Best Practices for Listings with HOAs
The 2024 NAR Consumer Profile reported that the typical age of home sellers hit a record high of 63 years old. They're moving to be closer to family and friends, but downsizing isn't as popular as you might think. Around 12% moved to a larger home, while only 11% downsized. Others moved for a change of scenery.
Sellers are also taking a hard line on pricing. Typically, sellers get 100% of their asking price, with only 21% permitting a one-time price reduction. Fewer offered incentives.
Even though fewer buyers and sellers have children living at home, they still prefer detached homes over townhomes or condos. NAR noted that 81% of homes sold during the survey period were single-family houses, up slightly from 79% last year.1
Get More YouTube Views with Less Effort
If you're looking for ways to attract new prospects during Black Friday, consider partnering with local retailers and offering special deals. Together, you can promote each other's products and services (or in your case, your listings).
When approaching smaller retailers, remind them that the day after Black Friday is Small Business Saturday. When they partner with you on Friday, they can personally invite shoppers to hold off on certain purchases for 24 hours.
Here are a few ideas to share:
Arrange discounts from local furniture or appliance stores. Many new homeowners will need additional furniture, especially if they've bought a home because of a growing family. And chances are they'll need appliances for their laundry room and kitchen.
Arrange an Open House for the Black Friday weekend. Again, this is an opportunity to partner with local retailers and shops. You can invite a small business owner to be in attendance, giving away discount vouchers for their store or providing snacks if they're a bakery or cafe.
Invite Black Friday shoppers to your office. If you're near a popular shopping area, ask retailers to post notices that invite visitors to your office for complimentary coffee or tea. You may be able to team up with a local coffee shop or cafe for a shared promotion.2
Why Shorter Videos Attract More Viewers
It's easy to assume that a video walk-through of a listing shouldn't leave anything out. However, sticking to a 45- to 60-second preview of the home's most attractive features may enjoy more views. Here's why.
According to research psychologists, our attention spans have been shrinking steadily over the past 20 years. A long-term study found that, during 2004, attention spans averaged about 2 1/2 minutes. Eight years later, they were considerably shorter and averaged 75 seconds. From 2020 onwards, they had shrunk to about 47 seconds.
This phenomenon has affected virtually all video content, not just social media. Even television shots are shorter, averaging about four seconds before moving to the next shot, with music videos containing hundreds of 2-3 second shots.3
Home Builder Confidence Rises
Builder sentiment has improved for the third straight month, rising to 46 in November. This is a three-point improvement from October. Future sales expectations also posted a notable increase this month.
All three sentiment indexes rose, with the index charting current sales conditions rising two points to 49. Sales expectations for the next six months increased seven points to 64, and the index that defined builders' expectations of more prospective buyers posted a three-point gain to 32.
On a regional basis:
- The Northeast increased four points to 55;
- The Midwest moved three points higher to 44;
- The South edged up one point to 42 and
- The West held steady at 41.
Why Rumors of a Housing Crash Don't Fly
Earlier this week, the updated New York Fed credit data report found that homeowners are in a particularly strong position. It's nothing like the crisis faced in 2008-9. One reason: the qualified mortgage (QM) law that was passed in 2010 (part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) makes a repeat of that scenario virtually impossible.
Since Dodd-Frank was signed into law, both the housing and credit market changed, as unqualified buyers were protected from buying a property they couldn't afford. Foreclosures that were rampant some 15 years ago have mostly disappeared, with numbers falling even this year.
Last but not least, homeowners currently have a record amount of equity in their homes, which is an average of $315,000. During the 2009 housing crisis, over 10% of homeowners had negative equity, owing more on their mortgages than their homes were worth. This was often called being "underwater". A year later, 23% of all homes were worth less than the mortgages held by their owners.5
Sources: 1www.nar.realtor, 2leadsbridge.com, 3blog.hubspot.com, 4eyeonhousing.org, 5housingwire.com
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