Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Off and Running

Well, I am a few weeks into my new real estate career and I feel like I have hit the ground running. In fact, there are moments when I am running in so many directions I am not sure which was is up!

There is so much to learn and do to get one's real estate career started. I truly believe things will settle down in a few weeks, but for now, I am spending my time actually trying to build my real estate business, while at the same time, attending trainings 3-4 days a week on various topics a new real estate agent needs to know. I have about 5 more weeks of this training to complete.

I am happy that Coldwell Banker is providing me with this learning opportunity, but jeez, it is hard juggling it all. I am fortunate that someone in "my sphere of influence" referred a friend to me for a possible listing. I haven't gone on the actual appointment yet, but I have learned a lot just preparing for the appointment.

In preparation for my listing appointment, I have done a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to get an idea of what the pricing will look like for this property. It was very interesting to see some comparative properties sold for more than I had expected, and a few were low as I expected.

One thing is clear, there are not a lot of properties on the market at this time. I know the big overall numbers say there are, but it was actually quite difficult to do the CMA for this property because there were so few current listings and recent sales in this area of town (North Decatur). I am guessing that more people are holding onto their properties hoping that the market will improve.

On the plus side, if you are a seller and you have a decent property, you probably have a good chance of selling it if your price is reasonable. I have seen a few nice homes in North Decatur that are about $100,000 overpriced. I have no idea what the owners are trying to accomplish. As for houses that are reasonably priced, there just isn't a lot of inventory for buyers to pick from.

So, if you have been on the fence about listing your property, I would encourage you to give it a try. I would be happy to do a free CMA to give you an idea of the price your home could get. Let me know if I can help.