I can't turn on the television, open a newspaper, read a BLOG, or field a question from a customer without something, in some way, referring to the "S" word.  "Slump"  It's like if we talk about it constantly it might go away.

Today I spent my day sitting in a NAR GRI class (though tedious and redundant, it's a good review for the Broker exam if anyone is interested), and at every break, and I mean every break, the room became like a funeral.  We mourned the good old days.  There were sad faces all around.  I'm not sure, but I think I saw one lady crying.  Really.  OK, maybe not. 

But clearly the slowdown has thrown gas prices off the front page.  And that's fine if all this chatter has a point, which I am not sure it does.  Even global warming doomsayers have given us a list of things we can do to slow the damage.  But few have offered guidance as to how we can survive the BIG S!

So I would like to make a few suggestions to my neighbors here on the First Coast of Florida, that may put a different spin on things, or at least get your mind off it, if only for a moment.  And if anyone else out there feels these suggestions are applicable to your local market, feel free to be an early adopter!

To the Homeowners:  If you are not truly in the market, get out of it.  Don't put your home up for sale so that you can grab one of the foreclosures or, dare I say, the home of the poor soul who HAS to move.  This is not good real estate or financial planning.  It is, however, an exercise in futility.  The basic precept of supply and demand, as it relates to real estate, is an inverse correlation between the number of homes on the market and the amount of revenue each will generate.  So in actuality, you're driving down your own market.  If you are not serious, please, desist!

To the Homebuyers:  I applaud your good fortune of being a renter, a beneficiary, a lottery winner, or simply a newly-retired, heavy 401K owner who has a lock on good timing.  I'm delighted you've chosen our beautiful area in which to live, and let me be the first, second, and third to offer my real estate services.  However, though there are 200 trillion homes on the market, 100 trillion of which match your criteria, let's pretend it's a normal market and put some logic in our search.  Choose a location, a neighborhood, a price, a school system, whatever is most important to your home-buying decision, and if you see fifty homes, I can almost promise you one will be "just right." 

To the Developers:  STOP DEVELOPING.

To the Realtors and Sales Agents:   Norman Vincent Peale wrote the book, The Power of Positive Thinking, in the last millenium, and I believe it still holds true today.  Can we "will" ourselves out of this?  Probably not.  Can we survive it?  Absolutely.

And here I will share my most useful suggestions.  When at all possible, like when I have the time, I make it a point to find at least three things every day to enhance my business.  These are from today:

One:  An email blast from the company who is doing that Wal-Mart Mortgage thing in their stores asked if anyone would like to sign up for 13 consecutive days, but only a few hours per day, of walking Wal-Mart with a mortgage man and handing out cards, flyers, and small gifts (if we so choose).  I signed up immediately and yet several people got there first.  I'm on tap starting the 13th of September.  Time will tell if I get a lead, but it's something different I can do.

Two:  Placing my thoughts elsewhere while the GRI instructor droned away, I glanced at an instructional sticker on the wall of the classroom.  As my mind often works, I jumped from that to formulating a sticker that I could put on the wall above, or actually upon, the inside garage-door opener.  This sticker would read:  "Did you turn off the lights?  Are the doors locked?  Do you have your cell phone?  And then, most certainly, my logo and phone number.  This, of course, is a rough draft, but once I figure out my best "reminders," I will have these printed and put one over every single garage door button of every single home I sell.  Also, I will put them in my gift buckets to FSBO's with instructions on where to place them.  Refrigerator magnets for football season have a shelf life.  A reminder sticker on a button they'll push at least twice a day does not.  They'd have to paint over it to get rid of it, and chances are they'll be mentally thanking me when they run back into the house for their cell phone.

And last but not least, Three:  I brought a gift to a stranger in my class today.  It was her birthday and she'd let me know the week before during the first part of the class.  I don't really know this lady, but I do know that I did the same thing for another  woman in my very first real estate training class.  We were doing that thing where you turn left and introduce yourself to your neighbor and in five minutes learn enough about them to be able to introduce them to the class.  I learned back then that it was my left-side neighbor's birthday that day.  So, I brought her a gift the next day.  She was so taken with this small gesture of kindness, she has seen to it that I am the recipient of her referrals on the "other side of St. Johns River."  It wasn't my intention to garner business that way (I was too naive back then), but kindness begets kindness, always.

And that's my advice to my fellow Sales Agents.  Let's take this opportunity to enhance our business.  By making new friends/contacts, taking classes and increasing our knowledge base, and by promising ourselves that just talking about the Big S will not make it go away, we'll show our mettle and be the survivors.  We just need to be proactive, which is another way of being productive.

Agree?