The biggest change in Phoenix real estate over the past 12 - 18 months is inventory. In January 2005, there were 3,402 active listing in the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. As of 15 minutes ago, there are 45,198 active listings.
How has this changed the way we do business? For one, you have to truly market a listing. With 3400 listings in a city the size of Phoenix, ANYONE could (and did) sell a home. It's much more difficult now. It's not as simple as "list it in the MLS and they will come.
Today there are more homes in Phoenix listed between $280,000 - $300,000 than were in the entire MLS in Jan 2005!
If you have buyers, you HAVE to "weed out" listings. There are too many to look at. I remember sitting down with buyers last year and pulling up 4 or 5 homes that met their criteria. Today you can pull up hundreds.
What's a listing agent to do? Differentiate your listing from the gazillion others out there. Be it in pictures, words, WHERE you market, WHO you market to, whatever. You've got to make your listing stand out from hundreds (maybe thousands) of others.
