This selling season of 2009 started me thinking about the home buying process. What most agents are missing today is the ability to carry low ball offers. Agents want easy deals. Offering list price for a property seems to be what agents think they should do. No one wants the reputation for being a bottom feeder. Agency seems to have gotten so sophisticated that no one wants to offend any body.
I’ve looked at a lot of properties that sold for more than retail. In checking numbers for the Seattle area 2004 and 2005 pricing seems to be what properties are selling for. In some cases properties bought in 2004 and 2005 are selling for those purchase prices plus 10%. It’s absolutely crazy.
For all the talk this past two years about a Real Estate Bubble people are still paying over inflated prices for properties. What really gets me is that good value properties sit on the market with an over inflated asking prices. No one makes an offer. Agents don’t even look. Agents make up some rational in their heads about a property and avoid it. I had such a listing this year that I will post about more in the future.
My real point was that the web 2.0 experience of having listings and tax information on the internet was supposed to make the process more transparent. Consumers, armed with the sacred Real Estate agent information were supposed to get better “deals.” It looks like with all the information people are paying too much by doing the work themselves. The Real Estate information is still gathered and sent out by the Real Estate community. Where is that a benefit to the consumer? How much experience does the consumer have to interpret that information?
Let me go on to my own personal rant. I have been asked to leave a couple of Real Estate offices because I deal with investors. That’s a nice way to say that I am a bottom feeder. In the world of bottom feeders some people consider me the bottom of the bottom feeder barrel. I have no system, no tapes to sell you, no books for you to read, and no get rich quick scheme to promote. I see a good deal and some one should buy it, or I should buy it. Getting scammed by the FICO scores or what the bank wants is for the rubes. I buy the bones. If I can’t buy it I get some one who will buy it for me.
The point of this post is that this Spring and Summer selling season, after all the talk on the internet, people paid more than full retail for properties. Even the internet providers of Real Estate information admit there is a lag in data of home prices trending down. Consumers ignore the information, and the data, to believe that the low interest rates, and tax credit will compensate them for paying premium prices for properties.
Just because a property is priced below 2007 levels doesn’t make it a bargain. I’m going to bring in some data for you to look at because in my own way I feel pretty vindicated for my career.
