As a real estate professional, it's important for you to know what your buyers have available to them to aid in their housing search. You can embrace these new tools and work with them as you help your customers, or they can go out there on their own -- without your assistance and expertise -- thereby excluding you from the process. So, let's take a look at what technology offers them today.
House hunt on the iPhone
Potential home buyers are driving down a street and see a really pretty home with a For Sale sign on the front lawn. They write down the broker's information and can't wait to get home to take a look at the listing details.
If they have an iPhone, however, they can get the information on the spot. Zillow.com released a free iPhone app last month, enabling consumers to get the low-down on more than 88 million homes -- and not just the ones for sale.
The app is GPS-powered so the map follows you as you stroll, with price estimates popping up along the way. Pass a sale sign and you can access pricing, number of bedroom and baths, square footage and other info.
"House-hunting is, inherently, a mobile experience," said Zillow's CEO Rich Barton in announcing the launch.
This will certainly add a whole other layer to that Sunday afternoon perambulation.
Find profitable investment deals
With home prices more affordable than they've been in many years, there are some real bargains available.
Investors who are less interested in the aesthetics than the bottom line can try InvestorLoft.com's new PropScout to find lucrative options. The tool offers several search filters, which go much deeper than just location and price. For example, Estimated Equity finds homes with big differences between listing price estimated value. Cash Flow ranks homes by the profits they produce. Cap Rate ranks by the percentage of profit on investment.
The tool has listings in about 20 states and should be in all 50 by early 2010, according to CEO Walter Charnoff. Consumers can search by city, zip code or property ID.
Ferret out cheap houses
This spring Trulia.com launched a nationwide filter that enables consumers to search 3.2 million listings for price reductions. Enter a town or zip code, and reduced-price homes will come up.
Details include the number of times the price has dropped, the dates, by how much and the percentage of the reduction. That's useful information: It can demonstrate that the seller is getting especially anxious about making the sale and consumers can adjust their offers accordingly.
If, for example, a home has gone through price cuts at regular intervals and is due for another, a buyer may want to wait a few days to make an offer.
The site also offers a new comparison feature that allows consumers to look at four listings side-by-side, making it easier to judge the home features and data.
"The tools can be used to take the pulse of the market today," said Ken Shuman, Trulia's head of communications.
House hunt on YouTube
The future of real estate marketing is in video, according to many industry insiders. Why look at static Web page photos when you can watch a guided tour of a house and gardens?
The giant real estate brokerage franchiser Coldwell Banker teamed up with Google subsidiary YouTube to launch its own video channel in August. Viewers can watch real estate agents talking about the areas they serve, including the schools, parks, restaurants and amenities that make up various neighborhoods. There's a Browse-by-Map that shows all the video listings across the country.
"Video gives a more robust, nuanced view of the home," said Mike Fischer, VP of marketing for the company.
Eventually, much of the site's content will be listing videos that should help house hunters cut through some of the clutter of homes for sale.
There are some listing videos up already and the site is adding more all the time. It launched with only 30 or so full-fledged home tours and now has about 300. When fully functional, the total should be many thousands.
Market reports
Homebuyers wondering what the future holds for their investment can turn to Cyberhomes for a market report. The service, which costs $9.95, provides projections for specific neighborhoods and includes 12- and 24-month price-change forecasts. It also reports the number of distressed, foreclosure and REO properties within a ZIP code and then compares that to the rest of the metro area and the state.
The report also estimates the strength of the local market and how the volume of sales will change over the next 12 months.
The site introduces an element of logic to a transaction that's often fraught with emotion. Homebuyers often act too quickly when they find houses they like, leading them to overpay.
So if the market report tells them that prices may be in for a sharp fall and more homes are coming onto the market, they may slow down and make a more informed offer. If, on the other hand, the report shows the market heating up, they may conclude that a quick offer can save them some money.
"In today's market, an understanding of the future direction of property values and inventory levels are key factors," said Jay Gaskill, president of Cyberhomes.
Hustle Hard
We Buy Houses
Hustle Hard
We Buy Houses
No comments:
Post a Comment