North Conway NH and Maine Keller Williams Referral Magnet

Now is Not the Time to Wait!

Keller Williams North Conway NH broker (NH and Maine) Bill Barbin sends clear message to other KW agents that will send referrals North this year…

That is how I would have the perfect headline splash across the Boston Globe…. or at least the North Shore Sunday! I am grateful to be the recipient of many referrals from other KW agents. You folks live in the markets where my potential seller and buyer clients live as well. Some people ask, “Really? Do you sell that many vacation homes?” The answer is “Yes,” the typical agent in the area sells vacation property as 80-98% of their business. Second homes and retirement property are all lumped under the term “vacation home” for the sake of this discussion. My ratio is more like 95%, which is driven by the fact that I generate a good reputation online and I attract good referral business from other KW agents, usually dealing with a family or friends’ vacation property.

Our peak market here is short! Some properties can take a year to sell!! Vacation demand is a slower boil and even low inventory doesn’t create a true sellers market. Waiting until Spring is already 4 weeks into our season here, which ends around Aug. 14 and then goes into mild hibernation until ski season, when a few very specific properties, sell really well and then we are back to early Spring. THE BEST TIME TO LIST UP HERE IS RIGHT NOW…. The market has been picked over and buyers that didn’t find what they want DID NOT SETTLE (Hint: This is a KEY difference between a residential need-based market and a vacation want-based market) are waiting for the right place to pop on the market. It is as close to a seller’s market as we ever get. Sellers can get maximum value because of the buyer-frustration and lack of competing values. However, by mid-May every joker that knows better will be putting their home on the market and buyers will go out and look at 12 homes (just like yours) on any given Saturday and Sunday. Over priced homes will either chase price down or stay on the market until April, when the current listing contract probably expires, wait 30 days for the perception (false hope) that the mls will show it as new to the market when they re-list with Agent #2 in June and an even smaller window of peak selling time. Skip Agent #1 and 1 year of taxes, plowing and insurance and call me at 603-986-0385. Understandable price evaluation report and fair commission structure to get your property, or your friends/family property sold, with less stress.

A short marketing window means that everything has to be thrown at the marketing system at once. Postcards and email announcements need to be blasted out in the first week. In week #2 professional photos and real live social media videos need to be online and promoted to targeted audiences associated with this area. Real video is being consumed in larger quantities than any other online media. Clunky 3D images and 360 photos haven’t earned the appeal of the audience but video captivates everyone, with no need to interact and in a split second. Check me out online with a google search. You will see it all. Ask questions. Am I really a firefighter/emt in Conway? Yes. We are a mixed department of full time and paid call personnel. I am a paid call FF/EMT. It is my avenue for public service, here in the Mt Washington Valley. I have developed a strong real estate business and reputation without ever feeling as though there has been a conflict of interest or lack of attention to one over the other. You will see a lot of video online. Real video, not just still photo mixes, is what attracts attention and is shared wildly on social media. It also gets the most attention when promoted online. When you are choosing an agent to help you or as a referral, do the most basic google search. I put myself out there enough that the content will do the work for us. You will like me, or you won’t, and if you reach out I am happy to work with you.

The North Conway NH area (incl Maine towns of Fryeburg and Brownfield, which are adjacent to the Town of Conway NH, and the next tier of towns away… Lovell, Stow, Bridgton, Denmark) all the way to Ossipee Lake are a different real estate market and business. Even nuances from one side of Lake Winnepausaukee to “the other” can make a big difference in buyer and seller motivations and styles. The major highway access of Rt 93 has established a commuter corridor for people as far north as Meredith and Sandwich, going into Boston! The ability to drive to major populations on a reliable, major road puts the western shore and northwestern basin within reach of big money culture looking for just the right lakefront estate. Although not completely absent from the lakes in the Rt 16 – 302 corridors, the “lake house” and camp is a more common property being offered for sale on Ossipee Lake or Silver Lake, Moose Pond or most of the other eastern NH and western Maine water bodies.