Real Estate Wisdom
Where do you get the greatest return on investment (ROI) on home improvements? What does your typical home buyer and seller look like? How can you research the real estate market? What are new home builder trends? Understanding the real estate market and trends will help you to connect better with those clients. Here are my favorite real estate knowledge online sources:
National Association of Realtors
Connect with the NAR website if you haven't already, so you can learn more about the real estate industry and your prospects. Here are my favorite links on that website:
- Read the Active Blogs - I occasionally even blog for the Staged, Styled and Sold one!
- Read the Recent Statistics and Reports About the Industry - Every year they produce a profile of buyers and sellers that is always interesting to share.
- Connect with NAR Research on Facebook - If you go to their photos, you will see all sorts of cool infographics you can share on your own business FB page.
Realtor Magazine and News
If you want to learn very quickly the direction of the real estate industry, then click on the top right "subscribe button" of the Realtor Magazine website and you will get "top news" emailed to you. I love these stories and also share my favorites on Facebook.
National Association of Home Builders
Similar to NAR, you may want to explore this website to find trends, stats and economic information. One of my favorite links on this website is in regards to housing data.
Real Estate Market Trends By Area
This is a city-by-city resource to find a quarterly snapshot of how your housing market is fairing.
Remodeling Cost vs Value Report (by year)
Want to know what kine of a return on investment a light, kitchen remodel project gives to a home owner? These detailed reports, done yearly and by geography are very eye-opening!
My Favorite Real Estate Searching Websites:
- Realtor.com - This truly IS the MLS, so I always start here to find the newest listings.
- Redfin - This is a super useful website to find how long something's been listed and other alternative information about the home. You can "heart" a listing that you've staged to get an automatic email notice when it's gone under contract (which tells you to get your stuff out of there!)
- Zillow.com - Even though the "zestimate" can be off, zillow is the closest you're going to get to find the true value of a home. Zillow is also connected to Trulia which is another good site.