Using the Internet to Buy or Sell

The real estate market is tough right now, but the Internet can help! AOL’s online adviser Regina Lewis gives Maggie Rodriguez some strategies for selling your home online.

Is there a science to selling real estate?

Glenn Kelman thinks so. Glenn is the CEO of Redfiin, a west coast based internet real estate brokerage. In his appearance on the Today Show, Glenn is promoting his companies first report in their Real Estate Scientist series.

To quickly summarize (click above link to read the whole story), here are the 7 tactics for selling your home:

  1. Don’t overprice your property . You may say to yourself, “Well, duh?” However, this is precisely the reason many homes are still on the market.
  2. Set your price to maximize web searches.
  3. Debut on Friday. I can easily see how this would benefit you. Kinda like sending emails on on Tuesday morning (if you want them to be opened and read.)
  4. Stay engaged in the process.
  5. Market the property online. This is where the buyers are searching and Craigslist is a must.
  6. Stay put. A lived in home will sell faster and for more money.
  7. Wait to list your home after nearby foreclosures have gone off the market.

See the Today Show coverage of Redfin

Guess what didn’t make the List?

The Winston-Salem Journal released it’s recap of the Top 10 Stories of 2007. Guess what didn’t make the list?

Housing Industry’s Gloom Continues

Caught In The Mortgage Meltdown

Home sales slump further

Home-price index posts big decline

New Home Sales Plunged In November

U.S. Home Foreclosures Hit Record HighHappy New Year!

WOW! What a Happy New Year’s present. None of the recent uproar about the plight of the “national” housing market (note: what happens in California really should not effect the local real estate market here – the constant repetition by our local media of these “national” stories does spook the locals though) made the Journal’s list. Could this be the first admission that things are not so bad here in the Triad?

The Triad Business Journal was even more forthright when they stated in a Dec 28th article:

The past year wasn’t altogether bad for residential real estate, especially when compared with much of the nation. Most neighborhoods in the Triad never saw the run-up that sent prices soaring. Instead, the region’s slow but steady pace protected it from corrections that have led to foreclosures and price crashes nationally.

Turn off the TV. Quit following the Real Estate Bubble blogs. All politics and real estate is local.

I think 2008 will be just fine …

P.S. Please check back soon when we release detailed numbers and charts to show what happened in 2007 and what we might expect in 2008.