Have you ever had one of those days where you feel the statisticians in real estate are out there asking the wrong questions and plotting the wrong graphs? Oh sure, we have year over year sales, number of homes in inventory, average days on market, and other stuff that bores us all each month.
But what about for sale signs that are bigger and are on posts do they sell homes faster than little metal signs? How about what is the trend in a neighborhood of homes that NEVER sell. Is that growing or decreasing? Do Realtors who drive a Lexus sell more houses than the Realtor who has the Toyota Scion with the advertising wrap around it or the beat up Honda Civic? How productive is each agent in an XYZ independent company compared to a name brand chain in a year? That last one is in some MLS systems but that's insider information.
If you could only dig out some of the really cool and perhaps arcane statistics you might REALLY figure out what's going on. Sure, we see more foreclosure signs pop up. But why are they being foreclosed upon? Some of it is subprime and ARMs adjusting. But where's the piechart for financial reasons due to job loss, bankruptcy, divorce, health problems? What is the mix? That last one may be a bit gruesome to focus on the negative, but aren't you curious?
Do tall salespeople with the perfect hair actually sell more? I think I read that in a Dilbert book by Scott Adams. Do the glamour shot "hot" babe women Realtors sell more than their average appearance counterparts?
Any one have any statistics they would love to know about?
Some people seem to live by these statistics! I think they're crazy, but fun .. and many of them are probably "most people" (4 of the 5 they surveyed) haha.
Kim: Survey says.... sometimes I think they don't survey enough people to make a survey valid.
Gail: Well said. The pollsters can skew questions to get the answers they want!
Good questions...inquiring minds want to know!
I LOVE stats Gary and would love to see the ones that cover whether tall salespeople have higher sales volume! Ha!
Debe in Charlotte, NC
Keith and Robin: Everyone wants a place out in the country!
Beth: But doesn't curiosity kill the cat? I guess that's why there's nine lives.
Debe: Check out the perfect hair on the commentators on TV. That's all about promotion too like the tall sales people concept. Maybe the tall ones intimidate people into a purchase.
Hi there
Gail beat me to it, but I thought it was 83% of stats were made up, lol.
Two years ago a fairly new agent (in my own office) asked why I didn't drive a big brand new car like all the others brokers? My response, I didn't need it. Not long after that this agent left my office to work for another company, a bigger split and a broker with a bigger vehicle. For some, I guess for some it does make a difference. I've been amazed myself to see the production (or lack of it) of others who have the outward appearace success, when in truth they just have bigger payments.
Gary - We wanna know, but I don't know quite what to say to this one.... tall, short, cute, not cute, big signs, reflectorized signs, lit signs, no signs, I do know that
78, 82, 85, 88, 73, 68?? percent of people start their search for a home on the internet.List and Sell (you know, the internet, that thing Al Gore invented) Gary @ Rentonhomefinder
Marchel: I know some of the Foreclosure Listing Services have more detailed information in that area.
Lynda: Some carry the outward trappings of success but that Mercedes is a lease vehicle you just know it.
Julie: That's an interesting thought, do the taller women agents outsell lesser height ones? I think the tallness factor was a study done on men in sales in the corporate world.
Gary: You're right, you can get statistics to pretty much claim anything, and like the wind blowing, they are constantly changing.
One statistic that I like to figure out is whether there are multiple tiers to a market. For example, in my market area, it looks as if things are worse than they are if you just take the median sales price for single family homes,but if you segregate sales into those above and below $400,000, you'll see that values are actually rising for homes below $400,000. Demand is exceeding supply! Statistics can be representative of the data or not. Selecting the right statistic is key and you can't select the right statistic until you've played around with the data and get a feel for what's really happening in the market.
I like to lay out a set of theories about how the market is behaving and then test them against the data. For example, it was my perception (based upon the sellers and buyers I was representing) that multifamily sales had slowed and I attributed this to the increase in downpayment required by lenders from 20% to 25%. When I analyzed the data, there was no slowdown and in fact prices are still rising.
Pat: I love it! Glamour hot babes (YOU) sell more real estate. I do think it is true BTW (both). Another very good YouTube with Moondance. No one can light a candle with your selections!!