NEWS YOU CAN USE

More on housing slump, and something positive
Saturday July 21, 2007 (reprinted from PCBDaily.com)

Everything I'm reading about the national real estate market is talking about how the real estate slump is getting longer and longer, about foreclosure rates and how they are expecting to get worse. Yet, when I talk to many of the agents I know personally, I'm hearing that they are showing property, a lot, and that most of them are staying pretty busy.

Bay County REALTORS®, how is it going for you? Are you noticing a pick up at all? Talking with a friend the other day, she was saying that we still have got to get through the closing on all the condos that are under construction. She mentioned that we may have a problem with people being able to close, and a complete turn around is quite unlikely until after we work through that. What is your opinion?

I mean, lets face it. The terms "buyer's market" and "seller's market" were created and defined because they are real, and they occur, cyclically. A couple of years ago, listings were the thing to have because everyone was buying and you knew if it wasn't ridiculously priced, someone would eventually come along and buy it.

Before that, buyers were the ones to work with because you knew they were going to buy something eventually. If you had a listing, it may or may not be something that someone was looking for so there was more security in working with someone that you knew was going to make a purchase.

The reality is, two and three years ago, we had to work for listings so we could feed our families. Now we have to work for buyers. It is all work, just a little different.

I will be frank, however. Courting buyers and working with people is more difficult that holding listings. I, personally, didn't like working with buyers when I was in general real estate because I was lazy. Well, the market is not giving money away any more, and we can't afford to be lazy any more either. We've got to work hard.

I work for a sales and marketing firm, and we train our agents to spend half of their time keeping in contact with their database and prospecting. We talk about a phone call at least once a month to those that are still interested in the project and every other week to those that seem serious. We strategically layer information so as to build value and hold onto the rest of the information so as to insure we have a reason to call them back in a few weeks.

The bottom line is, the smart people are buying right now. The people that have been successful in the past and the ones that will be successful in the future know this to be true. A good friend of mine said when he was in MBA school, one of his instructors always said that if you wait until everyone else does something, you're already too late.

Good job Bay County Association of Realtors® with your new 'Gotta Buy Panama City' marketing campaign. If I can support you guys in any way, please don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm excited to be a part of this area and proud to be able to contribute.