I am sitting in my office on December 31st and just solidified a contract on another listing, what a great way to end the year!! I thought I would end the year on a good note from our MLS service, West Penn MLS, and once again put to rest the doom and gloom that you are hearing on the major TV networks about the housing market. Although it is true in some markets I think it is important that we focus our attention on the Pittsburgh region and what we as Realtors have seen and what we expect in the upcoming year. The fact still remains that sellers need to have their properties in tip top shape before putting them on the market and they must be priced properly! Buyers are still getting good deals and the interest rates have been holding steady.  I hope you enjoy the information and like always please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. Lastly I would like to thank everyone with whom made 2007 a very memorable year for me and my family. I appreciate and value the relationships which I have been blessed with and I wish everyone a Blessed and Happy New Year! ============== DID YOU KNOW      DESPITE WHAT YOU HEAR FROM THE MEDIATHE GREATER PITTSBURGH AREA REAL ESTATE MARKET IS DOING WELL  ·       New listings are down only 4.30% and our market is not over flooded with listings.·       Closed listings are down only 2.80% and not in the 20% to 30% range as many parts of the country·       Average days on market are up only 4.30% unlike many parts of the country where the average days on market are up by 40% to 50%·       The average price of sold properties is up 3.20% from $146,302 to $150,962 *The above comparisons are made based on the same period last year.   SPREAD THE WORD

This was a recent article in the Pittsburgh Business Times dated 12/14/2007. Please take the time to read it over and contact me with any questions or you can post your comments for all to view. It demonstrates just how hard it really is to sell your home on your own, even a major player in the Pittsburgh Real Estate market such as Coldwell Banker got out of that end of the business and has moved away from the Blue Edge style of real estate marketing. A good, knowledgeable real estate agent with a written market analysis and a written marketing plan is still worth the money that a FSBO thinks they are saving.  Good real estate agents don’t deliberately ignore FSBO’s or have some scheme to steer customers away from a perspective buyer we just focus on helping our existing clients first and foremost. A FSBO like our competitors are just that, competitors, just like WalMart is to Target and so on. In the contrary when we have a perspective buyer and we as agents feel a FSBO has a home which might fit the buyer’s needs then we contact the FSBO and ask if they are working with agents, most usually will. Nobody forces anyone to list their home with an agent but in the long run when you consider what a good, knowledgeable agent will do for you, it’s worth the money! Real estate like most industries has different levels of education which an agent can obtain. There are varying designations and along with some of the higher designations you also have to have the hands on proven experience. The CRS designation which I hold is one of the highest and post prestegious designations because it requires both educational and proven experience in selling homes.  For more information about a CRS designee then visit www.CRS.com and you will understand why the designation is a symbol of excellence in the real estate industry.

Enjoy the article!!

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Solveig Peters, a postdoctoral associate and academic advisor at the University of Pittsburgh, has a theory unrelated to her academic position.

“I’m convinced that the Realtors are trying to undermine anyone who is trying to sell their own house,” said Peters, who has been trying to do just that with her Murrysville home for the past six months.

After months of frustration — facing resistance from Realtors who, she said, steered clients away from her house — Peters is giving up the fight.

“I’m going to take it off the market,” she said. “I feel like they got me no matter what.”

Several years have passed since the emergence of the Internet helped lower barriers for people interested in selling their own homes. And the for-sale-by-owner concept, long dismissed as ineffective by real estate agents, has gained some credence among consumers.

FSBO sales make up only a small fraction of total home sales, according to the results of a survey released last month by the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Realtors.

About 12 percent of all transactions in 2007 were for-sale-by-owner, according to the NAR, down from a record of 18 percent in 1997.

The percentage of for-sale-by-owner sales often decreases in a slow housing market as owners look to agents to help sell their homes.

At least one local real estate firm has dropped its foray into the FSBO industry.

Several years ago Coldwell Banker Real Estate Pittsburgh launched an effort dubbed Blue Edge in an attempt to capitalize on the independence of people working without an agent.

Blue Edge listed homes on its Web site and in the West Penn Multi-List but didn’t offer the personalized service of a standard real estate agent.

And instead of a regular real estate commission of 6 percent or 7 percent, homeowners paid a 2 percent commission to use Blue Edge.

But only about a quarter of the homes listed with Blue Edge sold over the program’s four- or five-year life, said George Hackett, president and chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate Pittsburgh.

“It taught me one thing,” Hackett said, “which is something I always knew — how important a Realtor is.”

bsemmes@bizjournals.com | (412) 208-3829