their median sales price to $400,472 and Rocklin experienced a decline of 12.6 percent from last year to $445,500 on 79 transactions. To read more about this report see my column today, “Sales down, prices up in California” over at Rocklin & Roseville Today.

By the way I want to write an article on the emotional attachments we have for our homes and how to manage that when we decide to sell. In today’s buyers market, how do sellers control their hearts when faced with an insulting offer for the home they love? If you have any ideas or even experiences you would be willing to share please send them to me at, mailto:myheart@jalone.com.

Enough!

I just read another article about some knucklehead in Washington who believes Realtors and real estate agents are strangling the real estate industry. Pretty easy to sit back and say, as a seller, you’d rather not pay us a commission to sell your home. Okay, I understand that feeling but remember how complicated buying and selling a house has become since you did it last. How long ago was that? Take a look at my column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today, “Realtors Add Value to Buyers and Sellers” where I try to point out we agents are not so bad.

Welcome Traci Butler

I am very excited to welcome Traci Butler to our Lyon Real Estate group. Traci is a wonderful person, a fine Realtor and good friend who will be working closely with me. Although we each have our own independent businesses we have joined together to provide support, creativity and old fashioned client service. Our joint goal is to provide high quality service to our clients. Too often in this business, you seem to be needed in two places at the same time. Now with Traci on board we have a better chance at meeting those needs! Over the next few weeks I will be making some changes to the website including adding more information about Traci.

Starting to Happen

The hot days of summer are now a memory as is the days when homes were selling before a sign could be placed in the front yard. Even though our real estate market is not hot is not dead either. Over the past few months we are seeing definite signs of life and resiliency in our local market. For more details see my column today at Rocklin & Roseville Today.

Staying Busy

The days continue to be busy and more often than not, too busy. I have been working with my new assistant, Kelly Baker, and am starting to see how valuable she is going to be in helping me meet the needs of my clients.

Our open houses were a success on Sunday, but wish a few of you had stopped by to say hello. We held my Greywood and Barnwood properties in Diamond Woods area of West Roseville. They are only a few blocks apart so we were able to send visitors back and forth. We had serious lookers in both homes, one couple has now come back to see the Barnwood property several times and said they were meeting with their lender and Realtor this week. I have my fingers crossed, it is a beautiful home and should have a family living it.

On Saturday our family helped my client friends, Joe and Erin, move into their first home. It is a “sweet” home in the Natomas area and it was fun to see them so excited!

Yesterday I added a new listing; a wonderful condo in the Crosswoods planned development of Citrus Heights. What a spectacular setting, nestled in among mature shade trees and well kept lawns this is one of the nicest condo developments I have ever seen. The units are like duplexes each with garages and yards. Keep an eye on my front page; I should have the listing page built soon with some pictures.

Let’s see what today brings….

Signs of Life

Home sales appear to be bottoming out with lower prices attracting buyers in many areas of the country, says NAR. Although real estate is a local industry I do think the National Association of Realtors (NAR) may be saying something that has some relevance here in our Sacramento area.

David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said the housing market is showing signs of life and that sales may be leveling out. “Many potential home buyers who have been taking a wait-and-see attitude or taking their time and being methodical in the search process are being enticed by lower home prices,” Lereah said. “Given a positive economic backdrop of lower interest rates and job creation, we expect sales activity to pick up early next year.”

I am not going to comment on next year at this point but I am feeling and seeing more buying activity. My listings have had a fair number of showing the past few weeks and I had good traffic at my open house last week so agree the lower prices are getting more buyers out shopping. I will also say they continue to lack any sense of urgency and it seems to take forever from looking to writing an offer.

To read the full article from NAR, follow this link,
Home Prices Correcting, Buyers Returning to the Market, to the NAR web site.

Sacramento Inventory Decline is a Positive Trend

If you have been reading my blog you know that one of the items I have been watching closely over the past year has been the available homes in the Greater Sacramento area. One of the sites I have used to do this is HousingTracker. I have recently discovered they have a new site which changes their definition of Sacramento. Although the old site included some communities outside of Sacramento the new site includes even more. I believe the broader look at our local market provides better information so I am pleased start passing on some of their reports.

As of October 9, the new HousingTracker site reports Sacramento available inventory at 16,985 (compared to 11,428 using the old and narrower definition of Sacramento). This is down 398 homes from the week before and down from a high of 18,227 reported on August 28th. The inventory of homes is down 4.1 percent in the past month and is clearly a positive trend in our market.

HousingTracker is also showing a steady decline in the median asking price for homes on the market. Over the last month it has dropped 1.8 percent to 420,000 and 4.5 percent in the last five months. The positive news here is the prices have now dropped to a level where it appears many of the buyers who were waiting or “sitting on the fence” have started to shop.

Hey, I will be holding open both of my West Roseville – Diamond Woods listing this Sunday from 2 to 5 PM. Come by Greywood and Barnwood, say hello and take a look at two very nice homes. Please check out my new listing in Natomas too.

By the way, Michael and I are helping one of our clients move into their new home on Saturday. Now that is going the extra mile!

Pricing for Results

Late last year I wrote the above titled article and had it published on several websites. At the time I felt pretty good about it but when I saw it the other day I realized what I was writing about may have more relevance today than it did then. Although the inventory of available home appears to have peaked and is slowing declining we are now seeing large numbers of price reductions every day. Sellers cannot afford to go on the market with a price tag larger than they are willing to take and then chase the competition with small price decreases. I firmly believe you have to lead the competition to get attention from the buyers.

I republished “Pricing for Results” in my weekly column over at Rocklin & Roseville Today or you can see it on my website here.

I’d love some feedback on this so please send me an email and let me know if you agree to think I am “all wet.”

What happened to those lazy days?

The lazy days of summer are a distant memory. Around here, every day seems to busier than the last. We ended last week with some very good activity on my listings. I did an Open House at my Greywood property and had the best turnout I have had in some time. The shoppers were serious and I think one couple may be back. In the same neighborhood, my Barnwood listing has had several showings in the past few days and it is only a matter of time before someone falls in love with this beauty. Back in Rocklin, we have finally had some serious lookers at my Fairway listing and for the price this may be one of the best deals around. As you may have noticed from my website, I have a new listing in a very nice neighborhood in North Highlands. This is a unique home, being sold by the original buyer who has lived in the home since 1953. For its age this home is in amazing condition and is immaculate. There is a lot of house for only $279,000 and is worth a closer look.

This week we have hired an assistant for me. I have finally come to the conclusion that to continue to provide the kind of service my clients deserve I need more help. Kelly Baker has three years of experience working in busy real estate offices and brings a wealth of skill and knowledge to our office. So I will be spending some time in the office bringing Kelly up to speed and then there is tomorrow.

Fall is always an exciting time but I’d like one more of the lazy days of summer!

More on Inventory

One of the critical components of the current slowdown in our Sacramento real estate market is the high level of inventory. For most of the past year the number of homes coming on to the market has significantly surpassed those sold leading to an inventory level that has been about three times what it was just 18 months ago.

The latest numbers from HousingTracker indicate that we are starting to see a steady decline in the level of inventory. Their report on Sacramento includes some surrounding cities but is a good barometer of the overall market. From a high of 12,180 homes in mid-August we have come down to 11,449 as of October 1. From September 1 this is a decline of 4.8 percent in available homes.

We have a long way to go to even get back to a balanced market between buyers and sellers but it is heading in the right direction.

This has been a busy week for us; we have hired an experienced real estate administrator to help with customer service, transaction coordination and general support. Over the next week or two I will be introducing my concept of working with others to provide enhanced customer service and support. In addition, I am headed to a document signing today for my longest running clients. I have been working with Joe and Erin for almost three years, looking for the perfect home. They have become more than clients and I am almost as excited as they are to see them finally move out of their “too small” apartment into a beautiful home.

Pricing & Negotiating

There is nothing more important than starting off with the right price and being willing to negotiate with buyers to make a deal happen. I detail an interesting experience from the past week in my latest column at Rocklin & Roseville Today. Take a look at it, “Market Surprises” and let me know what you think by sending me an email. I love to hear from readers, even when they disagree.