A Nice Lesson From The York County School Districts

If you take out the first paragraph of this local (for York County) article about the real estate market, you have something that other cities should be doing INSTEAD of the typical "no inventory" story which is often discouraging to readers.

Showing which school districts have the best home sales is an excellent way to draw attention to a neighborhood. Even if a potential buyer does not have school age children (at the time of potential purchase), it shows them those neighborhoods which are drawing buyers.

The idea is, or should be, to make a potential buyer feel like they are getting a good investment which will bring them solid returns years down the road. This is one way of doing that.



https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/2018/03/26/york-county-housing-market-ripe-spring-sellers/430027002/

Similar Home Sales Stories Show A Different Message

News stories within the past 24 hours show how much interpretation of information makes a difference when it comes to the real estate market.

On one hand, a story about how some experts consider some Dallas area homes to be "overvalued" by at or above 10%, based on statistics they judge by.

On the other hand, a story out of Roanoke VA about how strong the real estate market is and how the median price is at record levels in some parts of the state.

What we have is opposite reactions to a similar situation. 

If only more people within the real estate community would think about the message they send to consumers BEFORE these statistics and "reports" are made public.

From here, the Virginia story sends a positive message to consumers. It tells potential buyers that they stand to gain value when they buy a home in these areas, thus making for a solid investment in addition to the desired living conditions.

The Dallas story just served to make buying a home in those areas less appealing, making a consumer feel that they would or could overpay for what they get. This sentiment hurts both those trying to sell as well as to buy.

And for what? 

This many homes in different zip codes can't ALL be "overpriced". 

If only the writers of the Dallas story had used the theories of the Virginia story writers. They might have done local sellers and buyers a nice service, instead of hurting their chances.

See for yourself:

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2018/03/19/ratings-firm-raises-red-flag-d-fw-home-prices

http://www.roanoke.com/business/news/roanoke/poll-optimism-about-real-estate-market-strong-as-inventories-remain/article_8b3ea866-6230-592b-a2c0-ee39c470365f.html