In today's real estate market, two distinct types of agents have emerged; the buyer's agent and the listing agent. The typical image of an agent is of the buyer's agent. This is an agent who concerns themselves with assisting a client in buying a new home. The listing agent, conversely is an agent who specializes in the art of preparing and selling a home.

 

The primary objective of a listing agent is in the intelligent marketing of the homes that they are offering for sale on the local real estate market. This process goes far beyond putting up a sign and hoping that some interest is piqued. In fact the posting of the sign is merely the start of a long and involved process. Where the buyer's agent deals mainly with prospective home buyers, the listing agent concerns themselves with the marketing of a home to other agents. By this act, a listing agent can create interest in their listing with numerous other professionals and as such, bring more prospective buyers to the home in question.

In order to do this the listing agent utilizes a vast repertoire of experience and sales tactics to stir up interest. The most visual and widespread of these elements is their web site. A good listing agent will use the latest in internet technology to market a home to as vast an audience as possible. This part of the marketing plan is vital to the success of a home sale as it will also list the home on the area's MLS service. Once the home is listed, the process of bringing buyers to the home begins. This is a step that has several facets, including open houses, local newspaper marketing, networking with buyer's agents in the community, and utilizing a system of referrals on a nationwide basis. This step also involves the Office & Broker previews where the home is shown to other agents in the same office, and to all members of the local MLS. This includes agents from other real estate firms that conduct business in the same area.

 

For these reasons it is a good idea to employ the services of a listing agent in the sale of a home. The listing agent is capable and trained in the art of procuring as much attention for a home as they can. If you are looking to realize the highest possible profit in the sale of your home, a listing agent is a necessity.

REW Writers is a collective publication network facilitated by Real Estate Webmasters each article is contributed by a member of our real estate community. This particular article was submitted on behalf of Lee Keadle, your Charleston SC realty expert.

This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com

 

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By Scott Patterson

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Investors, painfully aware that the housing market is in the doldrums, may be surprised to learn that some of this year's best stock performers have been real-estate companies.

Yes, home builders have been basement dwellers and some lenders look shaky. But real-estate investment trusts are up more than 30% year-to-date, and the real-estate mutual funds that invest in them are hitting home runs, according to fund-tracker Morningstar. REITs, as they are known, are tax-advantaged stocks that concentrate on the commercial side of the real-estate business and distribute the lion's share of profits to shareholders through dividends. They deal in office parks, shopping malls and apartment buildings -- rather than McMansions.

Commercial construction has been booming after a protracted slump earlier this decade. During the first half of the year, commercial building grew at a 15% annual rate, according to Commerce Department data. The sector contracted in 2001, 2002 and 2003, so likely isn't as overdone as the residential side. Overbuilding would be a big problem for REITs because that would drive down rents, their primary source of income.

Low interest rates help, and the private-equity boom has added steam to some REIT players, luring investors who want to bet on the next fat deal. REIT mergers and acquisitions have hit a record $117 billion in 2006, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, soaring from $30 billion for the past two years combined.

But has the REIT run gotten overdone? One recent event raises the question: industry icon Sam Zell's $20 billion sale of Equity Office Properties Trust, the REIT he took public in 1997, to Blackstone Group. If Mr. Zell is selling, perhaps that says something about the outlook for the sector as a whole.

REITs look pricey by other measures. Consider one metric of how much investors are paying for every dollar of the cash REITs produce -- called price-to-adjusted funds from operations. It stands at 26, well above the group's historic average of 15, according to Green Street Advisors, a real-estate research firm.

"REIT valuations are just so high relative to other assets that the sector as a whole is really susceptible to a shift in investor sentiment," says Christopher Mayer, a real-estate professor at Columbia University and a board member of Oak Hill REIT Management, a hedge fund.

"Everything has to work right in the wonderful world of real estate that we live in," says Sam Lieber, Alpine Mutual Funds president.

 

 

 

 

 

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By Christina S.N. Lewis

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Sadia Bruce never studied natural history in school, but here's what she wants for Christmas: "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities," a $200 oversize book of plant, animal and insect illustrations from the collection of an 18th-century Dutch pharmacist. "It might give the idea that I was cerebral," says the 26-year-old standardized-tests tutor, who lives in Montclair, N.J.

Buying smart is taking on new meaning. From shadow boxes of beetles (pinned and labeled) to replicas of gibbon skulls, home-decor items and other gifts with an intellectual aesthetic are big sellers this season.

Aspiring eggheads sometimes want things they may not even understand. Nancy Bass Wyden -- co-owner of The Strand, a new, used and rare books emporium in New York, and director of its "books by the foot" division -- says sales of insta-libraries, including editions in French and German, are up 140% this year. "I'm not sure if those folks knew how to read those languages," says Ms. Wyden of some recent customers. Prices range from contemporary fiction for $50 a foot to leather-bound classics for $400 a foot. (On the whole, people don't seem all that interested in reading books: Bookstore sales nationwide fell 1.6% in the first nine months of 2006, according to the Census Bureau.) Other Strand clients include private-equity king (and board member of the New York Public Library) Stephen Schwarzman and his wife, Christine, who Ms. Wyden says spent $200,000 on books for their Park Avenue triplex, including pastel-colored books for a bedroom antechamber and movie-reference works and academic books for the family room. Through his spokesman, Mr. Schwarzman declined to comment.

Retailers and marketers say the interest in things that make people look smart is partly a reaction to the Internet, which has made hardcover encyclopedias, maps and models obsolete -- and hence more desirable. Baby boomers, in particular, are keen on items that make them seem well-educated, well-traveled or well-read.

"They aren't hesitant to try to communicate that," says Stephen Gordon, chief executive of the Sundance Catalog, which this season is selling refurbished manual typewriters from the 1940s, including the Royal Arrow ($695), "a steadfast companion during Hemingway's frequent stays in Havana."

At Assouline.com, "Le Questionnaire de Proust," a $295 leather-bound facsimile of the French writer's famous list of interview questions and his handwritten replies -- plus blank pages so contemporary questioners can live out their own Proustian impulses -- is temporarily sold out. Modern Library's six-book boxed set of "Remembrance of Things Past," meanwhile, is ranked 27,318 on the Amazon sales list.

The smart look is partly rooted in the sciences, both natural (astronomy, geology, zoology) and applied (architecture, forensics, medicine). Sales of minerals such as amethyst geodes and fool's gold at the American Museum of Natural History in New York have soared more than 130% this year. The museum store recently added provenance certificates to some of its gold and meteorite samples, attesting to where and when the rocks were mined or found. Several pages of Restoration Hardware's holiday catalog this season are devoted to astronomy-themed gifts. And "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities" is one of the most popular items from art-book publisher Taschen, which released a smaller, more affordable $60 edition last year. Its distinctive red coral cover made it an instant hit in design magazines and stylists frequently use it as a coffee table prop.

"People like science stuff that subconsciously has a lot of weight because it doesn't seem frivolous," says David Thompson, president of Vagabond Vintage Furnishings, an Atlanta-based wholesaler that sells to Williams-Sonoma Home and other companies. "They want things that seem sophisticated."

Some retailers are increasingly veering into the unusual or the macabre. A series of decoupage plates by John Derian ($880) depicts a 19th-century image of a skeleton. The Evolution Store in New York City, which sells replicas of skulls (a replica of the Australopithecus "Lucy" is a top seller) and other bones, has opened a new department devoted entirely to insects. Companies are also exploring funkier parts of the natural world, such as fungi, sea creatures and crustaceans. A stylized faux sea-urchin condiment bowl with a gilded interior and a silver spoon is the best-selling new item from Vagabond Vintage Furnishings.

Not everyone approves of decorating to look brainy. "Queer Eye" interior designer Thom Filicia compares it to wearing eyeglasses without a prescription. "It's creating a façade," he says. Literary and culture critic Harold Bloom is similarly unimpressed. "I find it too absurd to stimulate me to any comment," Mr. Bloom wrote in an email. Others object solely on visual grounds. "Personally, little bird skeletons frighten me," Mr. Gordon says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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By Troy McMullen

From The Wall Street Journal Online

The state of the housing market in much of the country may be gloomy but in Manhattan, real-estate brokers are still celebrating -- and record Wall Street year-end bonuses are only part of the reason.

In many major metro areas, from Miami to San Diego, the number of homes listed for sale has soared over the past year or two as sales have plunged. Median home prices in the U.S. fell 3.5% in October compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year drop on record, according to the National Association of Realtors. A new report from UBS AG predicts a continued decline and warns that the slump could "seriously impact the overall economy" in 2007.

Yet despite the national outlook, Manhattan has shown resilience, fueled by lower-than-average unemployment rates, a surging financial sector and a swelling population of millionaires (and billionaires) immune to the impact of a slowdown.

Manhattan's international credentials are unique in the U.S., says Andreas Hoeferp, chief global economist at UBS Wealth Management Research. A power center that attracts major players in fashion, art, media and finance, the island has more in common with other world capitals like London, Hong Kong or Paris. "Like other financial capitals, the real-estate market here is cushioned by a global demand for housing that's unmatched in the U.S.," Mr. Hoeferp says. Still, there could be clouds gathering, some analysts warn, including a glut of new condominiums and possible price declines.

Overall, the number of homes sold in Manhattan was up about 1% in November versus a year ago (compared to an 11.5% drop in sales nationwide in October), and prices continue to appreciate. Median home prices in the borough rose 17.5% during the same period and 26.8% since November 2004, according to Gregory Heym, chief economist for Realtor Brown Harris Stevens. Manhattan's strength is even more pronounced at the high end, where growing demand for trophy properties is propping up the luxury market. The number of $3 million-plus homes sold was up 6.5% year-on-year in November, according to Mr. Heym.

Among the big-ticket sales: the $27.5 million paid by New York Stock Exchange Chief Executive John Thain for a two-bedroom duplex apartment at 740 Park Ave., one of the city's most storied addresses. Formerly home to Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Chryslers, the building's current residents include cosmetics executive Ronald Lauder and Blackstone Group chief Stephen A. Schwarzman.

In addition, 38 single-family townhouses priced at $10 million and over sold during the same period, up from 22 last year, says Kirk Henckels, an executive vice president of Stribling Private Brokerage. Those sales include the $53 million that investment banker J. Christopher Flowers paid in October for the century-old, five-story Harkness Mansion on East 75th Street, just off Fifth Avenue. The price for the 20-plus-room limestone mansion, which includes a ballroom, 11 fireplaces and a center atrium, is thought to be the highest paid for a Manhattan residence.

Ballooning Bonuses

The health of the New York real-estate sector is the result of lower unemployment rates than the national average, higher job growth rates and a Dow Jones Industrial Average in record territory. The financial industry, long a bellwether for New York's real-estate economy, is soaring. Through the first nine months of 2006, combined earnings at seven top global securities firms based in New York surged to $39 billion, according to David Trone, a banking analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton. Meanwhile, new federal data show the average weekly pay for finance jobs in Manhattan was about $8,300 in the first quarter of 2006, up more than $3,000 per week in three years. A projected $36 billion in bonuses will be doled out this year by the top five investment banks in New York, according to Options Group, an executive search firm, up from a record $21.5 billion in 2005 and nearly a fourfold increase from $8.6 billion in 2002.

"There's an incredible amount of money out there right now," says Jacky Teplitzky, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. "It's not clear if that funnels into real estate, but it certainly can't hurt."

Tatyana Dobryanskaya says she expected to wait until next year before looking for a new apartment. But the 30-year-old fixed income analyst says a bigger-than-expected bonus (she declined to disclose how much) from the investment bank she works for helped to change her plans. She is now in the hunt for something in the $1.5 million-to-$2 million range. "There was really no reason to put this off," she says.

Vincent Piazza, a 36-year old research analyst, has moved even faster. He just signed a contract for a new $1-million-plus loft condo in the Wall Street area. It features 10-foot-high ceilings and marble and limestone bathrooms. Mr. Piazza says his year-end bonus is only part of the reason he's buying now. "I waited a year for prices to come down a bit," he says. "They never did."

Traditionally, the upper end of the New York market tended to hold its own when the city's overall housing market slowed, largely because wealthy buyers were buffered from market gyrations. That was particularly true during the last boom-bust cycle in the late 1980s, economists say. Now, however, even as the national market cools, the entire Manhattan real-estate market is humming, fueled in part by rising income levels and interest from wealthy out-of-town buyers.

Ramesh Vangal, an Indian technology and health-care entrepreneur with homes in Bangalore and Singapore, paid nearly $7 million in October for an apartment on Central Park South. Mr. Vangal says he and his wife and business partner, Katharin, have always loved spending time in Manhattan, but that they bought here for business and financial reasons: "New York has always been an important place to do business, but it's also a good place to invest your money," he says.

Clouds Looming

Despite the robust New York scene, some real-estate observers see warning signs for Manhattan. More listings are crowding the market and the length of time homes are taking to sell is creeping up. Quarterly data show 7,243 units on the market, compared with 6,926 a year ago. The average time a home spent on the market in the third quarter of 2006 before selling was 92 days, a 28-day increase from a year ago.

And while the number of Manhattan sales rose slightly in November compared with the same period a year ago, some of that lift may be inflated. Condos make up only about one-third of Manhattan's housing stock, but they accounted for roughly 44% of sales last month, according to economist Mr. Heym. And much of that came from new buildings where buyers may have made down-payments months or even years ago. That means many of November's "sales" may have occurred when the overall market was still strong. (New condo sales are only registered when the building is completed and residents move in.)

A building boom in the past few years is likely to create a glut next year as new condos are completed. Between 2001 and 2005, there were 21,142 units completed in Manhattan, compared with 12,812 from 1996 to 2000, according to the Real Estate Board of New York. REBNY estimates that there are more than 20,000 new condominium units either under construction or being planned in Manhattan. "The real-estate market here simply cannot sustain that kind of growth," says Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the Stern School of Business at New York University. "Prices will fall very hard."

And brokers shouldn't put too much stock in ballooning Wall Street bonuses. Appraiser Jonathan Miller has analyzed first-quarter sales data since 2003 (bonuses are typically handed out between December and February) and his numbers show no significant bounce in Manhattan home sales, with one year showing a slight decrease. "There's a significant amount of money on the sidelines" in this economy, says Mr. Miller.

The potential for a real-estate slowdown and the imminent glut of new units has done little to slow some developers. Hotelier André Balazs is erecting two new Manhattan condos and recently broke ground on a third -- a 47-story tower in the Wall Street area. Called William Beaver House, the high-rise will include three penthouses, an outdoor Jacuzzi, a hot tub and a 60-foot lap pool with lounge-deck and bar. "I see this as a place for hard-working, hard-playing Wall Streeters," he says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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