The Inaugural #AREFChat was a Success!

Wednesday morning, November 18th, was the first online Twitter conference, called AREFChat, for AtlantaRealEstateForum readers. At 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard time, a myriad of real estate professionals signed into Twitter to join in the conversation. The topic for the fist session was incentives, and the moderator asked a total of three questions during the thirty minute forum:

1. Incentives: What are you offering and is it working?
2. Are they working? Is discounting prices the only incentive?
3. What is the most creative way to introduce pricing discounts without it looking like a fire sale?

After discussing these three questions, there seem to be a few things that most everyone agreed on:

• The best incentive right now is the timing of the market and the amazing prices on homes
• The home buyer tax credit, especially for first time buyers, seems to be incentive enough to get people buying
• Closing costs and other financing deals seem to be the main incentives that builders and sellers are offering

Kevin Morrow (@KBMRG) was a very active participant, giving great insights and opinions about the current market. At one point in the discussion, he summed up the incentive market extremely well by saying, “We are finding proper pricing to attract prospects is #1. Incentives mostly end up being negotiating tool.”

Also contributing to the conversation was Ken Cook (@thekencook), a lender in the Atlanta market. He was able to provide a different point of view and joined the conversation with: “As a lender, I’m getting more and more agents using the FHA 203k streamline as an incentive here in metro.”

Other prominent industry professionals in the conversation include Morris & Raper (@morrisraper), Monte Hewett Homes (@montehewett) and Bowen Family Homes (@bowenfamilyhome).

We hope to have even more participants next week when we discuss Twitter and Facebook and how exactly they work for the real estate industry with Kevin Morrow as the moderator. Don’t forget to join us every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. with the hashtag #arefchat.