Real Estate Has Gone To The Dogs
Why man’s best friend can be an agent’s best ally.
Why man’s best friend can be an agent’s best ally.
Laura Levy
Broker associate, Laura Levy Group, Coldwell Banker in Boulder, Colo.
It was a new listing. The first time I went to visit the house, I walked into the family room and there is this white dog laying on this great red couch, holding court and looking very regal. I just cracked up. His name was Yeti. He was some sort of doodle—I don’t know which kind, maybe a goldendoodle. Here in Colorado—this is dog country—dogs are members of the family.
When I was talking to my videographer, Ryan, about filming the house, I said, “Yeti needs to be in this; this has to be from Yeti’s perspective. Just follow the dog around.” It was hilarious. Yeti knew exactly what to do. Ryan said, “I followed the dog and I got great stuff.”
At the end of the video, Yeti is kind of over showing the house and he wants a walk. This house happened to be across the street from a fabulous dog park. You see his mom—the homeowner—walking him to the dog park, and then you see him running around in the sunshine, all happy. We used a drone.
People loved it. The video got about 16,000 or 17,000 views on my Facebook page alone. The house sold for full price and it sold fairly quickly. When the people who bought the house moved in, the neighbors asked if they were the ones who had purchased Yeti’s house.
Yeti didn’t come with the house. He has been a bit high maintenance since then.
Dina Goldentayer
Executive director of sales, Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Miami Beach, Fla.
People love their dogs, their fur babies. I had a client who brought his dog on every showing. They’d see how the dog reacted to the energy of the space when he was placed on the floor. It was a little dog, a chihuahua.
I showed them 25 or 30 homes. The dog eliminated a lot of properties. He didn’t like beachfront. He didn’t react well to sand.
When they put him down on the ground, he’d come undone—a full-on meltdown. That basically shifted their search. Miami is lucky to have two waterfronts, the ocean and the bay, so we shifted the search to the bay. We found a modern waterfront house. There were no objections. I think the dog really unwound. He was relaxed, looking over at the water. They bought the house for $6 million. The dog loves the sunsets there.
Minette Schwartz
Real-estate agent, Compass in Miami Beach, Fla.
The house was in Sunset Island. It’s a very nice neighborhood—the most sought-after in Miami Beach. We went to the listing presentation and there were four or five brokers there competing for the listing. One of my team members was with me, and she took a liking to the owner’s dog—an Australian labradoodle. The dog was part of this listing presentation. We were sitting around the dining-room table and the dog was running around, a huge, huge dog, very fluffy.
The owner starts narrowing it down, and we came back for a second meeting. We didn’t talk about the house, we talked about the dog. My team member was super-into this dog. It was, “I love the coat of this dog; I love the size and friendliness,” and, “Can I get the breeder’s name?” The color of the dog’s mane was the same color as her hair.
My team member gets the breeder’s name, we get the listing. Then she flies to Illinois to buy the brother of this dog—a different litter but the same mother.
The first few months of owning the dog, she was saying, “What did I do? I was trying to get the listing and make conversation!” But she was so taken with this dog. They’re pleasant, very loving and caring.
We didn’t sell the house. The owners changed their minds and decided not to sell. At least my teammate got a dog out of it.
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Ray White’s chief economist outlines her predictions for housing market trends in 2024
Ray White’s chief economist, Nerida Conisbee says property price growth will continue next year and mortgage holders will need to “survive until 2025” amid expectations of higher interest rates for longer.
Ms Conisbee said strong population growth and a housing supply shortage combatted the impact of rising interest rates in 2023, leading to unusually strong price growth during a rate hiking cycle. The latest CoreLogic data shows home values have increased by more than 10 percent in the year to date in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Among the regional markets, price growth has been strongest in regional South Australia with 8.6 percent growth and regional Queensland at 6.9 percent growth.
“As interest rates head close to peak, it is expected that price growth will continue. At this point, housing supply remains extremely low and many people that would be new home buyers are being pushed into the established market,” Ms Conisbee said. “Big jumps in rents are pushing more first home buyers into the market and population growth is continuing to be strong.”
Ms Conisbee said interest rates will be higher for longer due to sticky inflation. “… we are unlikely to see a rate cut until late 2024 or early 2025. This means mortgage holders need to survive until 2025, paying far more on their home loans than they did two years ago.”
Buyers in coastal areas currently have a window of opportunity to take advantage of softer prices, Ms Conisbee said. “Look out for beach house bargains over summer but you need to move quick. In many beachside holiday destinations, we saw a sharp rise in properties for sale and a corresponding fall in prices. This was driven by many pandemic driven holiday home purchases coming back on to the market.”
Here are three of Ms Conisbee’s predictions for the key housing market trends of 2024.
Ms Conisbee said the types of apartments being built have changed dramatically amid more people choosing to live in apartments longer-term and Australia’s ageing population downsizing. “Demand is increasing for much larger, higher quality, more expensive developments. This has resulted in the most expensive apartments in Australia seeing price increases more than double those of an average priced apartment. This year, fewer apartments being built, growing population and a desire to live in some of Australia’s most sought-after inner urban areas will lead to a boom in luxury apartment demand.”
The rising costs of energy and the health impacts of heat are two new factors driving interest in green homes, Ms Conisbee said. “Having a greener home utilising solar and batteries makes it cheaper to run air conditioning, heaters and pool pumps. We are heading into a particularly hot summer and having homes that are difficult to cool down makes them far more dangerous for the elderly and very young.”
For some time now, long-term social changes such as delayed marriage and an ageing population have led to more people living alone. However, Ms Conisbee points out that the pandemic also showed that many people prefer to live alone for lifestyle reasons. “Shorter term, the pandemic has shown that given the chance, many people prefer to live alone with a record increase in single-person households during the time. This trend may influence housing preferences, with a potential rise in demand for smaller dwellings and properties catering to individuals rather than traditional family units.”
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