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Category Archives: General

Trulia Adds “Trulia Estimates”: Novelty or Not?

20 Mar

Let me start by saying, Trulia.com and Zillow.com are great companies that I think bring great additional resources for home shopping to consumers.  I love their websites and resources they offer.  Zillow.com became a hit with it’s “Zestimate”.  Just recently Trulia.com launched, what I am guessing is a competitive response to Zillow’s “Zestimates”, called “Trulia Estimates”.  These are these companies attempts to provide real-time property valuation using proprietary algorithms.  Sounds simple enough right?  Think again.

One of the things any Real Estate Professional will tell you they wish was automated is . . . property pricing.  This is one of the most daunting tasks that truly requires a hands-on approach.  The common question is, “Why?”  Seriously, look at all the amazing things computers can do today and they can’t automatically tell me the price a property should be just by typing in an address?  Computers can tell you a price, but they can not tell you the price a property should be priced at accurately.  The biggest reason being is that no two properties are the same.  Even houses of the same model have different features added by owners over times, conditions can be different, location, etc.  All of these factors play a role in pricing a property.

Novelty or Not?

Novelty . . . definitely.  Be very careful with these valuation systems because we are not talking about possibly sacrificing just a few dollars with wrong information, you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars if not more.  Let’s take a look at Trulia Estimate’s Accuracy for my area Flager County, FL:

  1. Properties on Trulia: 65,001
  2. Properties with Estimates: 40,669
  3. Median Error: 14.3%
  4. Within 5% of Actual Selling Price: 19.2%
  5. Within 10% of Actual Selling Price: 35.6%
  6. Within 20% of Actual Selling Price: 67%

At their best range of “Within 20%”, 67% of the properties fell within that range.  What does “20%” equate to in dollars?  On a $150,000 that 20% is $30,000.  No small amount of money at all to be guessing about.  Zillow’s Zestimates are not much different for the area either.

Again, be careful with these systems.  Believe me, I would love for an as-close-to-accurate automated pricing system but unfortunately it just doesn’t exist right now.

 

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Buyer Advice, General, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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Florida & Local Market Looking Up: The Bigger Picture

18 Jan

As I’ve said on several occasions it’s been an exciting last few years in Real Estate both locally and for Florida. Yes, I said “exciting”.  It has been because there are a great deal of positives.  All “markets” will naturally have their ups and downs.  Real Estate is no different.  What happened a few years ago was unprecedented that’s for sure.  But the good news is that we are seeing “market correction” here in Florida.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s take a look at residential house sales for Florida going back to 1994 through 2010  (stats provided by the Florida Association of Realtors):

Number of House Sales For Florida 1994 to 2010

2011 totals and are waiting on December numbers, but the state and local markets exceeded last year in terms of quantity of sales.  Notice that rise towards the end and then take a look at the level it’s getting back to.  Market correction.  Demand is important because if people aren’t buying then price can not recover.

In terms of the local market we are seeing a similar month-to-month trend in activity with slight increases each year.  2009 appears a bit strange graphically, but this was due to the expiring Home Buyer tax credit that pushed activity up during that year and number of sales finishing about 1% higher than the year before.  Let’s take a look (Information based upon the Flagler County Association of Realtors MLS. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed):

Number of Residential House Sales For Flagler County Month-to-Month

The positive thing here is activity trends remaining similar.  This is key to knowing the better times to plan if you are thinking of selling.  For example if you place your house on the market for sale in January or February, your expectation should be that you will most likely see lower levels of activity.  The reason really isn’t “the market” but rather the normalcy or the local trends in activity.  Likewise, contrary to common assumptions . . . December is actually an active month for Real Estate locally.  Look at the consistent upticks for December each of the last 3 years.

Things are looking up, and we are seeing some great positives locally and at state level.  The numbers tell the story.

 
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Posted by on January 18, 2012 in Buyer Advice, General, Local Market Reports, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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Looking Up: Palm Coast/Flagler County Real Estate Recap

15 Nov
Looking Up: Palm Coast/Flagler County Real Estate Recap

We’re through October and the local real estate market has been another year of some real positives.  It’s also been a year of interesting

developments too.

Highlights through October (Click here for a full market report):

  • Inventory levels remain lower.
    • As of 11/14/2011 there are 1024 houses for sale in Flagler County and 762 in Palm Coast.  Palm Coast alone has typically remained above 900 for the last few years.
  • The number of house sales has increased 10% compared to this period last year.
    • There have been 1,345 houses that have closed through October 31st.  Palm Coast has contributed 1,170 of those.  This is an average of 134 closings per month for the area which has typically been about 100/month over the last few years.
  • The percentage of Short Sale houses for sale has dropped to about 26% for Flagler County and 30% for Palm Coast as of 11/14.
    • This has averaged about 36% pretty consistently
  • What about price?
    • Median and Average sale prices are slightly below last year.
    • Taking into account lower inventory levels and increased demand, next year will be one to watch.  We could see positive gains next year.
  • Foreclosures (“Lender Owned”, “REO”, “Government Owned”) all remain at low levels for sale in the area and move at very quick paces.
    • There are currently 55 houses for sale that are “Foreclosures”.
    • Average days on the market for this category this year has been 80 days compared to 188 days for all house sales.
There’s also been some nice and interesting surprises as well.
  • Cash sales for houses has contributed about 53% of the 1,345 houses closed through October.  The highest of which was $1.8M.  The average cash sale has been $157,483 for the area.
  • The Luxury housing market ($500k and above) has seen an uptick this year as well.  50 houses listed $500K and above have closed through October compared to 31 during the same period last year.  Likewise, last year the highest sale was $1M during this period and this year it is $1.8M.
So, yes, it’s been an exciting year with some nice surprises.  We are in our “traditional” slower period right now.  Decembers are typically an up month and there are a decent number of pending house sales which should contribute to a good end of the year.
If you are planning on buying, now is a good time to get serious as inventory levels are lower and demand is trending up (as it has been over the last few years).  If you are looking to sell, it’s also the perfect time to start planning.  On either side it’s very important to be open to reasonable negotiation to get to your goals especially with these market conditions.  Low offers initial offers as a buyer can lead to the house not being available as another offer comes in while the seller is contemplating what they should do.  Sellers not pricing realistically can cost you dearly in the long run as the house sees little or no activity (# of showings can be an indicator that you are priced too high).
Don’t forget to visit www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com for your local real estate needs whether it being shopping all area houses for sale through a custom feed of our local MLS or getting started to offer your house for sale.

Kathleen West, Realtor

Trademark Realty Group of Palm Coast

2 Pine Lakes Parkway, Suite 1
Palm Coast, FL  32137
Office: (386) 446-5930
Email:  Kathleen@PalmCoastHomeShow.com
www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”

Add me to your contactsBecome a fan of the Palm coast Home Show on FacebookGet the Palm Coast Home Show on Your IPhone
*After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2011 in General, Local Market Reports

 

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Palm Coast Real Estate Gets Great New Systems

27 Jul

Recently the Flagler County Association of Realtors began transitioning over to Sentrilock lockboxes.  These lockboxes add far greater security and peace of mind for sellers.  These lockboxes add in the following security features for sellers:

  • Double coded entry system.
  • Wireless updating and reporting.  Local Realtors are now able to see and be notified as to who is accessing a property and when.
  • Realtors can assign ‘day codes’ for out-of-town Realtors showing a property which reduces appointment conflicts and insures properties can be shown when requested.
  • Sturdy rubber-coated construction protects doors and handles while insuring the security of keys.

This past year, the Association also transitioned over to a new MLS system known as Navica by Systems Palm Coast Flagler County MLS by NavicaEngineering. This online MLS system added great new features to provide better services to buyers and sellers.  Some of these great new features are:

  • Seller Gateway.  This option allows us to provide sellers with a login to see their property as it appears on the MLS, view showing schedule and activity, and view feedback from showings.
  • Online showing scheduler for properties that is customizable.  Realtors are able to add-in black-out times and recieve notifications as requests come in.
  • Online consistent feedback form.  All properties use the same feedback form which allows us to recieve a consistent set of information back from visitors that is crucial to the selling process.
  • Quick feeding to Realtor.com.  Getting out in front of potential buyers is important.  In the past, processing took about 24 to 48 hours for a property to appear on Realtor.com.  Now those properties are appearing on the same day as they are entered.

Customers are loving the benefits of these great new systems.  The added services are great bebfits to present and future customers.  Both companies are outstanding service providers in our area and we appreciate all they do and the support they provide.

Kathleen West, Realtor

Trademark Realty Group of Palm Coast

2 Pine Lakes Parkway, Suite 1
Palm Coast, FL  32137
Office: (386) 446-5930
Email:  Kathleen@PalmCoastHomeShow.com
www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”

Become a fan of the Palm coast Home Show on FacebookGet the Palm Coast Home Show on Your IPhone
*After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!

 
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Posted by on July 27, 2010 in Buyer Advice, General, Local Interest, Real Estate News, Seller Advice, Technology

 

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Palm Coast State of the Market 7/10/2010

10 Jul

The common question today is how is ‘the market’ now that the tax credit for new contracts has expired?  Remember to qualify for the tax credit the buyer must have signed the contract by April 30, 2010 and closed by June 10, 2010 with the closing date date extended now to accomodate short sales.  Since most sales will close within 30 days, May was a real focus as an indicator of the impact of the tax credit and June to a point.  So how is the market?  Still holding strong in the area.  Let’s take a look at the Palm Coast Residential Home statistics:

Sales

June 2010          June 2009       %Difference

# of Closings                 135                 131                   +3%

Avg. Sold Price            $155,685           $164,479            -6%

Median Sold Price        $135,000           $138,000            -2%

So we are still seeing positive gains in the number of sales which is a continued trend over the last two years and that’s always a great sign.  The average and median prices, again, are seeing slight dips but the single digit drops are a very postive sign compared to the double digit drops from the last few years and indicate stabilization.

Pending sales have been getting a great deal of news as well.  Palm Coast currently has 130 pending home sales and this is about average for this time of year.  The average list price for these pending sales is $$185,803 and the median list price is $140,000.  Again, positive numbers for the area.

In terms of active homes for sale in Palm Coast, there are 1034 homes for sale with an average list price of $223,803 and a meidan list price of $169,000.  Short Sale comprise 36% of the homes for sale and foreclosures comprise 3%.  This has been the average for some time now and not much change in the area of actives.

So all in all we are seeing the market in the area stabilizing and positive response to all that Palm Coast has to offer.  It’s been a great year in the area and we’re only half way through!

Remember, you can easily search for properties in the Palm Coast area at www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com and even start your search in simple ways such as:

Create a PalmCoastHomeShow.com account and manage your property search with powerful features such as:

  • Saving properties to review later
  • Save multiple custom searches unqiue to you
  • Get email alerts for properties meeting your specific criteria
  • Easily set up showings or request more information on a property

Or call me today to get started on the road to your new dream home in Palm Coast, FL.

Kathleen West, Realtor
Trademark Realty Group of Palm Coast

2 Pine Lakes Parkway, Suite 1
Palm Coast, FL  32137
Office: (386) 446-5930
Email:  Kathleen@PalmCoastHomeShow.com
www.PalmCoastHomeShow.com
“Bringing Real Estate to Life”

Become a fan of the Palm coast Home Show on FacebookGet the Palm Coast Home Show on Your IPhone *After Downloading the MyAgent App,
enter ‘Agent Code’ 4082 and you’re set!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 10, 2010 in Buyer Advice, General, Local Market Reports, Real Estate News, Seller Advice

 

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