November 2008

It's been a bad year for so many people.  How many have lost their jobs and their homes?  How many will not be able to sit down to a lavish turkey and stuffing Thanksgiving dinner this year, unless they have the good fortune of a local soup kitchen?

I don't usually write posts to reflect like this but even I have been scared by our current economy.  I still try to keep a good outlook although I must admit I've become guarded.

My husband and I had planned on purchasing a future retirement condo in Arizona this year while prices were affordable.  But now I'm wondering if we should go out on that limb.  I didn't have the best year in real estate sales and we don't really know what next year will bring.

I have my plans for taking on the real estate

UPDATE - 11/2/2017 - This is an older post that was made in a declining market.  The market is definitely better today but we still get sellers that want to list their homes higher than market value.  Read the rest of this post to see why that's not a good idea. 

A seller gets the most interest in the first week or two of listing a property.  If they start out too high, buyers lose interest and move on to other homes.  That first wave of buyers might have purchased already by the time sellers price their home correctly, so their final reduction won't hit as large of an audience.  I always remind sellers that unless they're lucky enough to find a cash buyer that falls in love with their home, it will have to appraise for any buyer using financing.

I am surprised at the fact that many sellers act surprised when I tell them we're in an historic bad real estate market.  So many reply, "Really?!", almost like they're shocked to hear this news.  I don't get it, just turn on the television, read a newspaper, go on the Internet, and you'll read all about the bad economy and the bad real estate market.  Buyers sure know about it!

Why Are Some Agents Acting So Positive?

Many agents are taught to be positive and don't mention the fact that they're having a bad year.  NAR is advertising a campaign to give people hope - it's a great time to buy, yada, yada, yada.  Of course, that mantra is true - it's a good time to buy, although some professionals say keep waiting as prices will continue to go down and

I sure wish I had a crystal ball.  There are so many different opinions out there, and I'm talking about trusted individuals that I look up to for their wisdom.  Yet they all have different views of the real estate market.

The Real Estate Predictions

I can't remember if it was our own National Association of REALTORS (NAR) or a large real estate publication that told us we would see a recovery in the 3rd quarter of 2008.  That sure didn't happen.  They pretty quickly changed their prediction to the 4th quarter which didn't ring true to me because in the Chicago area our 4th quarter is always slow due to weather, winter and the holidays.  So when I read that I wasn't convinced and my gut feelings were correct.  We are still seeing ever declining

UPDATE:  The Topix website no longer allows guest editors, which I think is a real shame.  I was able to clean out duplicate news posts and unrelated posts.  For instance, on the Oak Lawn page most any gunshot victim from Chicago that ended up in Christ Advocate Hospital's emergency room ended up as Oak Lawn news.  The Oak Lawn page was the worst of the three I edited, which also included Homer Glen and Orland Park.

In doing searches for different towns I've noticed that Topix always seems to come up in the search engines.  After reading another real estate agent's blog posting on the subject from the popular real estate portal called Active Rain, I skipped over to the Topix website and joined as an editor for the village of Oak Lawn.

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