May Numbers; On Being Accustomed to Food
Posted on June 12, 2008
Filed Under Portland, Statistics, Real Estate, General |
Something I admit but can’t fully reconcile:
There are two parts of being a successful real estate agent: Doing the job an agent is hired to do, professionally representing clients in the buying and selling of real estate. I’ve said before, good agents earn every cent of what they’re paid: that’s testified to by the fact that the large majority of buyers and sellers hire agents to help them through the transaction maze, the market at work. At this part of the job, I’m very good.
But at the other, I’m lousy: “Generating leads” in the vernacular. I didn’t believe it when I was told three and a half years ago that successful agents spend 90% of their time in that process. I didn’t try to establish a farm, possibly because I still think the term pejorative. I haven’t cold-called FSBOs, don’t hobnob just for the sake of hobnobbing, and - perhaps worst - don’t spend three hours a day on the phone asking for referrals. Simply, I haven’t spent nearly enough time selling myself, instead relying on the job I do for clients to produce more clients in a geometric progression. And until six or so months ago, it worked: Even in limited numbers, buyers and sellers were eager to, well, buy and sell.
But - I don’t think this is a secret - all that’s changed. Buyers are toeing the sideline waiting for prices to go down, sellers waiting to list until prices go up. I just closed on a transaction where the first time buyers were able to get a 100% loan, but their credit was impeccable; for the most part first time buyers face much more restrictive borrowing standards. With fewer first time buyers, sales are affected all the way up the chain. Financially it’s been a miserable six months.
So. Figuring food is somewhat important to my future, it’s back into the shoe business until things sort themselves out.
I’m keeping my license active, but will work in coordination with my brother John - also with RE/MAX, in the business for twenty years - so there are no gaps in representation. Even though the real estate industry is changing - we still spend waaaaaayy too much time worrying about what’s best for agents and too little worrying about what’s best for the customers - I love the business, and will keep this blog going, though it may seep a little more often into the overtly political.
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Not unrelated, here are May numbers. I’ll post charts when I have time. Per Terradatum, Portland Metro Area:
Median Price: $287,348. Down 3.4% YoY; up from April so down 4.2% from peak.
Sales: YoY Down 36.7% in units, 39.3% in dollar volume.
Pending: YoY Down 25.1% in units, 28.2% in dollar volume.
Months’ Supply of Inventory: 7.9 months, down from 8.2 months in April, up from 5.0 months YoY. MLS figures will be about 9.5 months.
New Listings: Down YoY 13.5%.
Expirations: Up YoY 43.6%.
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