Several years ago, the real estate market was booming and sellers and buyers were abundant. Real estate agents were selling homes with ease and there was always a buyer around the corner. Since then, the market has come to a grinding halt (relatively speaking). Traditional sellers and buyers are on the sidelines and many agents are quitting the real estate biz and getting "real jobs".
But why should you? If you understand what opportunities there are in this market and take advantage of them, you will be just as, if not more successful than years past.
Here's how:
With foreclosures on the rise, agents should be reaching out to lenders and banks to get on their "approved list" in order to sell their foreclosure listings. Foreclosures are going to be a key part of every successful agent's business strategy over the next few years.
For example, in Loudoun County, Virginia, fourty percent of all homes that have sold so far in November have been foreclosures or short-sales. Twenty-three percent of all active listings in the county are foreclosures or short-sales. And both of these percentage figures have risen significantly since the turn in the market and continue to rise.
This growing source of listing business is filling in the void left from traditional sellers that are on the sidelines. Without foreclosures in your listing portfolio, you're missing out on a growing source of business while holding on to a diminishing source of business.
And in case you're saying "but I'm in a very affluent area so that couldn't be the case here", check this out - Loudoun County, Virginia has the second highest median household income in the nation. Just because someone makes a lot of money doesn't mean they're immune to being foreclosed on.
That's the listing side. Now let's take a look at the buyer side:
Traditional buyer traffic has decreased significantly over the past couple of years, especially over the
last several months. But investor traffic has started to increase. Investors have been circling in the sky for a while now and are finally starting to dive in to for the kill. Agents should be focused on investor clients to take the place of the missing traditional buyer traffic.
Though investors are different from traditional home buyers, they are not any harder to work with. In fact, if you're a "number's person", investors may be more appealing to you than traditional buyers. Investors are typically level headed, focused on stats, ROI and numbers in general and don't make decisions based on emotion. And though they make take their time doing their homework and crunching the numbers, they act quickly once they see something that works for them.
In addition, once you do right by an investor and earn their trust, they can turn into a great source of continued transactions and commissions for years to come. Many investors buy and sell multiple properties per year while some do that per month. Some investors conduct more transactions per month than the average agent does per year (which has just fallen from six to four).
The moral of the story is that the opportunity to be successful is always there regardless of what the market is doing. You just have to realize the opportunity and take advantage of it.
So what will you do, take advantage of the opportunity or quit and get a "real job"?
Note: We have the honor of saying that this is the featured post at the 67th Edition of the Carnival of Real Estate (CoRE) being hosted by 3 Oceans Real Estate.
"Well now. This has gotten pretty ugly based on some of the blogs I see attached to your site. Wow..too many REALTORs with too much time on their hands. Go sell something.
I'm not really following your constitutional stand as I'm not sure how your rights were threatened by any of this. Boys will be boys though. I read the emails and the guy was pretty clear about not demanding, but requesting that you clean up your info. I don't really want to try and tackle that issue though.
Here is where this all gets interesting, I think that I am the person that brought your articles and web page to Mr. Kaufman's attention. I am a long time local REALTOR. I know your boss and I know of the three of you (broker included). I was looking for some real estate stats on the Net and stumbled onto your site. I was confused by your articles so I called the Assessor's Office to get their side and actually spoke to Mr. Kaufman. He's was extremely friendly, professional, seems like a good guy, and from what I can see (my opinion of course), he's pretty cute based on his picture. Not the one of the horse that you have linked to your site. That's pretty tacky and petty. You guys should really take the time and read the Code of Ethics regarding the use of the Net...wow.
Anyway, I live in Loudoun and pay taxes like the rest of the world. By the way and nothing personal but, you don't speak for the people of Loudoun. Do you guys even live in the County? I was confused by what you boys put on your web page and wanted to make sure I understood the process as your numbers didn't make sense. So I clicked on the link you provded to the Assessor's site, then called the Assessor's Office. Mr. Kaufman was not aware of your site, but explained the process to me and referred me back to the Assessor's web page for a heck of a lot of good data. Your information does conflict with the info on the Assessor's page. Oh, and by the way, I checked the sale that you guys use in your $45 Million issue article. The example that you guys give was sold through MLS. It says in the listing that it is a "short sale". Any REALTOR with an ounce of sense and any good appraiser would not use a short sale in an market analysis....duh. It probably sold for far less than market value. He's right, that is misleading along with a bunch of your other stuff you guys present as factual information. Hello...hope you are listening here. Do your homework.
Sorry, I digressed...Mr. Kaufman told me that the sales that you used in your articles occurred after the date of value so your stats are skewed..therefore your overall analysis of the issue is WRONG. I think other readers have expressed that to you already though. I don't have a beef with you guys and I like your boss, she's great and a top producer, but again, he's right, your web page is pretty darn misleading...yep Standards Violation. You need to clean it up. Its your responsibility to do that not his. He works for the taxpayers not your real estate company. From that perspective, I'm glad he selected not to get sucked into this.
You guys have a responsibility to get your facts striaght before you posted this kind of stuff. I sure hope you haven't put your's and the career of your broker at risk by taking a stand on shakey ground.
Oh, I saw your letter from the Western folks, whoever they are. Pretty interesting group....lol. Is it cactus or cacti...whichever, San Diego loves you guys. God Bless America. I clicked onto their link. Are the livestock in Arizona safe? The pictures of their Board and Officers are interesting to say the least. Nothing personal Western folks. I'm sure you are very nice people regardless of what your agenda is. Keep up the good work! We need people like you out there. They may want to check you out and leave Mr. Kaufman alone though.
I hope the local Board of Realtors steps in to clean this mess up before you and your band of bloggers make a mockery of the hard working REALTORS out there.
Fella's, just a suggestion. I'd at least apologize to Mr. Kaufman and the public for what you have done here.
I'm going to forward a copy of this to your boss and the owner of your company via email in case you decide not to post it. I'm guessing she is not aware of what occurred here and she would probably like to know."