Low Ball Offers: Still Offers to Be Negotiated

One of my observations in this current market is the difference between the complainers who seemed to be challenged in getting anything to close and the problem solvers who look at the challengers as opportunities. You are successful or not. There is no longer an in between.

There has been a lot of moaning and groaning about low ball offers. If you don't get the offer there is no opportunity to turn it into an executed contract and eventually a closing. If the buyer's agent can get his client on paper and an earnest money check they now have an emotional attachment to the property.

It is the seller's agent job to take the offer and get their client to counter the buyer. In some cases it is a matter of getting the seller to be realistic to the value of the property today. In other cases it is going to be keeping the buyer engaged until they get to terms the seller will accept.

It is called negotiating. That is why buyers and the sellers hire real estate professionals. We are the middle men that take the emotion out of the negotiation and get the job done in the best interests of our clients. Not every offer will work. Not every one will close. It is not where you start it is where you end up: The closing table.

Price Changes Continue to Drive the Market

In the first week of the Fall 2009 real estate market 26% of the homes currently listed for sale in the United States had price reductions according to Trulia. This is the fourth month in a row that there has been an increase of price reductions taken. Locally, Chicago's active listings saw an average price decrease of .4% last week. List prices are down overall 18.5 % compared to last year.

With sellers aggressive sending out the message they want to sell by lowering prices buyers have been re-engaging in the market place. Many Realtors®are getting more showings on the listings resulting in multiple offers in some cases. With the decreases in the price of market rate properties, many buyers are opting not to go after distressed properties to avoid issues that can arise in short sale and foreclosure transactions such as undetermined closing dates and the cost of fixing up the properties.

Some sellers are opting to remove their homes from the market rather than sell at a further reduced price. The question remains as to how long will they have to wait it out. A few who have to move are trying to rent their homes in an over saturated rental market. Rental pricing is not always meeting the monthly expenses on the properties.

If the property is priced more than that local market can bear it still won't sell even with the price reductions. When putting together offers, buyers and their agents are basing it all on the last three closed comps in the last 90 days.

To follow Chicago Area Listing Inventory and keep up to date on new listings and price changes click here

Agents All A Twitter About Signs

You can tell the times have changed as to how we get our information. In 140 characters or less, word of an old sign ordinance spreads like the Swine Flu.

Many, many years ago, the City of Chicago passed a sign ordinance banning signs from being placed in the public way. There are fines ranging from $100-$500 associated with this offense making each sign you put in the public way a very expensive lead.

Every so often the Chicago Association of Realtors is informed that real estate agents are violating the law either by various aldermen’s offices or members of the public. Periodically, the association communicates to its members they are violating the law with their open house signs via the communication of the current time. At first the Chicago Realtor newspaper, then the magazine. Now it is posted on their website and warnings emailed out to its members. All along there has been outreach to the designated brokers.

As a long time member of Chicago Association of Realtor's Government Affairs Committee, I was well aware of the weekly violations and complaints coming into the association as well as all of the years of ongoing outreach efforts the association does to make its members aware of all legislation that affects our industry. Most of the Chicago Real Estate community has ignored the sign law like it did not apply to them until last week.

Mary Ellen Podmolik of the Chicago Tribune article about a certain alderman and the sign ordinance posted early Friday. Within minutes many of the Tweeters were all in a Twitter about this law they claim to have never known about and how it will fringe on their business. It was spreading like a wild fire on Twitter as it kept being re-tweeted. As someone who keeps Seesmic(a desktop platform that integrates Twitter and Facebook) running in the background of her computer and is on Twitterberry when she is away from it, the uproar is still continuing days later.

What occurs to me is that these same real estate agents used the same medium they are expressing their rage in to promote their open houses they would have quality prospects coming through their listings rather than somebody who stumbled over a sign on a corner a block away. Buyers who are real purchasers have typically toured the home virtually online before coming to the property. They have downloaded the list of the homes they want to visit from a variety of sites including brokerages websites, open house portals or Googling.

The odds of a qualified buyer finding your listing is a lot better optimized/advertised online via websites, portals, good SEO, syndication and social networking than putting signs at every corner in the neighborhood that the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation could throw away or fine you. Is this a quality lead at the cost of $500 per lead?

The Chicago 77

Today my first article was posted on the Chicago 77. I am very excited and honored to be published on this great resource for Chicago home buyers, sellers and just about anybody who is interested in this great city and its real estate market.

The Chicago 77 is dedicated to writing about the Chicago real estate market from all possible angles. The Chicago 77 is written by the professionals who know the market best: real estate agents and brokers, developers, appraisers, bankers and mortgage brokers, inspectors, insurance agents, lawyers, and economists.
The name comes from the 77 official community areas that make up the City with Big Shoulders. This is the area that The Chicago 77 will write about.

Please read my first post at the Chicago 77.

Followups to come!