Housing market has changed for 2013

General Real Estate Investing
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The housing market is a different place than it was just six months ago, with new issues, rules and opportunities — even for those who are planning on staying in their house for a while. In this slide show, MSN Real Estate will fill you in on eight ways the housing market has shifted since last spring’s peak selling season and what these changes mean for you: the buyer or seller.

excerpt from http://realestate.msn.com/8-ways-the-housing-market-has-changed-for-2013

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I am just getting back into sub2 after a LONG break.
I just had a realtor pull all expired listings for the last 30 days in my metro area of about 1M people. My critieria was the typical starter home (3/2/2), average price range that would likely be in a decent neighborhood. There were only a handful. This realtor said there is low inventory and all decent homes are selling quickly, within a few days. It is a good sellers market here right now. What do you all think of the possibilities of starting direct mail and getting a good enough response to buy a house (or two) a month? I put out some bandit signs a few weekends ago and didn’t get a single call. This can happen, but usually I get at least one tire kicker. On the flip side, I know that there is a good demand from buyers for L/O houses. Finding the buyers will be a lot easier than the motivated sellers.

What do you all think?

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The focus should always be on where there is opportunity. Being prepared for the opportunity is what counts, nothing else matters. Trends, economy, lenders…mean nothing, it’s the seller behind the ideal property and the means you use to acquire the property with low-risk and high-reward that matter! IMO :biggrin

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tlance,

I see a couple of problems with your approach:

  1. Chasing the price point with the most competition for buyers.
    Solution: Move up (or down) the food chain, where there’s less competition.
    2 Focusing on expired listings.
    By the time the listings have expired…the sellers have generally settled on a solution that doesn’t include whatever you’re offering.
    Solution: Become an obvious solution, before the listing expires.

If your mailing list is highly sifted, and your mail pieces are tested, you should expect 5-7 responses per thousand.

If you’re closing rate is like mine, you’re going to take 20 calls; make nine in-person offers, and close on 2 deals. If this take two weeks, or three months, it’s still a matter of attracting those 20 callers from your highly sifted mailing list.

Your results will vary from mine, so the number of mail pieces you send per month to get those 20 calls, is something you’ll have to discover.

Remember to focus on the benefit you offer, and not on the mechanics of what you’re doing (in your advertising).

Prospects invariably ask me to explain, on the phone, what I do.

Well, I don’t do Sub2 teleseminars. The only way a prospect can find out what I do, is if they agree to invite me to their house, and let me interview them.

Otherwise, I could spend my time futilely casting a trail of bread crumbs toward a closing, only to have the prospects tell me that my offer sounds great, but they’ll have to talk it over with Uncle Fred ‘who’s into real estate,’ before they can make up their mind.

Well, you can imagine how that conservation with Uncle Fred translates…

“Uncle Fred, this guy wants us to give him our deed; without assuming our loan; is only offering us twenty bucks for our equity; and letting some dead beat move into our house.”

Uncle Fred’s hero glands burst into flames, as he objects to this scheme of ours, and suggests that we do something to ourselves that is otherwise physically impossible.

The end.

Hope that helps a little.
:beer