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That sounds like an amazing condo Marisa. I wonder what the HOA dues would be on a building like that. Would the owners work that out between one another or would the owner decide?
Dues range between $535 and $1316/month
I would argue that brokers are more motivated to price your home lower as that will allow them to sell it faster. It seems to me like the seller should be able to set his or her own price on the home for sale in Seattle after the agent provides everything – comparable homes that have sold, market, etc.
I don’t understand why anyone in Seattle would buy a home after conducting a short sale or a foreclosure. It boggles my mind why someone would continue to invest in real estate if they couldn’t afford it in the first place. Not to mention they’ll end paying way more after a short sale because their credit is ruined.
Great post! I agree with a lot of what you’ve said. I think their pricing and willingness to meet the market has translated into a very successful start to the 2012. Nice blog. Keep up the good work.
JR, sorry I haven’t gotten back to you yet. Thank you and I’m a huge fan of your blog and analysis at urbancondospaces.com.
I’ve heard about not wanting to list a home on Sunday night and could probably see it being a result of aggregate sites like Trulia and Redfin. When you first list your home, you’re going to be first on the list, right? But after your home in Tacoma gets superseded by other homes, you start to inch toward the bottom. It seems to me that you have to find that sweet spot. Add the home when most buyers are looking for Tacoma homes but when less sellers are coming in behind yo to add theirs.
I understand the methodology behind listing one’s home in Seattle for less in order to generate multiple and I think this is a complete mistake right now. Generating multiple offers is a good idea and realistic if there are multiple buyers continually scanning the market. Unfortunately, there are not and you will end up getting one, maybe two offers that undermine the value of your home. I think the one exception to this could be luxury homes for sale in Seattle. This is a niche which many potential buyers are constantly scanning.
Wow. I don’t know if I’d ever want to do a short sale in Seattle…it seems like an awful process. So, if I understand this correctly, the buyer could close on my home in Seattle and this could take a full three months? And during this entire process, the bank can contact me and need something within 48 hours?
@ Jim. As I mentioned short sales are not short. Yes, your statement regarding the lengthy process is correct. I don’t think anyone WANTS to do a short sale. However, for sellers, it may be the best alternative (lesser of two evils when compared to foreclosure). This is not always the case, and one should seek legal advice to evaluate all options. For buyers, short sales present an opportunity to get an AMAZING value. That being said, buyers need to have proper expectations regarding the process and flexible time frames.
I’d say no. I think there’s room to give in the Seattle housing market and I only say that because there are tons of Seattle foreclosures out there. It’s only a matter of time before these foreclosures in Seattle pull down the Seattle market with them.
@Doom and Gloom in Seattle- You are correct in your observation regarding the effects of foreclosures on pricing. That said, there are two “bottoms”- one referring to economic activity (job numbers, housing sales, etc.) and the second one referring to home prices. If we are talking about the first bottom, we are there. If we are talking about pricing, I agree with you that pricing lags and will take more time to rebound. This year, however, policy initiatives, especially the Foreclosure Fairness Act, (a WA statute that can stop the foreclosure process- in case someone is reading this who doesn’t live in WA) will reduce the number of foreclosures, thereby lessening the downward pressure of foreclosures on pricing.
I feel like the job growth we’ve seen in Seattle hasn’t really carried over into the housing market. I think it’ll take at least 2-3 years before employees from a growing Amazon really begin to take hold in Seattle. I guess we can look for something similar to what happened in Bellevue by Microsoft.
Are you allowed to advertise someone else’s listing without violating realtor’s code of ethics?
You must have permission to advertise another agent’s listing. Per the NWMLS, blogging about a listing is permitted as long as the listing agent indicates in the MLS that blogging is allowed.
What a great post!! On behalf of Supreme-Auctions I want to thank you for your kind words. My name is Sam DiBello and a short time ago I took to position of managing Director for SA for the greater Seattle area. I wonder if we could find some time to get together? I want to tell you about how we can work together and shorten our clients time on market and still get top dollar. What do you think?
Hi Marisa – Jay T. from Zillow here. Thanks for pointing out some of the highlights of Zillow’s new “ZPP” — Zillow Partnership Program. As a relatively new Zillow employee, and coming directly from the real estate brokerage side of the business, I think it’s a great step. We *want* great relationships with agents, brokers and MLS’s. And I think we’re headed that way!
Thank you for the feedback Jay. I like the way you phrased that.
I think Zillow is heading in the right direction in trying to abide by similar guidelines that restrict real estate agents. I have played with Diverse Solutions and think it’s a great IDX solution. I’m holding you personally accountable if that ever changes
- M
No pressure there… fortunately, I know who to call out if I have to!
I’ve used DS on my real estate since since they were in Beta. Loved them LONG before I, or they, joined Zillow.
Great post Chris.
I would say that it can be difficult to find the right representation for those investing in Seattle real estate. New investors who don’t already have an experienced consultant may look to a real estate agent who doesn’t necessarily have the expertise to lay out costs and potential shortfalls.
I would add that one of the biggest challenges is finding the real estate deals that are worthy of an investment. When you do find one, it can be hard to negotiate with a seller who is fixed on price or already well over their head in losses.
Marisa–
Thanks for your thinking [about ZipRealty] and [your] comments about agent ratings. We believe that transparent reviews of agents can be of value to real estate consumers, and yet this topic is often swept away as unimportant, unfair or inappropriate for real estate.
Your comparison of search volume on “real estate agent” vs. “reviews of real estate agents” shows that search engine interest in agent reviews is pretty nascent at this stage, and we think that means it is still a good time to get ahead of the curve here. Google’s Insights tool also shows that the trend in query volume on agent reviews is upward, while the three-year trend in search volume on agents alone is essentially flat.
Finally, I think your point about new agents breaking in is really important, and that’s one reason why we designed ZipRealty’s new Agent Reviews and Ratings system so that consumers could post comments at any stage of the process — not just post close. This allows newer agents who are doing that essential foundation work — meeting clients, learning neighborhoods, taking clients on tours, holding open homes — to receive feedback and reviews from consumers at an earlier stage, building a record of their service even as they’re just starting to accumulate a longer list of closing successes.
Sincerely– Lanny Baker, CEO ZipRealty
Lanny,
Thanks for the feedback. You brought up some good points I wanted to address here:
1. Great point on the Google Insight tool. I usually use the Google Adwords tool but didn’t check Insight. You also bring up a good point in that ZipRealty is addressing reviews as a growing trend – I do think this trend will only continue to grow with consumers and search engine rankings.
2. I think allowing ratings/comments throughout the buying or selling process can help newer ZipRealty agents; but I still think it will take time for newer agents to catch up and this will put them at an inherent disadvantage.
Where I think ratings can enable better recruiting and building stronger teams for all agents, not just ZipRealty:
1. Team Ratings – Allowing real estate teams to receive collective ratings and new agents on that team to be able to adopt that rating. This could always be trumped by a personal rating once enough reviews are acquired.
2. Integration of Rich Snippets – This is sort of still new in the real estate blogging community and seems to be lost on many agents. However, rich snippets (author pics, Google circle’s, reviews) is critical to your click rate. If an agent’s bio/profile has reviews that show up on the rich snippet, you’ll have a huge advantage over competitor’s. Redfin has reviews in their rich snippet but doesn’t show an author pic (huge mistake). As of right now, I don’t see either with ZipRealty in Google’s search results.
Hi Marisa, Jay T. from Zillow here.
Of important note, the choice to display the Zestimate, along with the link back to Zillow is controlled by the agent. A simple checkbox is all that is required to remove the link.
“Although I don’t think Zillow will allow you to retain your blog if you ever stop paying.”
The domain name belongs to the agent. Functionality will be included soon to allow the agent to export all posts, pages and comments should they chose to move their site to another host. The proprietary themes, CMS and backend of course is not portable, but the agent generated content will be.
I meant to also add that if the agent desires to take the domain name (which is free by the way) then they will be required to transfer it to a domain registrar. Some registrars charge a nominal fee for this, but it usually includes another year of domain registration. That fee is determined by the registrar, not Zillow.
Jay,
Zillow needs to start paying you more because you are on top of it. With the ability to uncheck those links back to Zillow, I think this could be a great product for many real estate agents.
Great point with the export functions as that should be a big question for agents – if they eventually want more functionality on the back-end of the site. I’ve had to export/import databases with GoDaddy and they were usually pretty good about it.
I asked this of John Cook on Geek Wire, why is Zillow offering Diverse Solutions for $30 per month but only $10 on this WordPress site?
Marisa –
Feel free to send in suggestions for pay increases You can always Tweet @SpencerRascoff
The Agent Premier Websites are designed for ease of use. They don’t allow users to add plugins or widgets, or modify/customize any PHP or CSS code (all that is really done for security purpose, much like what WordPress.com does). So if an agent needs or wants full control and customization, they should by all means keep their current site and provider/host and the Diverse Solutions product. But even agents that already have a strong website and presence might want to consider picking up a Premier Site as an inexpensive option for a second specialty / niche site.
Oh, and the export functionality I previously mentioned has already been added. Working on import functionality now.
I have been planning to add this new Zillow agent website to my website marketing collections, which seems an unfairly good deal.
To rank on the 1st page of Google for competitive keywords is the most important to me so, I really don’t want any link juice leaking. Marisa, thanks for pointing it out and Jay, thanks for clearing it up.
I just purchased a PR4 aged domain for my Zillow website and going to sign up today. After some of my sites got slapped and tanked by Google Penguin update, I’ve been looking for a way to rebound. I hope this Zillow website would be a door opening to many new opportunities…
Thanks for the feedback Max. That’s too bad about Google’s Penguin effecting your SEO. I’d say that change is just one that will effect many real estate agents. I do think Zillow websites are a good product – if controlled properly. You may be a little more informed than most agents. I checked your site…really nice!
- M
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I’m not so sure it will destroy agents. Quite the contrary. I am a broker with several dozen agents in my firm and I have been searching for a cost effective platform for my team to create their own individual web presence. The roadblock is typically design and IDX. This is as close to out of the box as you can get and the price objection is out the window.
As for the link backs, I simply opted out.
They built a better mousetrap.
Great point J, and you’re exactly right: There is no better cost-effective solution to obtain a clean website with a comparable IDX solution. I think the MLS needs to redesign its pricing model for agents. I pay dues and pay for access to the MLS data through iHomeFinder – basically getting charged twice.
Zillow WordPress websites are not designed to take advantage of brokers like you or your well informed agents. It’s designed to play the odds and bank on several uninformed agents to not opt out of the links to Zillow.
It is great to see how far Ballard has come in the last 10 years! Great article!
As a real estate agent, I don’t like to encourage my clients to be active participants in the photo selection process. Too many sellers are emotionally invested in their homes which can cloud their judgement. They hire me to market their house and part of that is selecting and creating the marketing materials.
You really went in depth about creating backlinks. With the new Google Panda and Google Penguin updates many real professionals and even SEO experts are stuck trying to figure out what to do. I find that blogging is the best way to generate links in the long run. And you’re right guest blogging on authority real estate sites is probably number one along with blogging regularly on your own site with internal backlinking…thank you for your insight.
Hi Marissa,
Great post on backlinks. Below is a link to a blog I wrote on the same topic. Last week, my SEO person legitimately took my site http://www.realestateauctionoptions.com link count from around 300 to over 28,000 which are all relevant, real estate-related sites doing something creative with anchor text. I would be happy to put you or any of your followers in touch with him. Thanks. Gary 404-784-5759
http://luxuryrealestateauctions.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/backlink-quanityquality-critical-in-getting-realtors-to-google-page-1/