It's a Great Time to be a Realtor!

This past January marked my 25^th anniversary in the real estate profession.  In that time, we have not experienced a market like the one that we've seen over the past 18-24 months.  Many of my professional colleagues, mostly those who count on their brokers to provide them with leads, continue to sing the blues as if we have no control over our own futures.  They bemoan the market as though it were some sort of monster from outer space against which we are powerless.  If there is one thing that real estate cycles have proven to us time after time, it's the fact that "good" or "bad" markets will always come and go: it's how we as professionals and consumers respond that matter.  Sellers need to understand the critical importance of correct pricing, staging, and flexibility.  Buyers need to realize that taking a small "paper" loss on the house they have now can often be "re-gained" several times over by pulling the trigger now, while prices are down, on their new home in the new town or neighborhood.  It's the job of the professional Realtor to articulate that to our clients, and, sometimes, to each other.  The past few years have been good to almost everyone in this industry.  Buyers and sellers in North Carolina, have, for the most part, seen healthy appreciation in their real estate investments.  Real estate professionals have had the opportunity to generate more business than perhaps at any point in their careers.  Now that those two scenarios are not the same, we need to remember that "cyclical" means that things that go up come down, and vice versa.  The answer?  Work harder to get through the "shift".

People are still getting married, having kids, getting promotions, getting transferred, getting downsized, getting divorced - in short, doing all the things that make buying and/or selling a home necessary.  There may not be quite as many doing so, and the ones who are, are likely to be better informed and consequently more demanding.  The way I see it, we all benefit from this market.  The better trained, better informed, better prepared real estate professional will get to work with a smarter, more committed, more serious client.  I think it's a great time to be a Realtor.