News From The Real Estate Water Cooler

Gather ’round, agents, while we share the latest real estate industry news.

The current state of the real estate market

Ya feeling a draft through your real estate market? From Denver to Silicon Valley and New York City, markets are changing. Does this mean the “slow season” this year is going to be even slower?

Better start stocking away those pennies because a rainy day may just be around the corner in real estateville.

Your clients know not to trust what they read about the housing market in the media, right? Agents feel the changes long before journalists do so at this point they’re merely speculating.

What we’ve been hearing from the “boots on the ground,” is that inventories are swelling, homes are sitting on the market longer and multiple offers are becoming a fond memory. Yes, we know this is a blanket statement. Some agents we’ve spoken with aren’t feeling these changes in their markets.

Then, there are national indicators, homebuilder stocks slump, interest rates are rumored to keep on hiking which is going to reduce buyer demand even more, setting the aforementioned cycle in motion on a broader basis.

We’d love to hear what’s going on in your market. Visit us on Facebook and let us know.

 

Grab the senior real estate niche before everyone else does

You might want to start stocking that CRM with baby boomers. Oh, we know, the media LOVES blaming the housing crunch on this cohort. They want to age in place, they aren’t downsizing like generations before them, bla-bla-bla. It’s real estate industry news we’ve all heard before.

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But, that’s about to change. Not immediately, but within the next decade, according to Fannie Mae. And when it does, there will be 32 million homes changing hands.

Fannie Mae calls this transition “leaving the housing market,” but what they’re really saying is that boomers are aging, some will die, some will go to assisted living facilities, many will decide to sell the house and rent. The fact remains, the cohort isn’t getting any younger and as we move into the next decade, they’ll be “departing” the housing market in droves.

Which sets up a very lucrative niche for the hard-working real estate agent.

If you’re a boomer agent you’ll have no problem working with this real estate consumer group. If you’re younger, you’re no doubt carrying around a lot of misconceptions about the older American which will do you no favors if you hope to work with them. Get to know them and how to reach them here and here.

 

An interesting home builder trend

Sure, they’ve been around for a couple of years now, but the “she-shed” movement is gaining in popularity. The movement began with homeowners repurposing old outbuildings (such as garden sheds) on a property to become the female version of the man-cave.

Some builders are getting in on the action by constructing she-sheds in the backyards of new homes. Instead of calling them what they are, however, they’ve come up with more generic terms for them, such as “custom backyard studio.”

If you doubt the concept’s popularity, check out all the listings that feature them in their descriptions.

Any of your clients have a she-shed on their wish lists?

 

Real Estate Industry News: Smart Home Feature of the year

Hanwha Techwin, a home and cybersecurity company, is on track to come out with facial recognition software in their latest home security systems.

Clayton Moore at digitaltrends.com calls it “face recognition and human detection technology.” We call it “pretty darned interesting” and wonder if it may someday replace lockboxes.

The smart camera alerts the homeowner if it detects a person and it’s “trained” to ignore other objects, such as pets. The device’s algorithm “learns” the facial features of those who live in the home and is thus able to tell you when there’s a stranger lurking.

“Users can assign a name to the person’s face and add them to their ‘Interested Faces’ group, so the camera recognizes the face for future alerts,” according to Moore.

He feels the feature is “particularly useful for parents whose kids let themselves into an empty house after school,” but we can’t help wondering, as mentioned earlier, if a future iteration will allow agents to phone in their photo, thus doing away with lockboxes. Clearly, technology is the future of real estate.

 

Yet another real estate industry news study on Millennials

Your largest group of homebuyers is souring on real estate, according to a study published at valueinsured.com. Apparently, the number of Millennials who see value in a home purchase has dropped to 48  percent.

Two years ago, 77 percent of them thought that buying a home was a good investment. Value Insured’s CEO, Joe Melendez, feels that those who think Millennials are putting off home ownership because they’re waiting longer than previous generations to start a family have it backwards.

“New research now suggests homeownership may be the cause, not the effect, of delayed family formation,” he claims. Good communication might be the key to keeping this demographic engaged.

 

Good riddance open floor plan, may you R.I.P.

Here’s a final bit of welcome real estate industry news – Anna Orso over at philly.com claims that builders, agents and brokers are noticing more clients who want closed floor plans, or at least “one that provides for at least some separation of rooms.”

One of the reasons for the change in attitude about the ubiquitous open floor plan is that it offers little privacy.

“In an open plan, the only place to get away from your kids is the bathroom,”

says a woman who obviously doesn’t have children (we moms know that the bathroom provides little privacy when kids are around).

Are your clients moving away from the open-concept floor plan? Let us know.

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Don’t miss these tips to make the most of your business this year.

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