So this morning I was reading through some of my older articles and found the one below from October 2007. At that time we were heading into the worst of the real estate market crash. Many agents were struggling so I used this article to dish out some perspective.
You can read the original comments here.
To give you a real picture of how fast the market changed here are my personal sales figures for this period.
2005 50 Sales Average price of $160,000
2006 26 Sales Average Price of $229,500 (slowing sales but prices still jumped)
2007 22 Sales Average Price of $119,500 (almost a 50% decline in value)
2008 19 Sales Average Price of $119,500 (this was the year of the mortgage crisis)
2009 36 Sales Average Price of $ 93,500 (transitioned to short sales)
2010 54 Sales Average Price of $ 93,500 (market recovery begins)
2011 53 Sales Average Price of $ 95,000
2012 60 Sales Average Price of $ 98,600
The following was first posted in October 2007.
I woke up this morning and was feeling a little strange. So I pulled my aching body out of bed and went into the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror this is what I saw staring back at me!!
Yikes! I thought Blogging Bertha was a figment of my imagination and now I realize she's actually a part of me. A very scary part I must say.
Maybe my stressful market has finally taken it's toll on me and my inner demons are coming out. I hate it when that happens. Especially when I find out my inner demon is Bertha!!!
Woe is me, woe is me. OK so maybe things aren't that bad. I'm writing this post today for no other reason than hopefully to help a few people make it through a difficult time. If your business is anything like mine is, right now, then you are probably under a lot of stress and wondering where you next pay check is coming from. Folks, I truly wish I had a magic wand I could wave to make things better for you but I don't.
During difficult times, like these, I like to reflect back on my life and relate it to how much better things are now. I remember when I used to drive a taxi cab out at Disney, working 14 to 16 hours a day, and some days I would actually owe the company money before I could take my cab out the next day. That's right....I would OWE money. You see in the taxi business you rent your cab by the day, you also have to pay mileage and gas. Back when I used to drive I needed to bring in about $150 a day before I started making money for myself. If you brought in less than $150 you had to pay the difference before you could go back out. Talk about depressing!!!
I was also a waiter for about 10 years. Talk about hard and stressful work! The place I worked was a high end, high volume Spanish restaurant and it was real hard work. It was pretty good money though. I used to work a split shift that started at 10 am with about a 2 hour break between shifts, from 2pm to 4 pm, then back at it until about midnight. I was the top waiter and was always the first one in and the last one to leave. I'd make about $200 a day. That was pretty good money during the 80s. It was probably the hardest job I have ever had. I loved it though. Servers love me now because I'm a HUGE tipper. I can relate to how hard their jobs are.
So folks, no matter how difficult things are right now take a few minutes and reflect on some of the other stages in your life. There have been many times where I really had no clue how I was going to feed my children that day. But you know what? I always did. It just seems like as long as I kept moving forward and did my best, things would find a way of working out. They always have and they always will.
The key, of course, is to keep moving forward. No matter how hard it gets don't let life get you down. I'm assuming you still have a roof over your head and friends and family that love you. We are so fortunate in this country. Our worst, would be the best, for a lot of folks on this planet. Don't believe me? Read this.
So that's it, Broker Bryant's pointless post for today. Stay strong my friends. This too shall pass.
Oops! I almost forgot to make you smile. Here's a picture of one of our five six grandkids getting ready to dispose of one of Grampy's "lowball" offers. Are you smiling yet?
****All photos are the property of TLW. So hands off!!!
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