Real Estate

I thought I would take some time to blog about real estate. I am often asked about the market and since my blog title is Realtor Mom - I should pay at least some tribute to the Realtor end of things. Here's the good, bad and the ugly on our current market.
How's the market? I hear that question all of the time. I never know how to answer that. It can suck, it can be exciting, it can be encouraging, it can be interesting but mostly, it can suck. For about 3 years, all news is bad. I come and tell you how much your house is worth and that's bad. Then we list but have to change that price and that's bad. We finally get an offer and it's bad. So as a Realtor - it's our job to spin "bad". Here's my spin.
We are lucky. We live in a part of the country that STILL get's about $300,000 for a 3 bedroom house. That's a lot in relation to the rest of the country. So we are lucky. You are unlucky if you paid $525,000 for that same house in 2005 but I am spinning "good" now....It's not all bad. People still want to live here. Homes don't stand empty and boarded up for months or years or even a day for that matter. We still have the goods - we live close to Chicago, we have good schools and we have a train. Three things that make it appealing to live here. Yes, we are in a dip but that dip still doesn't even compare to the pain and agony some communities have had to bear these past couple of years. Thank goodness we still have buyers who want to live here.
Here's my spiel when I can no longer spin.
Buyers can be horrible horrible people. They watch a lot of HGTV and CNN to learn that it's "their time". They come in low and refuse to go up. They let $$ drive their house hunt rather than emotion or desire. They are robots looking for the best deal. They pay far too much attention to things my generation of buyers never had the luxury to care about - like "there's no back patio - where would we grill?". They are wise and in the end, know they are doing sellers a big fat favor - and honestly, they are right.
Sellers - every single seller thinks that this market dip has effected every home but their own. It's almost impossible to reason with sellers b/c they think that the $200,000 drop in prices is money they actually lost - like it was their bank account and someone stole it. If you didn't sell your home from 2002-2006, than the reality is this - you never had that money. It is imaginary money.
Saying all this - here's the bottom lines. I am impressed with buyers today. They have saved up a lot more money than I could have ever saved at their age. They are focused and taking full advantage of a great opportunity. Without them, the market would be done. No one would even have to ask me about the market - it would be obviously dead. And my heart is broken for sellers - who either can't sell b/c there is too much inventory or because they owe more than they can likely get. Either way, it's painful for them right now. Less painful than most of the country? Yes, but still painful.
My job is like all jobs. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. Great news, bad news. Hopeful news, defeating news. We take it - learn from it - spin it if we have to. We have to maintain a fundamental ideal - you have something you want to sell and someone out there wants it. The rest is just logistics but the belief in what you are selling must be very strong. I believe in these homes. I believe in these towns. And I believe that there will come a time when buyers go back to thinking that homes are more than houses and sellers understand that $400.000 for a 1 bedroom condo is insane. A girl can dream.