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Understanding home seller behavior

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Monday, November 2, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/deltamike/751707089/">deltaMike</a>.

You might recall from last week that a new friend of mine, Danielle LaPorte, wrote a guide to finding your "style statement" -- a two-word phrase that "define(s) the true you." While LaPorte's style statements describe the subject individual's aesthetic and world view, I couldn't help trying my hand at creating a few homebuyer profiles based on this principle. While a true style statement might be a phrase like "elemental power," I came up with style statements of typical homebuying behavior like "Decent DIYer" and "Righteous Nit-Picker."

With sellers, more than buyers, their selling style is not necessarily their usual, personal style of interacting with the world. We're specifically talking here about their style of thinking about this particular experience and transaction of selling their home.  more...

Real estate celebrity is dead Premium Content

By Bernice Ross, Monday, November 2, 2009.

If you're still marketing your services with the "I'm the best agent in today's market" (even if you are), it's time to stop being the celebrity and to start asking, "How can I be of service?"

For years we trained agents to promote themselves and their companies: "You should hire me because I sell more houses than anyone else in this area," or "You should hire us because we are the No. 1 company with the No. 1 market share in this area." These types of marketing messages worked back in the 1980s and '90s. Most sellers wanted the best because they believed they would sell their home more quickly and at a higher price. In many cases, celebrity brokers were held in awe.  more...

Mortgage shopper's dream come true

By Jack Guttentag, Monday, November 2, 2009.

As noted last week, borrowers often make costly transactional mistakes because they know less than the loan providers they deal with, who are motivated to exploit their information advantage. A borrower who pays 5 percent when she could have gotten 4.875 percent if she had known what her loan provider knew has made a transactional mistake.

Borrowers make lifestyle mistakes for the same reason, and also because lifestyle decisions are often complicated, and borrowers tend to overweight short-term benefits and underweight long-term costs. A borrower who refinances to reduce her payment at the cost of owing substantially more after five years may have made a very costly lifestyle mistake.  more...