Realtors losing ground to the big real estate websites!

There was a time when real estate marketing, and healthy competition between real estate companies was conducted either in the newspapers, the phone book Yellowpages,yard signs, and of course the local Multiple Listing System. Buyers and sellers sought the assistance of licensed and qualified brokers and agents to serve their real estate needs. Real estate agents belonged to a local MLS, where data was stored on the inventory of houses and other real estate property. If a buyer was searching for a home, the real estate section of the local newspaper, word of mouth, or a drive by started the process. It was more or less an even playing field for Brokers competing for business, and the entire process had more safeguards when it came to accurate real estate data. Even with the introduction of the Internet, Brokers competed using their websites to tell the public about their services. Some spent a modest amount of money on exposure, while others invested much more money into Internet marketing. But to be fair, Internet exposure was controlled by a budget within the real estate firm for better or worse. As the years passed, major real estate websites appeared on the Internet that do nothing more than deliver information to the public. They are are not qualified and licensed professionals, governed by State laws within their location, and what's more their information is not always accurate or even current. Realtors have become victims of a squashing of their livelihood by these websites who have unlimited budgets, and agreements with search engines to take top positions on the Internet. As time goes by, they have expanded their search results house by house, while charging agents for the service. These agents are already paying their local MLS for this service in dues and memberships. To add insult to injury, local MLS organizations are providing feeds to these websites, undermining the licensed professionals within their organization. Now, some major real estate franchises have been signing agreements with these large real estate search sites to promote their listings as priority listings. This now adds to the failure of home grown real estate companies, by manipulating the market to their benefit, and reduce the number of local smaller real estate firms. What's sad about this type of commerce, is that an entire industry that was held in high esteem as licensed professionals, are now reduced to the typical used car label that real estate people have worked hard to overcome. Countless hours of training, licensing classes, required continued education, and the ever growing higher MLS fees, are being trumped by non-sanctioned sites on the Internet. Larger real estate companies with many agents are enjoying the exposure that these major data sites provide the searching public. But what has also happened, is that the close working relationships with homeowners and buyers which are an important part of client/broker relationships have in some ways been reduced to simply throwing it out there and hope it sells.

Staten Island Housing Outlook for 2013

Well here we are in the Spring of 2013. The winter blues are fast fading away and Realtors have Open House signs popping up on weekends in just about every neighborhood. Looks good for sellers...right? Well maybe for some and not for others. While the government says that the housing market is still showing signs of better health in 2013. It uses a very broad brush to determine these facts. Often, it's just a consensus gleaned from popular real estate websites, such as Realtor.com, Realty Trac, Zillow and others, who also use too large of a brush to qualify their facts. In my opinion, for most the health of the housing market really comes down to the local market. Unless your buying or selling a property somewhere else other that where you're interested in, do you really care what homes are going for 1000 miles away? Lately, banks have been flexing their muscles on interest rates they charge on home loans. A little higher this week and a lower lower next week...it's hard to keep up. But one thing is for sure, lenders are not too happy with these extremely low rates they have been charging over the last few years, and would be very happy to edge them up, without anyone noticing it. As rates creep up ever so slowly, the theory is nobody notices. Kind of like the gasoline hikes of a few years ago. Then all of a sudden motorists woke up and noticed. By that time, they already paid a third more for gas. Well mortgage rates are a little like that too. A percentage point here and there...what's the problem? Even a quarter of a point, factored over a thirty year payout can be some serious money. It could even mean the difference in getting a loan, or not getting it. Now the government, who has people watching the housing market, along with people watching the government watch the housing market are weighing in on where the housing market is going. In the early days of the economic crunch, the analysis was easy. The answer was from nowhere to downwards. Wow, anyone could have figured that one out. However, now it's becoming a little trickier to determine the pulse of the market, because the market finally has a heartbeat. The heartbeat is still somewhat faint, but on the whole the patient is stable. Now, we need to see if it can continue to grow stronger from here through the summer months, and beyond. Most people buy and sell during the better weather months, and the results can better help in determining the condition of the marketplace. In recent days, congress is looking at reducing the restrictions put in place for higher risk borrowers. Sound familiar? This is where we started the housing bubble only to see it burst...big time. However, there are now better safeguards in place that should filter out the really risky loans, but still help the marginal buyers who are trying hard to meet their obligations. If more loans are made for house purchases, then the entire housing marketplace will grow, from smaller start-up housing all they way up to more costly homes. But, it's important that lenders and the FHA keep much better parameters in place for loan making. Buyers should not over pay for homes, or buy above their means anymore. This only creates an artificial footprint of the market, and as we saw some years back. Market collapse due to artificially manufactured values as banks wanted to make loans. If the government contributes to the problem by making cheap money accessible to lenders, while lowering the buyers threshold, we revisit the housing downturn again. So, as we venture into this new 2013 housing market, on-the-whole, things appear to be somewhat optimistic. Of course, events around the world, as well as the United States economy and job rate could influence home sales. But in the meantime, progress has been made, and continues if even at a slow pace. V.I.P. Real Estate, Inc. Residential Division