Realtors get positive view in difficult market at Survival Strategies Summit
by Cami Reister | The Grand Rapids Press Friday February 27, 2009, 8:56 PM
Press Photo/Jon M. BrouwerPositive thinking: Jerry Teplitz gives a motivational talk to local real estate agents Friday at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center, including using local real estate agent Amy Miller to show the power of positive thinking.
GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP -- Think positive and open your mind to the possibilities of the changing real estate market. And there are possibilities.
That's the message that agents, builders and others connected to the real-estate industry heard Friday at the Survival Strategies Summit put on by the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.
The event, complete with pith helmets, was designed to equip those in the industry to survive the current market, which is among the worst hit in this economic downturn.
This week alone, the National Association of Realtors announced January sales were the lowest in 12 years. Locally, sales last month were down 26 percent from the year before.
But those attending the summit were having none of that.
"It was refreshing and definitely what we needed in our stressful environment," said Linda DeZeeuw, an agent with Flexit Realty.
"We are bombarded with negativity constantly," she said. "But the market is picking up. I have closings. I have buyers."
Re/Max agent Jack Lensink has been in the business 37 years and said this is the worst he has ever seen it. But he is optimistic, especially after hearing a taped speech at the summit by national economist Alan Beaulieu.
"He gave me a little glimmer of hope," Lensink said.
That glimmer came from Beaulieu's commission.
"Some time in 2009, if there is a piece of property you want to buy, buy it," said Beaulieu, a senior analyst with the Institute for Trends Research, of Concord, N.H.
"In 10 years you're going to look like a genius for having walked through the valley of the shadow of death."
GRAR Chief Executive Julie Rietberg said more than 435 people attended the summit and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
"It wasn't about learning sales techniques," Rietberg said.
"It's about the power of positive thinking ... and to point out the opportunities that exist in a market like this and how best to take advantage of them whether you're a buyer or a seller."
That was the job of real estate expert Jeremy Conaway of RECON Intelligence Services.
He outlined growing market areas during this downturn, including selling to foreign investors, using the Internet even more, creating "economic stabilization packages" for customers, green real estate and expanding in the rental market.
"A significant group of American families are going to be renting," Conaway said.
Being able to rent to them or connect them with investor clients is a growing segment.
"There are some people in this room who are going to make themselves rich on some of these things," he said.
Amy Miller, an agent with Re/Max SunQuest, was more than inspired.
"We needed this," she said. "People begin to think we're going to be in a trough forever.
"We're not. Life is not linear. It never has been and never will be."
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