Seller Tips Archives - Page 14 of 18

What does the election mean for my Real Estate investment?

November 16, 2016 By Tayson Rockefeller Leave a Comment

I am going to do my best to tie this article to National trends, events that have an affect on Real Estate (such as elections), and the seemingly cyclical Real Estate pattern that applies in almost all cases, barring any outside catastrophe.

Hours after our recent election, it seemed as if the National election result(s) were catastrophic, though that subsided quickly, and the markets rallied. Yes, there are talks of rising interest rates which can also have an affect, but things seem to be settling back into place. In my opinion (as far as Real Estate goes) things settled right back in their respective place with regards to the Real Estate cycle, more on these economic cycles below.

The question is, will that last? Will the transition into the next President’s era once again upset the current cycle? I don’t think so. An a associate of mine sent an article from Harvard University (source below) that also seems to back that prediction.

The article talks about economic cycles with regards to Real Estate, and the phases of the cycles after recession. The cycle ultimately leads to another recession, due to oversupply (history shows us we never learn) Our last recession was 2008.

While reviewing the cyclical pattern ternds (the article refers to them as Market Cycle Quadrants) in the article, my small market mind’s gears were turning – “Where are WE now in the current cycle?” My answer was somewhere right above Long Term Occupancy average, during a period while vacancy is declining, and new construction is just now staring to occur. For those of you not referencing the article, The quadrants are broken into 4 phases of the cycle;

Phase I – Recovery
Phase II – Expansion
Phase III – Hypersupply
Phase IIII – Recession

I later discovered that the article also answers my question above, and we’re on the same page in terms of where we are in the current cycle, in the beginning stage of the expansion phase. All of that aside, I need to get back on track with regards to the election, how it may affect our market, and tie all of this together.

The great thing about this article is that it provides for a timeline, and even shows a nifty graph depicting these market cycles. It is actually quite remarkable. The findings go back to 1819 to gather data, and locate the peaks in Land Values, Construction, and Business. The average interval is approximately 18 years with one exception, WWII. The good news? I don’t see any clear pattern with regards to election cycles years, and these respective market swings.

For those of you refusing to open this fascinating article, and the contributors to the information in the article are correct, the next housing market recession will be in 2024.

Does that mean our local community is immune to a localized bubble filled with our own “hypersupply” will not affect us? Nope. Check out next week’s article.

Source: https://extension.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-use-real-estate-trends-to-predict-the-next-housing-bubble/

Psychology and your Agent

November 10, 2016 By Tayson Rockefeller 1 Comment

As a preface to this article, I must say that I am a very straightforward real estate agent. If you are looking for someone to tell you that you can get a bargain on a piece of property that you likely cannot, I’m probably not your agent. I am also not going to tell someone they can obtain a certain price for their property in an effort to obtain a listing, or to appear optimistic. I provide values based on market statistics, and that’s usually the end of the story.

However, I will say that there are instances where real estate agents, including myself, will conform to the thought process of their customers. I’m not saying that real estate agents make special efforts to act differently in different scenarios like some of our politicians do, but in some regards, this is how people are. We try to relate to our customers to form a friendship, and gain trust.

When it comes to your attitude, or thought process when establishing a relationship with a real estate agent, it’s important to keep this in mind. For instance, if you are the type of person that uses brute sales tactic in order to make a clear indication that you only purchase bargain properties, and you make that clear to your agent right off the bat, your agent might bend his or her regular thought process or way of doing business in order to conform to your thought process and strategy. In markets where properties are selling quickly and prices are on the rise, it might be in your best interest to let your agent take the lead in terms of how to act in certain scenarios, especially if you’re looking at property you actually want to purchase, not just looking for the best bang for the buck or an investment property.

Recently I was working with a customer looking at luxury properties, which don’t seem to absorb into the marketplace nearly as quickly – as say a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom starter home. While viewing these properties, the quintessential salesman type listing agent we met at the property told us the home was receiving multiple showings per week, and they didn’t anticipate it would last very long. My customer kept saying over and over how much that particular agent reminded him of that typical sales person, and he “could see right through it”. Me, trying to establish a relationship, (and while trying be as transparent as possible), agreed with him. At the end of our day, I asked him to keep in mind what the agent said regardless of how we both felt about the situation. 2 months later, every property this particular person was looking at was later withdrawn from the market or sold, and it was my fault for not properly explaining how urgent the situation was. On a side note, it’s important to understand that waiting for the price to reduce doesn’t mean that is what is going to happen. People do remove properties from the market as situations change, which has the same affect. In some cases, some increase the price.

As always, this type of scenario can work both ways in different markets. If you are in a hurry to sell, remember that your listing agent has a fiduciary duty to keep that information confidential. If you don’t properly explain your situation to your listing agent, and tell that agent that you are a firm negotiator who only accepts top dollar, your agent is likely going to conform to what he or she thinks your needs are. If you tell your agent you will only look at homes with hardwood floors, guess what…

At the end of the day, transparency is best. The point of my article is to allow your relationship with your agent to grow naturally. Be yourself, and unless you are an expert in that local market, listen to what your agent has to say. If you don’t agree with your agent, or you don’t particularly like them based on the way they naturally introduce themselves to you, move on. There are plenty of fish in the sea – as they say.

Commercial real estate, not all Brokers are created equal

October 16, 2016 By Tayson Rockefeller Leave a Comment

Depending on where you are from, you’re probably used to seeing real estate agents that typically work with residential home buyers and lot sales. Then, you have the commercial real estate brokers who are described by many as a “whole ‘nother animal”. This is usually because commercial real estate agents don’t do much in terms of residential sales. In some cases such as Idaho Falls, the brokers network with one another as well as more regional (or brokers in other regions) commercial brokers, and the local client base. It was described to me as “a lot of going out to lunch” (networking) when I asked a local real estate professional about trying to find information in the local MLS, which oftentimes commercial agents don’t do. Anyway, they hold things close to their chest. Maybe that’s because they are protecting their client base and interest as a commercial broker, or maybe it’s simply because they don’t need to use the MLS because it’s not the way it works in that area.

Regardless of the reason, the training, lingo, and education is indeed entirely different. Things like allocation, highest and best use, different types of commercial leases, trade fixtures, and many more other items come into play, that don’t apply to residential real estate. In many cases agents that begin working with the commercial real estate applications are oftentimes considered to have changed careers entirely. If they decide to continue working with all forms of real estate, additional training and even Realtor designations come into play.

Now that we have a grasp on the differences between the two types of Brokers, and how they do business in our area, such as Teton Valley, Jackson and surrounding areas? In my experience, there are different types of agents here, but that usually applies more to agents who specialize in farm and ranch and Residential rather than residential and commercial. Typically, any agent that has an opportunity to work with a commercial project or Prospect does so regardless of their experience or training. It’s worked for many years here and particularly in Jackson. While there are many agents who do have specific commercial real estate training, many do not. To complicate things further, comes the property management aspect. Because our area borders both Idaho and Wyoming, we find that they are different state regulations for property management which is also involved with commercial real estate applications in most cases. Wyoming Agency Law requires licensure for property management practice. However, Idaho is one of the only States in the Nation that does not require licensure for property management practice. So, we do see some separation with property management firms in the Jackson area that do carry real estate licenses to practice commercial primarily because of the property management aspect. Then, you get to Teton Valley, ID where you have residential real estate brokers practicing commercial real estate, that don’t necessarily practice property management because there are independent companies handling these tasks in most cases.

We are not likely to see dedicated commercial firms come to our region because of the lack of available work. However, it is important to understand that there are many moving parts to commercial real estate applications and property management. It would be prudent for those interested in working with a local Realtor to understand that Realtor’s knowledge in the commercial real estate sector. We do find in some cases that out-of-area commercial real estate brokers are brought into our area. However, because it is customary here to work in conjunction with the MLS with regards to Commercial Real Estate, and the fact that these out-of-region or out-of-state Brokers do not have access to our local MLS, it is far less effective from a marketing standpoint. We also find that because these non-regional commercial brokers do not understand the local market, it complicates things further.

The National Association of Realtors does have special training and designations for commercial real estate, such as the CCIM designation.

Why do listing agents always seem to attend showings here?

July 28, 2016 By Tayson Rockefeller Leave a Comment

Notice how I worded the question above, and not “Should listing agents attend showings”. The reason is that I often hear this question from prospective buyer customers, or, customers working with another broker while I am attending a showing for one of my listings. If you only have had experience with real estate in the Jackson & Teton region (including Alpine & Star Valley) you are probably used to the fact that there will very likely be 2 agents at a home showing. The listing agent, and the agent working with the buyer. It’s a way of life out here, whether it’s a 100,000 dollar home or a 1 million dollar home.

If you are not from the area, you may have had a different experience. In the Snake River area (Idaho Falls etc.) all of the agents pay a monthly or annual fee to have “infrared key access” in the form of a card, or even a smart phone application. There might even be instructions on the listing that provides contact information to the occupant in which case the agent can call the occupant directly, whether it’s a tenant or the home owner. In areas like Malibu, it is expected that listing brokers attend showings only for higher dollar listings, but not all showings.

This can go both ways I suppose, what about buyer’s agents not attending showings, for instance – ahem – buyer’s working with an agent in another state (maybe a state just East of Idaho?) that can’t attend a showing for a home their customer wants to see on the Idaho side? Would it be acceptable to just send them over and let the list agent take care of it?

OK, so maybe the last example is clearly not the right thing to do, but there are very different ways of doing business throughout the united states, and Canada for that matter. Here, some feel that we are held to a higher standard as we are members of the same MLS as the high end Jackson listings. So… to attend, or not to attend, the pros and cons weighed below;

To attend! (pros):

From a seller representative standpoint, there are some definite pros here IF the agent is timely, knowledgeable, and helpful with important facts about the house without being overwhelming. Also,it may be that the Seller hired the list agent specifically from a trust standpoint – someone to look after the home, lock all doors, keep an eye on personal belongings, and so on. After all, a buyer’s agent on a home tour of 8 homes might have a hard time keeping track of everything.

To not attend… (cons):

Some buyers (specifically from areas where they are not used to 2 creepy real estate agents following them around) feel that it’s strange to have the listing agent present at every showing. Admittedly, it can get a bit overwhelming. “OK all, our next home we will be meeting John with ABC realty” (long introductions etc.). John goes about explaining everything I explained in the car – or here’s a good one; My customers walk in HATE the place, would prefer to walk back out but John sucks us into a long description of the home, the sellers, the neighbors, the area, where he was raised, his favorite local restaurant, 15 reasons to move to Teton Valley… you get the idea.

Summary

In the opinion of most her locally, the pros outweigh the cons, attend all showings. At the end of the day, however, it is up to the listing agent, and the seller. This is a discussion that needs to be had with the seller and the list agent. My advise? First, ask the seller what they prefer. Maybe the seller remembers the time when they were once buyers and John from ABC Realty gave them nightmares for the next 6 months. Or, maybe during their last home sale they discovered personal belongings went missing after a showing. The suggestion I make to my clients? If you would like me to attend showings, that is what I shall do. In the event I cannot (there is only one of me) allow me to put a combination lock box on the door. This has allowed for last minute showings that have produced contracts.

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