Virtual Drive By's in Real Estate

Technology is certainly changing the world of real estate. The National Association of Realtors reports that 84% of consumers will use the internet in finding their next home. I believe that, as I find my website traffic for The Lake Wylie Man increasing day by day, and many of my customer inquiries and phone calls coming from the internet.

Another real estate agent in our office, who loves to keep us up to date on fun, helpful, and sometimes silly diversions via email, sent a link to Google's Virtual Turnpike. This is a site where you can type in any address in the U.S. (and several other countries as well), and see a photographed street view of the location. You can see traffic conditions, surroundings, etc. as you pan around and even do a virtual drive-by.

I thought it would be cool to add this link to my property web pages for Lake Wylie Real Estate for Sale, until I typed in a few addresses of my listed properties, just to take a look. Many of the lake properties (especially in more remote areas, as some lake properties tend to be), the Virtual Turnpike has not photographed yet.

Those that did have photographs were subject to lighting conditions, timing, and things that weren't always optimal to portray the property accurately. For instance, one address was taken when there was a new house being built across the street. The road was muddy from construction vehicles, and the Port-a-John in the scene did absolutely nothing to highlight the charm of the half-million dollar home I am trying to sell!

Another property had pictures taken not long after the home was completed, and lots of bald patches in the lawn (since grown in thanks to the irrigation system and landscaping efforts of the seller!) didn't present the property in the best light.

Yet another home had a shot on the street of a pickup truck driving by. The truck was probably 20+ years old, had rust spots and looked pretty rough. Not typical of the neighborhood, mind you, but there it was, marking the area's personality until an update is done, whenever that might be! One address had pictures taken on garbage pick-up day, and trash cans (with white trash bags sitting atop, no less) graced the curbs . . . again, not the prettiest picture!

So - - virtual drive by's - - a fun diversion, a handy tool for a slice of life . . . but one to be taken with the realization that the photo may capture things that are not permanent fixtures! Of course, in real estate photography, we do attempt to show a property in its very best light. We try to take pictures when the sun is "just so", lighting the best angle (though that's not always possible). We sometimes move the trash cans out of the way, if they're in the shot. We really, really try not to have any Port-a-John's in the photo.

Bottom line, though a vast majority of people shop for real estate on the internet, very few BUY real estate without first visiting the property in person. I can't imagine that changing! And as you will realize, that ACTUAL visit makes all the difference.

Thanks for reading my blog on Lake Wylie real estate. For more blogs about Lake Wylie waterfront and living in Lake Wylie, visit my website.

Hi everyone –

Looks like we’re in for another messy weekend, so I hope you have plenty of milk and bread. With the recent weather, property showings have been off a bit, but I expect that to pick up as soon as the sun comes out. The Mid-Atlantic Boat Show runs next week, and that traditionally starts people thinking about spending the summertime on the lake.

I’m encouraged over a couple of things so far in 2010. One, my website activity is at an ALL TIME HIGH. Incredibly, January activity dwarfed the previous all time high (July 2009), and more than doubled January 2009. This activity should be an indication of an increase in buyer activity, which is what we want!

In January, four waterfront properties sold (see Recent Lake Wylie Waterfront Sales for details). Two were classified as short sales or foreclosures (High Point and Johnson Road), and the other two, while not advertised as distressed sales, sold for less than 60% of their original asking price. While that isn’t particularly good news for sellers, what IS good news is the price point - - one property at $750,000, and one at $1.6 million. If you recall, it was late summer last year before we saw our first million dollar sale on the lake. So that’s another encouraging sign.

One Lake Wylie waterfront lot sale was added to the list - - a main channel lot in Reflection Point which sold for $188,000 in December. The sale wasn’t recorded in MLS until late January, which is why we didn’t have that one on our year end report. It is almost unbelievable that HALF of the waterfront lots that sold in 2009 were under $200,000. Several of those were actually very nice lots. We haven’t seen prices that low in years, but again the distressed sales are playing a big part. It’s not easy to manage buyer expectations in this market.

So, once again, the message to sellers is “Patience”. It’s a tough market, but there are some positive signs on the horizon. Thanks for your consideration, and have a good weekend.

For more information on Lake Wylie foreclosures and Lake Wylie real estate, please visit my website, TheLakeWylieMan.com.