One Property One Website One Solution

CEO’s Introduction

There are a plethora of biographies about Winston Churchill (the UK Politician, not the US author of the same name and era) but today, over forty years since his death, the myths continue. Common ones include references to his alcoholism, a father who had syphilis, and the age-old story about the Scottish scientist Sir Alex Fleming saving his life twice (once from drowning, the second time by inventing penicillin). One little known truth is that Britain’s greatest statesman won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.

As a longtime admirer of Churchill, I am familiar with the wealth of his written achievements (he wrote over 40 book-length works totaling over 70 volumes). I am also familiar with a phrase he used several times, in written and spoken forms; “The Magic of Averages”.

This phrase came to mind last week when I read stories about average home prices on a leading property news Website. “Average sales price up about 10.7 percent” stated one. “Average sales price was $313,000, up four percent,” said another. I quit half way through the third article when I reached a sentence that said, “Home prices on national average are flat.” We are surrounded by news about the slowdown of the property market, so should I believe any of them?

While shopping in our local supermarket recently, my wife enthusiastically pointed out cookies with “50% less fat.” I asked, “50% less than what?” and she realized two things: There is no truth in advertising, and percentages (like averages) can be useless. Property markets are regional, and with a country as big as the US, there can be a significant difference between “average” and “actual” data. Ultimately, any use of an “average” will result in data that is, well, of average use.

Getting useful data should be the goal, but it is difficult; Realtors have to be creative in melding numerous values into ‘the state of the market’ and doing so locally, not nationally, provides a significantly higher value. While sellers will listen to what is happening at a national level, they are affected by local market economics. Every transaction is unique, but one repetitive theme is that sellers are looking for as much money as they can get, as quickly as they can get it. These two desires ignore location, data and averages.

Even with all of the contradictory editorials, most people accept that today’s Realtors need to be creative not only in trying to make workable use of all available data, but also in how they sell property—and creativity, it seems, is limitless.

Alf and Kathy Overy of East Yorkshire (located in the North of England) bought their home in 1983 for £27,000 (about $50,000). When they recently decided to sell, their Realtor told them that the property was worth £650,000, which was, of course, very good news. When it failed to sell, however, Alf and Kathy decided to run an online competition (see: www.winthishouse.org.uk) to “give everyone a chance” to buy the house. Twenty-five thousand tickets have been made available at £60 (about $120) each—all you need to do is pay the money to enter the competition. A team of “experts” will then decide the winner. Alf and Kathy will be making a charitable donation of £250,000 and will be pocketing the rest.

But what if the winner doesn’t want the house? That’s OK! The winner will get £500,000, the charitable donation still gets made, and Alf and Kathy keep the £750,000 difference. Oh, I almost forgot, they get to keep their house as well. I stand and applaud their creativity.

Data though is at the heart of everything we see and do. Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book “The Tipping Point” details “how little things can make a big difference.” It explains how significant change, reaching in some instances epidemic proportion, occurs from insignificant origins. Three types of people (Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen) are explored in the book, but it is the Mavens (a Yiddish word originally) that fascinate me the most. Supposedly over half of Americans know a Maven (also known as “Market Mavens”), someone who accumulates vast amounts of knowledge about multiple subjects.

Web 2.0 has been referred to as the Tipping Point for the real estate industry. Articles are written daily detailing how all of this new technology, coupled with an increase in real estate related ‘Mavenism’, will result in a streamlining of existing business methods. With this will come more data, more opinion, and more averages.

My advice? Ignore the averages; there really is no magic in averages.

As always feel free to contact me personally, at any time, for any reason.

Stephen Fells,
CEO

PowerSite of the Month

It is our pleasure to announce that May’s PowerSite of the Month has been awarded to George Tullos of Habersham Properties in Beaufort, SC, for the PowerSite, www.0080-125SouthPark.com.

Much like the home that is presented, this PowerSite is very charming and welcoming. Habersham Properties worked with the AgencyLogic design team to customize the look of this PowerSite so that it matches the company’s Website. Click here to read more about this beautiful PowerSite.

Video Tour - Behind the Scenes
With our official announcement of PowerMedia this month and our relationship with WellcomeMat.com, we needed to create a great sample video so that we could demonstrate the impact of including a property video within our PowerSite tool.

We wanted to see how easy (or difficult) it would be to create both a professional and a do-it-yourself version. Click here to read the story behind our sample video.

Question of the Month

Question: How do I add the Virtual Tour?

Answer: You can use your PowerSite as a virtual tour on your MLS, add our PowerSite to your Realtor.com listing, or simply upload a virtual tour to your PowerSite. Click here to learn the many ways to upload your PowerSite to your listings.