Just wanted to give you a few more observations from Barry Habib from his presentation at the Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations in Atlantic City.
He passed on a tip that you can give to your real estate referral partners. Habib made the observation that we are a “9.99 society.” What that means is that business have the tendency to price things in increments of $_9.99.
That includes housing. People put their homes on the market for $399,990. But buyers tend to look for homes in rounded off numbers, in this case $400,000 to $425,000. This part of the market is being missed when a house is priced at $399,990, he said. At a price point of $400,000, the seller gets those looking at that higher amount, as well as those looking in the area of $375,000 to $400,000.
Another observation—originators should encourage consumers to buy homes as the market still moves slightly downward. Yes there is a short-term loss, but the market will bottom out and if they start to buy when the upturn begins, “sellers get greedy” and price higher, Habib said.
