Real Estate is Local: My Fascintation with Trulia's Heat Map Page

This is a real estate market where 10% of the Realtors are doing 90% of the business. I am determined to stay in that 10%. With that being said I have been going on listing appointments and working tirelessly with buyers writing offers and getting them to the closing table.

In today's world consumers and clients really want us to quantify value for their listing or purchase. No matter how great of a negotiator you are getting your seller the best price, if it does not appraise it will be a brand new deal or no deal at all. The media throws out a lot of national statistics while the local press tries to pull out numbers for their region. The reality is the most important numbers should be those specific to the neighborhood and the supply and demand of the particular type of property the clients are buying or selling.

As professionals we need to keep up on our resources. Most of our local Realtor Associations and MLSs provide us numbers or the tools to pull them. We also need to look at the validity of the data. I keep finding new places to evaluate value. One that I spent a while on this morning was Trulia's Chicago Heat Map page. I kept clicking on the arrows sorting the data in different order. What was very apparent was that a block north, south, east or west can make a great difference of the value. You can also sort by rank in search popularity. There was not really a correlation between popularity and value. Lincoln Park whose values have decreased by 12.6% is remains the most popular neighborhood to search. Lakeview,the neighborhood just to the North in which I live has flat lined which in today's world means it was a good thing I stayed north of Diversey.

My facsination today with Trulia's report reminded me again. When people ask "Why should they buy in this market?" or "Is now the time to buy?" We as professionals need to get these potential homeowners away from the generalities of it all and focused. First are they in a good financial position to be a homeowner and what type of property are they looking for in what neighborhood. Sellers have to be qualified as well. What makes a well qualified seller has its own definition which I will hold off for another post on another day.