At least in our area here on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina, the real estate market is very tough right now for sellers and real estate agents since there are very few buyers.

Every business has tough times, and right now many businesses are seeing some of the worst times in memory.

I had the good fortune to be at Apple Computer for nearly twenty years.  Those years spanned the glory years, the bad years, and the recovery years.

It was a great learning experience. As is often the case, I learned far more during the tough years than I did in the years that things were easier.  I cannot remember any really easy years at Apple.

I did learn that desperation is not a strategy.  I also found out that believing in yourself is the key to any success.

Just this summer I thought we were on our way to a modest recovery.  My business was going nicely, and I had a steady stream of potential clients.  I have worked hard at not only creating an Internet presence but also building my reputation through traditional marketing.  I thought it was working according to plan with the exception of a slower than normal market.

Then the bottom fell out with the financial crisis, and most people have become financially paralyzed.  I recently had a buyer and seller very close on price on a lot.  We ended up with an appraisal that makes no sense mostly because nothing like the property has sold in over a year.  The property was rather unique anyway.  We might still make the deal work with some owner financing, but it will not be easy and the property is well under $100K.

With even the smallest sale being a challenge, there are a few choices.  You can panic and be found curled up in the fetal position under your desk.  You can give up on real estate and find something else easier to do like selling power boats in a dead economy or greeting at Walmart. 

Or you can resolve to take this time to really focus on the important things in your marketing and sales plans.

While I have curtailed print advertising, I am now doing more small customized mail drops than ever.  They are of better quality both visually and from a content perspective.  I continue to work on my Internet presence, and with the help of a friend who helped run the original Blacksburg Electronic Village, I am working to build an electronic village for the Crystal Coast. I expect to be successful selling real estate when the market turns and this electronic village is an important part of my strategy.

I am convinced that local information, created locally, and focused locally will be the key to success when buyers come back to the market.  There is a lot of information on the web.  Sorting through it has become a great challenge. Creating quality information that provides real value for consumers can be the difference between success and failure.

While I participate in a large number of sites that try to suck information up from local sources and reparse it so that consumers can use it, I remained unconvinced that consumers will find me through these sources.

I am betting on creating local Internet information sources. To be of real value, they have to be managed and promoted locally so that they can end up being the gold standard for information in an area.  It is not an easy challenge, but now is a good time to focus on it.

We are already experimenting with real estate listings on the backend of the local information.  Getting good information into a site takes time and effort, but I would rather have good information than misinformation.  Good information will draw people.  When is the last time you saw someone thirty or under use a phone book?

While I do not really view this as innovating our way of a crisis, I do consider it staying focused on positive steps that in the end will be rewarded.

There was a time when no one wanted to work for Apple Computer.  We often measured an applicant for a job on his willingness to work for a company that many thought was going out of business.

We found people to work for us, and it does not take a leap of the imagination to conclude that those who are willing to work the hardest for the least amount of success will likely be very successful when times improve.

It all comes down to refusing to be beaten down even when everything looks the bleakest.  Just like I did before, I will keep treating my clients just as professionally as I always have.  I will keep working to improve the way that I can be effective for clients.  If I can deliver value, they will remain my clients through bad times and good times.

I will not leave any stone unturned in looking for ways to be successful.

You can count on my smile coming from the knowledge that I will survive.