Who's Unrealistic? Sellers or Buyers?

I've been thinking alot lately about where the happy medium is in our marketplace. Truth be told, we are actually doing much better in The Triangle Market than other parts of the country. I consider myself lucky that I have transactions working!!

Having worked onsite for builders for almost 8 years in a seller's market gave me one side of the story. It seemed much simpler then. Sellers (the builders I represented onsite) were pretty cut and dry. This is the price we'll sell it for, yes we'll do that, no we won't do that, if you don't buy it then someone else will come along that will. And I know it wasn't much different on resale sides. Sellers had the leverage and used it to their best advantage, which they should. That's the assurance a seller has in a seller's market.

We know that we are not in a seller's market anymore-it's clearly a buyer's market. But in some cases there doesn't seem to be alot of buying taking place. What's going on?

Let's face it-there are more people that want to live in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area than people clamoring to leave it-so if you plan on lowballing, you might encounter one of those sellers who says "thanks but no thanks" to your low offer. That's what I am finding-that there's not alot of desperation with sellers here, so there's been less meeting of the minds between buyers and sellers. And sometimes between listing agents and sellers.


Recently I lost 2 listings because of sellers who had unrealistic expectations about what their home would fetch in this market. The first one was a young couple who have a big house, and want to downsize into a trendy, urban new c0nstruction neighborhood. Well, when all the number crunching was done, what they owed and what they wanted to sell for were pretty far apart. To the tune of about $20,000. I told them in good faith I could not list their home for that higher price tag, knowing that it would not sell.

When I walked out the door, I knew I had done well in my presentation but also knew in my gut that I wouldn't get the listing. Sure enough, they e-mailed me early the following week to tell me they had chosen another agent. I knew when I saw the home posted on MLS, it would be very telling-and it was! The home is listed at that higher price point. I wish them well, but don't think they'll be selling anytime soon.

Alot of people that are selling now probably bought when it was a seller's market, and want to employ the same philosophies. But it's a different time with different circumstances, and the rules have changed.

Doing What It Takes

It's been awhile since my last post, and I have some news! I recently took a job back on the air, to help pay the bills while the Real Estate Market is slow. Agents whose business is quite established are doing okay, but agents like myself who are just trying to get their business going are struggling. As of yet, I don't have repeat clients. I am still trying to build my referral base. I figured the best thing to do was to take a job that's fun, and let's face it.....quite cool. Radio and real estate are similar in that you've either got it or you don't. And, I consider myself very lucky that I've "got it" in both!

All I did was send one e-mail about a possible job, and before I knew it I was offered a FULL TIME gig doing traffic. The good news is that I still have ALOT of flexibility to work on real estate-all weekend, middle of the day, evenings. The bad news is I have to be up @ 4:30am, by work at 5:30am. Ugh. I have done this schedule before, though, so I knew what to expect. It can be a brutal schedule-you just have to discipline yourself to go to bed early. As long as I am in bed by 9, lights out before 10 I am okay.

I am actually at my real estate office right now-it's 1:15 in the afternoon and I have already put in an 8 hour day. I have to go back to traffic at 2:30-I'll be leaving here in awhile to go home and make some coffee, then back out the door.

When I set my mind to it, I can do anything. This has actually made me more efficient, I believe, in my real estate career. I don't have alot of time to play around-every minute counts. In the long run I think this will be good for my real estate career.

Oh yeah, I am pretty much the News/Sports/Talk Traffic Goddess right now. I do WPTF 680am, WDNC 620am (The Bull), WRBZ 850 The Buzz, and also NC State Government Radio. State Government has their own radio station. Who knew?