News
Opinion
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Imagine it's the middle of July and you are shopping at your favorite department store. Among the summer clothes you spot a winter coat and it's marked down only 5-10%. That coat has been languishing on the rack since last October and you say to yourself, “how come nobody wants this jacket?” And why is it marked down so little in relation to the original asking price? That's how many buyers will percieve your property if you leave it on the MLS all year ‘round and never give it a rest.
I researched the closed sales on the IVBOR MLS month by month for January, February and March from 2004 through 2011 and the charts with this column are rather enlightening. While the average number of monthly sales on a year ‘round basis might be 27+ properties per month from 2004 through 2011, in the dead of winter the number of closed sales drops precipitously. Due to space limitations I have not included a separate chart for freestanding condos, but suffice it to say that between 1 and 3 PUDs close escrow during each of the winter months.
Over the last eight years there were an average of 8.66 single-family homes and 9.66 condos closing escrow per month during the first quarter of each year. But that takes into account the peak years of the real estate boom when sales levels were far higher than at the present time. If we look at more recent history taking into account the sales during the same time period from 2008 through 2011 the actual average number of closed escrows per month drops to 5.64 houses and 5.25 for condos during the first calendar quarter.
I have been tracking inventory and sales totals during the past 4+ years on a weekly basis and have archival data on my website that is not readily available anywhere else. When you look at the inventory level at the start of each January during the last four years there have been an average of 199 houses and 150 condos for sale on the IVBOR MLS. From a purely mathematical perspective the odds against selling your house in the first quarter of the year are approximately 11 to 1 and the odds against selling your condo are approximately 10 to 1. Almost every wager at the tables in the casino provides me with a better chance of success.
In contrast, from April through November the odds against getting your property sold at current inventory levels are closer to 3 to 1. That ratio is not going to drop down below 1 to 1 until annual sales exceed average annual inventory levels, and that's not anytime soon. What this means is that buyers have a lot of variety from which to choose and that just because the odds are 3 to 1 against your property getting sold in any given year does not mean your place will definitely sell in 3 years or less. It might take 10 years if you have such a unique property that there are very few buyers who would be attracted to your place. It might take 10 days if you have a desirable property in a great location that people have been waiting for.
Some condos (but not the majority) are considered to be similar to commodities or staple items, kind of like socks and underwear. There are always going to be at least a handful of people buying in a few particular complexes regardless of the time of year and the price is going to be within a known range. Single-family homes in Incline Village present a different situation altogether due to the unique attributes of each individual property.
Keeping your property on the market all year round when you only have a desire to sell and not a true need to sell may or may not work out to your advantage. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to marketing real estate. If you truly have to sell your property for whatever reason (personal, financial, etc.), then do what is needed in the beginning to prepare it for sale by doing repairs and staging, then price it aggressively to attract interest. Having said that, some properties are so unique based on their location, architecture, floor plan, slope, etc. that there may not be an interested buyer for many years to come except at a fire sale price.
If you would just like to sell your property and don't have some pressing need, then leaving it on the market all year round could potentially make it appear stale just like that winter coat hanging with the summer clothes. When a property listing expires from the MLS, many agents continue to maintain close relationships with their sellers and sign extensions for the off-season that permit them to continue marketing the property through various channels. This is where networking between agents plays a huge role in getting properties sold during the winter months.
Also, if an agent cannot find a current listing that their buyer is interested in they will very often search the withdrawn and expired listings and contact the former listing agent to see if they still have a relationship with the seller. The timing with which a new listing is put on the MLS is actually material for another entire column because of all the various strategies and nuances. It's important for agents and sellers to be creative and use a variety of methods to market properties when trying to attract a buyer.
A side note to last week's article on strengthening the licensing standards for real estate agents: I used to have a Series 7 securities license when I worked for an investment firm in the Bay Area and I am intimately familiar with the educational requirements, scope of knowledge and rigorous standards for the Series 7. he difference in difficulty between the Series 7 exam and the real estate license exam and the body of knowledge required to pass the Series 7 is extraordinary.
Don Kanare is a Realtor at RE/MAX Premier Properties. Read his blog and weekly stats on his website at www.InsideIncline.com.
I researched the closed sales on the IVBOR MLS month by month for January, February and March from 2004 through 2011 and the charts with this column are rather enlightening. While the average number of monthly sales on a year ‘round basis might be 27+ properties per month from 2004 through 2011, in the dead of winter the number of closed sales drops precipitously. Due to space limitations I have not included a separate chart for freestanding condos, but suffice it to say that between 1 and 3 PUDs close escrow during each of the winter months.
Over the last eight years there were an average of 8.66 single-family homes and 9.66 condos closing escrow per month during the first quarter of each year. But that takes into account the peak years of the real estate boom when sales levels were far higher than at the present time. If we look at more recent history taking into account the sales during the same time period from 2008 through 2011 the actual average number of closed escrows per month drops to 5.64 houses and 5.25 for condos during the first calendar quarter.
I have been tracking inventory and sales totals during the past 4+ years on a weekly basis and have archival data on my website that is not readily available anywhere else. When you look at the inventory level at the start of each January during the last four years there have been an average of 199 houses and 150 condos for sale on the IVBOR MLS. From a purely mathematical perspective the odds against selling your house in the first quarter of the year are approximately 11 to 1 and the odds against selling your condo are approximately 10 to 1. Almost every wager at the tables in the casino provides me with a better chance of success.
In contrast, from April through November the odds against getting your property sold at current inventory levels are closer to 3 to 1. That ratio is not going to drop down below 1 to 1 until annual sales exceed average annual inventory levels, and that's not anytime soon. What this means is that buyers have a lot of variety from which to choose and that just because the odds are 3 to 1 against your property getting sold in any given year does not mean your place will definitely sell in 3 years or less. It might take 10 years if you have such a unique property that there are very few buyers who would be attracted to your place. It might take 10 days if you have a desirable property in a great location that people have been waiting for.
Some condos (but not the majority) are considered to be similar to commodities or staple items, kind of like socks and underwear. There are always going to be at least a handful of people buying in a few particular complexes regardless of the time of year and the price is going to be within a known range. Single-family homes in Incline Village present a different situation altogether due to the unique attributes of each individual property.
Keeping your property on the market all year round when you only have a desire to sell and not a true need to sell may or may not work out to your advantage. There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to marketing real estate. If you truly have to sell your property for whatever reason (personal, financial, etc.), then do what is needed in the beginning to prepare it for sale by doing repairs and staging, then price it aggressively to attract interest. Having said that, some properties are so unique based on their location, architecture, floor plan, slope, etc. that there may not be an interested buyer for many years to come except at a fire sale price.
If you would just like to sell your property and don't have some pressing need, then leaving it on the market all year round could potentially make it appear stale just like that winter coat hanging with the summer clothes. When a property listing expires from the MLS, many agents continue to maintain close relationships with their sellers and sign extensions for the off-season that permit them to continue marketing the property through various channels. This is where networking between agents plays a huge role in getting properties sold during the winter months.
Also, if an agent cannot find a current listing that their buyer is interested in they will very often search the withdrawn and expired listings and contact the former listing agent to see if they still have a relationship with the seller. The timing with which a new listing is put on the MLS is actually material for another entire column because of all the various strategies and nuances. It's important for agents and sellers to be creative and use a variety of methods to market properties when trying to attract a buyer.
A side note to last week's article on strengthening the licensing standards for real estate agents: I used to have a Series 7 securities license when I worked for an investment firm in the Bay Area and I am intimately familiar with the educational requirements, scope of knowledge and rigorous standards for the Series 7. he difference in difficulty between the Series 7 exam and the real estate license exam and the body of knowledge required to pass the Series 7 is extraordinary.
Don Kanare is a Realtor at RE/MAX Premier Properties. Read his blog and weekly stats on his website at www.InsideIncline.com.
Houses Closed Escrows Condos
Year Jan. Feb. Mar. Jan. Feb. Mar2004 7 11 17 27 20 26
2005 11 10 20 17 10 21
2006 13 7 11 5 13 10
2007 10 6 16 6 4 10
2008 3 5 4 4 5 5
2009 6 4 5 2 2 7
2010 7 7 6 6 3 11
2011 6 5 11 5 6 7
