Monthly Archives: June 2019

Lee County Housing Inventory Falls Since April

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Lee County housing inventory fell since April and now sits at 5.04 months supply.  Back in April it was 5.81 months.  Housing supply fell in all categories except $150,000 and below.  Let’s take a look at what caused this.

Lee County housing inventory  fell 13.3% since April. Active listings fell from 6,283 back in April to 5,447 in June.  Either more homes are pending and haven’t closed yet, or many listings expired since mid-April, and sellers gave up trying to sell.  Closed sales are almost even.  They slipped from 12,986 last 365 days in April to 12,973 in June.

Lee County Housing Inventory Falls Since April

Perhaps sellers got discouraged.  There is new hope as interest rates have fallen and given a boom to real estate buyers making homes more affordable.  Rates have fallen unexpectedly due to trade talk about 1% since last Fall.  That adds about 11% purchasing power to a buyer, which means buyers have been able to step up in price to get the home they want for the same payment.

This creates additional opportunities for buyers, and we know this may be a limited window.  If it’s an opportunity for buyers, then it’s also an opportunity for sellers.

When a seller decides to list their home, they have two major decisions to make.  What price to price it at and which agent to list it.  Both decisions are critical, and either one can kill your chances for a sale.

Many sellers believe the MLS will sell their home, so it doesn’t matter which agent they choose.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  All agents are not the same.  Some are better at negotiating, and some are better at marketing.  A few are great at both and knowing who they are can make the difference between a sale and no sale.  It can also cost you thousands.  Less marketing means fewer buyers to choose from and more time on the market.  With fewer buyers, you’re not assured of getting top dollar for your home or a sale at all.

Pricing is important too.  It’s important to know where you stand in the marketplace.  How does your home rate?  How much competition is there?  Is the market generally favorable for your home or unfavorable?  Your agent should be able to discuss with you the absorption rate as well as the months supply of homes.  We’ve given you the overall month’s supply for single family homes in Lee County.  This can be done at the neighborhood level too.

We love to sit down with homeowners and go over the comparable sales.  We’ll look at photos of kitchens, bathrooms, front entry, etc. and compare them to the subject property.  The seller quickly gains an understanding of what buyers are looking for and how much their home is going to sell for.  We look at current competition as well.

Sellers love to know how much they’re going to net out in the pocket at closing, so we do a net sheet right there at the table.  Armed with this information, sellers make better choices. Together the agent and the seller interpret the data.  It must be looked at objectively through the eyes of a buyer, because they’re the ones buying.  A good agent can help you with that.

To get an approximate value for your home, head over to www.SWFLhomevalues.com.  It’s free and easy, and you’ll get a value within seconds.  No waiting for an agent to call you.

To see the latest marketing and how we reach buyers targeted for your home, give Sande or Brett Ellis a call.  239-489-4042 Ext 4.  Our team has been voted the Best by News Press readers several years, and we’ve been top agents in SW Florida for over 30 years.  We know the market, and we know how to market.  Put our experience to work for you!

Read last week’s Real Estate Consumer Experience Will Forever Change Industry

Real Estate Consumer Experience Will Forever Change Industry

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Buckle up, it’s about to get very interesting in the real estate world!  The real estate consumer experience will forever change the real estate industry.  We’re about to experience more change in the next year than the last 20 years combined.  That’s a big statement, and we’ve seen it with other industries.

This may lead to fewer agents in the business.  Some experts predict National Association of Realtors membership may decline from 1.2 million members to around 700,000. That’s about a 42% drop.  Even a 20% drop will put pressure on real estate companies.  We may see mergers and we may see brands closing.  There are just too many unprofitable companies.  Independent brokerages will either close or merge into larger companies with more consumer tools.  Publicly traded real estate companies will face increased pressure from shareholders to return a profit, which could affect commission splits to agents.  All these spell big change for the industry.

What will drive these changes?  The consumer experience will, and that’s about to change in a big way soon.  We’ve already seen rival companies gearing up with new updates, and we’ve seen sites like Realtor.com losing their CEO and losing brokerage accounts right and left.

A Better Real Estate Consumer Experience

In the past, search was where it was at.  Companies competed on search to gain consumers, but retaining consumers is another story.  Consumers are always in search of a better experience.  If you’re looking for places to vacation in Hawaii, you may use search.  However, if you frequently visit Hawaii and a company came along and provided a more in-depth and customizable experience, you might go from search to being loyal to the online experience.

This happened to Blockbuster.  They had all the DVD’s you could ever want.  They knew which titles were popular because they had the data from their stores.  What they didn’t have was the data outside their stores.  Netflix did, and they ate Blockbuster’s lunch.  We call it getting Netflixed.

2019 will be the year some real estate companies get Netflixed.  This will only happen because other companies provide a unique customer experience. Some companies will focus on search, because it’s all they’ve ever known.  Search might attract a customer, but the experience will retain them.

Better Online Search

Real Estate Consumer Experience

If an agent today has a database of 1,000 past customers, they need to ask themselves one question.  Are any of these 1,000 past customers at risk?  Could I lose them if someone else came along with a wonderful consumer experience?  The answer is, you betcha!  Nobody owns a customer.  While they may love their agent, they’ll go to whoever provides the best consumer experience today.

Neighborhood Insights

Real Estate Consumer Experience Neighborhood Insights

And this is what’s changing right now.  In the next 60 days we’ll be rolling out our new customer experience. We’ll use artificial intelligence to match home buyers with properties they love.  It will shorten their search for a home time.  We’ll provide neighborhood information like never before.  The consumer will be immersed in a platform they won’t want to leave.

Other companies will try to copy, but it might be too late.  It would take over 3 years to copy what we’ve done, along with data.  Wall Street is impatient and won’t wait 3 years.  Already we’re seeing real estate company stocks of selected companies under pressure.  Agents are worried and beginning to shop around for a company that can compete with what’s coming.  No agent wants to be caught at a company that’s been Netflixed.

We’re not saying one company will survive.  There will be 2-3 main companies that make it through all this, and several fighting for 4th place.  4th place isn’t where you want to be.

You can download our consumer app at www.SWfloridaopenhouse.com  It will automatically change over to the new real estate consumer experience when it’s released, so you won’t have to do anything.  Today you can search open houses, find homes, rentals, and much more.  Soon, your whole new real estate experience will change.  We have a web version coming too if you’re not into smartphones.

We look forward to changing the way consumers experience the real estate market.  You can always email me at Brett@topagent.com if you have more questions, or call 239-489-4042 Ext 4

Financial Markets Turmoil Creates Big Real Estate Opportunity

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Current financial markets turmoil creates big real estate opportunity in SW Florida.  Just last year the Fed was talking about rising rates continuing though 2019.  They began the process in 2018 but abruptly halted once the world economy didn’t cooperate.  If we raise rates too fast, it not only slows economic activity here, but it raises the dollar to a higher level which isn’t what you want when you’re correcting a trade imbalance.

Financial Markets Turmoil Creates Big Real Estate Opportunity

Europe has negative interest rates.  Imagine putting $1,000 in the bank and getting $950 back when you withdraw your money.  That seems crazy to us, but Europe is in trouble.  Our fed wasn’t looking at the whole picture when they made decisions last year, but they are now.

They realize the trade tariffs with China will slowdown economic activity worldwide, so this week Fed chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed may have to step in and adjust as economic conditions warrant.  This is code word for interest rate reductions, which sent the stock markets higher on Tuesday when he made those comments.

All this has sent interest rates down about 1% since January.  This has raised buyer’s purchasing power by 11% on this fact alone, which is putting home buyers back into the market.  Nobody knows how long these trade negotiations will last and where they’ll end up.  Republicans and Democrats alike agree they’re necessary as China has been taking advantage of our companies for too long.  We must endure short term tariffs for long term gain.  Let us show you how low your payments could be with the current financial markets turmoil.

Because of this, it’s created a window of opportunity for home buyers.  With rates around 4%, buyers must seize this opportunity.  Four factors influence the affordability of a home, and that’s price, interest rates, taxes, and fees.  Interest rates can be one of the largest factors in the cost of a home over the time a homeowner owns their home.

Buyers today are also looking at the total cost of ownership.  They ask how much the condo or HOA fees are, if there are mandatory club fees, CDD’s, and if the taxes are in the city or county.

Check Out Our App

A great agent can answer all these questions.  Websites typically show the asking price and photos, but they don’t always tell the whole story.  We have a mobile app that shows much of this information, and an automatic major update coming out within 60 days will provide you with information that you can’t get anywhere else.  It will simply blow you away.  It’s in final testing right now.

One way to get the app is go to www.SWfloridaopenhouse.com  or simply email me at Brett@topagent.com and I can email or text you the link.  Yes, you can search all the open houses on the app too.  The real power will be in the release 60 days from now.  Meanwhile, the app will show you what HOA or condo fees are in each property and we can verify if there are any other fees you might want to know about.

Of course, you can always call us at 239-489-4042.  We’ll be happy to discuss your options and how you can take advantage of these low rates for your benefit.  If you’re thinking of selling and would like to know how much we could sell your home for, and how much you’d net in your pocket at closing, ask for Sande or Brett at Ext 4, or visit www.SWFLhomevalues.com

See Last Week’s Article: Lee County Florida Home Prices Have Been Flat For 2 Years

Good luck and let us know how we can help you make your next move!

Lee County Florida Home Prices Have Been Flat For 2 Years

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Lee County Florida home prices have been flat for 2 years and nobody seems to notice.  Take a look at the graph below and we’ll explain why this may be good news going forward.

Lee County Florida Home Prices Flat For 2 Years

Some parts of the country are experiencing multiple offers on each home and others have experienced a shift as homes are taking longer to sell.  In the end, it comes down to affordability on each locale.  As home prices rise, together with interest rates, it affects affordability.

We’ve caught a break with interest rates.  With rates down around 4% it means home buyers can pay more for a home and less to the bank.  It props them up into a higher purchasing bracket on affordability alone.

As homes go up in value, they can be susceptible to fall if the economy or interest rates rise.  The silver lining to all this is because prices didn’t increase here over the last two plus years, they may not have to fall either if or when the economy changes.  We’ve got a strong economy now, but with trade wars and potential military conflicts around the world, you never know what can tilt the scales.

If the economy continues to roar along, the Lee County Florida housing market could eventually have some upside.  Inventory has been growing, so we’re not seeing upward price pressure now. Obviously, the price range you’re looking in can have different inventory levels than another price range.

It pays to consult a Realtor before purchasing.  A Realtor can not only guide you through the process, but they can also advise you on things that can affect your resale ability later when you need to sell.

Because we work with a lot of buyers each year, our agents are on the front lines with buyer’s concerns.  Buyers do not want to make a mistake.  Working with an agent that understands what other buyers are concerned about may help you in your decision.  We know what future objections will be for your home and if you should pay less because of that.

The last thing you want to do is overpay for a home now that you’ll have to take less for down the road when you decide to sell.  Talk to one of our experienced buyer agents on the Ellis Team at Keller Williams Realty 239-489-4042 and you’ll see what we’re talking about.  Or, you can search the MLS like a pro for Free at www.LeeCountyOnline.com

If you’re selling, you need a Realtor that listens to what your goals are and has solutions to help you attain them.  Anybody can give your house away.  A great Realtor prices the home at market value and then markets it.  By the way, marketing is not simply putting a sign out in the yard and placing it on hundreds of various websites.  Anybody can do that.  Marketing is so much more, and very few Realtors do it. Lee County Florida home sales were down 6.8% in April, so marketing matters.

If you’re thinking of selling, or maybe you tried to sell and it didn’t work out, give Sande or Brett Ellis a call at 239-489-4042 Ext 4. We’ll show you how to price it at market and get Top Dollar because it was marketed correctly.  There is a difference.  All Realtors do not work the same!

Find out what your home is worth for Free at www.SWFLhomevalues.com then call us to talk about strategies.  We love it when a plan comes together!  We’ll help you with your plan.

Please Vote For us!  Vote the Ellis Team as Best Real Estate Team and Best Real Estate Agency in Fort Myers.

Good luck and Happy House Hunting!