Home Buyers are Disgruntled and Sellers More Elated

J.D. Power and Associates, has recently released a Home buyers and Sellers study. In that study they discovered, from 2010 to 2011, home buyer satisfaction with the largest national real estate companies has decreased. They also discover that home sellers satisfaction with these same companies has increased. This is the fourth year J.D. Power has conducted the study.

At first glance you might wonder: well if home prices are so low and interest rates are in the basement and everyone with a pulse knows it’s a buyer's market, why are buyers more disgruntled and sellers more elated? Well, maybe not elated! The study measures a few different factors, but overall I believe buyers are demanding more, and feel entitled to it.

In the words of the great Gordon Gecko “Greed is Good!” Buyers are the biggest play in town, they are better educated, and know they’re a commodity especially if they’re well qualified. If you knew that you could have the pick of the litter, don’t you expect more? Well agents and agencies are slow to respond to buyers demands, hence the lower rating.

With sellers, I think by default their standards have been lower. They know that the average time on market has doubled and even tripled in some areas (Attleboro is around 130-140 Days), so if it’s marketed and sold in a reasonable amount of time, they avoid being one of the statistics and in return are more satisfied.

The study also found the average number of homes that buyers look at before a purchase went from 17.5 in 2010, to 9.0 in 2011. That is because of smarter, more informed buyers.