Reading contracts should be a must no matter how long one has been a Realtor. So often the only focus is price and closing date. Reading the entire contract at least once during negotiations helps in allowing time to digest and not over react. It does not help to get caught in all the little details to the point of forgetting the goal. This can avoid conflict during the transactionand should be explained and communicated to clients. Often it is good to bring up that conversation as things progress. Client have often been grateful at closing being amazed that this particular closing went so smoothly.

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Reports are that the foreclosures numbers are declining,but still at high levels. Arms will be resetting for some time. Jobs and the broader economy is juct cripping along. Transfers are few.  

This all points a new normal. At some point there will an new equilibrium and there will be exceptal absorbtion rates again.

The big qeustion will be how long will these homes be on the market and what condition will they be in after sitting for so long.

Bonner

The tax credit extension is good. Make no mistake. Loans that are in the pipeline will be able to close. The spin becomes that Washington has done something. Now most first time home buyers that are and were going to buy have done so or wil have. Following good sound disipline these buyers will likely be in the homes for seven years. Jobs and transfer are the life blood of the economy. Jobs will be the key a helthy housing market. The correction of 2009 has become the balance of 2010.

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Mortgage rates are still hanging in there. There has a lot of talk about the rates rising in 2010. It is the general consensus that as inflation pressure appear there will be rate hikes. With mortgage rates tied to treasuries and MBS, there will also be pressure to give investor incentives to get into these.

As for buyers and sellers (to a certain extent) rates will still be in line with affordability. That is to say, that sound credit will still allow a logical decision on homes buying.

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Mergers and acquisitions were fairly common in the last decade. Virtual Mergers and consolidation can be a great start for the next few years. With the growth of blogging and the unintended consequence of many viewers tuning out from the overload of hype.

Blogging is a great resource with a wealth of information and solutions to challenges. Bloggs offer a great vehicle for marketing and prospecting. Now to be effective with social media there needs to be thread that ties back to a site. Bloggs are made up of a community of people with somewhat similar goals.

The merger for my 2010 techonolgy plan is to blogg local information rather than creating new webpages. The hope with be first and foremost to meet customer needs. The second would be to create more creditable with SEO spiders.

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Should we say good ridens to this decade or be grateful for the lessons learned.

The answer may be somewhere in the middle. Certainly the crash of the last 15 months is not something we want to to be happy about. Many families have endured hardships and are struggling.

As we look back in the future there very well may be a sense that this decade was "the good old days"

There is a saying that comes to mind that PRESENT is a gift.   Keep this in mind to have a happy life and present.

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2010 will be the year of paying attention to inventories. This will be across the board of all sectors of the economy. Housing will be important but not in the forefront as it was in 09. Manufacturing is running very tight and holding inventories low. Housing is becoming more regional and following employment. Given that there is an eight month inventory of homes at this point in time the focus will become how much comes on board. Foreclosures will certainly keep pressures on inventory. Commercial Real Estate and the associated financing would be a big plus as this would create jobs rather than just creating temporary work.

The big surprise for me was that vacancy rates were up across the board. There seems to be little absorption from the downsizing.

All this adds up to a positive 2010 for the economy. All be it a conservative positive .

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No big surprises for Realtors. (maybe Wallstreet) The existing homes sales that had come out earlier was encouraging as buyers rushed for what they thought was the tax credit deadline. I had read that about 50% were first time buyers. New home sales were down which does not surprises many Realtors, But seemed to get comments from wall street. For the year home prices were down (-7.9% nationally)

Having said all this 2010 looks moderately great. Inventories have been steadily declining and there is still the tax credit for many buyers.

www.RealEstateWorlHorse.com & www.BonnerTCR.com

Somerset Crossing, Kernersville, NC is typical of the broader economy. SLOW !

For 2009 there has been 1 sale, there are 2 Active listings, 3 Expired and 2 Withdrawn listings according to the MLS tracking.

The great news is that this neighbor seems to be weathering the storm with respect to home values. In Kernersville, homes that are in goo condition and priced in line with current purchase appraisals there is a realatively strong market. Expect a slight appreciation in value over the next couple of years as inventories and stressed sales in the area and region are worked out of the market.

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 This is the best time of year to back up data and de-clutter files on your computer. Portable thumb drive devises are the best thing since chocolate for storing data. The more you back up the better you become at both organizing and retrieving data. With software like Top-producer everything has gone web-based. I always fell more comfortable with the original tucked away in the basement. As technology progress there will be better ways but probably never replace the paper trail. Please respond with ideas and pains in this difficult task. Remember Out look emails have a different format and can be a challenge to store and recover.

Lost data in real estate can send blood pressure soaring.

Visit www.RealEstateWorkHorse.com for Kernersville NC Real Estate