Winter on the Internet

This is the time of year when internet searches are most likely to be active.  People use the time when it's too cold to be outside to look at houses.  Surprisingly, the uptick begins before, or right around, Christmas, and continues into the spring. If you combine that fact with the trend toward professional photography and staging, or even virtual staging, you can see that getting your house on the market earlier is a good idea.

We've written many times before about the fact that being in a strong academic market in Greater New Haven changes the selling season, since offers come out in the beginning of the year.  It's always a struggle to find enough to show those early buyers, and those who put their houses on in February get more of that selection period to themselves.  I was talking last week to an agent in Hanover, New Hampshire, and he agreed that the same trends occur there.  So what you may be reading about national trends should be taken with a grain of salt in our region.

For buyers, it means that narrowing your search, and acting quickly when you find something you like, can be key in a successful purchase at this season.  Be willing to overlook boots and winter detritus, snowy yard and streets, and imagining spring and summer also can be helpful.  The sellers who are doing their best to keep houses show-ready during bad weather can use the latitude, and may work out well for both parties.

So, as I write this in the early morning darkness, you can be sure that others are curled up with their coffee, surfing the web for property!  Let's give them more to look at, by listing sooner.

News from the West Coast

I just returned from my biennial meeting of The Leadership Council.  This meeting was in San Francisco, and, although the weather is actually better here, I found it well worth attending, as always.  Around the country, brokers are feeling that the market is improving.  Since prices are still declining in some markets (including Connecticut), that doesn't mean that real estate brokers are in clover, but more units are selling, and faster.  Buyers seem less concerned that prices will drop a lot further, and they are moving on with their lives and finding homes.  Mortgages continue to be a challenge for many, and the effects of the Dodd Frank bill will continue to hurt that industry for years to come.

Some markets are a great deal better, and San Francisco is one of them.  There prices are rising, and units are flying off the shelf, despite a median price of over 1 million in the city itself.  Many homes are selling for more than the asking price, and often before the marketing has really gotten underway.  I was surprised that, for a place known as a high-tech mecca, the agents don't seem to use a lot more technology than we do. It still comes down to signs, open houses, broker to broker marketing, and word of mouth.  The one real change is that the internet has largely replaced print advertising, although there is still some of that.

Two interesting side notes:  I was the only person there without an iPad, which tells you something about why Apple alone is raising the NASDAQ results; and, two, this group, of owners from around the country, plan to vote for Romney over Obama by two to one.  The real news there is that they went for Bush over Gore by 18 to 4, so you can see that the election will be close!