Real Estate Agent Remarks: Help or Hype?

This article groups the remarks of a multiple listing service listing into common themes and then uses a hedonic pricing model to determine whether such comments are priced in a meaningful way. The comments provide information on the motivation of the seller, location of the property and physical improvements or defects. Most of the comments analyzed are statistically significant. Negative comments are associated with lower sales prices suggesting the helpful nature of comments. Some of the positive comments, however, including "new paint" and "good location" are also associated with lower sales prices suggesting that some comments may be better classified as hype.

Market Structure in the Residential Real Estate Brokerage Market

This study provides empirical evidence regarding brokerage firm concentration in a local market multiple listing service setting over the year 1992-1995. To evaluate the level of brokerage firm concentration in this market, Gini Coefficients, Herfindahl-Hirschman Indices and Concentration Ratios for each year of the study period are calculated. Our results indicate that for firms responsible for listing properties, firm concentration has not varied substantially over the four-year study period. However, for those firms that were responsible for actually selling properties, firm concentration has decreased over the study period. This finding tends to indicate that the MLS now provides greater exposure to a wide variety of sales firms, therefore leading to a higher level of competition with a lower level of concentration for selling firms in this local market.

Industrial Warehouse Rent Determinants in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area

This paper presents the first empirical analysis of the determinants of pooled variation in industrial warehouse rents. It examines industrial warehouse rents using data for seventeen quarterly periods in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. M/PF Research Inc. provided the data. A random effects model is used to estimate the relationship between market rents for industrial properties and various independent variables. Rent per square foot is positively related to the number of grade high doors, and the annual change in net employment. Rent per square foot is negatively effected by ceiling height, percentage of office space, building age, and the presence of a sprinkler system. The results indicate that rents are significantly impacted by physical characteristics, location, and general market conditions. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that the relationship between physical characteristics and rents is nonlinear.

Reexamining the Impact of Employee Relocation Assistance on Housing Prices

In this paper, we reexamine the issue of whether corporate relocation assistance programs for transferred employees significantly affect sale prices of single-family homes. We estimate a hedonic price equation that includes physical housing characteristics, location factors, occupancy status, and type of seller for a sample of 2,441 transactions. Seller types include (a) transferred employees who were given direct relocation assistance, (b) transferred employees who were not given direct relocation assistance, and (c) sellers who were not facing an employment transfer. After controlling for vacancy and tenant occupancy, we find that houses sold by transferred employees who receive direct relocation assistance exhibit no significant price differential, but that houses sold by transferred employees who do not receive direct relocation assistance sell at a discount of approximately 3%.

Property Assessments and Information Asymmetry in Residential Real Estate

This paper presents a game theoretic model of property tax assessment that allows a tax appraiser to either choose a high or a low assessment. The owner either accepts or challenges this assessment. A ‘‘fixed effects’’ regression model is used to evaluate the differences in the assessed values of a sample of houses from Bexar County, Texas during 2000 and 2001. Where the owner of the house is identified as a state licensed property tax consultant, the assessed value, after adjusting for size, age, and other economic characteristics, ranged from a statistically robust 2.5% to 6.2% lower than neighboring houses.

The Impact of Corporate Real Estate Unit Formation on the Parent Firm's Value

This research investigates the valuation impact of the formation of a Corporate Real Estate Unit (CREU) on the stock price of the parent organization. Using standard event study methodology, the empirical tests show that the formation of a CREU, in general, is associated with positive gains to shareholders. The largest gains are associated with the publicly traded subsidiaries. The next largest gains are associated with the Master Limited Partnerships and the wholly owned subsidiaries.

Corporate Real Estate Outsourcing: A Survey of the Issues

One issue facing corporate real estate managers is how to effectively manage the real estate assets in the current market environment. As the need to cut costs and to emphasize the core business has increased due to current economic conditions, real estate outsourcing of services or the entire project has developed as a way to cut costs and possibly maintain or improve the level of expertise in the management of corporate real estate. This paper examines the issues and problems that may occur when a corporation outsources its corporate real estate function.

Implicit Liquidity Premiums in the Disposition of RTC Assets

The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was created by congressional legislation passed in 1989, and was charged with, among other things, the orderly disposition of other real estate owned (OREO) property. Questions have been raised about how efficient and effective the RTC has been in achieved its congressional mandate. One of the issues resulting from the efficiency question involves the amount of discount the RTC realizes for a quick disposition of the property. This study utilizes data provided by the RTC concerning its sales to analyze the implicit liquidity premium resulting from disposing of OREO. The results of the study indicate what variables contribute to liquidity premiums. This paper's importance relies most heavily on the finding that realistic market adjustments in regulation, over time, helped to achieve a higher degree of liquidity for RTC real estate property sales. The findings of this paper confirm the legislative intent of FIRREA, which is to ensure that real estate properties acquired by the government are disposed of at the highest dollar value possible.

The Wealth Effects of Real Estate Spin-Offs

This study examines the wealth effects surrounding the separation of real estate operations via spin-off. Parent firms of spin-offs in this sample experienced a significant abnormal two-day return of 3.195% for days - 1 and 0 of the announcement data in the Wall Street Journal. Tracking the performance of the spun off firms and the parent firms that survived for twenty-four months after the spin-off showed that neither the portfolio of subsidiaries nor the portfolio of parent firms earned returns significantly different from the market portfolio.

Effect of Foreclosure Status on Residential Selling Price

Real estate professionals believe that foreclosed houses sell at a discount. This article empirically investigates whether foreclosed houses sell at a discount. A sample of 2,482 residential transactions in Arlington, Texas, is used in a hedonic pricing model to test this hypothesis. The results indicate that foreclosed properties sold at a 23% discount.