Houston Real Estate Market Benefits from Online Seller Advantage
Houston Fort Bend Missouri City Real Estate Market Area for May YTD 2008
>Houston Fort Bend Missouri City real estate market area ranked #2 on the Houston Hotness Index for May 2008 because 15.3% of all listings received a contract during that one month.
>The Houston Fort Bend Missouri City real estate market area has experienced 62 fewer home sales or a 7.33% decline in May YTD 2008 in comparison to 2007 with 784 home sales recorded in the Houston Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service.
>Contracts written in Fort Bend Missouri City market area are only down by 16 units in comparison to May YTD 2007 and now records 734 units [a 2.13% decline] YTD that have been recorded in HAR-MLS as pending to close.
>The market area's average sales price increased 1.01% over year-to-date May 2007 and now stands at $174,335 as compared to last years $172,599. The median sales price where half the homes sold above and half below the median is $134,000 or down by 2.65%.
>The market area's homes on the market are down by 9.47% or 108 units, which is unusual because most areas are experiencing growing inventory. There are currently 1,033 homes on the market as compared to last years 1,141.
>Houston Fort Bend Missouri City market area's second place ranking on the Houston Hotness Index in May is indicative of the market strength of the area. With fewer homes on the market than last year and the absorption rate continuing at a high pace for two months in a row, the market area is poised to be just as hot as the temperature throughout the summer months.
How To Sell Your Home For More
In today’s highly competitive real estate market, home sellers can take some significant steps to ensure their home has the best chance of selling for the highest price the market will allow. Here are five steps to help you achieve that:
- Pricing: Pay special attention to these key points:
- Homes comparable to yours that have sold most recently in your neighborhood or market area. This is a key indication of how to price your home. It also shows what actual buyers in the market have paid for homes similar to yours.
- You may also want to tour listed homes in your market area and note their condition and how they compare with yours in amenities and square footage. These homes will be competing with yours for buyer attention.
- Find out which listings in your market area have expired. These properties were essentially rejected by the market, and understanding why will keep you from making the same mistakes.
- Packaging: While pricing is very important, packaging the house is equally so. I call this the preparation and prevention stage of home selling, and if implemented correctly, it will save you time, money and frustration. Packaging can be broken out into three significant steps:
- Pre-inspection and residential service contract: Most prudent buyers order an inspection on a home before they purchase it to ensure it doesn’t have any mechanical, structural or termite defects. Inspections can put the contract in jeopardy or cost the seller more money. Defects found during the inspection can either alarm a buyer enough to opt out of the contract or to ask the seller to pay for repairs (which will lower the net profit from the sale). This risk could have been avoided by simply conducting a pre-inspection and making any repairs before the buyer was found. Providing your buyer with a residential service contract, which is a warranty covering future repairs, gives you peace of mind when you sell your home.
- Staging: Your home is customized personally for you. When you place it on the market, it needs to be transformed into a product with broad market appeal. Think of a well-appointed hotel room. It’s warm, inviting, and often features vignettes that evoke emotion or relieve stress. Fresh white linens, fluffy pillows, and maybe a decorative display of toiletries help set the scene. There are no personal items that make you feel like you are invading someone else’s territory. Declutter, depersonalize, make cosmetic repairs, and make it sparkling clean. These are the first steps to staging, and I highly recommend that you hire a professional stager or a Realtor with a staging experience. It may cost a little more, but a staged home nets a seller an average of 6 percent more than a non-staged home. Staging also plays a significant role in developing photos that make buyers on the Internet want to stop, drill down for more information and then make an appointment to view your home.
- Multiphoto marketing: Consumer research shows that most buyers find multiple home photos in a listing extremely helpful. It is very important to display multiple photos that are bright and dynamic Multiphoto marketing along with staging improves a consumer’s online experience and attracts more buyers to your property.
- Promotion: Marketing is the engine that drives the automobile. Your home will not move if it is not properly marketed. About 84 percent of buyers used the Internet to search for a home in the first six months of 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors. That statistic has been climbing every year since 1995, and the Internet is likely to continue being a major resource for home buyers. Therefore, having a Web presence on high-traffic sites is a key factor in getting your home sold. Local print advertising should also market the Web site that lists your home’s property details.
- Market feedback: The market is constantly changing. New property listings in your area and shifting buyer demand, which rises and falls throughout the year, impact your chances of selling your home. So it is always prudent to keep a watchful eye on the local market. Check out Gary Greene’s blog to learn more about keeping abreast of your local market.
- Negotiation skills: Knowing the terms of the contract and what expenses can be negotiated to net more money at closing can make a big difference.
The sale price is not the whole story, especially if the seller is bearing more expenses than necessary in the terms of the contract. When hiring a Realtor, make sure they have a good command of contracts and will be a proactive negotiator for you. How do you know? The first sign of a good negotiator is that they show confidence in their own value, appear interested in getting the most dollar for your home and cover the important aspects of selling your home, which are mentioned above.
Selling a home is not easy or fun, but taking these five key steps will make a big difference in keeping market time to a minimum and generating more net proceeds at closing.
April YTD 2008 Review of the Market for Houston and Surrounding Areas
April YTD 2008 – Single-family home sales YTD Review of the Market for Houston and surrounding areasRead all of April YTD 2008 Review of the Market for Houston and Surrounding Areas
Fort Bend - Sugar Land Real Estate
Fort Bend Sugar Land Z 29 Sugar Land area [Z29] ranked Number 1 on the Houston Hotness Index in March, with 16.2% of its listings receiving a contract during the month. The hotness ratio is measures pending sales as a percent of active listings, [current buyer demand] whereas actual sales are a measure of buyer demand in previous months. In the entire Houston MLS market area, Sugar Land had a higher percent of pending sales than any other market area in March. As a result, Sugar Land has experienced a 20.74% decline in single-family home sales over First Quarter 2007 with 298 home sales as compared to 376 home sales last year. Contracts written in Sugar Land in First Quarter 2008 are 246 units pending to close, which is 10 fewer units than last year. Sugar Lands average sales price is up by 7.57% over First Quarter 2007 and now stands at $259,704 as compared to last years $241,429. Sugar Land homes on the market are up by 25.73% with 606 homes on the market as compared to last years 482. However, if current demand continues as expected, this increase in inventory could very rapidly be absorbed. There are 4.1 months of inventory inRead all of Fort Bend - Sugar Land Real Estate
First Quarter2008 Single-family home sales
First Quarter2008 Single-family home sales
Houston Overall Statistics March YTD 2008
Single-family home sales were 13% less than found in First Quarter YTD 2007 sales with 13,240 MLS recorded sold units, In First Quarter YTD 2005, there were 12,504 MLS recorded home sales indicating that although the market is down from last year, it is up by 6% from what is currently known as the third greatest year in Houston history.
Dollar volume sold in MLS through First Quarter 2008 is $2,667,682,458 which is a 10% decline in dollar volume sold over last year. However, dollar volume is currently up by 20% from YTD 2005.
Average sales price YTD is $201,487 or 3% greater than this time last year. And how far we have come from 2005 where the average sales price was $176,544, or 14% less than current.
Active listings are up by 10% with 35,053 single-family homes on the market. In 2005, there were 29,339 single-family homes on the market or 19% fewer homes than currently found.
Contracts written, which represent 2008 First Quarter buyer demand in Houston are down 12% over this time last year with 11,109 homes that have gone under contract.
Average sales price per square foot is $87, which is the same as last year.
Days on the Market, a statistic that is good if it is declining has gone up by 11% since last year and the average time to sell a home in Houston is 90 days.
The Houston market sales year-to-date seems to be one of extremes, particularly in sales closed by price class. The number of homes sales in
1. homes priced below $79,999 are up,
2. homes priced between $80,000 - $599,999 are down in number of units sold since last year [except $300,000-$399,999 is even with last year]
3. homes priced between $600,000-$699,999 are up 2% over last year
4. homes priced between $700,000-899,999 are down over last year
5. homes priced from $900,000-$999,999 are up by 9% and
6. The largest increase of any price class above $80,000 is homes priced $1,000,000 and more. There has been a 28% increase in home sales in this price class since last year. The high-end and low-end of the housing market is driving buyer demand more than any other price class. It is unusual for Houston to see this type of price swing, which has atypically been like our average sales price depicts a predominantly middle market.
Although the Houston market in the first quarter is not as strong as last year, it is one of the most positive markets in the nation and consistently at the top of nationwide lists in terms of value for the dollar and a great place to invest.
2008 February YTD Review of the Market for Houston and Surrounding Areas
Single-Family home sales in Houston are down by 11% from year-to-date February 2007, with 8,058 recorded MLS sales, according to the Houston Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. While the Houston market has yet to catch up to the stellar years of 2006 and 2007, it is still ahead of 2005 sales by ironically, 11%.Read all of 2008 February YTD Review of the Market for Houston and Surrounding Areas
