I religiously scour AR blog posts  every day and it's very rare for one to go by when there isn't a posting with the words " short sale" either in the title or the content of the post.  I have to admit that after reading a few I had to send a comment asking what a short sale was.  It is not a term that is used here in Canada.

Once educated, I understood how difficult it must be for people in this situation.  I asked questions as to how the Bank or Lending Institution decides who will get these listings.  Again, the great people here filled me in on all the details.

I guess what I would like to know now is of all the listings an agent or their Brokerage carry, how many of them are short sales or Foreclosures?  How many sellers are listing for the typical reasons from the past?  There are many reasons why people want to move.  Does that change during a weakened economy?

Are people who need more space due to an expanding family still looking to move up now?  Or are they hesitant, not knowing if they will have a job in the next few weeks, months?  What about the empty nesters who need less space and don't need or want to pay extra utilitiy costs and property taxes.  Are newlyweds still rushing to buy their first home?  There must be some good deals out there.  Or are you finding that they are renting or living with parents waiting for ..... well, what are they waiting for.  How about couples divorcing?  Is this economy keeping them together due to the tough housing market?  I would be curious to see if  the divorce rate is down right now.

There was always the percentage of people moving due to job transfers.  With videoconferencing, and work at home situations now, how much have those numbers decreased?  Heaven help those who want to retire and cash out.  Head to the hills, or the south, or to a different State to be close to family.  If they have lost money in the stock market are they even able to retire? I have heard many instances lately where retirees have had to go back to work after losing much of their net worth.

And let's not forget the renovators/flippers.  Are you finding that they have gone by the way or are there still people up to the challenge if they think the numbers will work out in the end?  And last but not least are the new home builders.  Are they sitting tight or do they have subdivisions full of unsold inventory?  Here in Oakville there are many new homes in various states of construction.  These are mostly custom infill homes, not your subdivision lots.

How many of your sellers are actually selling for happy reasons?  Obviously with distress sales come stressed sellers which parlays into stressed REALTORS when the property isn't selling.  We must use all of our skills to not only market a property but offer support and empathy to our clients who have hired us to help them out of a difficult situation.

I hope that for every distress sale/short sale/foreclosures, you all have those happy sales that make this business all worthwhile and gives us the boost that we need to keep us doing what we are doing.

Happy Selling