How's the housing market in Springfield now? (houses, to buy)

[Randy Henderson]

I have to walk a line here, because I don't want to break the forum rules and promote myself.

Personally, I do the things I mentioned on all houses. Yes, it is expensive, but so is listing a house for 6 months and not selling it.

The internet has changed the real estate industry, and many Realtors are slow to recognize the changes. If you believe the media, the internet is the absolute greatest thing in the world to empower buyers to make an educated buying decision. That is true- to a point.

Most buyers get up with coffee in hand, and surf the web, looking at homes. They also eliminate homes based on the only thing they can base it on, the pictures or the description.



Of course, that is a huge mistake. We aren't shopping for a sweater on Ebay. I can't tell you how many people have come into my office with a "keep" pile and a "garbage" pile. The garbage pile is usually full of good homes - with bad photographs or incomplete descriptions.

Long story short, the best homes aren't always the most popular- it's usually the best marketed homes.

Since I'm never going to change the way people look for homes, my job is to make sure that all of my clients end up in the keep pile.

Doing my job correctly is expensive. Doing it incorrectly would be far more expensive.

[Randy Henderson]

Sorry- I just realized that I missed part of your question. Yes- every Realtor that is serious about their profession should have a written marketing plan, detaling exactly what they are going to do to sell your home.

[mrsgenealogy]

Wow! I love your answers, Randy!

I think it will help buyers to learn from what you said about how buyers look at properties. I know that I did a lot of that.

You spoke before of the importance of visuals, too. Well, when I was looking, if there weren't pictures online, I usually just "passed" on the house. You know how it is...so many houses, so little time to see them all! I used to even get mad at the agents (whom I didn't know) because I could tell from the listing number that the house had been listed for awhile and still had no pics up.

Sometimes, there was just one or two pictures of the exterior but I knew that it could have just been that the house was really bad inside so I didn't automatically pass judgment on the listing agent. Even though it could have been the agent's fault, I just "passed" on the home.

Thanks for letting us know that we can ask for a written marketing plan. That's very empowering!

[redneck central]

10-20 miles out of springfield. Im not a real estate guy. I moved into the area in summer, am currently renting for a year. I hope to buy a home next summer/fall, so I'm watching the housing market closely. I also follow the financial markets closely, along with the economy, etc.
If you are going to be selling a home, time is currently your enemy. The longer it takes to sell, the harder it will be to sell. The financial markets are becomming a mess. The lending standards are tightening up, requiring buyers to come up with downpayments up to 20% of the purchase price. Yes there are exceptions. But , it is cutting down on the number of eligible buyers. There are a huge number of adjustable rate mortgages resetting from now thru next July. The nation wide average monthly mortgage payment reset is increasing $400. Inflation is running well over 5%, and alot of folks are getting squeezed out of there homes. There will be alot more homes comming up for sale the next 18 months. And fewer buyers. I have seen a few homes come on the market, and are sold in 2 weeks. Those are houses that are priced less than other comparable homes. But there are alot of homes that have been on the market for 6 months or more. Priced too high, or not marketed well. The lower priced homes seem to be selling faster that the $200k+ homes. I also hit some of the home auctions, those homes are bringing alot less money than the listed realtor homes. It gives me a feel for what the buyers will pay today.

[mrsgenealogy]

I'm impressed, redneck! You really DO follow real estate, don't you? I hope you are successful at finding...and buying...a home you love...and can afford!

[redneck central]

with a redneck???LOL. I love that handle.

[babyfaceminerals]

When we were selling our home, we tried to make it look like the homes we liked when buying for ourselves. (which were selling fast)
We painted, cleaned the carpets and made it look as spacious but functionable as possible. We put some of the bulky or funky items in storage and even rented a storage unit to do this.

As we waited for it to sell, we continued to make it look as clean as humanly possible making it look like it was newer and ready to move in.

We took 90% of the pictures our self and our realtor liked them and wanted to use them. We sent them to her email as well as put them on cd for her. She chose the ones she liked the best to use on her listing.

At first, we wanted to attract buyers and get them in the door, but you want them to stick around and make an offer.
Some may think this is funny, but I actually made "signs, labels and tags" describing what the house had and how it functioned making it even easier for any realtor to show our home. It had alot of extras so people really appreciated this and would have missed alot without them. It kept them in the house longer as the took the time to investigate.

I actually used a free website to show ALL PICTURES we had with the fullest details and descriptions. I put this website address on our flyers that we put in the box near the for sale sign which I kept full at all times.
On the weekends, I made sure to have it better than show ready and put balloons out while keeping candles lit or in a candle warmer with yummy food scents.
We kept all pet areas clean and free of smell too and turned on all the best lighting (using alot of energy saving and 25 watt bulbs.

After all this hard work, our house still took 5 months to sell, 6 wks to close and had to take $25,000 off the price. We almost didn't do it. We felt like we were giving it away. After we sold, the market got even worse and there are still homes on our street that have not sold. We moved to a crappy trailer for 6 weeks (while temps were in the 100's) and 2 wks with other family (with 2 cats and 2 dogs plus turtle) while we looked and planned buying a home here.
IT WAS ALL WORTH IT! WE ARE SO HAPPY HERE AND OUR TEENAGERS LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THEIR SCHOOLS!!! We know we did the right thing.

Good Luck home sellers and remember, this is YOUR money and you are working for yourself with this!

[mrsgenealogy]

Wow! I am so impressed, babyface! You really did all the right things!!! Do you know how long the house you bought was on the market? I wonder if it would have been for sale if you had sold your home sooner.

[NOLA2SGF]

We are on our way to Springfield, and should be there by lunchtime! I have a dozen or so real estate printouts that we plan to check out, just to see if they look as nice from the outside as they look online.

It will be two years until we can retire and move there, so we will have to try hard and resist the temptation to look at any real estate seriously or buy. It would be hard to maintain a property in good condition for two years while we are living in another state.

I'm sure that by the time we retire and sell our houses, prices will be higher in Springfield! It will still be fun to look. Maybe we can find some neighborhoods that are especially interesting to us.

I expect that there are probably quite a few other potential residents that will be looking for homes when things improve enough that they can sell their homes in other states, so the real estate market in Springfield is bound to improve in a couple of years or so.

We also plan to check out antique stores, Bass Pro, and so on, and have some fun while we are in Springfield this week.

[GregoryS]

Originally Posted by NOLA2SGF

We are on our way to Springfield, and should be there by lunchtime! I have a dozen or so real estate printouts that we plan to check out, just to see if they look as nice from the outside as they look online.

It will be two years until we can retire and move there, so we will have to try hard and resist the temptation to look at any real estate seriously or buy. It would be hard to maintain a property in good condition for two years while we are living in another state.

I'm sure that by the time we retire and sell our houses, prices will be higher in Springfield! It will still be fun to look. Maybe we can find some neighborhoods that are especially interesting to us.

I expect that there are probably quite a few other potential residents that will be looking for homes when things improve enough that they can sell their homes in other states, so the real estate market in Springfield is bound to improve in a couple of years or so.

We also plan to check out antique stores, Bass Pro, and so on, and have some fun while we are in Springfield this week.

Wow NOLA....That's so neat to be going to Springfield for Thanksgiving...We were scheduled to go this week too but had to cancel at the last minute...my son brought a house here(yuck)...and he is out of the country(long story)...so his old Dad had to handle the whole thing and miss his long awaited Springfield trip(2 years)...but I hope ya have a nice time and find some neat houses and areas you like...And you might go by Steak and Shake and be amazed at how friendly and courteous the waiters and waitresses are...it's quite a contrast how different it is there and where we live isn't it