Three Essays in Residential Real Estate Marketing and Positioning of Properties within the Multiple Listing Service

Licensed Real Estate Brokers are experts and have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients to market the properties so as to arrive at a sale that meets the price and time on market combination that best meets their client's needs. I study three types of marketing decisions and their effects on the sales prices and time on market.

First, I examine the effects of active techniques, photographs, virtual tours, open-house events, and realtor tours. This study extends this line of research by considering price and time on market effects in relation to four specific marketing strategies used, to varying degrees, by brokers representing house sellers: Public Open Houses, Broker Open Houses, MLS Virtual Tours, and MLS Photographs. The results indicate positive relationships between these strategies and house prices and mixed relationships between these strategies and time on the market.

Second, I examine the effects of marketing a property as a foreclosure. This study advances the knowledge of the foreclosure discounts associated with the sale of single family residence foreclosures in four areas: Model Specification, Method of Identification, Market Stability, and Ownership Channel. We find that a robust model allocates the impact of foreclosure status more appropriately and explains 86.9% of the dependent variable, log of the Sales Price. When looking at different levels of identification, starting with not identifying a property as a foreclosure, the foreclosure discount varies from 5% for identifying only in the remarks to 14.4% for identifying it in both the ownership and the remarks or not identifying it at all. When we segment the data for market stability patterns, we find that the foreclosure discount is greater during times of instability. Finally, when we segment the data for ownership, we find that the discount is greatest when the owner is identified as HUD and not disclosing the property as a foreclosure did not inoculate it from the discount, 13.9%.

Lastly, I examine the effects of marketing a property as energy efficient. This study assesses the market value of Green Features of homes sold through the Multiple Listing Service in Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas. Further classified into Green Certification, Water Conservation Features, and Energy Conservation Features by SABOR in its MLS data, we find that all three indicators have a statistically significant impact on the sales price when assessed in a hedonic pricing model. When the factors that make up these indicators are disaggregated there is variability in which features provide value. When the factors are correctly aligned into Energy Conservation, Water Conservation, and Temperature Impact, we find that Energy and Water Conservation are still statistically significant but at a lesser impact. Temperature Impact is more important to Bexar County residents.