Buyer’s Choice Realty blog

According to a recent Gallup poll, 67 percent of Americans feel that the current market shows that it is a good time to buy, while 30 percent feel it is not.

Many of those who do not feel it’s a good time to buy a home fear that homes will continue to lose value and they will buy something now that will be worth less later.

According to the Gallup poll more people (27%) expect home values to fall as compared to a smaller number (21%) who expect home prices to rise this year.

Many feel that current conditions favor buying even though home prices in their local area may continue to slide in the coming months.

According to the National Association of Realtors, there were roughly 3.7 million homes for sale at the end of November, 2010, equating to approximately a 9 and a half month-supply at the current sales pace.

This means that at the current sales rate it would take nearly ten months to sell everything that is currently listed even if no more inventory entered the market. And so, potential buyers would say, the continuing Buyer’s Market makes it a good time to buy since it’s a good time to negotiate a lower price while there are a lot of competing properties for sale.

By the way, these figures show a consistency over the last couple of years but actually show and improvement since the 2008 survey results.

So what do you think? Is it a good time to buy, or should buyers sit on the sidelines and wait to hit bottom?

I just got back from the NAEBA annual convention in Tucson, Arizona. One of the featured speakers was Dick Betts. Dick says that real estate agents will need as many places to reach the consumer as possible and the essential resource to service them is in the palm of their hands. It’s not just a Smart Phone; it’s a Super Phone.

Imagine consumers finding the specific properties they want to see and calling you to be their Buyer’s Agent to show them the property. Oh, by the way they have already driven by the property and read the the QR barcode on the yard sign with their mobile barcode reader and gotten a lot of detail already, including a virtual tour.

You confirm the showings with the Listing Agent and without ever printing out a listing sheet, when your arrive at the property you hand your new client your iPad which opens the listing sheet and all the public and a lot of proprietary information they want to see.

The out-of-town buyer you have been in touch with decides they want to walk through a number of the listings you have sent them. They are still on the other coast, but want you to set up an appointment and Skype the walk through with them so they can pause to ask you specific questions, and focus in on things that interest them just as though they are right there with you. Actually, visually and audibly they are!

All of this is available today; we don’t need to wait, the future is now. You can retrieve any mandatory disclosures, offer forms, etc. on your mobile device, send them to the buyer on the other coast or for the local buyer, print them out on any printer anywhere including the one in the trunk of your car. When the offer is completed and signed by the buyer you scan it with your mobile device and send it immediately to the Listing Agent.

Got a lot of catching up to do? Me too. For the return plane trip I had no way to print out my boarding pass. But just for a quick test I downloaded the JotNot app into my iPhone, pulled up the boarding pass on my lap top, scanned it with JotNot. I now had a paperless boarding pass that the airline’s bar code reader could read and grant me entry to the plane. Mobile Cloud Technology! Thanks Dick Betts.