Marketing data for Brokers-need input

[Jeff Horton]

I am thinking about taking an idea offered in the Marketing Forum by Cris Cooper or creating a newsletter and sending it to the Realtor Offices and maybe some of the Mortgage Companies. In it he included statistics about the Real Estate Market.

I would also add written section about what the market is doing. Whats up and whats down etc. And of course a plug for my buisiness.

Our MLS system has all this available but it is hard to use and even harder to make anything useful out of the data. I can import the data into Excel and then work with the raw data to create a chart or graph.

Now my question is what data would be useful to the Realtors?
My first thoughts were:

Sold data
by city

Active Listings
By city

Expired listing
By city

Not sure that Expired listings is very useful but maybe it is too. They could use that to show clients that houses in a price range are not selling maybe

OK, some you are brokers. Tell me what is useful to you.

 

[TEL2002]

I'm not a broker...just a busy appraiser type person.
Some of my ideas are:

1. Short Sweet and ToThePoint.....Keep it to 1-2 paragraphs in length. People are very busy. If it is too long, it will just go into the round file.

2. Use bullet items....forget all of the glowing and flowery text.

3. Conclude with a joke.

4. Some national or state news that would impact the RE Agent.

5. Maybe a photo of something like mold or mildew with some notes about what to look for.

6. Links to items that would interest an REA.

MAYBE....ACE contributers/members could put together a series of short bullets, in an ACE source library. Then appraisers can go out grab an item or two of interest and include it in their own newsletter for the month.

 

[Tom McDowell]

Look at this site http://www.keithvaluation.com/ he is a local appraiser.

 

[Michael Reilly]

If i had to think like a realtor, which I'm not, I would want to know what the average appraised values look like based on refi activity over the last month conducted by you the appraiser in your or my (the realtors) geographic reach. I assume you will not send this to brokers who can not send you business or referrals based on their or your service area.

Example:

1/1/03 - 1/31/03

County, Zip Code, Style, Avg GLA, Avg Appraised Value

Macomb, 17554, Colonial, 2500 sqf, $275,000
Macomb, 17554, Ranch, 1900 sqf, $215,500

Richmond, 16554, etc... etc.... etc....

Also add in the # of appraisals conducted in the specific area/home style that makes up the average and things like school district would be good too.

I think this is what I would want to know if I were a broker. The refi market right now is much bigger then the purchase market and is trully one of the premier indicators for the purchase market with regards to pricing, IMHO.

Could someone shoot me a copy of that news letter? I would love to take a look at it.

MReilly-NY
ACE

 

[Mike Garrett RAA]

I get all my data from the MLS. We have an excellent board and very good data bases. My recommendation would be to keep them updated on appraisal rules and regulations, trends in the industry, services your company offers, and information on appraisers who have lost their licenses for violating the rules.

 

[xmrdfghap]

Jeff, a lot of what you are asking about are things the better Realtors have on hand anyway. Most of them "work a farm" and they are very much aware of trends.....at least within that farm.

I would do like Mike suggests, keep them updated on appraisal rules and regulations. I would also review appraisers who lost their licenses and discuss why. One thing I would offer is a Q&A forum where they can call you or email you an appraisal question....get them to thinking of you as the resident expert.

You might also periodically offer a drawing or lotterey (with proceeds going to the Realtors Educational or PAC fund) for a free pre-listing appraisal......get them thinking along those lines as well.

 

[Larry Lyke]

Jeff ~

Mike's advice is about the only way to go. Unless your MLS is truly sad and your rearrangement and presentation of their information in a better more useful way would be helfpul to the Realtor community, it's a tremendous undertaking for the probable payback.

Then, you have to consider if your business is capable of handling both ends of your real estate community. One showdown with a disgruntled Realtor could damage both sides of your business over night if you are advertising to both sides. Both sides want different things.

What happens when a Realtors sells a property for more then your appraisal and then the mortgage broker hires you to appraise the property at the sale price 10 days after your appraisal? .. What happens when the listing expires having been listed at your appraised value?

My MLS has up-to-the-minute stats that could blow you away if you were interested enough to peruse it all. And the MLS users are alerted when the new info is available for download. The Listings are updated every 15 minutes. The historical content does back to 1992, with photos.

About Expired Listings:

Most Realtors are watching each others Active Listings every day and watching price adjustments (read price reductions). Most Sellers decry the expiration of their listing when it becomes a free-for-all of Realtors calling to re-list the property.

Don't become discouraged. Info's given here for your benefit. If it doesn't work out, it a wonderful experience from which you will grow, for sure. And may have unintended consequences of attracting the attention of a client who thinks you are a go-getter and wants to work with you for that reason alone. Don't leave the local attorneys off your mailing list even though you aren't geared to them specifically.

 

[Michael Reilly]

Jeff

Don’t try to market things they already have, give them something they don’t have and something that wont take up much of your time.

You do appraisals and that data has great value. Figure out what they don’t see or have and you will have answered your own question.

Don’t give them MLS with a twist, give them JALS (Jeff's Appraisal Listing Service) with a twist...and don’t anyone misconstrue what I am saying, not physical addresses or data that would cause a problem for you.

MReilly-NY
ACE

 

[Jeff Horton]

Apparently some of you didn't understand when I said our MLS statistics are hard to use. Lots of info there but it's not in a format that is useful.

I played this weekend with importing data from the MLS into Excel and created some spread sheets and then made graphs from that data. Very time consuming but now that I have them set up it should be pretty easy to maintain. And NOW you can see trends on a chart that makes sense. Even if I decide not to send this out in a newsletter I now have some useful data for my market area.

BTW I likes some of the ideas here. Not going to try to list them but again thanks for the input.

 

[Jack Schoppa]

Jeff,
One more quick idea, can be done easily from your MLS data, is "List Price" to "Sale Price" ratio's. This is sometimes surprising to Realtors®/Brokers/Agents. Also, compare the higher ratios to longer days on market and/or differing property types.

Poor Old Jack