Carpenter Real Estate News

Improvements in Indiana Real Estate are Evident

February 13th, 2012

The local real estate market is healing. We've just released the new edition of Carpenter Reports, and we see some very positive signs in the Indianapolis and central Indiana housing market. Listing Inventory continues to decline. This decline is needed for the market to get back into balance ... to get healthy again. Inventories of single family homes for sale are down in the fourth quarter by 29.9%. Johnson County leads the market with a decline of 36%, followed by Shelby County with a 33% decline. Marion County, as the largest county for inventory saw a nearly 30% decline.

The national and local economy continues to make improvements. That continued improvement reflects on the housing market. The trending numbers during the fourth quarter of 2011 are positive. Pending sales during the fourth quarter were up nearly 14% year-over-year with Shelby County leading the way with a 51% year-over-year improvement followed by Hancock County with a 28.3% improvement in the fourth quarter. Marion County experienced a solid 14.1 growth of pending sales.

The average residential sales price for closed sales in central Indiana remained relatively flat to down slightly. The average for the 11 county area was down by 3.6% from the same period last year. Again, Shelby County led the list with a 14.7% decline. Hamilton, Johnson and Madison Counties saw an increase in their sales prices year-over-year in the fourth quarter. We believe we will begin to see a firming of prices and growth in the averages as the year progresses.

As we have discussed before, consumer confidence is one of the two critical elements in driving home sales; mortgage interest rates being the other. Mortgage rates are now at a record low level; currently below 4%. Consumer confidence, as measured by the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), rose sharply in both November and December from historically low levels. The January index drifted down only slightly, but held the gains from the previous months. As consumer confidence grows, the demand for housing will grow with it.

At Carpenter, we continue to believe we will see gradual improvement in the local economy, in consumer confidence, and in housing going forward. Bumps in the road are to be expected, especially in an election year, but we believe the improvement will be relatively steady going forward.

Posted by:  David Caveness

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The Sweet Spot

February 1st, 2012

Ben Hess, founding partner and managing Director of Tidemark, Inc., recently wrote an article that references a point made by Tom Prall, our President, at Carpenter’s January Managers’ Meeting - NOW is the time for managers to be focused on recruiting agents into the real estate business.  You can read Ben’s entire post here.

Today, is the “tipping point” for people beginning (and sustaining) their career in real estate because there is a developing shift in the average number of transactions per agent from very few to significantly more as the market begins to emerge from the past recession.  Simply put, the market is improving while the number of professionals to service those transactions continues to decline or at least lag the improvement.  It won’t last forever, but the last time we witnessed this shift at the start of a recovery there were a number of bountiful years until the overall agent count caught up.

Increasing Sales + Less Agents = The Sweet Spot

If you want more information on this or would like to discuss how you can take advantage of this developing “sweet spot,” feel free to contact me or one of our managing brokers.  A list of Carpenter locations and mangers can be found on our website.

Posted by:  David Caveness

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Carpenter Realtors moves to the Cloud with Google Apps for Business

January 27th, 2012

Carpenter Realtors held their annual Kickoff for 2012 yesterday. Amid the many exciting announcements and new programs, we unveiled Google Apps for Business to our sales team.

Google Apps for Business is a paradigm shift in communications, breaking away from the old way to do business – the tired approach of loading software onto one machine and either lugging that machine around or doing without all your documents. The USB sticks, the merging of multiple versions of documents, lost files, inaccessible files, etc. are a thing of the past.

The new paradigm is cloud computing. Everything is stored, processed and accessed on Google’s servers – the “cloud.” The device accessing the data is no longer anywhere near as important. If you’re about to give a presentation and your laptop dies, under the old paradigm you’re completely shut down. With Google Apps for Business you can log into your Google account from any computer, any tablet, any smart phone and access your documents, including that presentation and the show goes on. Google Apps for Business gives our agents 25GB of storage. Consider Dropbox starts at 2GB and our old email server provided 3GB of storage for comparison. Old sales files from years ago can now be kept for the day that buyer from years ago becomes a seller. The platform gives our users business Gmail, Google Docs, Google Video, Google Sites, Chat & Video Chat. And instead of buying one license from Microsoft that gave us one copy of Office to install on one computer (and one copy to upgrade, for a fee, down the road) we get with one license of Google Apps for Business access to all those features on a multitude of devices – as many as that user needs.

Consider an example – an agent creates a document on a walk up computer in one of our offices. They email that document and walk away. Two hours later while they’re on the other side of town they get a call and need that document again. Maybe they retrieve it from their sent items or they drive back to that office. Maybe someone deleted the document. Or someone is sitting on that computer. Or worse, they created the document in Word 2010 and the recipient has Office 2003. Or doesn’t have Office at all. Whatever, it’s less than ideal. So you track down the document, make the changes, email it back to them and later get to the closing table and they’re using the wrong version of the document you emailed. They’re on version six and version nine has all the corrections. Ugh.

Now with Google Apps for Business that same agent creates a document and shares it with someone – not emails it, shares it. The recipient gets access to the document in Google Docs. No software to install, no compatibilities to overcome. No file size limitations to worry about with email. The recipient says they need some changes made. Great; Use the Google Docs App on your smartphone or tablet. Or log in from any computer to your Google Apps account. Make the changes. You’re done. It’s already a shared document. You don’t have to email it again. Or worry about which version of the document they’re going to use. As Google says, there’s only one version of the “truth.” One document, one version that everyone has. Edit it umpteen times and there’s still just one copy of that document. You could be in China or in a cave with really good wifi and you’re just as connected to your stuff as you would be sitting at your desk in your office.

This is the tip of the iceberg – and it will be just like Titanic – the one that grossed hundreds of millions of dollars, not the one that sank – and we will find uses and functions and solutions to problems we didn’t even know existed with this platform. It will reduce sales friction, another Google-ism, and make our agents that much more productive. Oh, and we’ll be writing a six-figure check to Google for these services while providing this to our agents at no additional charge. Carpenter Realtors partners with our agents and continues to look for agent friendly tools to enhance their value proposition.

Posted by:  George Christodoulou

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2012 Carpenter REALTORS Sales Rally

January 25th, 2012

Carpenter will bring together its real estate professionals from throughout central Indiana to celebrate their accomplishments, share best practices and announce new programs and exciting enhancements to our marketing tools.

These programs and enhancements are focused on supporting our agents and providing maximum value for our sellers.  We’ll be sharing more details shortly…and you’ll be seeing our RED TEAM throughout central Indiana!

Posted by:  Ryan Carrell

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Prudential Leaves Relocation and Real Estate Business

December 14th, 2011

Last week, Brookfield Residential Property Services purchased Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services from its parent, Prudential Financial.  Brookfield is a current player in the relocation industry and will inherit the operations center of Prudential, with its US headquarters in Phoenix, AZ.   You can read the Brookfield press release on the Wall Street Journal’s site here.

On the real estate operations side, Brookfield indicated that the current Prudential franchise members will be able to continue using the Prudential name under the terms of their existing franchise agreements.  Brookfield currently owns a number of real estate franchise brands including Royal LePage in Canada and Real Living here in the US.  It will be interesting to see what strategy they deploy with their newly acquired franchisees.  We saw something similar to this when Carpenter was a long standing member of the Better Homes and Gardens franchise that was purchased by GMAC.  Within a few years, our brand identity had to change – no small undertaking.  Ultimately it worked out, as it was a catalyst to take control of our own local brand image and we became an independent member of the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.  Change is always interesting…

Posted by:  Ryan Carrell

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Central Indiana Soon to be a Seller’s Market?

November 22nd, 2011

If you read the headlines or watch the evening news, some days you may think the world is coming to an end.  However, if you delve into the statistics you find some information that just might surprise you.  For calendar year 2006 Metropolitan Indianapolis Board of Realtors (MIBOR), which covers nearly all of central Indiana, reported 65,110 transactions completed, the highest number on record  (Note: one sale = two transactions).  Last year there were 46,460 transactions – down nearly 29% from the peak.  The first part of last year the market was artificially stimulated with the federal tax credit for home buyers.  In second half of last year without that stimulus the market ran at a pace of 42,500 transactions.  That may sound like bad news, but 2011 is on pace to be up 10% from that level and conditions continue to improve.  Was the second half of last year a bottom for the market?

Now for the interesting part…as of November 1^st there were just over 15,250 residential listings for sale in the MIBOR system.  That’s down 28% from the same time in 2007 and 4% below the same time in 2004!  A healthy correction of supply and demand is nearly complete.  With the number of homes available for sale on the market shrinking and the tide of sales activity rising by 10%, you may be seeing a swing from a buyers’ to a sellers’ market.   Just don’t hold your breath to see it in the headlines yet…

Wondering what things are like in your specific neighborhood?  Contact a Carpenter agent and they can provide you with statistics and insight into the value of your home.

Posted by:  Ryan Carrell

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The Housing Market is Getting Better. Consumer Confidence is the Drag.

November 8th, 2011

We’ve just published the latest edition of Carpenter Reports: The Central Indiana Real Estate Market, a quarterly review of central Indiana real estate market activity. For reasons you’ll see in the report, I’ve titled this edition “The Housing Market is Getting Better. Consumer Confidence is the Drag.”

Why? I believe this quarter’s report continues to illustrate that the central Indiana housing market is in a recovery. Any argument that now is a great time to buy a home is more compelling today and that this report supports that.

Over the last quarter almost every county in central Indiana saw lower inventories of single family homes for sale, a necessary and healthy sign of recovery. Six had double-digit declines. With that, we noted double digit increases in sales for the third quarter. With the exception of Shelby, Putnam and Madison Counties, all central Indiana counties experienced solid double digit increases. Again, evidence of a recovering market. Stabilization, and gradual improvement in the Average Sales Price of the homes sold is another key indicator. Compared to the third quarter of 2011, this quarter showed a healthy 2.7% increase in the Average Sales Price.

With these numbers, we anticipate positive comparisons for the fourth quarter of 2011 and early 2012 as the recovery continues to build momentum into Spring.

The biggest challenge to a sustained recovery in central Indiana’s housing market continues to be consumer confidence. The downward trend in the monthly Consumer Confidence Index continues to put a drag on the housing recovery. Despite favorable prices and interest rates, many prospective homebuyers simply lack the confidence in their personal situation to undertake such a major purchase.

At Carpenter, we believe there will be gradual improvement in our housing market over the next few quarters and for years to come. It won’t be a straight-line to recovery. There will be bumps along the way. It will take improving consumer confidence in what the future has to offer to assure us the sustained recovery we all need and want.

Posted by:  David Caveness

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Carpenter's new agents "get" it

September 6th, 2011

Just spent a couple of days with our latest training class. I like these guys. Most classes have a few dynamic future success stories … with a few of the opposite. Sometimes they’re death on wheels. And a few rare groups like this one give us a reason to be excited.

On Thursday, sharing the Carpenter Marketing offerings with them, they not only stayed alert (sometimes a challenge when I’m in front of a group) but it was obvious they were paying close attention. From our co-op advertising programs to details on their free CRM program and websites to a full-on discussion of the value of good photography, they proved themselves ready to get out there and make something happen. Today, reviewing out custom website options for our agents, they got it. They got the value of having a full site and the value of custom content. And they really got it when we did the hands-on, get-your-site-looking-good training. One of the easiest groups to work with from step one.

I’m looking forward to early next week when we review our CRM offerings, with contact management, drip email campaigns, neighborhood reports and more. It’s the best value and most important banana in the bunch.

It’s interesting. As a new agent, you have to figure they’re concentrating on selling homes. And we stress technique and tools. But when they understand and also get excited about the marketing opportunities we provide - helping them brand themselves, providing a full, free CRM program, offering custom websites, providing programs to offset their advertising costs – other “sit-on-your-laurels” agents at companies who don’t provide these benefits should start watching their backs.

So, newbies, if you’re reading this, thanks for a good couple of days.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

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It IS a good time to buy a home for sale - home prices are down!

July 25th, 2011

Is now the best time for you to buy a home? For many, it is. For some, it is not. But the majority of families do have the confidence in their personal situation to pursue the “American Dream” of home ownership.

Carpenter Realtors® report, The 6 Reasons Today May be the Best Time in 40 years to Buy a Home outlines why today is a great time to buy a home. We have already addressed three of those reasons. Today, I want to focus on the fact that Home Prices are Down.

Many of us are seeing local and national articles and news shows telling us home prices are up. If home prices are down, how can they be up? It is important to understand they are touting that the average prices of homes that have sold are up... not that the individual prices of specific homes are actually up. What I’m trying to say is that it’s likely the value (reflected in the price someone is willing to pay) of a specific home is flat or down a few percentage points from the value of that same home in 2006. Nationally, that could be as much as 30% from the peak.

Generally, the news reports you hear and read are simply saying the average prices of homes that are selling now are higher than the average prices of homes sold last year or in years past. Those numbers are distorted due to the mix of homes being sold.

With the actual values of homes generally being down from 2006 or 2007, it means a homebuyer can acquire more house for the dollar today. As the economy continues to recover over the coming months and years, home values are expected to rise. We believe the values of specific homes are at or near the bottom and will begin to increase as well.

If your personal situation allows you to move forward with confidence and buy a home, you don’t want to be looking back at this moment in time 6, 12 or 18 months from now wishing you had taken advantage of the opportunity. Today is the best time in 40 years to buy a home, if you’re ready.

Posted by:  David Caveness

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Move your "Stuff" to the Cloud

June 15th, 2011

Cloud computing is in the news more and more these days, as newer players such as Google and Amazon have pushed the older traditional players such as Microsoft and even Apple to abandon the PC as the “center of the computing universe” and move services to the Internet. This change was coming, whether we wanted it to or not, and really is happening rather organically due to changes in our habits and consumer preferences. New laptop releases are ho-hum affairs that no one pays any attention to these days. Everything these days is about smartphones and tablets and apps. We still use our PCs, we’re just not that excited about them anymore because they aren’t our only or most used Internet device. Steve Jobs calls this the post-PC era and I think he’s right.

So it’s a natural thing to want all our “stuff” that still sits on our PC’s and until recently was the only practical place to keep our digital belongings – photos, music, email, documents and the like – to be on our other, more used devices like our iPads, iPhones, Android devices, secondary PCs and even shared computers. And now the pieces are in place for that to happen and there are many benefits to moving our digital stuff to the cloud.

With our devices freed from the PC we have access to all our things no matter where we are and what device we’re using. For example, Google Music (currently in invite-only beta) lets you upload all your music files to Google’s servers (the Cloud) and then access them either by streaming the music or by downloading it to other devices such as an Android phone. No more syncing or storage limits. I have over 60GB of music (over 7,000 songs according to Google’s count) and now every last song is available to me whenever I sign in with my Gmail account and without filling up my phone’s storage card.

Apple just announced their iCloud service which will replace the over-priced MobileMe service and will be free. You will no longer need a PC or a Mac to sync your iPhone or iPad. Your PC will be demoted to just another device that syncs to the cloud so photos you take with your iPhone will automatically appear on your iPad and PC through the Internet – no cables to connect, not even to activate a new phone.

Another big shift is in document creation, storage and sharing. Many people have already moved off the PC-with-Microsoft Office paradigm to Google Docs, Dropbox and Microsoft Live. Google Docs comes free with your Gmail account and allows you to upload existing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files to Google Docs and also to create new documents from within Google Docs. You can then share them by supplying the recipients email address or you can download the file in .docx or openoffice formats (or other applicable formats) and simply email the file (the old school approach).

The benefits of this approach should be obvious – you have anywhere, anytime, any device access to your documents that you can invite others to collaborate with you on and you have no software to purchase, no computer to maintain, no files to back up and total simplicity in sharing. I am quite certain we have signed our last Microsoft Office license contract and will instead move to this model.

Microsoft in turn has offered their version of Office in the Cloud with Office Live, a free service offering a light version of Word, Excel and Powerpoint that should suit most non-Power users of Office. If you aren’t creating a web page or linking multiple spreadsheets to each other than the online versions of these programs should work great for you. You’ll need a Windows Live ID (like a Hotmail account) and you’ll get 25GB of storage in your SkyDrive in which to store documents. You can upload documents just like Google Docs and can share documents with others as well.

In our offices, we have Microsoft Office installed on three or four computers per office. When a document is created and saved on that one PC it can only be accessed again from that one PC and if someone is using that public computer when you need access to that file, or someone deletes or alters that document you are out of luck. You have no privacy or security and only one place to get to your documents. If instead Google Docs or Office Live is used, you have total control, privacy and security and access from any machine and with no software costs – so you can use your own devices rather than a shared machine.

With this shift the device you’re on becomes less important than the service you are connecting to. We’re moving to a TV-like model; like a television only displays content rather than creating it, your device will let you access and manipulate data but won’t be as responsible for it since it won’t store it and in many cases won’t be responsible for the actual processing. Your device (tablet, television, smartphone, laptop) will simply be a display and interface device and the content providers will handle software updates and data storage and backup making life much simpler for the average user who just wants to get things done and not concern themselves with the technical hurdles and headaches.

Posted by:  George Christodoulou

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"Packaging" a home for sale

May 27th, 2011

It seems I’m always on the bandwagon about marketing homes for sale. About how Carpenter Realtors^® has the most effective and most comprehensive program to market homes for sale. How we consistently promote listings better than the competition.

But as a marketer, I can’t just consider promotion and take the day off. In fact, promotion is only one of marketing’s “P”s that I consider. Doesn’t the business world now has five “P”s in marketing: Price, Place, Promotion, Package and Product? (I’ve seen four, five and seven. Can’t we all just agree?) In real estate, we have input in three P's: Price, Promotion and Packaging.

Pricing a home for sale is best left to the agent, who has the knowledge and the tools to advise the homeowner on their options. A home for sale must be priced “competitively” in order to sell quickly and near list price. A good agent and cooperative homeowner will always make the right call.

Promotion. That’s what we do, what we reconsider and what we retool every day in order to stay ahead of the pack. It’s the Carpenter Home Marketing System, an exclusive package of online and offline promotional opportunities that has been shown to better expose a home for sale to more potential buyers. Ask any good marketer and they’ll tell you the key to promotion is just that: expose a product to the greatest number of potential buyers

Now for packaging. I’m not talking about a box on a shelf, or a logo on the box, or a usage claim below the logo. I’m talking about packaging a home for sale - prepping it for the best showing it can have. Can’t tell you where this came from, but I recall a study where 63% of consumers make a product purchase decision according to the packaging and decoration. You can bet that this number is much greater when it comes to buying a home.

In packaging a home for sale, consider these important points: photos; curb appeal; cleaning/clutter; paint/carpet. Too often we see agents and homeowners who ignore/forget packaging a home – the way it appears “on the shelf.”

The part of packaging I want to talk about is photos. The listing agent can control the quality of their photography. The homeowner can expect quality photography of their home. The broker can train their agents to take quality photos.

More than nine of ten homebuyers use the internet to search for their new home. By the time they even have a discussion with an agent, they’ve considered hundreds of homes. I call that process “speed dating.” A web visitor gives any home for sale a few second of consideration to decide on an “online showing.” Those few seconds, in seeing the price, reading the short description and … viewing the primary photos … makes it or breaks it. Thus the speed dating. We have a few seconds to convince a buyer to do go on a date, i.e. an online showing, which can result in a second, live showing. The primary photo is, well, primary, in their decision. Crummy photo = poor packaging = lazy agent. Quality photo – good packaging = involved, active agent.

At Carpenter, we’re always training our agents on how to take the very best listing photos possible. Training, coercing, nudging, yeah sometimes even a polite shove. All the promotion and pricing in the world can’t overcome poor packaging.

Posted by:  Jim Newell

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