At a local board of Realtors meeting yesterday, another husband & wife team asked me if we'd be interested in working with them and some other agents to come up with some sort of counterefforts to the current constant flow of bad news about the housing market. We're familiar with the NAR campaign, and our Columbus board continues to do it's own "a great time to buy" campaign, but we're wondering if some other markets or local boards or realtors' groups might have tried something similar....if so, what was your overall plan, media use, and results? We'd be especially interested in efforts from smaller markets, as the group we're talking about is from Lancaster/southeast Ohio rather than central Ohio/Columbus.
We try to point out to clients that the media stories do indeed present a skewed view, with emphasis on the exceptions rather than the rules.....that's just the nature of the beast today, especially because of the advent of so many news outlets and the scramble for ratings and demographics. We also suggest to folks that even what you tend to see on the "home" shows (makeovers, etc.) across the networks highlight the singular sorts of situations (and personalities involved) that will draw the most viewers.
As a sidebar, we heard some interesting thoughts at a local real estate investors' group meeting last week in Columbus. Most of those attending appeared to not be real estate agents, and there was a bit of bashing going on about MLS statistics (such as accusations of the misleading nature of "Days on the Market") and also the NAR economic and market outlooks. But the upside was that even this group was advising its members to buy now....with the caveat that they should be "buying low" and "selling low" (referring to rehabs and wholesaling) in today's market.
©2008, Doug Parker, ikarensell Enterprises Inc. http://www.ikarensell.com
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