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| Serving Callaway County communities since 1875. | www.fultonsun.com | Saturday, July 04, 2009 |
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Retail approach newest trend in home sales, Not all real estate companies approve By ROGER MEISSEN The Fulton Sun
That idea has led some local realtors and home sellers suffering from a slumping housing market to consider a different approach to lure in customers. Coldwell Banker Niedergerke and Co. is trying out that change, joining a national effort to draw in more interest from buyers by offering what is essentially a sale much like you see in a department store. “Our inventory is houses, but we're just like J.C. Penney or Sears who have sales to get customers to buy,” said Jim Niedergerke, owner of Coldwell Banker in Fulton. “It's a unique idea and we're just trying to stimulate things and get the market jump-started. “We're in business to make money and getting buyers interested in buying is the way we do that.” Niedergerke has worked with 16 home sellers to offer discounts from three up to 10 percent on their listings from Oct. 10-19. “Some of these houses have been on the market for a little while and some are new to the market, but we've had showings at the houses and are not getting any offers,” Niedergerke said. “That tends to lead us to believe that maybe they are priced a little higher than the market believes their worth and the buyers dictate what houses are worth.” “In my opinion I don't see that as addressing the whole issue,” Garriott said. “Basically, those houses are going to go back up to their original price after those 10 days, and - being in a small town - people will then wonder why they should take that offer if at one time they could have had it for the lower price.” Coldwell Banker's marketing change comes on the heels of a national survey of 3,379 Coldwell Banker real estate professionals where the company discovered that 56 percent thought prices were too high to attract buyers and 76 percent believed a price drop of less than 10 percent could help those on the fence reach a “tipping point” in deciding to purchase a new home. “Despite the difficult headlines regarding our overall economy, the residential real estate market has been showing several positive signs over recent months that could be signaling a tipping point,” said Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate. “Because of higher inventory, buyers have more homes to choose from and they can take advantage of near historically low interest rates and affordability levels that are the best they have been in years. “The recent housing and economic recovery legislation also provides first-time home buyers with the added incentive of a $7,500 tax credit.” This effort comes toward the end of a year that hasn't been kind to real estate sellers, including local markets. Garriott noted that that the three markets surrounding Callaway County - Jefferson City, Columbia and Audrain County - all have been seeing slower sales, but not a significant drop in home prices like in other part of the country, according to Multi Listing Service statistics. “Where it used to be the case that you could resell a house every year with 3-5 percent appreciation, you're seeing more like a 1.5 percent increase this year,” Garriott said. “Overall the average sales price is not less than it was last year, but as far as volume, everybody's down this year.” Niedergerke's agency has seen his fair share of that buying shortfall also, which becomes more apparent by its stark contrast to the record year of sales it had last year. “The first half the year was fairly normal, but August and the first half of September were very slow,” Niedergerke said. “Our business has picked up lately and, for whatever reason, it seems like there's been more buyers in the past 2-3 weeks, but we're still down about 25 percent probably from last year.” Whether reduced prices or temporary sales will work remains to be told. For Garriott, he sees this as a situation where realtors need to ramp up marketing and not cut back. “The big thing I see is a lot of people like to pull back when they see the market,” Garriott said. “I have a different perspective than some of my competitor's but I think in a buyer's market you actually have to push forward, not cut back on your advertising and keep going.” |
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