www.indiapost.com/article/realestate/935/ -
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Published on: 9/5/2007
Last Visited: 9/6/2007
Check out builder incentivesAs quickly as the housing power shifted, the incentives that builders and home sellers use to market their homes have changed as well."The incentives today are different," says Dianna Kokoszka, vice president of Mega Achievement Productivity Systems at Keller Williams Realty.
"The big-screen TV worked for a home builder many years ago.Now builder incentives are $40,000 to $50,000 off landscaping in the front, new appliances, 1.5 points if you go through our mortgage company and an allowance if you use our decorator."Case in point: This year, Prudential New Jersey Properties launched its Power House buyer incentive package that includes one year of an American Home Shield Warranty, a mortgage buy-down, a "closing gift" of 0.5 percent of the sale price and a minimum 3 percent commission to the selling broker.Kokoszka says today's buyer wants money-in-pocket value, not frills and playthings.
If your home is competing with nearby new construction, be prepared to offer the same or equivalent incentives as the builder."What happens with builders is, if you came in six months ago and bought a home for $400,000 and I come in today and can buy that same home for $350,000 and your home is not built yet and you haven't closed, you're not going to close easy and we're going to have a problem.Builders have to keep that price constant or going up," says Kokoszka.
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"The other competition: foreclosuresThere's another challenge: Many of the real estate agents who swarmed like moths to the hot housing market since 2001 may have never witnessed a down market."I have heard that about 70 percent of all Realtors in the marketplace today have never experienced a market that we are in right now," says Kokoszka.
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But now the power meetings are between listing agents and their anxious sellers on how to flag the attention of agents representing qualified buyers."In order for a home to sell once, it has to sell twice: You have to sell it to the Realtors and then the Realtors sell it to their buyers," says Kokoszka.The best way to sell to a Realtor is via an increased commission or a sales bonus.Gibson confirms that the courting of buyer agents is in full swing."We're seeing more back to the split of (more favorable) 6 percent commissions, but we're also seeing, in the confidential area of the MLS, bonuses of $5,000 or $10,000 to selling agents, to try to lure them," she says.