We’re right at the tip of the iceberg with the Green movement. Greening our real estate practice is not just about being Green ourselves but also understanding where the consumer is coming from so we can better help them. Most home buyers I work with are concerned about some element of Green to some degree or another, but all agree with being more energy efficient.

At Startpoint Realty we are becoming a more eco minded firm — receiving our Green designations, working in virtual offices, sending green trees as closing gifts -– while at the same time going Green can mean looking at new ways of saving money, which we are all doing already in this weakened economy.

Any level of education we as Realtors can add to our profession gives us a competitive edge when working with buyers and sellers. We don’t have to be experts on Green building or everything Green, but we can certainly be ambassadors and become resources of Green.

I prepared a “Greening Your Real Estate Practice” PowerPoint webinar for HomeGain, which has simple but effective tips on what we can do as professionals, getting more involved in our communities and inexpensive ways we can be more of what consumers are expecting from us.

Listen to the GREEN WEBINAR and hear about what you can do (and why) for making your business more Green.

Visit StartPoint Realty website to see how we use virtual offices and transaction platforms and my personal site www.HomesByJeffrey.com as a Green resource and Green marketing ideas.

Also visit the HomeGain Green Real Estate site to get more tips.

Jeffrey Bastress, GREEN certified NAR instructor

Early last week, HomeGain released the national and regional results of a survey of more than 1150 current and former HomeGain members. The survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance as President.  On the HomeGain real estate blog we published the national and regional 2nd Qtr results.  Earlier this week we published the results of the  California home prices, Texas home prices, Florida home prices, New York home prices, New Jersey home prices, Illinois home prices, Georgia home prices and Arizona home prices surveys.

Today we are releasing the North Carolina home prices survey data.

Last week, HomeGain, the first web site to provide free online instant home valuations,  released the national and regional results of our survey of 1150 former and current HomeGain members. We asked their opinions on home prices and of President Obama’s performance as President.  On this blog we published the national and regional 2nd Qtr results.  

This week we published the results of the  California home prices, Texas home prices, Florida home prices, New York home prices, New Jersey home prices, Illinois home prices and  Arizona home prices prices surveys.

Today we release the result of the Georgia home prices survey.

In the first quarter Georgia home values survey, Realtors expressed the belief that home buyers thought homes were over valued. In the current survey not much has changed with just 8% of Georgia home buyers believing that homes are fairly priced (vs.5% in the frst quater survey). According to Georgia Realtors, thirty-two percent of Georgia home buyers believe that home prices are over priced by 10-20%, the same percentage of home buyers that believed the same in the first quarter. (see question 3)

Georgia home sellers tempered their valuation expectations slightly in the second quarter with 39% believing that their homes were worth 10-20% more than their Realtors’ recommended listing prices vs. 45% who believed so in the first quarter. In the current survey only 8% of Georgia home owners believed that their homes were worth 21-30% more than their Realtors’ recommended listing prices vs. 16% who believed so in the first quarter. (see question 2)

Three months ago 42% of Georgia Realtors expected home values to decline in the next six months. In the current survey 27% of Georgia Realtors believe home prices will fall in the next six months. Twenty-seven percent of Geogia Realtors in the current survey expect home prices to increase in the next six month vs. 16% who believed so in the first quarter. (see question 6)

Fifty-eight percent of Georgia Realtors somewhat approve or strongly approve of Obama’s performance as President.

Set forth below is the Georgia home prices data with the national data in parenthesis:

Continue reading this post

On Monday May 18, HomeGain, the first company to provide free online instant home valuations,  released the national and regional results of our survey of 1150 former  and current HomeGain members. We asked their opinions on home prices and of President Obama’s performance as President.  On this blog we published the national and regional 2nd Qtr results.  This week we published the results of the  California home prices, Texas home prices, Florida home prices, New York home prices, New Jersey home prices, and Illinois home prices surveys.

Today we release the results of the Arizona home prices survey.

Arizona is one of the states that has experieced the greatest depreciation in home prices in recent years. The values of Phoenix homes for sale have fallen fifty percent since 2006. Three months ago according to our home prices survey, 61% of Realtors believed that home values would continue their descent. In the recent home values survey just 24%  of Realtors expect further declines in home prices in the next six months, with 52% believing that home values will stabilize. (see question 6)

An increasing percentage of Arizona home buyers believe that homes are overpriced with 32% believing that homes are 10-20% overvalued vs. 11% who believed so three months ago. (see question 3).

Thirty-five percent of Arizona home sellers continue to believe that their homes are worth 10-20% more than their Realtors’ recommend listing price (vs. 33% in the first quarter). Eight percent of Arizona home owners believe that their homes are worth 21-30% higher than the price their Realtors’ recommend. (vs. 17% in the first quarter).

Fifty-eight percent of Arizona Realtors somewhat approve or strongly approve of Obama’s performance as President vs. 57% of their national counterparts.

Set forth below is the Arizona home values data with the national data in parenthesis: Arizona/National Continue reading this post