...and saw an informed Realtor standing there...
With apologizes to the 1953 novelty Christmas song “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”, today's buyers and sellers of residential real estate just might have a better shot at finding a hippo on their doorstep Christmas morning than finding a real estate agent who can answer the tough questions about what's going on in their local real estate market.
“It's a great time to buy” and “We've definitely hit the bottom” are not answers, they are sound bites. Sound bites...which do absolutely nothing when it comes to explaining how it could possibly be a great time to buy when everybody says buyers can't get loans. Sound bites...which don't explain why, since we have hit bottom, raising the price or holding firm when your home hasn't sold is not an option if you actually need to sell your home.
There is absolutely no point in arguing whether or not Americans still want to own homes. It is part of our culture that we want to own our own little piece of paradise; a place we can paint, decorate and fill with our own “stuff” without asking permission. We want to raise children with a place to play and a sense of belonging. We want to be part of a neighborhood or community, with the rights that comes with home ownership, to raise our voice in decisions that affect us. We want a dog.
Buyers and sellers have lots of questions and they deserve real answers. When the news reports FEWER FALL DELINQUENT IN PAYING MORTGAGES (NY Times 11/18/10) on the same day another reports that MORE HOMES ENTER FORECLOSURE PROCESS (Market Watch 11/18/10), a real estate professional isn't very professional if s/he can't explain what the heck is going on.
2010 was one of my busiest and most productive years in 30+ years in real estate. That would never have happened if I wasn't committed to understanding and explaining to my clients EXACTLY what is going on in the Chapel Hill/ Durham market in specific and the Triangle, North Carolina and U.S. Markets in general.
Got some tough questions? Bring 'em on. Confused by the obvious conflicts in conventional wisdom? Don't be, I'll help you sort it out. Want information about buying or selling that, when you hear it, you know in your gut it is true? I've got it.
2011 is going to be a great year to be a great real estate agent. Just like 2010, what it isn't going to be is a year that a mediocre agent can make a living. Sorry to sound harsh but if we've learned anything in the last few years it surely must be that accurate information, negotiating skill, the ability to explain what's happening and plenty of real life experience are what our clients need from us to make one of the most important investment decisions of their lives in one of the hardest economic environments of their lives.
I'm dedicated to my profession and able to prove it. Let's talk.
It's Simple...When You Have A Great Agent!
SarahGray Lamm is a licensed, full time, residential real estate professional in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina with over 60,000 hours of experience. She specializes in serving the real estate needs of home sellers, home buyers and investors in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham and Northern Chatham County and is proudly associated with Allen Tate Realtors, the Carolinas #1 independent realty company.
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