| Every day brings on new challenges in real estate. It appears to be more difficult to get files to close. Why is that? Most agents in our area are
producing less than they did for the past several years. Everybody has an opinion about what this market holds for us in the future, The problem is...we don't know. Yes, that's true...we don't.
Everything we knew to be true and predictable from previous years, no longer holds. An example ...
ପၤŮŸ&Ÿ&..we didn't see this coming. We are talking to the HOA right now to get them to change their bylaws...otherwise no owners will be
able to sell their house with the new lending rules. We have another property listed where the HOA has lawsuits and lenders will not make loans on it, so we are forced to only accept a
cash sale...how likely is that? We don't know. Bottom line....which may be a good thing actually...is that inexperienced real estate agents and loan officers will not be able to stay in
the business. While I do not like to see anyone's livelihood affected, an inexperienced or part time agent usually does more harm than good in a transaction. We typically end up doing all
the work on these files in order to protect our clients' interest. We firmly believe that each party to the transaction needs to add value or the consumer is the one hurt.
Looking at a few statistics, our Houston Board of Realtors shows that our monthly housing market peaked in 2007 and has declined for 2008 and 2009. BUT, the
number of real estate agents is growing in our area! What this means is that there are more and more agents trying to get less and less business. But many of these agents are invisible to
the public because their production might be less than five transactions per year. I hear from people directly or indirectly that they see my signs "all over Pearland". It is true in our
market, that the consumer can probably name about 5-6 real estate agents right off the bat. But in reality, there are hundreds of agents who call Pearland..."home". The consumer wants an
agent that is experienced and knows how to navigate around the "turbulence". When we run into a brick wall, we have to see if we can go around it, over it, under it or drive right
through. We do not stop until we have exhausted all avenues. Depending on the "issue", we sometimes contact the title company to discuss with their attorneys. Sometimes, we get the
lender to call their account executive. Sometimes, we have to re-negotiate with the buyer and seller. Every problem is a learning experience and our team shares experiences with each
other in this regard. Have I mentioned that we have the best Team! Many top producing agents will have team members that had difficulty being a "solo" agent because their production was
not high enough. Getting on a team made sense because they could get the business from the Team Leader. While I do have four team members, each of them could "fly solo", as we call
it. But, the advantages of being on the team for us is that we can share experiences, help with the overflow of buyers from time to time, trade weekend phone duty and spend more time and money
on marketing. Our marketing dollars go further and we have greater exposure with our combined efforts. We enjoy our #1 status on Google for the search terms "Pearland Real
Estate".
If you're thinking about buying or selling, give us a call! There are many cute slogans about real estate, but I personally like "A World of Local
Expertise". We market globally, but sell locally! Call us....we want to be Pearland's Preferred Realtors!
Kathye Warfield
www.PearlandHomes.com
281-485-1946
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