Thoughts on Marketing…

You can’t tell by reading what’s coming in the e-mail lately.

One report says prices bottomed out last September and the market is once again on the rise. Prices will be up and sales will be brisk. The source for that report was a quote from someone at the National Association of Realtors.

In the same batch of mail, another report listed 130,000 pending foreclosures and the biggest drop in prices that the country has ever seen. This is in response to the creative financing that lured people into gambling on a higher income by the time their house payments increased. For too many, it simply didn’t happen.

As a former real estate broker, I know from experience that a glut of repossessed properties do cool down prices in a given market. Mortgage companies want to get those houses turned back into income as quickly as possible, and don’t want to spend money on maintaing them. So they drop prices at set intervals until they’re sold.

That creates lower priced competition for the other homes.

Our market here in North Idaho exploded in 2004 – 2005, with prices doubling and tripling. I had just taken my license off the wall and friends were asking me if I was insane to quit when things were going crazy.

Maybe I was – but since I like life so much more now, maybe I wasn’t!

Meanwhile, I was asking agents if they were putting drugs in the coffee or something, because people were paying ridiculous prices for mediocre properties.

Then, just when agents were getting used to people beating down their doors to give them money, the market slowed in 2006. Sellers didn’t drop their prices, but buyers seemed to have regained some sense.

We all get to sit back and watch to see what happens next, but one thing is certain: The agents and FSBO sellers who use sound marketing techniques and well-written ad copy will have the edge. With hundreds of properties out there, only the well-marketed ones will be noticed.

And that reminds me… If you haven’t already signed up for my weekly Real Estate Help ezine, please do. I send tips and ideas for both Realtors and FSBO sellers each week – along with advice on how to avoid the common mistakes that send buyers running the other way.

Just send a blank email to: realestatehelp@getresponse.com.

Well, it doesn’t have to be blank. You can send me a note with it if you’d like. Or else you can post a comment right here. I think I’ve finally overcome my technical challenge so I’ll be back here every day.

Meanwhile, how about posting a comment and letting us know what the market is doing in YOUR part of the country?