Here’s where we’re at so far in Pickaway county sales. Many people seem discouraged or upset at the “Real Estate Market”. The fact is , prices are UP , and sales are DOWN slightly in both regards.

This INCLUDES the cities of Circleville, Ashville, South Bloomfield, Tarlton, Williamsport, Five Points, Orient, and any other municipality in the Pickaway County area.

2007 Sales (Pickaway County, VIA CBRMLS)

351 Sold (-5, -1.4%) $152,292 List Price (+$765, +.5%) 147,146 (+$336, +.2%)

Not too bad if you ask me, being only 1.4% behind last year’s record volume of sales isn’t a bad place to be. Anything can sell!

Thought i’d add a little bit of information from the MLS Service for Pickaway County.

(January 1st – April 18th 2007)
Avg Home Size 1853sqft
Avg Days on Market 123
Average List Price $164,321
Average Sold Price $158,189
Total Homes Sold 118

(Janurary 1st – April 18th 2006)

Avg Home Size 1852sqft
Avg Days On Market 123
Average List Price $156,722
Average Sold Price $151,049
Total Homes Sold 108

Not too shabby for Pickaway County in my opinion. I’m very excited about the rest of this year, and what the market will bring.

Soon the New Year will be upon us and my personal outlook is quite good for the next year. At least in my personal business, December is almost over and it has been a very active month.

As many Realtors do, I’m spending time contemplating what I can do to better my results as an agent, as well as improve my ability to handle clients in the future. As I’ve been thinking about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the best ways to better my business is to embark on a goal of improving the public’s view of Realtors as a whole. Many people don’t understand exactly what it is we do, and in addition to that, some people have a negative view of us as well. I believe that the best way to improve my business is to improve the business as a whole, not just myself ,and my personal belief is that that’ll improve me as well as the industry.

I think the best goal that I can set for next year should be a goal of helping, rather than production. I have a feeling if I set a goal of being able to help the community, and individuals that my personal production will follow. Imagine what our industry would be like if Realtors were viewed in high regards in the community, rather than just service providers or the like. I think our field could benefit greatly from more agents doing more to serve others.

The other day while i was out prospecting (Realtor talk for Meeting people). I came upon a FSBO (For sale by owner) , we had a nice chat about home sales ,marketing and the general round table of real estate stuff.

  The owner asked me the simple question of ‘How do I sell it ,now’.

I find that most of us know the old phrase of “Location, Location, Location” right? Most of us know it even by the term ‘The Golden Rule of Real Estate’. To me , this can be misleading to some individuals. Sometimes we all forget how easy it is to have a house that looks exactly like the one right next to it ,and next to it ,and so on.

While in a competitive market (Like we are now) We need to pull out all the stops ,and as many tricks as possible out of our goodie bag. The one thing I always suggest to a seller is ‘Condition , Condition , Condition’. Any agent will tell you , going into a home is almost like walking into Pandora’s box. I’ve been in homes that have been immaculate , and very reasonable on the pricing ,and then on the other end I’ve been in overpriced dumps (and I use that word literally).

One thing as homeowners and agents , we need to remember the feeling of first walking into a home , and try and re-create that feeling. Its amazing what someone can accomplish with a small , or no budget at all! So next time , you hear the phrase ‘location , location , location’. Just remember , its hard to fix location , but you can always fix condition

I was reading a article the other day in a local newspaper about real estate in central Ohio. It said ‘Home sales down 14% in July’.

It seemed quite disturbing to see a sentence like that in the newspaper. So I did a little bit of research when I came back to the office. Its true that sales were down 14% in July of this year as compared to last. One of the good points about this most resent month was the fact that we didn’t have 10-30% more houses listed than last year. While on one hand its unfortunate to see sales decline by 14% over last July , it is nice to see the high surplus we have been experiencing go down a bit.

Of course , its still very much a buyer’s market out there, and in order to get a home sold ,you still definitely need to be aggressive to successfully sell. With interest rates fairly low, it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the year pans out in home sales. As for me , I have no complaints about the current market

Well , today I hit the streets of Circleville , going door to door in hopes of just meeting people. Of course this has to do with my personal business, but I was asked a question that I hadn’t been asked before ,and it was quite interesting after I came home and did research.

I was told a particular area ( a very nice area , in my opinion) in Circleville was ‘cursed’. Now , this is a subdivision that I wanted to visit because the home sales were quite hot , and I felt it was a good opportunity to see what people think. So , after hearing that this particular street was stigmatized , that is has a bad history , or bad thoughts about it. The homeowner said he hadn’t ever seen any sales recently , and the only house he had seen never sold.

That’s where my quest began to find the truth about stigmatized properties. I loaded up my trusty sold data program and searched his particular subdivision….it came out with data along the lines of an average sales price of $190,000 per house (estimated) , with about 45% of the sales being over $210,000. Now , as a note , the average price of a house in circleville is $138,000. My special mapping program showed that the sales were quite evenly dispersed within the area. So , after picking the individual street that was in my area today , I found out , in fact there had been quite a good sale of a house recently , and only 1 house that had been listed without selling. In fact, the house that sold was about 30% under normal market time in our area, and for 50% over avg market price.

So , in ending , be careful about personal opinions on property ,and the idea of stigmatization , because it might just be wrong

As always , just E-Mail me if you have any questions , especially about Real Estate in our area!