Hello Fellow Agents out there in AgentVille all over this great State of California and the greatest country in the world! I am praying for all of you to have the courage to continue your journey through the worst market shift ever! I know, I know, 'dont be negative'. I can hear my team leader saying this again. BUT I'M NOT! I'm simply stating the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God! This is the hardest market shift I have ever been through in my 16 years of doing this business. In fact, I dont think you can find anywhere in history where the real estate market has seen a more drastic market shift/change as the one we are currently riding.
And we all knew it was coming. ALL of Us! The sellers market trends we left 24 months ago had buyers at a loss to qualify to purchase a home. The only way it continued as long as it did was due to the secondary financing market and the incredibly creative things they were doing. But like all good things, this had to stop. Now the creditors have done what they should have done long ago and thats to tighten up the purse strings and truly work on qualifying the buyer(s).
In the meantime, we are hard at work advising our sellers that they have lost a large part of their equity position. We have the hard cold fact task of telling them if they want to sell their home, then they need to list their home based on the current trends and the most current comps for their area. That they have to let go of what they thought their home is worth. Believe me, it's difficult to tell someone that their finance picture has changed, negatively. I hear some agents around the water cooler bragging of going on listing appointments and telling the seller that if they wont list where 'they' want them to list at, that they tell them goodbye and dont waste 'my' time. In my way of thinking, that's just so arrogant and contrary to what a real estate agent should be like. THERE'S A BETTER WAY TO APPROACH THIS KIND OF SELLER. More on that on another blognosis.
But here's what I wanted to say today regarding a win-win scenario. I have a million dollar listing and it's REO, vacant. I think it looks great this way, as a matter a fact, I think most homes look much better empty than with alot of old. too large for the room furniture and usually loaded with chotckys.(you know-nick nacks and other clutter). Well I had read an article about staging a home. How to bring out the true character of a home's architectural features, etc. I also watch alot of HGTV and see how they do this. So, I approached the seller about this idea. I have had a few offers on the property, but none worth talking about. I also have a buyer interested in the property too. But I couldnt get them to see any vision for the home. The seller asked me to get a few bids and accepted one with First Stage Property Transformation. Oh yea, the cool thing is, I found Janice here on activerain! Can you believe it? She did a fantastic job and had such great vision on how the home might look and put into action. I e-mailed the picts to my buyer and to other agents to share with their clients and guess what? My buyer fell more in love with the home and told her husband, I have to have it! We opened escrow this week!
So, dont give up! Keep on trudging along. Keep the faith in God, and in your ability to build your business! It's about having a career worth having, a business worth owning and a life worth living!
Courage for the Journey!
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