A Dramatic Decrease of Housing Inventory !
In Philadelphia, in the last 4 days, 855 properties just went off the market ! Gone, just like that ! Was 
this from that last minute holiday shopping frenzy ? Government stimulus ? No... it was neither. It was expired listings that disappeared off of the market. Every month Realtors have listings that when do not sell, they expire. Many of these listing contracts are dated to expire at the end of the year which is why there is always such a higher amount of expired listings that go off the market December 31st.
I wrote a blog in August 2008 that one solution to the glut in the housing market would be to remove all the listings from the MLS of those unmotivated sellers that we all know will never sell. That may be 10 percent of the inventory !!
The market just purged 855 unmotivated, overpriced and poorly marketed properties naturally through the expiration of the listing contracts here in Philadelphia. 855 listings is a lot in Philadelphia !!! That is a bulk of the inventory that is now gone. Of course many of these listings will crawl back in the system in the next couple of days as Realtors will scramble to extend those listings and other Realtors will be competing over these listings in the days and weeks ahead. Many of these sellers may already have a new Realtor lined up for their next effort. Often times, it is extremely advantageous for the second or third Realtor for by that time the seller knows they have to price the property right (hopefully).
In any event, as I assessed and weeded out the expired listings that I will be targeting as potential sellers in the future, I made several observations:
1. Photos - Believe it or not, some of these listings that were on the market for a year, had no photos. I know we have blogged about this in the past, but I still find it amazing. Several of these listings were from prominent Realtors in the area as well. This also includes no photos for new construction or a newly renovated property, properties with listed prices $300,000 and greater. Shocking...
2. Description - This goes hand-in-hand with the photos. Many of the listings had a scant description or some had no description at all !
3. Listing Agent has Interest in the Property or Agent Owned - I saw so many of these. Obviously I am not going to send a letter out to this person. Or maybe I should ?? What I found most disturbing was the magnitude of properties agent owned that DID NOT SELL ! The agent could not even sell their own listing. Yikes ! Are you sure you are in the right industry ?
4. Price - Obviously, I saved the best for last. As you probably assumed, a large majority of the properties prices where out of whack. That is typically why a property will not sell. Expectations are not realistic or they are jammed up money wise. Either way, someone needs to have an honest conversation with them about reality. Often times it hurts them more than it helps them to have a listing that does not sell, especially in a DECLINING market. And it creates a stigma as well as buyers will always ask, "Why has it been on the market for so long?".
Have you seen something similar in your market with listings that expire ?
As a consumer, what do you think about listings like these that pop up again and again ?
One cure to excess inventory is to eliminate all of this fluff inventory that may never sell. The housing inventory numbers may look a whole lot better !
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