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In the video below I go over the real estate statistics for the Tampa market in June 2015. It's a sellers market as the inventory is getting lower and prices are increasing.
If you have any questions please contact me via my website at www.tampa2enjoy.com.
I just released the Tampa real estate market statistics for February 2015. The inventory is going down and the prices are going up.
If you are buying a home and need down payment assistance give us a call. We have over 35 programs in Hillsborough and Pasco Counties or you can visit our website – click here.
I did this “Home Selling Tips” video to tell home owners how important pictures are when selling a home. Of course it all starts with hiring the right Realtor. So I also go over a couple basic tips for making sure you hire a very good agent.
If you have any questions about selling a home please give me a call.
The video above goes over the Tampa real estate market statistics for October. These statistics come directly for our MLS and are the most accurate. Visit www.tampa2enjoy.com for the most accurate home searches anywhere.
It sounds like a punch line, but it's the truth: it turns out 93% of real estate agents really are making the rest of us look bad.
Most people have heard of the 80-20 rule — that 80% of the work is usually done by 20% of the workers. In real estate, it's (amazingly) more like the 93-7 rule: 7% of all agents are doing 93% of the sales.
That means fewer than one in ten are real “producers” in the business; the rest are just coasting along.
Do you want one of the 93% as your agent?
It amazes me when I encounter some of the agents out there — they'll come in, tell the seller whatever they want to hear about things like asking price. They'll do hardly any marketing. And they don't even get back with other agents (like me) who call them and want help showing the house to a client. Then after the seller has been sitting … and sitting … and sitting … they'll eventually get a lowball offer and have to settle for it. And now we have statistics that tell us: this happens most of the time.
So how do you beat these long odds?
I tell my clients if they bring 10 real estate agents into their home, statistically only one of them will produce results — the other 9 will sit on their hands and hope to get lucky (spoiler: they won't). I also tell them that if I'm in that line-up, they can send the other 9 home.
Does it sound like I'm blowing my own horn? Possibly. But look at it this way: anyone can tell you they're that 1 agent in 10 who's going to produce results. But I can show you I really am — because I've got a track record that says so.
For every deal the next agent has done, I've done 10.
The average agent closes 4-6 deals every year; in my 20 years in the business I've closed over a thousand transactions. I'm in that “magic” 7% — we take on the work, we do the research, we stay active and we close almost all of the deals. And because we're closing almost all of the deals, we have a better marketing budget, we have better outreach — and we have better results going forward.
So make those statistics work for you: call me today, and I'll show you how having a good real estate agent makes all the difference in the world.
Please visit our Tampa Bay real estate website and see for yourself.
Here's some good tips about hiring a great real estate agent to list your home:
I everybody, this is Lance Mohr, the Tampa real estate market expert and I’m going to go over the Tampa real estate market statistics for February. If you are looking at this on YouTube or another site you can just blow it up full screen. I know YouTube kind of distorts things with resolution. It is a little hard to read but if we look right here at the activity level in the market, you can see from statistics in January and February it is basically unchanged. Pending sales were up a little bit which is normal you know as we move into the months that are going to be up. I am a little surprised I have to admit so far that March is slow. It is a lot slower than I would think it would be. Generally speaking March is always the best month but anyhow sold sales in February are up and for the last couple of months as you know I’ve been telling you this is the way it is going to be. It is pretty much historic. It is like this all of the time. December generally there are a lot of closings because people want to get into a home before the end of the year and a lot of other reasons and then you have in January it dips off and then it starts to pick back up in February as well.
The one thing I’m going to point out, I’m going to get to another screen but first if you take a look at these, the short sales, you can see overall short sales are down below 10% which is normal and the foreclosed homes are picking up a little bit. There is still, it really depends on the price range if you are under 200,000 keep in mind there are a lot of fish swimming in that sea so things tend to go a little bit better and a little quicker than if you are say over $200,000 or even over $250,000 or $300,000. The higher you go obviously the less fish are swimming in the sea. So let me go over February’s statistics; a little bit more of a breakdown right here. You can see you have the active, you have the pending, and you have the sold. Now check this out, there’s in short sales there’s 1,346 pending short sales. The last month there were only 95 short sales that actually closed. That’s about 7%. That’s really, really low. I mean if you are looking for a short sale you better really, really like that home in order to you know wait that long for it and watch other homes pass you by because as you can see they are just not closing like they were. There’s again if you have been watching my other videos there’s reasons and I have explained that for that reason.
Anyhow if you look over here bank owned 480 bank-owned in the market and 213 closed. That’s about a 44% ratio on traditional sales, 1454 and 699 closed, that’s a little below 50% ratio about 48% ratio or so. So you can see most of what people are writing, you know I would really like to see about a 50% ratio. Somewhere I would say between 35 to 50% or over 35% ratio certainly not 7%. So just keep that in mind. You can look right here it is 70s. As you can tell the 95% of the short sales that closed let’s even take 466 short sales on the market once you start going over $200,000 they drop off and then the higher bracket you go the less there are. It is the same thing with bank owned as well. They are very similar and these you can see in the market up to $200,000 certainly from $100,000 to $200,000 15% of all the homes are short sale and 19% are all bank-owned properties out there. As soon as you go over $200,000 or $200,000 to $300,000 that 15% basically gets cut in half a little over half and so did the bank owned, so the short sales go from 15% to 7% and the bank owned go from 19% to 8% and then they drop off even more as you go higher priced. So hopefully this helps you understand where the market is. Let me just point out one more thing really quick. This is the inventory supply and demand so you can see we are in basically a stable market. It is still a slightly a seller’s market but it depends on what price range you are at. You can see down here $100,000 to $200,000 where most of the buyers are or there are lot of fish in the sea that I would like to say. The, so the short sales go from 15% to 7% and the bank owned go from 19% to 8% and then they drop off even more as you go higher priced. So hopefully this helps you understand where the market is. Let me just point out one more thing really quick. This is the inventory supply and demand so you can see we are in basically a stable market. It is still a slightly a seller’s market but it depends on what price range you are at. You can see down here $100,000 to $200,000 where most of the buyers are or there are lot of fish in the sea that I would like to say. They are at about 3.5 months of inventory so if you see a home you like don’t think about it too long or it is going to be gone.
When you start to get over $200,000 – even $300,000 – you have a little bit more time. But keep in mind; generally what you like someone else is going to like. If you have any question don’t hesitate to give me a call. If you like this video please share it. If you have any comments, questions, or statements write it in the comments. If you are watching this on YouTube or another site or even on my YouTube Channel. I do free home buyer webinars every week. You can go to my Facebook site, or go directly to them TBbuyerwebinar.com or TBsellerwebinar.com and register. I try to keep them about 30 minutes. They are very short and very to the point. No fluff at all. I hope this helps and I hope you have a great week. If you have any questions please reach out to me. Thank you very much. Visit my website tampa2enjoy.com.
There are a number of things that identify an ethical realtor, whether you are targeting those in Tampa or around the world. Do not judge a realtor by fashion, as some areas call for jeans or shorts while others invite a business suit. If a person has the time to work with the realtor, there are things that can point to a lack of ethics. One of those items is conveying confidential information that the seller or buyer revealed with the understanding it would go no further.
An ethical realtor treats everyone honestly and fairly. That is quite a task and yet there are a number of professionals that achieve the goal. Some states allow the same realtor to represent both parties in a real estate transaction. If a dual agency transaction makes you feel uncomfortable, explain your concern and request another associate in the firm to handle your transaction. It is common for the broker to take over representation of the buyer or seller, if asked. The objective of a sale or purchase is to make the best deal for and protect the interests of the client. A customer will always wonder about the results if the same realtor handles both sides. [Read more…]
How to choose a buyer's agent for real estate? That is a question that I wish every buyer would do and I am going to suggest to you.
The first thing is try to get a referral from someone if you can, someone who you might know. But do not just go off that, just because you are not paying any money for the buyer's agent does not mean you should not have the best, because a good buyer's agent could save you thousands of dollars and dozens of hours in time. A bad buyer's agent could cost you thousands of dollars and possibly a lawsuit. So, I would definitely interview, just interview and ask some basic questions. I have been in the business for over thirteen years, and I have only had two buyers ever interview me and I wish every buyer would do it.
The basic questions are how long have you been in real estate. Now, I am not saying if someone has been in real estate only a year or two years, they are not a really good agent, but you have to see how many deals they have done. Being in business for two years they could have done a lot of deals and worked with a lot of people. Again, someone could be in business twenty years and not really have done much. So ask how long they have been in business, get a feeling of how many transactions they have done. Did they work with more buyers? Did they work more with sellers? Do not tell them if you are a buyer up front, just tell them you have some questions about the market and start asking them and work into this. If you are looking for a condominium, see how familiar they are with condominiums. If you are looking for say a home in New Tampa or Lutz, Florida, make sure they work that area, make sure they know that area, that they know particular homes, that they are familiar with it. A lot of agents out there, they will drive all over the state. I have seen agents from Miami drive to Tampa to sell a home; agents from Orlando will drive to Tampa to sell a home. I am not like that, but a lot of agents are and you really need to hire someone who really knows the market. A lot of people, depending on the price range that you are in, will want to find an agent that deals in short sales Well, do not just ask an agent, do you deal in short sales. Ask how many short sales they have done, how long they have been doing short sales? Why are they a better agent to deal with in short sales than maybe someone else, same goes with bank owned property, same thing goes with new construction. There is a lot of stuff out there and it should only take maybe three to five minutes to ask these questions if that and if the agents are really good, they should be happy and thank you for asking.
Again, I wish every buyer would ask these questions and do their do diligence, because I get probably one to two buyers calling me a week that were not happy with their current agent and maybe saw one of my videos and have said they have learned more from my video or they wished they would have saw me before hiring their agent. And again, there are a lot of really good agents, but there are a lot of agents that are not so good.
I hope this helps you, and I hope you have a great day. So if you have any questions, feel free to get a hold of us at www.tampa2enjoy.com.
Tampa is a unique market when it comes to real estate. The neighborhoods differ vastly, as do the Tampa, FL real estate agents. You will find agents that were born and raised in Tampa and you will find others that were born in other states and countries. Typically the agents that were born elsewhere have made Tampa their home for many years, so their experience is still solid. They will, however, have a deep understanding and appreciation for different cultures and possibly speak different languages.
Realtors that are serious about their careers usually are firm believers in keeping themselves educated. They will typically continue to attend classes and seminars regularly to keep up-to-date in all the latest information to serve their clients well. Tampa realtors will also be members of such organizations as the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR), Florida Association of Realtors (FAR) and National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Since they are in the public eye a lot they will sometimes volunteer their time at local non-profit organizations and things such as school fund raisers and local neighborhood activities. This keeps the agent abreast to what’s going on around them and helps to keep new clients informed as well.
Whether it is due to a job relocation, downsizing or other personal situation some Tampa Bay real estate sellers are faced with the prospect of obtaining the best price for their property in the midst of a buyer’s market. Fortunately, you don’t have to compete with foreclosures and other bottom of the barrel prices if you understand how to list and market your home properly. Follow these quick tips to learn how to give your home a mini-makeover and obtain the best price even in these tough economic times.
1. Work with an effective Realtor. A real estate agent is your best weapon for a fast sale. Ask for their expert opinion on what works and what needs to be updated or fixed – then follow their advice! Price right, make sure promotions are extensive and aggressive then make the property as appealing as possible.
2. Sell, Sell, Sell. Work with the agent to list every desirable features of the home and make a point of providing the agent with all upgrades, improvements and other enhancements performed on the home. Gather receipts, warranty data, copies of invoices or other proof to support your claims; it will assist the agent in presenting your property in its best possible light when showcasing it to prospective buyers. Include local amenities such as proximity to A-rated schools like those in the Plant City district.
3. Tap Potential. Don’t compete on price alone; foreclosures and short sales make it tough to turn a profit when trying to showcase a home on price alone; instead, focus on the areas you are able to change. For example, make sure the home doesn’t need repairs, install energy efficient appliances and low maintenance landscaping to demonstrate cost savings compared to short sale deals. New home buyers, retirees and others without the time and out of pocket cash required to bring a property up to par will appreciate the additional savings without the time or expense required when buying a short sale property.
4. Invest in Success. Work with your agent to form a competitive price then provide incentives to other agents that bring prospective buyers to the table. Do the same for buyers and take time to create a winning package that makes it easy to compare your home against others in the area; flyers, virtual tours, additional photographs, open house and other promotional efforts go a long way toward adding excitement and interest to your home.
5. Spread the Word. Let co-workers, friends and family know the property is on the market and how to reach our agent. Ask for at least 50 business cards from your agent then make it a priority to pass them out to people who might be on the market or in contact with someone looking for a home in the area. Hair dressers, waitress/waiters and others that work in the area frequently encounter buyers searching for homes in the area.