The 2009 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers was just released today. This annual report is full of facts and figures on what’s going on in the real estate industry and among home buyers and sellers.
Information on Home Buyers
This is the first year 90% of home buyers used the Internet in the search for their new home. Home buyers used the Internet to search for homes and to find a real estate agent to work with them. The percentage of buyers that found value in their real estate agent increased this past year, probably due to the short sale and foreclosure market that has required a lot more guidance than a conventional home purchase.
The most valued features in a real estate website were property photos, detailed property information, virtual tours, real estate agent contact information, and interactive maps.
36% of buyers found the home they purchased on the Internet, 36% through the real estate agent, 12% by a yard sign, and 6% through a friend (note to home sellers, 2% of buyers found their home through a newspaper ad).
44% of home buyers found their agent from personal referral, 10% from a previous relationship, and 10% from an Internet website.
What Do Home buyers Want From a Real Estate Agent?
46% of home buyers wanted an agent to help them find a home. 16% wanted a Realtor to help negotiate terms of a sale while 13% want a real estate agent to help negotiate price.
The top skills and qualities desired are honesty and integrity (98%), knowledge of the purchase process (95%), responsiveness (93%), knowledge of the real estate market (92%), negotiation skills (84%), and communication skills (83%).
How Home Buyers Financed Their Homes
In a shift from the past few years, 95% of home buyers financed their home purchase with a fixed-rate home loan. 46% of buyers took out a conventional loan, while Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans accounted for 39% and Veterans’ Affairs (VA) at 8%.
Home Seller Profiles
Over half of all home sellers purchased a home more expensive than the one they were selling. This trend was split along generational lines with more younger people trading up and older home sellers downsizing.
The most cited reasons for selling a home were job relocation (21%), home was too small (19%), change in family situation (12%), and wanting to move closer to family and friends (10%) with the average home sellers moving an average of 19 miles.
85% of home sellers used a real estate agent to sell their home with 11% selling by owner, or for-sale-by-owner (FSBO). This correlates with the 9% of buyers who didn’t use a real estate broker.
40% of home listings never saw a price change before selling while 26% of all homes had their price reduced once.
Key Real Estate Agent Services to Sellers
Sellers ranked the following as the most important needs and expectations from their real estate agent:
- Help price home competitively – 22%
- Help find a buyer for the home – 21%
- Help seller market home for potential buyers – 19%
- Help sell the home within a given timeframe – 19%
- Help seller find ways to fix up their home to sell it for more – 10%
- Help with negotiations and dealing with buyers – 5%
- Help with paperwork/inspections/preparing for settlement – 3%
- Other – 2%
There’s a lot of other information in this report you may be interested in learning about. Contact us a Info@MileHighUrbanLiving.com or leave us a message for additional details or to learn more about how we help clients buy and sell homes!
