Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in The Real Word, a weekly video column on Inman.
HousingWire wrote last week that the housing market is now “savagely unhealthy.” Total existing-home sales were down in January and February because of exceptionally low inventory (1.7 months). The author expects inventory to be flat this spring.
Lazine sees inventory going above the million mark, which might help to ease the market slightly and encourage sellers to feel that they’ll be able to find their next house due to increased days on market. However, he feels that we won’t get to a sustainable market until we get to 1.5-2 million homes in inventory.
Next, Lazine and White talked about a MarketWatch story, “Want to know why the housing market is so competitive? Look at this one metric.” The story talks about a recent Redfin study that shows homeowners are holding on to their homes for more than 13 years, up significantly just in the last few years. According to Lazine and White, this may result in even more inventory shortages moving forward since those who bought in the recent low-interest-rate environment will have a hard time choosing to sell.
Marketeer of the Week
This week’s Marketeer of the Week was Realtor Magazine for its story on the most popular time to search for homes: Tuesday at 8 p.m. White and Lazine said that it makes sense to put a property on the MLS on Monday as “coming soon,” then have it go live on Thursday or Friday with open houses Saturday or Sunday, then go through offers on Monday or Tuesday.
White also said that means Tuesday evening is a good time to schedule your emails or to pick up the phone and make some calls to leads.
Want to nominate a “marketeer of the week”? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below, or shoot us an email.
