Redfin offers real estate bargain-hunting tips
A paper released this week by real estate brokerage company Redfin offers "Seven Tactics for Real Estate Bargaining." Based on an analysis from April 15 to June 15 of 9,053 single-family homes in Fairfax County, Va., Los Angeles County, Calif., and King County, Wash., the study reveals that homes that "heavily discounted" homes are 83 percent more likely to have been on the market for 90 or more days.
These lower-cost homes are also 73 percent more likely to be marketed as fixer-uppers, are 52 percent more likely to have been seller-owned for 20 or more years, are 28 percent more likely to have previous price reductions, and are 20 percent less likely to feature a significant remodel.
The company identified the most heavily discounted homes as those in which the discount off of the final asking price was in the top 10 percentile for that market area. The average discount for this group was 11.4 percent off of the final asking price, according to the paper.
HouseValues reports $1.2 million Q2 net loss
HouseValues, an online real estate lead-generation and marketing company, reported a net loss of $1.3 million in the second quarter ended June 30, compared to a net loss of $1.2 million in first-quarter 2008 and a net loss of $119,000 in second-quarter 2007. The company had revenue of $10.1 million in the second quarter compared to $11.2 million in first-quarter 2008 and $16 million in second-quarter 2007.
HouseValues reported a $62.7 million cash position, generating $900,000 in cash flow from operations during the second quarter. Ian Morris, company CEO, stated in the earnings announcement that the company’s retention rate reached the highest level in the past 18 months during the second quarter. So far this year, HouseValues has repurchased 397,175 shares at an average cost of $2.51 per share and the company may repurchase up to 1.4 million more shares.
The company announced a "next-generation agent direct product" that is expected to be released later this year, which will offer a combination of lead generation and contact management tools. This product will include analytics such as "real-time insight into consumer behavior and intelligence that alerts agents when their prospects are most likely to become ready to transact," according to the earnings announcement.
***
What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.
