I was holding an open house yesterday and as usual I had a fair number of people come through to take a look at the house. I find that open houses are great excuses for the neighborhood to stop by and look at what their neighbors house looks like. I also find that a lot of people are out driving around and stop by simply because there are signs on the side of the road saying Open House.

In any case many people are asking questions when they visit an open house and I thought it would be interesting to post some of the questions and my responses here for others to read.

The first question in our conversations about real estate is: What types of homes are you selling right now?

Interesting question and it made me think and do a bit of math in my head before I could really begin to answer it correctly. My initial reaction would be to say I am selling bank owned and short sales to buyers right now. This in my specific case is not accurate for 2010. This year in the transactions where I have represented the buyer  85% of my transactions have actually had a individual seller on the other side. Now in a few cases the seller lost money but they were able to cover the loss by writing a check at the closing table.

Of the transactions that are scheduled to close in the next 30 days I am representing buyers who in 100% of the transactions will be buying directly from sellers. With these specific transactions all of them are sellers who are selling former rental properties. I am not sure why they have decided to liquidate their rental holdings at this time.

One other generalization I would of made when asked What types of homes am I selling? is that I was selling homes to first time home buyers. In 2010 I have sold NO homes to true first time home buyers. In a couple of cases one of the buyers in the transaction is a first time buyer but the other party has owned one or more homes in the past. When I put some thought into this I was still surprised as in 2009 almost 80% of my business was true first time home buyers. In the transactions I have closing in the next 30 days I do have one true first time home buyer buying a home. The others are all past home owners.

I find this very interesting that in the local Tacoma Pierce County market that my business has been to non first time home buyers. I hope that this is a sign that the local market is getting stronger and that given the prices and the amazing interest rates that we will finish 2010 on a strong note.

I currently have 7 listings active and they are all being sold by individuals who for one reason or another have decided to sell the properties now. I have not tried for bank owned listings or short sales as ways of obtaining listings. I have been having conversations with another real estate agent and I believe that I will begin to work on obtaining bank owned listings in the very near future. This of course will change my statistics.

Like any good conversation when asked a particularly direct question the answers are often different than one would answer without giving it any thought. For me this was a particularly good exercise as it really put in focus the specifics of who I am doing business with right now. I would of mistakenly answered I am selling homes to first time home buyers! if I would of not given a few moments to reflect on the actual facts of my business before answering.

I will keep posting the conversations as they happen. If something is interesting I will share it here. If you have any questions you would like answered about real estate in general or buying a home in Tacoma or selling a home in Tacoma please feel free to ask. I will take a moment and actually give you an accurate answer based on my actual experiences.