Maybe the Righteous Brothers top hit, 'You"ve Lost That Loving Feeling" , gained its roots from working agents in a market like this one.
The prices in Mass. dropped in November 16% to the largest single monthly year over year price decline since accounters began tracking numbers in 1987. Like, 21 years ouch. And sales closed dropped from 3,210, to 2600 . Units closed at a medium of $275,000 from last years same medium price monthly 2007 of $330,000.
SO what drags the Agents down, its called being part of the Bad New Bears Band. Instead of making optimistic music daily. The words we must sing are some what like this,
"the bank wants more information and letters of explaination of why you have not change the oil in your cars for one year" " I know your putting down 30% but they want to know everything now. Sorry!!
Sorry, the market took that extra $40,000 dollars in equity that you had two years ago. But those boarded up house's next door are bringing your innocent family home down in value. "
" The Ceptic system that served your home for 50 years is now determined by the experts as failed, and the new one will cost about $35,000 to install and approve, and you can not sell without it being done. And it will not bring you one more dollar in value when selling. "
" My favorite Sir. "the 11% 2nd mortgage and the 9% first can not be renegotiated, your bank says because of a loss of value in the home, and it is not in default. However they say they sometimes do negotiate with people who unlike you , do not make their payments for 4 to 6 months and are heading into foreclosure. Those are the options according to your bank. Get close to being thrown out and losing the home, and maybe then they will negotiate high , existing killer interest rates?????
Wonder why we working Realtors look so darn Thunderstruck about noon, each day at the office?
Still our agents are getting it done daily. It requires more truth, knowing what the market is, but it gets hard. The silliness ,the overreaction to the crisis wall street made for us all, who work for a living, will linger on.
I still can't figure how it all got so screwed up but from what I understand, Wall Street and Mortgage Companies un-regulated created a mess globally. Think of it this way, they, (WALL STREET) were in the Ice Cream Business and With their packing beautiful White fresh Ice cream to sell, they put in an ounce of Donkey dung with every ounce of white ice cream, and calling it a Three star Ice Cream. It took a while but then it started to taste and look funny. Bingo, it ruined the Housing Market.
As agents in this new year 2009. Our challange is to not add listings that will not sell to the market. Creating an additional illusion of a never ending supply of inventory. To help our Clients achieve their goals, we must know the trends of mortgage requirements , watch our Death dates on contracts, get perfomance dates enforced, get larger Surety of closing after negotiations, "deposit " as you may call it. We need to bullet proof our transactions for our sellers.
And further we need to have listings to attract buyers. They are going to shop more and more from home, on the web, and at their leisure with less urgency.
Perhaps for the Agent this year the truth may be, for the worker the week may have 7 days, and for the lazy agent the week may have seven tomorrows. Again we are going to have to shift and it will all be in your attitude to see the true opportunities this market can bring agents, who want to take ground they will never surrender once the Market turns.
IT may not feel good, but its gotta be done. And its what we do, better than any one else. Be proud, be strong, and be the best you can be each day. Being a Realtor is such a worthwhile profession and career.Always has been , always will be. Each day we make a valid impact on the economy and the lives of our Clients.
Barry Papagno
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