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The Real Estate Market of 2006 is gone.

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Southern Living Realty Partners TN Lic# 266926

Besides doing short sales and helping buyers find the perfect home, I do a lot of loss mitigation work for various lenders.  How this works is that when the mortgage company/lender cannot get in touch with a homeowner, I will often times receive an order from the lender to go out and try to make contact with the homeowner.  Sometimes the lender just wants me to get the homeowner on the phone if possible.  Other times, I am asked to pick up items for a modification in process or take the final modification papers to the homeowner and notarize their signature. 

The assignment that I have liked/dreaded the most was one where the homeowner was a former real estate agent.  I vaguely recognized the name when I got the assignment but the address was in a neighboring county where I do not do a whole lot of business.  I had to leave notes for the homeowner because no one answered the door.  Finally about three weeks later, I get a call from the homeowner.  I can hardly get a word in edgewise.  She starts talking non-stop as soon as I say hello.  She was pleasant but she talked constantly.  I explained to her that her lender/mortgage company wanted to talk to her as soon as possible. She explained that she had supposedly been in constant contact with the lender but she would give them a call again.  

But what was different about her call was the fact that she used to be a real estate agent.  This lady went on and on telling me about how many awards she had won, the fact that she had a private office when she was in the real estate "game", how she was a million dollar producer, and on and on.  She told me about listing after listing that she sold and how many buyers she put in homes and how successful she was.  She even starting giving me tips (like I had asked for her advice) on the current condition of the market and how to market myself.   (Remember it's not like I solicited this lady for her listing - she is behind on her mortgage).  

Finally, when I could get a word in, I asked her when it was that she had been the Top Dog.  She proudly tells me that it was in 2006.  Hell, in 2006 you didn't even have to have half a brain to be a top agent.  (I know, I was one too.)  When I asked her why she got out of "the game", she said she only sold 2 houses in 2007 and none in 2008.  It seems she did not know how to work "the game" when the market turned from business just walking in the door to having to work for it.  

So a word of caution to all of the buyers and sellers in the current real estate market:  If the agent you are considering hiring comes in the door bragging about their sales and achievements, make sure you find out which year they are talking about.    

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Rhonda Burgess, Broker

615.554.0832

 

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