Real Estate Virginia

I get asked that question all the time...

About Northern Virginia Real Estate that is.

And many times, it is difficult to answer becasue the listing source is MISSING DATA.

Drumroll please - time to reveal the 3rd missing piece of data that - based upon the feedback that I get from buyers every week just drives them crazy.

First, let me fill you in on how we got to this big drumroll before we do the big reveal of data field #3.

A recent analysis of 14,603 entries into the Northern Virginia Multiple Listing System in January - April 2010, showed that 66.09% of the homes listed for sale were missing data that could cause buyers to ignore the listings.



That is 9,651 homeowners that may have lost potential buyers and possibly money because of the principle of Garbage In - Garbage Out.

Missing Item #1  - Photos
Missing Item #2 - Schools

MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - THIS ONE DATA POINT IS NOT A REQUIRED FIELD IN OUR LISTING SYSTEM, BUT IT IS IN THE MIND OF THE BUYERS.

And 42.7% of the properties listed in January failed to list this information.

SQUARE FOOTAGE. - Living area in the property.



42.7% in January 2010, 41.4% in February, 43.0% in March and 44.3% in April for a total of 6,299 listings without this valuable information.

HELLO. 

While buyer should not and do not base the decision to purchase solely on square footage, it sure goes along way in helping the buyer to determine if one property is comparable or similar to other properties.

Lack of square footage can hurt the listed property when it comes time for the appraisal to be completed, with the chance that the appraiser actually under estimates the size of the property or any recently finished spaces or additions not noted otherwise.

Again, if this number were similar to the percent of listings without photos, in the 5-10% range then you might say that there are some anomalies or situations where the listing of square footage is not the best course of action (work with me for a second). But over 40%?  To quote the famous philosopher John McEnroe, "You can not be serious?"

MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - When you work with my team, we work to get you top dollar for your home.  One of the best ways to get top dollar from the buyer it to remove as many possible "doubts" from the buyers mind.  When they are looking for data, and can not find it, they doubt.  We will never put you or your property in that position.

I will be continuing to track this data over the upcoming months and will keep you up to date on these critical issues. 

If you want to avoid these issues MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER, feel free to give me a call.

In my last posting in this series, I pointed out that a recent analysis of 14,603 entries into the Multiple Listing System in Northern Virginia for January - April 2010, showed that 66.09% of the homes listed for sale were missing data that could cause buyers to ignore the listings.

I also pointed out that there are 3 optional fields that are very critical to getting a home the proper attention that it deserves and I promised to let MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER in on these critical data fields.

So here I go:

Data Field #1 - a Picture.

Now, this may not be a data field, but once the agent uploads the image into the MRIS/MLS system, the location of the photo on the MRIS server is recorded into the listing data base, so that anytime that a request is made to view the property in the listing system, the listing is displayed - so you see - in a way it is a data field.

In January of 2010 - 7.1% of the listings for homes for sale entered into the listing system did not contain 1 photo.

ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH, NADA, NONE.

What makes this so remarkable is the fact that the listing system allows for agents to enter up to 30 photos into the system at no additional charge to the agent.

7.1% had NONE.  Not even a picture of the front of the building. 

192 Listings in January were neglected.



I focus on January because I can hear the nay-sayers now... well maybe those were new listing that haven't had a chance to enter a photo as of yet.  HELLO - these were listing from January, not last week.

And it did not get much better for February, March or April.

February checked in at 6.2% or 154 listings. (and we had an excuse in February with the Blizzards).  March was 239 or 5.4% and April, when properties start to look the best was 5.3% or 268 listings.

Sure, many agents add lots of photos and many also add on Virtual Tours at an added expense, but right now I am trying to let MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER know that 853 - that is Eight Hundred and Fifty Three homeowners have fallen prey to listing their home for sale and not having a photo taken and displayed for the property.

The Areas that were most affected are: Falls Church VA Real Estate, McLean VA Homes for Sale which is very surprising considering the price point for the area of McLean, Chantilly VA Real Estate & Fairfax VA Homes for Sale.

I don't care if it is a short sale, they still need to attract buyers and the agent needs to try to sell these for top dollar.

Bank Owned, REO - No Excuse for the agent to take at least one - 1 photo.

Even an iPhone photo, or a drive by photo, something.

MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW I CAN MAKE YOU MONEY - JUST BY ADDING A PHOTO TO THE LISTING.

From January thru April, Northern Virginia Real Estate Listings with photos SOLD for .24% more that properties without photos. One quarter of one percent.  Doesn't sound like much, but on the area average sales price of $427,241 it equates to $1,025.38. 

MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - GIVE ME A CALL AND LET ME PUT A GRAND IN YOUR POCKET.  IT IS AS EASY AS POINT, SHOOT & UPLOAD.

Stay tuned for the rest of this series - MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - because critical data field 2 and 3 may be even more important to the Northern Virginia Home Buyer's searching online.

Have you heard of the term used to describe data that is stored and retrieved for a computer that is called "Garbage in - Garbage out"?  If not, it even has it's own wikipedia entry. 

Garbage in - Garbage out or GIGO for short is when you try to get a complete retrieval of data out of a computer database, only to realize that the operator that entered the data FAILED to include all of the data. 

In order to work around this GIGO limitation on databases, some databases have a structure that is based upon required fields and optional fields of data.

With regards to real estate, the listing database or Multiple Listing System as it is commonly referred to is subject to the malaise of GIGO, Garbage in - Garbage out.  While this is a common occurrence in the overall computing industry, it would be understood if a database, created and maintained by individuals and companies PAID to promote the items being entered into the database to the best of their abilities would be free from the constrains of GIGO.

IF YOU THOUGHT THAT YOU WOULD BE DEAD WRONG!

ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION MR. & MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER?

The operator entering the information on your house for sale may be turning it into GARBAGE.

Sure, required fields are just that, required, and cause the agent that is entering the data to complete the information in most cases.  I say most because some still find a way to enter incorrect information into required fields. An example for this is a property listed in the Multiple Listing System at this time with 40 bedrooms for $729,000 in Falls Church that has been on the market for 13 days.  I bet the owners are wondering why they are not getting any showings?  And it is all because of the agent that they selected and the Garbage In that is creating the Garbage Out.

An analysis of Northern Virginia Real Estate Listings from the MRIS/MLS system for all listings entered for sale in Northern Virginia for January thru April 2010 shows that there were 14,603 homes, condos and townhouses listed for sale.

Of those listings, 66.09% were missing data in some very important fields.



MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - THIS COULD COST YOU ALOT OF MONEY IF YOU DON'T PAY ATTENTION.


That is a total of 9,651 listings that are missing at least one of the 3 critical - optional - pieces of data.




Put it another way, only 4,952 listings were entered completely and correctly so that buyers had an idea of what they were actually looking at.


MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - YOU HAVE A 33% CHANCE OF GETTING IT RIGHT.  THE EARL OF REAL ESTATE TEAM WILL GUARANTEE THAT WE WILL HAVE YOUR LISTING IN THE 33% CATEGORY - COMPLETE AND ACCURATE.


3 Critical Data Fields you says? What 3 pieces of data are you talking about?  Why are they so important?


MR. OR MRS. POTENTIAL SELLER - YOU WILL WANT TO STAY TUNED TO THIS SERIES AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU KNOW HOW GARBAGE IN - GARBAGE OUT IS CAUSING BUYERS TO IGNORE CERTAIN HOMES FOR SALE.

STAY TUNED....