Sarasota Florida Flat Fee MLS Listings FSBO – Discount Realtor & Broker

The drop means the number of people losing their homes will start to fall. But some pain from the crisis is sure to persist. Because millions of people are already in foreclosure, deeply discounted houses will put pressure on home prices for years.

“Housing is on a path to recovery,” said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research. “It’s going to be a very long, gradual process.”

In high-foreclosure cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, homes have lost roughly half their values from their peaks. But a report Friday from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed Nevada, Arizona and Florida had some of the biggest declines in new delinquencies.
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Sarasota real estate market remains hot as temperatures cool

The Sarasota real estate market remained hot in November 2009 with overall sales nearly 86 percent higher than November 2008.  Total sales stood at 578 in November, mirroring last month’s total of 574 and much higher than the 311 sales reported in November 2008. The breakdown was 417 single family homes and 161 condos sold last month.
 
The fall has proven to be a busy one for many local Realtors®, and the trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Pending sales stood at 793 in November, just below last month’s total of 839, and far higher than last November, when only 504 pendings were reported. The statistic is a strong indicator for the next two or three months of sales, as pending sales are an indicator of current buyer activity. Some experts had predicted pending sales might slow because of the uncertainty over the extension of the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit. But that fear has proven unfounded in the Sarasota market.
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WASHINGTON (AP) – Oct. 27, 2009 – Top Democrats in the Senate are pressing a plan that would extend a popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers but gradually phase it out over the course of next year.

The proposal, by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., would extend the $8,000 tax credit – which expires Nov. 30 – through March 31. Its value would drop by $2,000 for each of the subsequent three quarters of 2010.

The plan, which could face a vote in the Senate this week, appears aimed at countering a far more generous $17 billion bipartisan plan that would extend the $8,000 credit through June 30, 2010, boost the income cap for eligibility and open the credit to all buyers, rather than first-timers.
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September sales skyrocket as market approaches equilibrium
 
Real estate expert Barbara Corcoran listed Sarasota as the number one place in the nation to buy a property in her latest “hot market” prognostication. She cited the lower property prices – 30 percent below last year at this time – combined with a recent price surge of 13 percent in the last quarter, plus Sarasota’s unique “metropolitan” cultural appeal for boosting this area to the top spot.
 
On the Oct. 6th Today Show, Corcoran said Sarasota was the top place to buy real estate in the nation today, an opinion shared by SAR and most area real estate professionals.
 
As a confirmation of Corcoran’s report, home and condo sales jumped by 35 percent in September 2009, compared to the same month last year, and 9.7 percent from the August 2009 stats in the Sarasota market. Total sales stood at 554 in September, compared to 409 total sales in September 2008. The breakdown was 399 single family homes and 155 condos sold last month.
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Unbundling the Real Estate Transaction:
Providing fee-based services as a real estate consultant
Julie Garton-Good, DREI, GRI

As a broker of twenty-five years, I’ve always had a problem with how our industry is designed. We spend eons of time consulting with buyers and sellers-for free. We receive no up-front fees, even though we’re expected to expend hundreds of dollars per listing (our stock in trade, even though we have no control over it) just to make the phone ring (as well as appease the seller, even though he has no earthly idea what goes into a marketing campaign!) We then spend dozens of hours each month driving buyer prospects around educating them, often to have them purchase from someone else–oftentimes a for-sale-by-owner. And last, but certainly not least, there’s the concept of service — we service the seller, we service the buyer. We provide service at every turn, hoping that the consumer will see value in all this service and reward our efforts by selling or buying with us. Then, and only then, do we get paid.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it likely that Bill Gates or Mary Kay Ash would use our current real estate sales model to design a multi- billion dollar business empire? No, I don’t think so either.
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Record streak continues for pending home sales

WASHINGTON – Oct. 1, 2009 – Pending home sales have increased for seven straight months, the longest in the series of the index which began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in August, rose 6.4 percent to 103.8 from a reading of 97.6 in July, and is 12.4 percent above August 2008 when it was 92.4. The index is at the highest level since March 2007 when it was 104.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said not all contracts are turning into closed sales within an expected timeframe. “The rise in pending home sales shows buyers are returning to the market and signing contracts, but deals are not necessarily closing because of long delays related to short sales, and issues regarding complex new appraisal rules,” he said. “No doubt many first-time buyers are rushing to beat the deadline for the $8,000 tax credit, which expires at the end of next month.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast jumped 8.2 percent to 85.3 in August and is 12.0 percent higher than August 2008. In the Midwest the index rose 3.1 percent to 90.8 in August and is 7.6 percent above a year ago. In the South, pending home sales increased 0.8 percent to an index of 104.6 and is 8.2 percent above August 2008. In the West the index surged 16.0 percent to 130.5 and is 22.3 percent above a year ago.
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Good news about housing and stocks lifts Florida’s consumer confidence

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Aug. 26, 2009 – Rising housing prices, stock market gains and the lack of any new setbacks in the national economy boosted Florida’s consumer confidence three points to 70 this month, according to a new University of Florida (UF) survey.

“We had anticipated an increase in consumer confidence in August based on what appeared to be an unjustifiable two-point drop in July following what was already a two-point decline the previous month,” said Chris McCarty, survey director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “While the economic environment is by no means bright, the decline in July seemed unsustainable given the lack of any very bad economic news and some encouraging signs in Florida’s housing market and the stock market.”

Three of the five components in the index rose, one fell and one stayed the same. Perceptions of personal finances now compared with a year ago remained unchanged at 43, still only four points above its all-time low of 39. Perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next year jumped 10 points to 73; perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next five years rose eight points to 80; and perceptions of personal finances a year from now increased five points to 84. The only component to drop was perceptions of whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, which fell five points to 72.

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High-end homes: is the tide turning?

HORSHAM, Penn. – Aug. 14, 2009 – High-end homes appear to be selling better than analysts thought.

Toll Brothers (TOL), the nation’s largest luxury homebuilder, on Aug. 12 announced its first year-over-year increase in signed home contracts since 2005, suggesting that first-time buyers might not be alone in driving improving U.S. home sales.

The Horsham [Pa.]-based builder said that signed contracts in the quarter ended July 31 – though still low by historic standards – rose 3 percent, to 837, compared with the same period a year ago. But revenues fell 42 percent in the quarter, to $461.3 million. The company also said it has been able to reduce buyer incentives in several markets as demand and contract cancellations improve.

“Mood has changed”

No other major builder has matched Toll Brothers’ 3 percent increase in contracts signed, though a few reported a 2 percent improvement in the most recent quarter, said Barclays Capital analyst Megan McGrath in New York. The average quarterly decline in new home contracts for major public builders was about 14 percent, she said.

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‘Freaky’ side of real estate economics
Flat-fee brokers may put pressure on traditional commissions
Friday, June 23, 2006

By Glenn Roberts Jr.
Inman News

SAN FRANCISCO — Traditional pricing for real estate services is bound to crumble, and flat-fee brokers will likely deliver the deathblow — at least according to Steven D. Levitt, co-author of “Freakonomics,” a book that takes an unconventional approach to economics.

Levitt, who spoke to attendees Thursday at the PCBC builders’ conference and trade show at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, also said that the real estate brokerage industry is in some ways its own worst enemy, as low barriers to entry lead to proportional surges in agent population during housing market booms.

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