Williamsburgs Real Estate Blog and more!

 Sunday, May 15, 2011

It's been a while since I posted some suggestions on searching for your next home or inventory data, but recent conversations with some of my REALTOR buds reminded me to try again to suggest a better way to search for homes. Plus a friend of mine is going to be putting his house on the market soon due to a relocation for work, and I was working on a comparative market analysis looking at HIS market and potential.

It's seems that many searches-by agents and buyers alike-start with price or a price range. While I agree that's definately an important component of a search, make it the final component-not the first. Most buyers today have "needs", followed by "wants". A person with five kids probably can't squeeze into a 3 bedroom home. They might need 4 but want 5 or even 6. Someone with a disability and handicap accessibility requirement might need a 1st floor living option, so that 3rd floor condo with no elevator might not be a good fit, even though the price may work. Chances are you don't need a pool, but might like to have one, if everything else is even and you essentially are getting it for free in most cases!

You get the point. Whether I am working with a buyer or doing a comparative market analysis, I start with the features of a home, and eventually factor in the price. I've whittled down a search from over 150 possibilities to TWO, before I even factored in the price. I'm not talkin' about weird things either! How about FOUR BR's, 2.5 baths, 1/2 acre lot with one-three school requirements.

If you use the search portal on my website (www.JimMellen.com/WilliamsburgMLS) you can do this yourself with more options and criteria than most websites-even REALTOR.com. Here we go:       

• Location:James City County or City of Williamsburg
• Detached/single family home
• Four Bedrooms
• 1st floor master bedroom
• 2.5 baths minimum
• Two car,attached,side load garage (so no one see's the garage clutter!)
• .33 acres minimum
• 2400SF (because the one you're in is smaller-you need more room)
• Jamestown High School

Here's the progression as I added criteria:

• First two criteria yield 837 possibilities
• Four bedrooms or more down to 482 choices
• 1st floor MBR down to 287 choices
• 2.5 Baths (more potties the merrier!) down to 237 possibilities
• .33 acres or more (that's not too large either) down to 186 choices
• 2400 SF minimum (that's a NEED!)-down to 182 choices
• Side load garage (could be a need, but might be a "want") down to 128 choices
• Jamestown High School-whittled down to 55 choices

Not bad-from almost 900, down to 55. We haven't come through the price discussion yet, or some of the other possible choices like age, HOA fees or not, type of flooring, kitchen counters etc. We have numerous additional criteria at our finger tips to find the PERFECT match if one exists!

Now let's throw a price into the mix-say $300,000. Still a big number but not necessarily for Williamsburg. If you followed along with the search criteria above-I got NO POSSIBILITIES and you should have too. Now we can raise the price or start removing the wants-garage,MBR level whatever you think you can live without. I'm going to remove the lot size and garage...now I still have NO choices. Wait a minute-isn't this a BUYERS market? What about all the talk about excess inventory?

OKAY, you can live without a master bedroom on the first floor. How many choices now? ONE! Now let's try no high school choice, up to 15, whew I thought you were going to have to BID on your only choice!

The purpose here is to show you that inventory may not be what you think or hear-at least in the current Williamsburg market. Location,age,condition and features limit your choices before you even get to price. So start your search or comparative market analysys with the criteria first, then add your price. With the above criteria removed, except for location and price range-under $300,000 I would have 212 homes to choose from. I would NEVER show you 212 homes, or try to do a CMA with 212 homes. We'd never accomplish anything.

Work smarter, not harder!