Relative to what?

  I went around the block today.  Ran into Fritz, the neighborhood philosopher.  When I asked him how he was he paused, for effect I imagine, and then answered, "Relative to what?" 

  Relative to what I thought.  It made me wonder about todays RE markets. 

  Relative to last year and several years before that, it was an easier market.  People were buying and selling with abandon.  Investors were rolling in money, home owners were using their homes as piggy banks and the homes were responding by increasing in value to keep ahead of withdrawals.  Whew.  What a market.  2007.  Whoa Nelly.  Everything came to a screeching halt.

  Today at the core of our business people still want to buy or sell.  What does that have to do with this market.  People have to move, or want to move.  They want to buy homes or sell homes.  2+2.  It might limit the number of buyers from the edgy credit areas and the market loses a few buyers.  People are still going to change residences. 

  We, as RE agents need to get on with it.  Hit the bricks.  Buyers and sellers are out there waiting for us.  What we need to worry about more than the market conditions, is our marketing.  According to NAR, the younger people are not interested in individuals.  They are going to get on a computer, find the homes they want to look at, call somebody and look at the homes.  The next time they look at a home they will call the next realtor in line and so on.  We need to nail those people to our brand.  We need new ideas to hold them in our web. 

  The older buyer will be more loyal, if they don't forget that you are a RE agent and that you want to help them buy or sell their home.  In other words, relative to yesterdays market, at it's core, today is just another day.  People still want to buy or sell.  We need to help them do it. 

  So relatively, today's market may be more difficult for yesterday's marketing.  But at it's core, we are still facilitators, helping people buy and sell homes.  Just like yesterday.

  I told ol' Fritz, "Relative to how you felt yesterday or last week I guess."  Ol' Fritz launched into a long drawn out philosophic disertation about how that depended on ....  So, next time I see Fritz I think I'll just TELL him, "Nice day today Fritz", and keep moving.