I was recently made privy to a story about a well-known agent in our town who’d been interviewed for a magazine article on real estate. She felt her remarks had been misconstrued and took the real story directly to the people through her blog. I read it. It was very triumphant. Cape flapping in the wind, you’d imagine. (I should say at the outset - she’s a badass. Awesome. Top of every list you could think of. God bless her. I wish her nothing but luck for continued success. ) But I’ve got to say that her perspective offers a very limited spectrum for shared experience.
The essence of it was that she felt her area should not be described as ‘troubled’ based on her remarks. She then combated the numbers and statistics in the featured article with her own numbers, more current numbers and different points of view about the old numbers.
Seriously? That kind of silliness is what contributed significantly to the terrible trouble we are in. We’re in trouble. So is she. And so are all the people in her area. No one is immune. To suggest otherwise is a lie, no matter how hard you try to sell it. Other than to establish that no one is immune, broad characterizations about either the health or decline of the real estate market provide false premises upon which we can no longer stand. And on that one point, we should all agree. The truth is necessary.
The honest truth is the residential real estate market is suffering, loudly and with flapping ARMs. Some things are getting better, some things may get worse before they improve. There's a mixed bag. Any professional worth his or her salt in this business must tell the truth about the whole thing, good and bad, in order to further the remedy.
Until then, I can’t stand by any longer and allow myself to be affiliated with the puff and circus-pants (as my daughter once characterized ‘pomp and circumstance’) about the state of our business. I encourage you to join me. Provide your stories, good ones and not so goods. Laugh at me, fume at me, I welcome it all. Let’s get it all out there and tell the truth. I’ve heard that kind of thing can be very freeing.
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The specific problems i'm encountering in today's market are as follows:
ReplyDelete1. Lenders don't want to lend.
2. Appraisers can't determine market value on properties anymore.
3. Loan officers are stretched and in many cases not knowledgable enough to handle the now popular FHA loans.
4. Many real estate agents still view Short sales and Foreclosures as bottom feeding when they have become the norm in this market.
5. Prices are still high in many areas.
6. Inventory is not clearing out mainly because the banks don't move fast enough with the handling of short sales.
7. In our particular county (cook county) there has been a moratorium on new foreclosure cases since February of 2009. In August new cases will be allowed to move forward. How will this affect the market and inventory levels? My guess, not good.
8. Lenders have not been participating at the level that they should with loan modifications, creating a larger problem with the pipeline of troubled properties.
9. Law makers are not passing effective laws to handle these matters and the banking industry is getting too much attention where the housing industry is not getting enough.
10. Good Realtors are getting burned out and they are leaving the business due to the instability and insecurity directly related to the real estate market.
11. Inexperienced real estate agents and opportunists are taking advantage of people in very bad financial situations and making matters much worse for them.
12. Much misinformation is circulating and many don't know who to turn to for help.
There are many more problems with this market and all of it's participants. These are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.