HomeGain’s  Home Buyers and Sellers Listing Preferences survey finds home buyers want to see marketing amenities like photos and floor plans in home listings; A majority of home sellers select real estate agents based on fees, web presence and office location rather than on their specific marketing plans

We’re pleased to announce the results of its survey on home buyer listing preferences and home seller listing agent criteria.

HomeGain surveyed over 1,000 home buyers who were asked to rate, on a scale of one to five, the importance of certain home listing amenities and information including, but not limited to, the number of photographs available, neighborhood information, virtual tours and interactive floor plans presented in connection with home listings.

The results show that the most important listings feature (scoring 4.3) buyers want to see is a large number of photographs. The next most important listings feature (scoring 4.1) for buyers are maps that display the location of the listed property.

Top 10 Most Important Property Listing Features for Home Buyers (Cumulative Averages, 1 = Least important, 5 = Most important):

1. Wide selection of photographs (4.3)
2. Location of the property on a map (4.1)
3. Room sizes (4.0)
4. Floor plans (3.9)
5. Town name (3.8)
6. House number (3.57)
7. Street name (3.57)
8. Room description (3.51)
9. 360 virtual tours (3.4)
10. Information on local services, eg. shops and schools (3.2)

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In a relatively uncertain real estate market with lenders exercising strict lending practices, finding qualified home buyers can be daunting. However, there is a pool of qualified buyers who are otherwise neglected: International Buyers.

With a continually expanding global economy, local real estate has the potential of reaching home buyers anywhere in the world. The U.S. real estate market has always been an attractive investment vehicle for foreign buyers, who place emphasis on America’s strong private property rights and historically, long-term market stability.

According to a report by the National Association of Realtors®, for the time period ending 1Q2010, purchases by foreign buyers (those whose main residence is outside of the United States) accounted for $907B, a 4.45% share of the residential market. And although purchases by foreign buyers were reported in 39 states, there was a heavy concentration in California, Florida, Arizona, and Texas.

Furthermore, 55% of foreign buyers are cash buyers, due in large part to difficulties in financing real estate purchases in the U.S. Compare that to 92% of Americans who finance their home via a mortgage.

So how can real estate professionals market to international buyers? Continue reading this post

The “Diamond-Water Paradox” is a basic, fundamental economic theory: Water is essential to life; diamonds aren’t, but because there is so much water available, consumers place much greater value on a diamond to a drop of water.

The same paradox can be applied to selling a home.

When potential home buyers view homes these days they’re looking for that diamond (or, a “diamond in the ruff” to be exact).  And, just like diamonds with their detailed system of clarity (FL, VSI, SI, I, etc.), a home’s marketability may be characterized by three important details: Price (P)/Condition (C)/Location (L).

• Above average landscaping & curb appeal (+C)
• Kitchens and bathrooms that have been remodeled with the latest and greatest (+C)
• Freshly painted rooms in neutral tones (+C)
• A home that is clean and spotless (+C)
• A home situated right next to a factory (-L)
• Orange shag carpeting (-C)
• A home’s price that is at the top-end of the market for similar homes in a given area (–P)
• A home that has easy access to major highway and is also located in a community with very little noise & traffic (+L)
• A home that’s priced at or slightly below market conditions (+P)
• A home located in an area of superior job growth and stability (+L), etc, etc… Continue reading this post

We recently received a notice (see image on right) from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) stating that 861 people have inquired about HomeGain.com over the past few months — to which the BBB replied that HomeGain is BBB Accredited and BBB rated A+.

HomeGain is dedicated to continuing its efforts of providing its real estate professional customers with the best customer service it can, and its consumers (home buyers and sellers) with the best free services on the internet possible.

Some recent feedback from agent customers:

• “Holly is wonderful.  She is responsive, informative, honest and extremely helpful.”
• “Great company.  You are a great business partner.”  (Eric Pakulla, RE/MAX Advantage Realty)
• “I like your program, I pay you when I get paid, it works well and is consumer driven.”
• “Tried them all and your site is the only one that works as far as capturing leads.  Gabriel is a cool rep as well.”
• “The HomeGain team is remarkable and helpful in every way. I appreciate all of them.”
• “Value received, and customer service.  I sold my first house on-line with HomeGain BuyerLink, now I am a Top Producer with RE/MAX!”
• “I love HomeGain! My favorite lead source….if you were to create a brokerage, I would be first in line to run an office for you here in SoCal!”
• “Wonderfully run organization.  Everybody is winning with what you are doing, unlike many others out there who try to do what you’re doing.”
• “I have used many other internet lead generation companies and HomeGain is the best without question! Working with them is always very nice. Karina does a fantastic job for us! The quantity and quality of the leads we get are great! I would recommend HomeGain to anyone — it is a very good, solid company!

Read more HomeGain reviews from Realtors and consumers (about working with Realtors they found through HomeGain).

Read more about HomeGain being rated A+ by the BBB.

I’m a big believer in hiring people to take on tasks that I do not enjoy or do not excel at these days.  Of course, these days I do not sell homes because of my dedication of running my Real Estate Brokerage and belief that in order to grow a company, it wouldn’t be possible if I continued to sell homes…as much as I miss that part of the business.

Of course these days I’m also very busy with The eHomes Realty Network and helping my members.  With this said, over the past 2 years we have tried to figure out a program where a person is hired to make all follow up calls for my real estate agents.  Before I get into this, let’s take a step back for a moment.

As most of those who know me know I’m addicted to lead conversion.

I find it extremely interesting and for most, very difficult.  I have also found that by implementing consistent systems to convert leads to customers for life, we have become stronger and stronger each year.  One of the weakest links for most Agents is follow up.  Most Agents don’t have a hard time making the first phone call to their leads.  The struggle is in making the follow up phone calls and keeping up with them as your database increases.  The more leads you have in your system, the harder it is to stay on top of your leads.

My agents are no different.  They are great people but have the same flaws as most when it comes to follow up.  I decided a couple of years ago that if I am going to take lead conversion to the next level, I will need to start the Lead Conversion Administrator (LCA) position.

We started out by having one LCA and she was making the initial phone calls for 7 Agents.

Along with this, she also learned how to master Continue reading this post

According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald first time home buyers are accounting for a large portion of the recent boost in existing home sales. The reports cite lower home prices and the provision in the Obama stimulus plan that gives first time home buyers an $8,000 credit.

Indeed, on a conference call following HomeGain’s release of its survey of Realtors on Home Values, HomeGain member Jeffrey Bastress of Starpoint Realty in Massachusettes cited that he had recently received numerous offers from first time home buyers citing the $8,000 credit as a reason for their interest in purchasing a home.

Andrew Duncan of Keller Williams of Tampa also cited the new tax incentives, lower home prices and great interest rates as driving new home buyers to make their first purchases.

Could it be however, the reason that first time home buyers are making up a good portion of existing home sales is that they haven’t been burned yet?

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