National Home-ownership Month: Surprising stats in the Albuquerque Housing Market

(Transcript Snippet): ” Tego:

Great. Couple of things that are really telling about what’s going on in the market. We just heard Eddie story about going to a house in cars, lined up around the cul-de-sac that that’s pretty commonplace right now in, in the market. I pulled out a couple of stats just to give you an idea of some things that are going on in May, 2021. We had our list price to sell price ratio was 101%. Okay. That’s a pretty normal, you know, stat that we look at that list to sell price ratio and you know, customer, I mean, it dropped as low as 95% something back, you know, when the market was really down, but, you know, traditionally is somewhere around 97, 98%, right there, a little bit of discount off of list normally. Well, we’re at 101% in may, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Tego:

And so what I did is I went into the MLS extrapolated, a bunch of data and found that of all the homes that closed in may, which means these are homes that probably pended sometime in March, April, let’s say late March and April 50% of them sold for over list price. That is unheard of. It is unheard of. And that, that is very telling about what’s going on in our market. And then, so Tracy, let me ask you this because, so I’m sure some of you are going well, how, why don’t you just list them for more? Why are they, you know, why aren’t you just listing them at a higher price since they’re going to sell for a higher price? Well, why, why don’t we,

Tracy:

Well, we could try, right. But what we have found is if we price them for the real market, people do pay more typically, but we don’t

Tego:

Price it for the real market. What does that

Tracy:

Mean? I mean, we’re looking at historical data, right? We’re looking at most recent sales in the area and saying, okay, a month ago, this house nearby was similar. It’s sold for X. So we’re pricing it based on what is showing up. But when we price them over that we have seen over and over again, even in the last two months, right. Tego that the houses that we start to high end up getting price reductions. And I bet you have a stat for that.

Tego:

I was just going to say there were about 1200, let’s say, give or take closed sales in the Albuquerque market in may. And there were, like I said, 50% of them sold for over the list price, 18% of them sold for 5% or more over list price. So it’s not just like, you know, a few dollars we’re talking

Tracy:

Of the 15% of the 50% that sold over list price. 18%, no. Of the a hundred percent close. Yeah.

Tego:

18% of them sold for 5% more. Yep. Yeah. Which

Tracy:

Is significant. I mean, when you think about a couple of hundred thousand dollar house, 5% is, you know, 15,000, $20,000 more, well, let’s

Tego:

Back up from this story and say, okay, we heard all these stories, Tracy. We know, you know, 20, 30 offers on a house. You know, people lined up on the cul-de-sac for an open house, you know, home selling over list, price, the stories go on and on about how frantic it is, you know, buyers that have written 10 offers and can’t win a home

Tracy:

And using the word win. I hate to hear that I know I’m biased, but be selected. Yeah.

Tego:

Be selected as, as the one that gets to purchase the home. Those stories are true and they’re all out there, but there is a flip side to it. And the thing that I found interesting are about 200 homes that closed in may, that at some point had had a price reduction, meaning they did start too high. And that’s what you were talking about.

Tracy:

I knew you’d have a stat for it. Of course I do. So yeah, 200 houses in the last month, right. That sold and closed had a price reduction while they were listed for sale. So yeah. Yeah.

Tego:

So the, that whole pricing strategy in it’s not just about throwing any number out, there is a whole kind of art and science to it, to, to net the, the homeowner the most, most amount of money that they can. Yeah.

Tracy:

And so it’s always hard for us to talk about ourselves and tout our own horn. You know,

Tego:

We have the, the radio ad that we’ve been running on Eddy station here for, for a while now where you’re, where you’re talking about, you know, don’t just trust that, you know, online algorithm to tell you what your home’s worth, because every home is very different. Right.

Tracy:

Right. And don’t just trust that your realtor is going to do the maximum marketing to net you the most. Yeah. Cause

Tego:

I the truth is stick a sign in the yard, put it in the MLS, type it with your iPhone, take a couple photos, you know, depending on, you know, what price you, you put on it, you know, you’re gonna, it’s gonna sell,

Tracy:

We have the really interactive, cool tool that we’re using these days where somebody gets a floor plan when they click on our, our properties that were for sale and they click on the virtual tour, you can see the floor plan alongside the interior of that room that you can look around real time ish like, and then you can click. So you know how that room interacts with the other rooms and everything.

Tego:

That’s what I was going to say is anybody, is anybody out there that, you know, you’ve shopped for homes, or you’re looking for homes, you’ll see a house and you just start looking through the photos, whatever, you know, 10, 20, 30 photos, whatever they are. And you’re like going, okay, does that room attach to that room? Or does that go that way? Or that way, this eliminates that guesswork because you actually have the floor plan and photos side by side. So you can see that not

Tracy:

Just photos, it’s immersive, like literally the floor plans there. And when you click on one of the rooms takes you to that room and you can navigate and scan and look up and down and all around and see where you’re at in the house. And we’re, you

Tego:

Know, it was interesting. We were having this team meeting the other day with our group here and just saying, okay, are we doing this with everything? And I said, yeah, yes. I mean, you’re just doing it on luxury homes. No, no, no. I think, I think, you know, our, our job is to get people the most money, net them the most money in their pocket when they sell the home. And so, you know, this is a part of it and

Tracy:

That’s where I was going before. I was going to say, you know, this is Tracy and Tego Venturi with Venturi Realty group, the number one real estate group in New Mexico by number of homes sold in 2020. We sold more

Tego:

Homes in 2020 than any other group in New Mexico.

Tracy:

Despite other advertising that you might hear. So, so Tego, you know, we do more, right? I mean, there’s a reason we’re we’re day after day getting more money for our sellers, by the amount of resources we’re using to invest in the marketing and making sure that the most number of buyers are exposed to a house that’s for sale. And I looked up that house that Eddie was talking about on the cul-de-sac. And of course it did go pending. They were it was over the labor day holiday. We were out of cell range a lot. And Eddie and I were messaging every time I was doing the whole standing around with my arms and legs in the air, trying to make sure that we could hear each other and talk to the other realtor a few times and knew they’d already had a few offers and kind of where it was at. But of course they said, we’re going to be looking at all offers on Tuesday after the Monday holiday. And yes, it did go into pending sale then. But I know from talking to the other agent that, you know, it’s going to be one of those in the 50% that are selling for above list price, but, you know, that’s how the gems are. And that was a gem gems.

Tego:

Tracy, I don’t know if you knew this. I think you do is June, is national home ownership.

Tracy:

I did not know that. No, I know. So, you know,

Tego:

National association you know, our national association, national association of realtors you know, really wants to put a focus on home ownership and being a homeowner and how important it is to so many things. And, and, you know, I’m all about the financial and I always talk about the financial benefits of home ownership.