"What we have here is a failure to communicate"

Total confusion?

This guy was playing in front of me the last time I played golf at Cocoa Beach (A beautiful 27 hole public course)

I have been reading an endless supply of opinions on the state of the Real Estate market. I think a lot of people just chose a side and stick to it until it doesn’t work anymore. I personally feel that nobody really knows. There are always means to manipulate statistics to support your argument.

Selling Real Estate

I have seen that there still are a lot of agents and companies that follow the opinion of NAR (National association of Realtors) and FAR (Florida association of Realtors). As far as I know NAR and FAR don’t sell real property. I am a member of both associations and they do good work at what they do. They provide excellent education for Realtors; they have standards of ethics that we are all held to as Realtors. They promote the Real Estate market in general. No one likes to see people quit the business but it is happening and that means less dues paid to both associations. I think it has been proven recently that no group can turn or influence the Real Estate market not even the FED. I believe that “what we have here is a failure to communicate” (Cool Hand Luke), the market is going through a market correction and it is very hard on sellers, investors and Real Estate agents. It is a natural occurrence and as hard as it is to bear, it has to happen. If it never happened then no one would be able to buy a property in years ahead. If we had continued to see property values increase 20% a year then consider this; a home bought in 2000 for $150,000 would sell today for $644,944. Now that would mean that you could own a nice little 3/2 1500 sq ft for $644,944.

We recently closed a short sale on a never lived in luxury town home. It was purchased pre-construction in 2005 for $299,900 as a flip. It closed last week for $195,000! This is an extreme example but that is what is still happening in the market today.

Repeat business and referrals

As a smaller company we depend heavily on repeat business and referrals, we really have to try our very best to perform for both buyers and sellers to get the good word out there. We can’t afford to count on a buyer coming in and making a purchase and then we will never see this person again. We have to have satisfied customers and usually they become friends. We don’t get some listings or we can’t take these listings because of price and expectations. We market our listings heavily and do whatever it takes to get them seen. When they are priced at the owner’s price rather than the market price it usually results in bad feelings by both. I think the best way to do this type of listing is to try it at the owner’s price for 30 days then lower to the market price if the owner agrees on this strategy.

I am convinced the most creative people in the world work for bumper sticker companies, send me your favorite and I will post it.

Jim Bagwell