Boise Real Estate Blog

Meridian, Idaho Real Estate Stats – August 2010

Here’s a snapshot of July’s real estate activity for Meridian, Idaho:

August 8th, 2010 Posted in Meridian Market Stats |  Print This Post | No Comments »

Eagle, Idaho Real Estate Stats – August 2010

Here’s a snapshot of July’s real estate activity for Eagle, Idaho:

August 8th, 2010 Posted in Eagle Market Stats |  Print This Post | No Comments »

The Art of NOT Overcoming Objections

I’ve seen just about every imaginable sales training program during my lengthy real estate career.

Many focus on “overcoming objections”.

Have you ever been subjected to the “feel, felt, found” technique by an aggressive real estate agent?

It goes like this:

You walk through a home with your agent and say something like “I don’t like the putrid green shag carpets!”

Which is followed by the agent saying something like:

“I know how you feel”.

“I have felt the same way in the past”.

“But I have found that I could learn to enjoy putrid green shag carpeting if I just gave it a little time”.

You get the idea.

No genuine compassion for your thoughts, just a shallow attempt to overcome your objection and “close the deal”.

Perhaps I have it all wrong, but I believe there’s no need to overcome objections.

It’s better to explore objections with clients, discuss them, and find solutions for them (like new carpets, for example?)

Serious, motivated, qualified clients simply want honest, truthful information instead of self-serving sales talk.

The bottom line?

A motivated seller will do what it takes to sell their home.

And, a motivated buyer will buy when they find the right home.

They don’t need to be “closed”!

July 29th, 2010 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | No Comments »

Boise Home Builders Face Tough Times

Builders build homes to make a profit.

There’s no point whatsoever for a builder to take a chance on building a spec home and ending up subsidizing the sale at closing, or even worse, losing their spec home in foreclosure after investing tens of thousands of dollars and months of effort building the home.

Builders in the Boise real estate market face many challenges these days, including:

Competition From Resale Properties

How can a builder compete with a resale home seller with equity to negotiate who has been transferred, lost their job, or is getting a divorce?

Competition From Foreclosures/Short Sales

How can a builder compete with a lender who’s selling foreclosed properties at a substantial discount to the builder’s brand-new home?

Difficulty Obtaining Construction Financing

Construction lenders are skittish about making construction loans these days. The terms for those loans make it difficult, if not impossible, for a builder to qualify for construction financing in many (most?) instances.

Which is why we see very few builders building spec homes in the Boise area at this time.

During better times, we had numerous quality builders (like Flaherty, Tahoe, Marrs, Price, Mayer,  etc.) building dozens of homes each year in the Treasure Valley.

Now, we have just a few builders treading carefully and avoiding risk.

Many of our former respected builders have either gone out of business or moved to the sidelines awaiting better times.

July 26th, 2010 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | No Comments »

Boise Real Estate: 101 – Months' Supply

My previous post explained absorption rate, which must be calculated before calculating months’ supply.

Months’ Supply is calculated by dividing the number of available properties by the absorption rate.

On 7/1/10, there were 96 homes for sale in Eagle priced above $500,000.

Using the example of our current Eagle market, you would divide 96 available properties by the absorption rate of 5 homes per month to arrive a 19.2 months’ supply of homes priced above $500,000.

July 25th, 2010 Posted in Inside Real Estate |  Print This Post | No Comments »