It's an age-old question, especially here in the Rain, and I hate to even bring it up, because this topic typically stirs some pretty heated debate, and anyone who reads my blog much knows that I'm a proponent of Open Houses.

In a sense, Open Houses are what got me started in the business. A few years back, I was hired as the community manager of a couple of hot neighborhoods in Edmond, working for one of the largest builders in the state of Oklahoma. During that time, I learned many things, one of them being how to effectively hold a successful open house. I learned how to draw the people in, how to capture their interest, and how to get them to buy. While OHs on an existing house are a different animal from new homes, many of the same principles apply. For that reason, I've always had great success with my OHs.

These days though, I find myself not doing them very often. I usually have my buyer specialists, or another agent, hold my listings open. However, admittedly, the agent is the one that benefits most of the time, not the home seller. Now let me squash the big objection I know I'm going to get right now. The answer is YES, I do have the discussion with my clients that OHs are not likely to get them a buyer for them home, and will most likely just give the agent the opportunity to pick up clients that will buy other homes. Once I've had that discussion though, some sellers still insist on having their home held open.

So, although I do see value in SOMEopen houses, I still have to question their effectiveness at times, which brings me to the story which inspired this post. About 6 weeks ago, I got a call from another agent, who has a home listed in the Cedar Pointe addition. Cedar Pointe is one of my main areas, in which I sell about 3 to 4 homes each quarter. At the time of her call, I had one active listing in Cedar Pointe, and she was calling to see if I'd be interested in doing a community-wide open house event. At the time, there were about 15 homes listed in CP, and it sounded like a good idea if it was marketed correctly to bring out the buyer traffic. However, the weekend she wanted to do this event was not a weekend that I was available, and neither was my buyer specialist, so I declined the offer.

3 Sundays ago (January 13th), about 12 of the 15 agents held their listings open to the public and had a pretty good turn-out from what I've heard from my neighbors and the participating agents. As a result of that huge open house event, one house sold... MINE. So, two questions naturally pop into my mind:

1. Did I benefit from NOT holding my home open?
2. How effective was that huge (and expensive) event?

Give me your thoughts....

It's time for my monthly report on what's selling, what's not, and what's new on the market in Cedar Pointe.  This report is designed to keep you up-to-date on inventory levels, then quarterly I break down pricing and compare it to the previous year.  This combination gives us all a real pulse on the health of the Cedar Pointe real estate community.

You'd be amazed at how often I get asked "What did that house around the corner sell for" or "How much is that house on X street listed for?"  Especially here in Cedar Pointe, since I live here and sell a lot of the homes in the neighborhood.  So, I've been working on a format for this report, which will give that information and more.  Hopefully, it will be a useful resource for my Cedar Pointe neighbors, and those thinking about moving here.

If you're one of those who are thinking about buying a home in Cedar Pointe, be sure to check out some of our other posts (linked at the bottom of this post), and my Cedar Pointe Information page, which will give you more details about the community, the schools, and it's surroundings.

Please bear with me as I work through the logistics of making this a great monthly resource for you, and if there's something you'd like me to include in these posts that would make them more useful, please email me.

Here are the Cedar Pointe homes that closed within the past 2 months:

And here are the homes that are currently listed in Cedar Pointe (Active & Pending):

It's time for my monthly report on what's selling, what's not, and what's new on the market in Homestead.  This report is designed to keep you up-to-date on inventory levels, then quarterly I break down pricing and compare it to the previous year.  This combination gives me a real pulse on the health of the Homestead real estate community.

You'd be amazed at how often I get asked "What did that house around the corner sell for" or "How much is that house on X street listed for?"  So, I've been working on a format for this report, which will give that information and more.  Hopefully, it will be a useful resource for Homestead residents, and those thinking about moving here.

If you're one of those who are thinking about buying a home in Homestead, be sure to check out some of our other posts (linked at the bottom of this post), which will give you more detailed information about the community, the schools, and it's surroundings.

Please bear with me as I work through the logistics of this over the next month, and if there's something you'd like me to include in these posts that would make them more useful, please email me.

Here are the Homestead homes that closed within the past 2 months:

And here are the homes that are currently listed in Homestead (Active & Pending):

**Based on information provided to and compiled by MLSGateway.com, Inc. covering a period (11/20/07) through (1/20/08). MLSGateway.com, Inc. does not guarantee or is in any way responsible for its accuracy. Listing information is deemed reliable at the time of this posting, but subject to change without notification, and should be verified through a licensed agent for accuracy.

Here are some past Homestead posts:

Homestead, Edmond OK Quarterly Report, 4Q 2007

Homestead Addition, Edmond, OK - 2007 Market Summary

Homestead addition, Edmond, OK Market Report 2006

Each and every month, I post up the Oklahoma City and Edmond Real Estate statistics, and every month so far I've had some very positive information to share. This month is no different, except that we did see a dramatic drop in overall volume.

As always, I'm posting the real, honest numbers, so you, the consumer, can judge for yourself what's really going on, rather than just believing what you hear on the news. Here it is; the following chart shows the monthly Oklahoma City Metropolitan Real Estate statistics for December 2007 as compared to November 2007 and December 2006:

Now, as you can see, December was down in overall volume and units sold. Well, that's not really a surprise. I could have told you that, simply from the small amount of buyer traffic I personally witnessed in November and December, that time of year when everyone's focused on the Holidays and their focus is taken off of real estate. No big shocker there, but look at the average and median prices. We're still up anywhere from 5 to 9 percent over last year! Compare those appreciation rates to any other market in the country. You'll find very few others who can even come close to those kinds of numbers.

Other figures to pay attention to are the absorption rate, the interest rate, and the days on market (DOM).

Interest rates are currently better than they have been in several years, while it is taking longer to sell our homes than it was this time last year. That's mostly due to the drop in number of sales, and the increase in absorption rate. I expect to see that number come back down as we head toward spring.

I predicted in last month's report that we'd see a spike in buyer interest after the first of the year, and I was right, as you can read in my recent post Spring Has Sprung You Say?! The sellers who have an agent who understands what's really going on will be in position to take advantage of this "down market" over the next couple of months, so get your house ready now.

If you have any questions about Homes for Sale in Edmond, OK please don't hesitate to contact us for a free, no obligation analysis of the current market. In the meantime, you'll find a wealth of information at our Edmond Real Estate website.

**Based on information provided to and compiled by MLSGateway.com, Inc. covering a period (12/01/06) through (12/31/07). MLSGateway.com, Inc. does not guarantee or is in any way responsible for its accuracy.

I remember hearing a great idea a few years back about issuing signs to be worn by the dumbest of the dumb in our society.  Some days it seems there wouldn't be enough signs to go around, but when I read a story like this one, I know there are a few at the top of the list who should get the first signs offered.

Question is, at what point should a repeat offender like this guy be put away for good?  He's obviously a serious danger to the rest of us and doesn't learn from his mistakes.  Would taking away his license be enough?  Doubtful.  My guess is that he'd drive anyway; he obviously has no respect for the laws put in place to protect people anyway. 

OK, I'll get off my soapbox.  I found this story humorous at first glance, but there really is a more serious issue at hand with a guy like this.