We are very tired of reading all of the statistics and hearing news reports about "the market".
Our local market is Bad!! In fact if Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon were still on the Tonight Show, and if Johnny was a real estate agent, their banter about the local market (based upon our personal experiences) would go something like the following:
ED - Wow Intelligent One - Your monolog tonight would indicate we have a bad market. How bad is it?
JOHNNY - Let me tell you Large One - My partner (wife) and I have had eight listings this calendar year to date. Two clients became disgusted and took their homes off the market. Of the other six we have had price reductions, Broker's Opens, Open Houses and special advertising. None have had offers to date.
ED - Gee, I though Seattle had one of the hottest markets in the country.
Johnny - Thats right. If you listen to the media, Seattle (King Conty) is experiencing an 8% average price increase over last year, has a median home price of $425,000 and has very few decent homes on the market at this time.
Ed - But you are only 15 air miles from Seattle - aren't you getting some spill over?
Johnny - The 15 miles really tanslates into 1-3 hours commute each way on average due to having to ride a ferry and because of the variations in distances between homes and workplaces in King County. So it isn't as cost effective for everyone as one might think.
Ed - But arn't you selling properties other than your own listings?
Johnnty - Yes Inquisitive One. In our case we have sold four properties amounting to a modest amount in commissions. That amount, however was before our expenses, like gas, cost of doing business and Federal Income Tax.
Ed - Gosh Great One. It sounds like if you do only somewhere around another $10,000 in commissions this year you will exceed the Poverty Level Income threshold.
Johnny - Look at it this way Mr-Never-Missed-a-Meal, if we didn't have other income ,and had to rely soley on our Real Estate business to put food on the table, we might have been a lot skinny-er by now (which may not have been all that bad).
Ed - Please tell me Great Marketeer, what are you going to do to spark your business for the remainder of the year?
Johnny - I am glad you asked that question old Booming Voice. I have three things I can do, 1/ Consult Carnac, 2/ Have Priscilla Goodbody host all of my future Open Houses, and 3/ employ that old automobile marketing concept wherein all of my sellers can give back $25,000 to their buyer upon closing the deal.
PLEASE ANY OF YOU OUT THERE, CAN YOUR GIVE US SOME OF YOUR IDEAS SO WE CAN SUPPLEMENT JOHNNIES?
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