Sixty-three percent of Pennsylvania real estate professionals expect home prices to stay the same or decrease within the next six months

Last month, HomeGain,one of the first companies to provide free instant home valuations online, released the results of our fourth quarter 2012 nationwide home values survey of over 200 HomeGain current and former members and 1,500 home owners. The survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance as President. On this real estate blog we published the 4th quarter 2012 national results as well as the complete 4th quarter 2012 regional results, including commentary from real estate agents and brokers.

Recently, we released the California 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data, the Florida 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data, and the Georgia 4th quarter 2012 home prices survey data.

Today we are releasing the Pennsylvania home prices survey.

Set forth below is the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional and home owner Pennsylvania home prices survey data along with the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional survey data and the fourth quarter 2012 national home prices survey data: (click on each question to see complete results):

1. Have home prices increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last year?
2. On average, what do homeowners believe that their home is worth?
3. How do buyers feel that homes for sale are priced?
4. What is the average difference in price between what sellers believe their home to be worth and the amount at which the home gets listed?
5. What is the average difference in price between what a home is listed at and what a home sells for?
6. In the next six months, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
7. In the next two years, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
8. What percentage of homes for sale are foreclosures in your area?
9. What is the average home price in your area?
10. What percentage of your clients are first-time buyers?
11. How do you think Barack Obama is performing in his role as President?

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Sixty percent of Georgia Real Estate Professionals expect home values to decrease over the next six months

Last month, HomeGain, one of the first companies to provide free instant home valuations online, released the results of our fourth quarter 2012 nationwide home values survey of over 200 HomeGain current and former members and 1,500 home owners. The survey asked their opinions on home prices and what they thought of President Obama’s performance as President.

On this real estate blog we published the 4th quarter 2012 national results as well as the complete 4th quarter 2012 regional results, including commentary from real estate agents and brokers. Earlier this month we released the California 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data and the Florida 4th quarter 2012 home values survey data.

Today we are releasing the results of the fourth quarter 2012 Georgia home prices survey.

Set forth below is the fourth quarter 2012 real estate professional and home owner Georgia home prices survey data along with the fourth quarter 2012 national home prices survey data: (click on each question to see complete results):

1. Have home prices increased, decreased or stayed the same in the last year?
2. On average, what do homeowners believe that their home is worth?
3. How do buyers feel that homes for sale are priced?
4. What is the average difference in price between what sellers believe their home to be worth and the amount at which the home gets listed?
5. What is the average difference in price between what a home is listed at and what a home sells for?
6. In the next six months, will the values of homes in your market increase, decrease or stay the same?
7. What percentage of homes for sale are foreclosures in your area?
8. What is the average home price in your area?
9. What percentage of your clients are first-time buyers?
10. How do you think Barack Obama is performing in his role as President?

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On Monday January 7, 2012, Louis Cammarosano, General Manager of HomeGain, was a guest on the Real Estate 360 Live radio show on The Big Talker 1580 WHFS AM, hosted by Ryan Sloper.

Listen to the show.

Part 1 (15:00)

Louis and Ryan discuss the fiscal cliff deal/ Both had predicted Congress would come up with a plan that would not cut spending.

Louis notes that the Social security withholding went from 4.2 to 6.2% and top rates went up to 39 percent.
Louis notes that both of these while increases are technically not as they come about as a result of letting the prior cuts expire.

Louis notes that the resolution of the fiscal cliff negotiations did not lead to a reduction in the deficit

Louis notes that raising taxes could result in few taxes being collected.

Ryan notes that the mortgage debt forgiveness relief act was extended as part of the fiscal cliff deal.

Louis notes that a lot of new spending and tax breaks were also included in the deal.
Louis notes the bill was 157 pages and passed in three minutes!

Louis notes the dynamic where each Senator and Congressman has an incentive to continue spending.

Louis notes the FOMC minutes that indicated that they might stop buying treasuries. Louis says its “all talk”.

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HomeGain partners with RealtyTrac , Point2Agent, New Home Source, and Apartments.com to share over two million listings of foreclosures, existing homes, new homes for sale, and apartment rentals; HomeGain also unveils redesigned home page

by Louis Cammarosano

HomeGain, a leading provider of online marketing solutions that connects real estate agents and brokers with home buyers and sellers, recently announced new partnerships that increase the number of foreclosures, existing homes, new homes, and apartment rental listings to over two million.

HomeGain’s partnership with RealtyTrac provides over 1.4 million foreclosure listings and pre-foreclosure homes from over 2,200 counties in the United States. Point2Agent provides over 550,000 existing homes for sale listings nationwide. New Home Source brings new home listings from over 8,000 communities from over 500 home builders. Apartments.com, the leading online apartment resource, offers rental information from apartment properties across the country.

Home buyers and sellers who visit HomeGain.com will also notice a redesigned and more user-friendly home page. The three-column layout remains intact but has a fresh new look. HomeGain’s redesigned home page now makes it easier for visitors to search homes for sale. A navigation menu has been added to the top of the page, along with a new search form that provides access to over two million real estate listings. Users can access HomeGain’s find and compare real estate agents product and home values tool from the home page.

“A redesign of the HomeGain home page was long overdue, especially as we have added an enormous amount of listings and other real estate content over the past year”, said Louis Cammarosano HomeGain’s General Manager. Kudos to our product development and technology teams for implementing the sleek design which enables users to easily search our two million listings and other real estate content.”

Home sellers are more than twice as likely to sell their homes using a REALTOR® than going FSBO. Seventy-three percent of homeowners using a HomeGain agent had their homes sold vs. 62 percent who used a non-HomeGain agent and vs. 30 percent who went FSBO.

by Louis Cammarosano

HomeGain surveyed over 400 homeowners asking whether they used a REALTOR® to sell their home or whether they attempted to sell it themselves. Seventy-nine percent said they used a REALTOR® to sell their home and 21 percent said they tried to sell their home on their own.

Sixty-six percent of home owners that used a REALTOR® to sell their home were successful vs. 30 percent of FSBO’s, reflecting a 120 percent higher closing rate for those home sellers using a REALTOR®.

Eighty-five percent of homeowners that used a REALTOR® to try and sell their home said they would use a REALTOR® again for their real estate needs.

Eighty-nine percent of home owners who sold their home using a REALTOR® said they would use a REALTOR® again.

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Now that giving away products and services for free is a viable business model, will a profitable model of paying consumers to use products emerge?

by Louis Cammarosano

In any transaction two parties assign relative values to what they are exchanging. A purchaser of a cup of coffee at Starbucks values the coffee more than the three dollars in his pocket and Starbucks values the three dollars more than the coffee it is selling.

The pricing of goods and services has been established in this manner for centuries. Some people will not pay three dollars for a cup of coffee, but others will. Starbucks determines how much it will charge and consumers how much they will pay through the price discovery mechanism of the free market.

In recent times, a new form of exchange has emerged that the price discovery mechanism of the free market has not yet fully tested.

These new forms of exchange involve companies giving away products and services for free.

We can refer to these business practices as the freemium or freeluxe models.

Freeluxe/Freemium

Under the freemium model a company gives away a product that is either feature, time, capacity or customer service limited with the goal of eventually charging the customer for full use of the product. Examples of this model include Pandora and Flickr.

The freeluxe model, in contrast, starts with no limitations on product usage and its business model does not depend on ever charging the user. Examples of freeluxe business models include Google, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. The user has full access to all features of the products and never pays the company in exchange for their usage.

Gmail- A Freeluxe model that works

Under the freeluxe model the company offers the product and the consumer “exchanges” his use of the product in return.

The consumer deems the value received from using Google’s Gmail sufficient to his consent to use it.

Google in turn through the consumers’ use of the Gmail product receives a plethora of information about its users that it can then employ in the individual and in the aggregate to determine user behavior and preferences to sell advertising.

The relative monetary value that consumers place on their consent to use products like Gmail is nothing. But should it be? Should the consumer ask to be paid to use products such as Gmail?

Sound ridiculous? Perhaps Google one day WILL pay consumers to use its products-especially in areas that he has not gained market share-think Google Plus or the defunct Google Buzz.

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