The Relevance of Realtors

I suppose its not funny that I've had this prompt blinking at me for quite some time and I can't think where to begin, given the subject matter. I suppose its not funny, but it is making me laugh to myself.
I decided to write on this topic after I worked with a friend today on a presentation he had to prepare for his bosses. He had to describe the top three qualities of his office, his company, and himself as a leader. It got me to thinking about how important it is to work in a healthy office, with a good company, and to have strong leadership. I began to mentally tick off the things I think are most positive about my office and my business. And then, I turned on myself. How valuable am I? How relevant am I?
Fade to black. Enter blinking prompt.
How valuable am I? To the average seller, without exaggeration, I believe I'm the difference between success and failure. I believe that about myself personally, and I believe it about my profession as whole.
People don't sell fruit out of their pants-pockets for a reason. They sell fruit from markets because there's a system in place to protect them, the consumers and the fruit. And while fruit has its place on the lifetime value scale, I'd say you could probably value your home a bit more than a piece of fruit. So why on God's green earth would anyone take a product worth 300 thousand times the value of a piece of fruit and treat it so cavalierly? A little plastic sign on the front lawn is how you're going to handle the most important, most expensive to own, and most valuable to keep, investment you've got? You might as well buy your fruit out of some guy's pocket. Good luck with that.
No doubt, there are those who'll strike it lucky and sell their homes on their own. But luck is transient and temporary. The overwhelming majority of home sellers trying to do it alone eventually turn to professional real estate agents after spending considerable time being overpriced and overwrought. The clean-up of faulty thinking and failed sales strategy in these scenarios is a 'freebie' in the agent's marketing effort. Worse? In this economy, those months wasted translate into jaw-dropping numbers rolling back from the potential sales price, as values dropped precipitously in some markets over the past three years.
Trying to save a buck? On, in some cases, a more-than-a-half-million-dollar investment? Does that really seem smart?
I'm a qualified, licensed professional with training and experience which qualifies me to conduct complex analysis of financial data, market trends, values, forecasted conditions and so on. Working in my favor, I'm also sharp as a tac. (Ok, ok, I can't always find my car in the mall parking lot - but I feel the car has an unfair advantage, blending in with all those other cars out there...)
To a homeowner, his house is personal, it's special, it means something. I get that. But I also know the house is a product and it has to be branded, marketed and, with my expertise, sold in a specific niche to a particular buyer. I track things like rental seasons (for investment-specific properties), college graduation seasons (which impact rental and condo sales), weather (it affects sales!), economic announcements, (jobs numbers have a direct and almost immediate impact) new financing programs and more. Is the average home seller doing all that? Of course not.
That's why, eventually, I'm necessary. I'm important and valuable and most assuredly, in this market, I am relevant. If you're a professional real estate agent, value yourself. Know your worth. You bring something to the table that no one can bring except you. If you're a home seller, know that just as you would hire a professional roofer to protect your home, a professional real estate agent is needed to protect your investment in that home. Don't go it alone. Don't treat your home like its worth less than a piece of fruit. You may end up with a bad taste in your mouth.
For more information on how I can help you make the right choices for your property, please don't hesitate to contact me at 773-457-2495.

It's Simple, But Not Easy

If you want to sell your property in this market you need to follow one simple directive: be the most appealing product out there. Period. There was a time when being good was good enough, but this is not that time. And there was a time when granite and cherry wood elicited all the 'oohs' and 'aaahs' you needed to get a buyer interested. That time, too, is gone.

Now is the time to view your property - your product - objectively and without passion. Your property is a product being placed on a crowded shelf in a market filled with shelves of similar products. Making matters more difficult, all the other manufacturers are cutting prices and flooding the market with specials and sales that make it difficult for you to compete. Shoppers in this market will walk right past bright colored packages and expensive wrapping to make a choice based almost entirely on value. Simple is the name of the game.

You know it's true because as a consumer in any other arena, you do it all the time. A couple of autumns ago you might have gotten the most expensive ingredients you could find for that first hearty pasta dish of the cold-weather season. Fresh noodles from the refrigerated section - maybe some seafood for a creole inspired stew; it all sounded so good and the expensive grocery store was justifiably beautiful to shop in. But now? Let's face it. The 29 cent box of pasta from the neighborhood market serves just as well at a table where your spouse may be worried about keeping a job, in a kitchen where heat is getting more expensive to maintain, and in a house where the value has been steadily declining for the past three years. No one's got money to waste, these days. It's just that simple.

Simple but not easy, when what's at stake is your most valuable financial asset. Nonetheless, to be successful in the sale you must place yourself in the position of the buyer. Stand in front of that shelf and look objectively at the selection. There are twenty 3-bedroom condos in the area. Some are priced well into the $400s and have all kinds of fabulous fixtures. But there are two in the upper $200s that you can fix-up yourself for much less money. With the more conservative stance that is today to spending what the little black dress has always been to fashion, which one will you choose? The answer is obvious.
It's antithetical even to us in the throes of making it happen. As a seller's agent, I am trained (and instictively desire) to seek the highest price possible for your asset. However, the truth is this may not be the correct objective in the long view. If what you want to do is take advantage of market conditions to upgrade to a bigger home, you must be willing to accept that buyers in your product category are trying to do exactly the same thing. They, like you, will be doing alot of simple mathematics. If you will lose $50,000 in anticipated equity on the sale of your property, but you will buy a property that will net you $80k, wouldn't it make financial sense to move? Is it worth it to pay a monthly mortgage payment for 10 months while your overpriced listing stays on the market unwanted, ultimately forcing you to lower your price to find a buyer? Or would it make more sense to price the product correctly in the first place and only make 4 payments before you sell?

A trusted and competent real estate professional will work with you to help you understand the value of your home from this simple product placement perspective, taking into account the competition from drastically reduced short-sales, bank-owned foreclosures, and desperate sellers. If he/she does not address this issue in your market analysis, fire him or her and move on to someone who knows what they're talking about. This is no time for foolishness. Your home is likely the most valuable asset you'll ever own and you need the guidance of a knowledgeable and honest professional. It is simple, but not easy.

If you'd like me to help you plan the sale or purchase of a home, please don't hesitate to call me at 773-457-2495.

To Extend or Not to Extend? The Question Du Jour.

• Boy oh boy the emotions are running high on this issue. So many Realtors® are weighing in as we approach the deadline for the $8,000 1st Time Homebuyers Tax Credit. If nothing happens, the program will expire November 30th. A bill in Congress to extend the credit has been making its way through the system. Now, in offices across the country, Realtors® are making themselves heard on the subject.
  In favor of extending, many real estate professionals believe that the $8,000 tax credit is responsible for the recent spike in home sales many have experienced. They believe 1st time homebuyers are the ones cleaning up the bottom of the inventory, a critical step toward recovery of values and implementation of a healthy, sustainable market. For agents who have been struggling to keep heads above water as the product inventory nearly drowned the entire industry, any subtraction of incentives is inconceivable.
  Our own survival, however, cannot be what we are prioritizing, because we are a short-sighted consideration. The long-term health of our businesses is tied to the broader health of our industry, which is inexorably tethered to the economy at large. To borrow a phrase, ‘It’s got to be all about jobs.’ And a home-buying tax credit does not address that issue.
  With that said, a fair-minded argument against extending the credit might also provide that creating a false premise upon which buyers will stand to make a purchase today may lead to a ride on the same roller coaster we just experienced. Some analysts have opined that the not-quite-ready buyer of today, using the $8,000 as an incentive to buy sooner than he might be ready, would remove that buyer from the market in, let’s say, 2 years when he might be more qualified, spend more, and be more likely to keep his property through a substantial increase in value. Of course, this scenario requires a finite number of buyers and an apples-to-apples comparison of properties and unknown future markets. Since these conditions do not, and cannot, exist the argument is pretty readily disassembled.
  On my personal tour of this spectrum of ideas I wander from one extreme to the other before pausing to find the center. The center’s gotten a bad rap in recent years, as political considerations often pander to a mealy-mouthed, unconvincing, centrist point of view in an effort to not upset the deaf and blind stalwarts at opposite poles. But the image of a bland and soft center is not at all what I see. Instead, I liken the center to the solid concrete post upon which the see-saw rests. Steady, simple, practical, not prone to radical shift. In the end it is the center that holds everyone up off the dreck and mire below. So instead of settling for a black or white solution, why not examine a compromise position? Or several of them?
  
  What if we did extend the tax credit, but this time for homeowners? An $8,000 tax credit would likely be an incredible boost to families trying to continue their records of on-time payments and responsible homeownership.
  
  Extend the tax credit but limit it to certain property categories. This way, you could specifically target the bottom-rung, instead of simply hoping that that’s where the homebuyers will be spending their money.
  
  Extend it but reduce the limit – or tie the limit to a show of savings. In this manner, you could ensure that home buyers are not simply relying on this one-time infusion of cash to make a purchase that requires a long-term commitment to fiscal responsibility.
  
  Don’t extend it, but install different programs to boost residential real estate recovery –
  
  Could the Habitat for Humanity be offered some assistance to take over foreclosed properties and rehabilitate them for resale, with an interest on the sale being returned to the government for its contribution?
  
  Could the government forego some reimbursements from the banks that received TARP money in exchange for reassigning foreclosed properties to the military? So that veterans could have an opportunity to integrate into residential communities at a reduced cost in thanks for their service? Would this take some of the weight off the burden the government – we all – carry in trying to accommodate the housing needs of our military families?
  
  Could the government provide some resources to high schools and laid-off construction workers to create bridge programs where high schoolers could use service hours to help clean-up and laid-off construction workers could contribute some help to fix-up abandoned properties in residential areas?
  
  What if the government participated in supporting a Realtor®-facilitated exchange system, like a vacation property exchange? An example might be a retiree offering a single family home in favor of a condo. A match would occur when a young couple looking to upgrade from a condo would find the retiree’s single family home. Instead of adding these properties to the existing market creating a greater stock of unsold homes, they could bypass the wait and get what they need more efficiently.
  
  I’d be happy to exchange these offerings for other ideas that would work better. I just think the solution cannot be an all-or-nothing stamp on the crisis. Either we extend this credit and we survive or we don’t and doom and gloom follow us all the days of our lives. Really? No.
  
  We can figure this out if we try. What do you think?
  

What's Wrong? Nothing.

Kenny Rogers would not be pleased. We sat at the table. And we counted. I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth.

In my defense, we did so for a reason. My husband and I have been working at breakneck speed for nearly all the year, something that is not uncommon in real estate. The uncommon part is the income - or more to the point - the lack of it. We had to figure out where it was and why we weren't feeling it. Nothing wrong with that, right?

As a matter of principle, we never count pending transactions. Corny as it may sound, my husband and I have stayed in this business because we love it. And as long as we can earn a sufficient living to care for our children and keep a decent home, we're in it to stay. Never has this commitment been more tested, however, than in the last two years, when the love has not felt very mutual.

Last year, we were fortunate enough to have success both in earning a comfortable income and in establishing market share in our area. Nothing wrong with that, right? It was, then, an ironic twist to find that even with all our success, we were still digging out of a pretty deep tunnel. Success, like beauty in the eye of the beholder, was starting to look like the cousin with the great personality your best friend wants you to meet. There were days, to be sure, we felt like folding our hands and walking away.

But we've stuck with it and this year we have had terrific success securing listings, preparing presentations, and working with clients willing and able to buy in the appropriate inventory slot. We have carried out an aggressive marketing campaign, continued to establish a brand identity, and networked ourselves to near-stupor. It has all paid off. Our annual business plan targeted a 'closed' dollar amount which we are on course to achieve. Picture an arrow pointed directly at a target, with a flawless trajectory and impeccable form. Nothing wrong with that, right? Now picture it frozen in mid-air. That's us. (I use the arrow analogy because it makes us seem sleek and forceful, but most days the real visual that comes to my mind is Wile E. Coyote as he charges off a cliff and halts mid-air before plummeting to a painful - if never fatal - end.)


We have had the same transactions in the pipeline for several months, without movement. In a Groundhog Day extraordinaire we seem to repeat the same motions over and over without effect. Its positively maddening! So as we approached the final quarter of the year without having met our mark, even though we knew we were on track, we had to do a quick review to determine what was going on.

As it turns out, the money's there. We're just sitting on it.

Say what you want to say about all the reasons that's the case, and I've got plenty to say, at least we know something's coming. Knowing that provides a salve for the psyche. And that's important for those of us embroiled in the hard work of digging through the rubble of the real estate boon, finding survivors, and laying to a respectful rest those who did not make it. We must periodically take stock of the good we do, the good we have in our paths ahead, and the good that will come when our work is done. Otherwise, the whole exercise takes on an air of futility that can be difficult to overcome.


For today, we have done just that. With renewed vigor and determination we forge ahead. And with deference to our friend Kenny, we'll just say we were counting blessings. Nothing wrong with that.