Are they worth it?ProBut listing and selling houses via Open Houses has always been “my thing”.  I have provided some online training on the subject to agents around the Country, and still there are some agents who can honestly say that they have never sold a house from an Open House.ConOn average, public opens generate less than 2% in sales.  In other words, less than 2% of the time a public open house sells the home to an open house visitor.  I tend to agree with Merv – Open Houses for Realtors are an excellent opportunity to market your listings to other Realtors – the ones who most likely will bring a buyer.  Public open houses tend to attract nosy neighbors, career lookers and those who frequently have nothing better to do.  However, I would love to be able to crack the nut the way Ardell has.

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Reading the national news on the changing market leaves one no better off than before reading.Inman:”Many of the fundamentals for housing are at a crossroads: Inflation, interest rates, demand, household incomes, prices, and whether homes are a good investment compared to other investments.  Summer is going to be interesting to say the least,” Prentice said.Apparently from the same press release: “Right now sellers are sticking to their price,” Los Angeles Realtor Brock Harris says.  “We’re seeing a lot of over-optimistic sellers and increasingly cautious buyers.  That’s keeping a lot of inventory on the market.”…  “At some point someone’s going to drop their price.  People will see that as the new comp and it’ll be a domino effect.”CNN:Charlottesville (area) properties will appreciate 2.6% from 2006 to 2007.  HT: Urban TrekkerBernake (via WSJ)In a question and answer session following a speech at the Chicago Fed’s annual banking conference, Mr. Bernanke said it “seems pretty clear that the housing market is cooling,” though he added that the slowdown is “orderly and moderate.”Who knows?  My prediction remains – properties will continue to appreciate, yet not nearly at the same precipitous rate that they have for the past several years.

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This story clearly defines the some of the differences facing some real estate professionals regarding the emergence of the Gen X & Y real estate market….  Two of my favorite descriptives are:Blunt – Another of Gen X’s traits is that they are characteristically straightforward and have little patience for deception and doubletalk.  They aren’t shy about sharing their opinions of you, your company or your brand in a variety of forums either.Skeptical – In addition to a quickly evolving technology landscape, Gen X bore witness to an equally rapid change in the media landscape….  One aspect of the post with which I disagree is this – Today, they’re first-time (even second-time) home buyers, they’re new parents, they’re confident consumers and they’re an extremely hard market to talk to.They’re not hard to talk to – they don’t like BS, they are educated, they are opinionated and think that they know what they are looking for.For example – I received a call (internet lead) from a potential client yesterday who started the conversation with, “We’ve been looking on the internet and feel that we have a pretty good idea about what we want.”…  That makes my job more efficient and our time together better spent.They are on a very short timeline to interview several Realtors, learn the market and purchase.  One of the recurring themes of our 15 minute conversation was that they want to be prepared when they arrive next week so that whomever they choose for representation will not waste their time….  They are probably perfectly capable of doing this on their own but for one simple fact – they seem to have neither the time nor the inclination to do so.  Gen X and Y are a segment of the market that is refreshing to work with – candid, decisive, (usually) financially sound, and tech-savvy.

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