Check Out My Home's Custom Website, It's Shiny

The custom website for homes (ie: www.1234myhomeroad.com) is always my favorite discussion with agents in the Maison Nouveau office. Being a major selling point for many agents, the last thing I want to do is insult anyone else's marketing strategy, but this is one fad that is extremely dated and should go away.

The first and most important point regarding the home custom site is the ability for users to be able to find it. It takes at a minimum 6 weeks for an optimized website to get crawled by the largest search engine in the world Google and I've seen some take up to 4 months. Even still once it's been crawled and categorized a buyer would have to search for the exact property address in order to find it. No matter how bad you wish a user could search for "East Bay Home" and have your home be first, this will never happen. So really the only way someone will ever hear about 1234myhomeroad.com is through a sign rider or advertising it, which is the route many agents often take.

The second point is the ability to capture the data of users who visit the site. Home custom sites are typically built by a third party or even a title company and done very cut/paste. They most likely do not include a sitemap or metatags, two integral pieces for having a great website nor do they have the greatest ability to capture the visitors data. The major real estate players all employ methods to capture information of people that visit their website. So in essence by having a custom site you are in fact driving web traffic away from a better vehicle for capturing possible buyers information. Not too smart.

And finally, custom sites are promoted in such a light that the seller is much more web savvy for going with a particular agent. I'm not denying that certain sites don't look great and it's important that your home looks dressed to impress, but why can't that be done without discounting my first two points? Truthfully you can't unless their company has a great website. Because of the temporary nature of custom sites, they are built to put a smile on one person's face, the seller. What would put a smile on my face is selling my home and I would want it marketed in the smartest and most successful way possible.

So when you're getting those home valuations make sure to discuss the agents online marketing strategy and if their whole package revolves around a custom site, better think twice. I'd rather the agent saves their $7.99 in domain costs and place my home on traffic generating websites, like Realtor.com or even Zillow.com.

Between (and Behind) the Numbers . . .

Today was the first day in quite a while that the news media actually reported some positive news on the economy, and the real estate market in particular.

There were three main positive points made in the mainstream media:

1. Existing home sales are up from the previous month, exceeding analyst expectations.
2. Members of the Federal Home Loan Banking System have been allowed to purchase mortgage backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac.
3. A new, private venture, Private National Mortgage (aka PennyMac) was formed to invest in and restructure failing mortgages.

That all sounds positive, which is good, as anything that turns folks in a positive direction is good for everyone these days. I actually heard several analysts on CNBC talking about this news signifying we've hit "bottom" and "it won't get any worse than it has". I'm not quite that optimistic . . .

The tag-along news of the rise in existing home sales is that the prices dropped. More homes sold, but for less money. At least the glass is now half-full, according to these analysts. The fact that homes are beginning to sell at a higher pace is certainly good news, but in my estimation, the key benefit is the effect it will have on the psychology of buyers and sellers. It's a little spark in the midst of an otherwise passive market that may inspire buyers and sellers to be more "in-action". My anecdotal experience has been that buyers and sellers are essentially On Strike, waiting for the other side to blink. Perhaps this news will motivate.

The other two news items are slightly more noteworthy to me. What we're seeing a lot of lately that is significant, but not as sexy, are the funds being made available to get the current mortgage debt off the books of the lenders holding the vast majority of troubled, active loans.

There are loads of banks holding bad loans on their books. These are loans that were made too generously on homes that are declining in value. Bad, if you're a bank. Investors who have bought these loans from banks on margin, are now demanding their money back. That has caused serious fear and anxiety in the banking world because it means the banks have to have enough cash on-hand to pay the investors back at a moment's notice. (See Thornburg as a recent example). So, the banks are holding their bad loans AND holding all of their cash out of fear. When banks hold all of their cash, they don't have as much to lend. When the don't have as much to lend, they raise the rates on the loans they do make. They are in the business of making a profit, after all.

And that is the conundrum we've fallen into lately. It's moved from a credit crunch, which started last summer to what we currently face . . . a liquidity crunch. The cash is there, but nobody wants to make it "liquid".

So . . .the Fed has jumped in to buy some of these bad debts (mortgages) and also started making these debts available to other investors as a way of cleaning out the books of the major lending institutions, in the hopes of freeing them up from their fear of lending on new, solid loans.

The fed moves, as well as the new venture, PennyMac, signal to me at least that there are some good buying opportunities for the institutional investors. That certainly has not been the case for the past 9 months and again, to me, is a positive sign that money may be becoming more accessible/liquid.

In this market, things change daily (almost hourly) so it will be interesting to see how the news continues to develop on the underlying/fundamental side. Once investors start buying, as opposed to just sitting on the sidelines waiting it out, as they have been, it's a positive indicator for the markets.

$200B Added To Mortgage Pipeline

CNNMoney posted an interesting article regarding the $200B allotted to finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Will this move resolve the troubled market? Click Here for full article. Also, stay tuned for Maison Nouveau's own, Aaron Katler, and his response to the recent moves taken by the fed and how this affects you and the Bay Area market.

Best Time To Buy In Four Years

Act now! Don't let this offer pass you by! Well I guess it's nice to see the press finally writing articles based on some truth other than scare tactics. Hugh Robertson, forwarded me this great article from CNNMoney.com this morning and you can check it out here.

Bay Area Home Value Reports Q4

Thanks to the internet and online data, the folks over at Zillow have put together some interesting statistics regarding home values based on sales in Q4. The key to remember in viewing stats like this is that they are based on the city and not zip. You can view the full interactive Q4 map by clicking here.