What Do Sellers Want in Today’s Market?
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We’re here to answer a very important question: What do today’s sellers want? There was a recent article written as a result of the National Association of Realtors’ latest annual home seller profile. Last year, the National Association of Realtors conducted a 131-question survey with buyers and sellers nationwide, and today we’ll be sharing a few interesting points based on what they found.
What do Home Sellers Want
Sellers are staying put in their homes longer than usual. From 1987 to 2008, sellers were staying in their homes for an average of eight years. Today that average has jumped up to about 10 years. We don’t really know why. We think it’s because of the market decline and sellers wanting to gain more equity before they go and sell their house.
Another stat to note is that 89% of all home sellers are working with a real estate professional. 62% of those sellers were satisfied with their agent. That means 39% of sellers were either dissatisfied or somewhat satisfied. I don’t really view this is a negative. I view it as a challenge and an opportunity that we can take on to help improve the level of service in this changing industry.
The highest priority for sellers, according to this study, was marketing. If you’re interviewing agents, pay attention to this critical piece. 21% of sellers mentioned this, which is ⅕ of the buyer pool. Marketing drives activity, which drives buyers and offers.
The highest priority for sellers is marketing.
What Sellers want in a Real Estate Agent
The last thing I want to note about this article is that sale-by-owner activity is declining. Back in the 1980s, about 15% of homes were sold by their owners. These days, that number is down to 8%. Of that group, the ones who sold for very close to list price either knew the buyer personally or were connected through a networking opportunity. Those who sold for much less than list price did not know the buyer.
That’s what sellers want in general, but what do you want? What’s important to you as a home seller? Let me know by giving me a call or sending me an email today.
Finally, I want to let you know that I put together a market forecast for our Grand Rapids real estate market based on all the information available to me. If you’d like a copy, send me an email with the subject line “market forecast” and I will get that report sent out to you so that you are fully informed of what’s going on. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Hi! I read your blog and found it really interesting. I totally agree with you.