In Today's Real Estate Market - What Buyers & Sellers Really Want

A recent survey revealed the following:

1. What service did sellers most often say they want from their real estate agent?

Of the sellers surveyed, 22 percent said they wanted help pricing their home competitively so it would sell. Other popular responses included help finding a buyer for the home (21 percent), marketing the home to potential buyers (19 percent), and selling the home within a specific time frame (19 percent).
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2. What service do buyers most often say they want from a real estate agent?

Nearly 50 percent of buyers most frequently reported that they want an agent to help them find the right home to purchase, followed by assisting them with negotiating the terms of the sale (16 percent) and price negotiations (13 percent). The least-frequent response was help in finding or arranging financing to purchase a home (2 percent).
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3. The typical home buyer searched how long before purchasing a home?

On average, a home buyer searched for 12 weeks and viewed 12 homes before purchasing, according to NAR research. That's the longest average time that buyers have spent looking for a home since the survey started tracking it in 2001. Buyers searched, on average, two weeks on their own before contacting an agent.
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4. What was the most common incentive that sellers offered in the sale of the home?

Sellers often try to use incentives to lure buyers, particularly the longer a home is on the market. While 68 percent of sellers said they did not offer an incentive, of those who did, the most popular incentives offered were a home warranty policy (21 percent) or assistance with closing costs (18 percent). Only 6 percent offered a credit to the buyer for remodeling or repairs.
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5. What feature on real estate Web sites do customers most frequently say they find the most useful?

Eighty-four percent of buyers said they find photos on a real estate Web site "very useful" and 13 percent said "somewhat useful," proving that photos remain a popular lure to buyers on real estate Web sites. Buyers also reported the following "very useful" Web site features: detailed information about the properties for sale (82 percent), virtual tours/videos (63 percent), the real estate agent's contact information (46 percent), and interactive maps (43 percent).
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6. What's the first step buyers often take during the home-buying process?

Thirty-six percent of all buyers said they looked online for properties for sale as their first step, followed by 18 percent who said they contacted a real estate professional. The Web sites they say provided the greatest value were multiple listing services (MLS) Web sites and real estate company Web sites, according to the survey.
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7. Of buyers who considered purchasing a foreclosed home, what was the most common reason they gave for ultimately not purchasing a foreclosure?

Nearly half of all buyers said they considered buying a foreclosed home, although only 10 percent actually did -- still a substantial increase from 2008, when only 3 percent of homes were purchased as a foreclosure. The reasons most cited for not purchasing a foreclosed home were buyers could not find the right home (25 percent), the home was in poor condition (17 percent), or the process was too difficult or complex (16 percent).
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8. What was the most common factor that influenced buyers in selecting a certain area to live?

Buyers report that several factors influence them in choosing a location to purchase a home. The quality of the neighborhood was most often cited by buyers as the most important factor influencing neighborhood choice (64 percent), followed by convenience to job location (50 percent), and overall affordability of homes (43 percent).

See the original article at www.viewthishome.com.

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