The economy’s decline leveled off significantly from April through June, confirming  that the worst is behind us.

GDP declined at an annualized rate of 1 percent in the second quarter, after shrinking an amazing 6.4 percent earlier this year. But consumer spending, 70 percent of economic activity,  continues to fall as Americans continue to save and  reduce debt. Economists express concern that our basic spending habits have been permanently altered by this great recession. This is also having an effect on rentals as renters downsize or insist on rent reductions.

With this as a backdrop we looked at rental rates which a are a prime factor in evaluating a property. We clearly have a long way to go. The Dept of Commerce chart indicates we are at a fragile beginning of a recovery. The key to successful property ownership now will be to keep it occupied and ride this out. Continue reading this post

It’s no common secret that the real estate market over the past year has continued to dramatically change towards a market concentrated in short sales, foreclosures and REO’s.  

For those of you that don’t know what REO means — it means Real Estate Owned.  It’s a term used to identify a property is owned by a bank.  Banks actually consider REO’s a liability instead of an asset because they are in the MONEY business not real estate business. 

As a Top Selling Team in Tampa and St Pete, we have modified our business to help service these “niche” markets.  In the first quarter of 2009, nearly half of our business was selling (either listings or homebuyers) distressed properties.  We have learned through much education, courses, certifications, and trial and error the best ways to represent buyers and sellers in these specific situations.

If you are a Realtor and haven’t started working these markets — WAKE UP!  If you are in a market that has not been hit as hard with foreclosures, don’t worry its coming.  It’s time to prepare now.  

If you are a new real estate agent, read up!  I had a new agent join our team this week and just like I’d send this information to a prospective home buyer, I wanted to review it and tailor it to him so he understands the urgency needed to work buyers on bank owned houses.

Below are tips for Realtors representing buyers on bank owned homes. Continue reading this post

I know that most everyone looks at me as an Internet guy who is good at lead conversion. As much as that is one of my strong points, one of my favorite things I do is teach my agents about Customer Education. Over the past few months I have spent a ton of money to educate myself on new concepts I could bring to the real estate world to help my company increase our business.  

One of our biggest obstacles, and most likely one of yours, is the lack of commitment that many home buyers are making these days. When I started my search a few months ago, I had no idea what I was going to learn.

I learned how to use Customer Education in our business to help drive sales.

Usually, as Realtors, we are quick to blame everyone and everything else about why a customer didn’t end up buying a home from us. I have observed this since I got into the business in 2001.  Since then I have realized that in order to become successful in this business, in fact in any business, is to accept responsibility and learn from our errors. Over the past year our Real Estate Agents have averaged 8 new buyers per month but only sold 1 home per 8 buyers per month.  

After analyzing these numbers, I realized that the reason Buyers were not commiting was because of the lack of information or more importantly their misinformation. After all, we are all products of the media these days and if they say the Real Estate market is bad, that’s a great excuse for Realtors not to become successful.  

If the Realtors don’t believe in the market, how can the buyer believe? Continue reading this post

If you go back to your high school or college economics class you may remember that the price of anything is determined by supply and demand. The law of demand states that when a market demands a high quantity of a good or service, the price of the good or service will be high. When the market demands a low quantity the prices will be low.

This model holds true in the real estate market as well. So to set a bottom in the market we need more demand or lower supplies. Realtors do their best to increase demand but one thing that we can do for sure is to get rid of our overpriced listings.

Get rid of your overpriced listings.

We won’t see the real estate market bottom out until the number of properties currently for sale is reduced. The biggest thing that we can do as Realtors is to not renew our overpriced listings and don’t take any more.

One of the biggest challenges when working with a buyer is not only finding them a property they like but finding one that they like with a realistic seller. After all of the horrible news about the real estate market and the recession there are still so many overpriced properties out there.

I haven’t done any formal analysis but I would bet that in any particular neighborhood you will find 25% to 50% of the homes for sale have no chance of selling because of their asking price. If we could get rid of a good portion of these overpriced listings we will be that much closer to finding a bottom.

Why do Realtors take overpriced listings? Continue reading this post

[polldaddy poll="1290306"]

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions – at least not in the traditional sense that many of us think of. Instead, I find it more productive to set goals. Some are general, some specific. For example, it wouldn’t be wise to set a resolution to get more closings in 2009. That’s not going to actually help me achieve more closings that I actually seek.

Instead, I look back to see what I might have done wrong in the past and resolve to improve. For me, this would be that I don’t think that I seized on many of the opportunities to turn leads into clients and clients into closings. Considering the real estate climate last year and the likelihood that it will continue well in to 2009 or longer, I consider making the most out of each and every opportunity the highest priority for 2009.

In other words, conversion.

For many, 2008 was a transitional year while others laid the foundation for a successful career for years to come. Wherever you may be in your career, it’s time to put 2008 behind us and be prepared to seize all opportunities that present themselves to us in the upcoming year. To do this successfully, we need to be prepared. Continue reading this post