Relationship Management – So, How’s The Real Estate Market?

It’s hard for an agent to go anywhere these days without people asking “How’s The Real Estate Market?”  Almost everyone wants to know what the Real Estate Market is doing. With all of issues facing us as we move forward this year, it’s hard to keep score and offer an opinion as to whether  things are getting better or worse.

An agent can look to many different indicators to elicit a conversation about Real Estate. You can talk about:

• Politics- and the impact the elections are having on Real Estate
• Gas Prices– The Middle East Geo-Political issues and their impact on Gas Prices and National Security are serious indeed. Both of those issues could seriously impact the housing recovery and even trends in growth as homeowners minimize transportation distances and costs.
• The $16 plus trillion deficit -in the United States are how it will be reduced, or at least funded so the U.S. doesn’t default on its debt. This issue will continue to have a direct impact on the Real Estate Recovery.
• The Unemployment Issue– Levels above 8% make it difficult for a recovery to take hold. Will this improve or do we have a new standard where unemployment will remain high from now on? Could this mean we will become a nation of renters?
•  The European Union- How about the problems in Europe? Will the EU lose Greece or dissolve entirely because it can’t cover debtor nations like Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal. If the EU collapses and severely curbs our exports, will the U.S. experience a double-dip recession? The European Recession has just started.
•  China- And how about new issues? Chinese export growth disappeared in January. If Chinese growth reverses, how will the U.S. fare with a significant shock to GDP?

These are all intriguing issues that make it nearly impossible to predict what will happen this year. So, what standard can be applied that will provide a good indicator of what is to be in the coming months?  How about looking at what’s happening this year as compared to last year within  a specific community?  In other words, just track sales for January and February this year, and compare those numbers to what happened in January and February of last year.

• If sales are up this year, it’s going to be a better year, not withstanding a major crisis.
•  If sales are down, look out!  It’s likely that things could get worst, or that we’ll be bouncing along the bottom for quite some time.
•  If sales are flat year-over-year, plan on a long, arduous recovery that could take 5-10 years.

The best part of this approach is that once you’ve made your predictions to your buyers, sellers, sphere of influence, farm and the entire world, you can track your results at the end of every month by updated your year-over-year findings and sharing them with everyone you know. With a little luck, the universe of people you know will become as addicted to monthly updates you provide.

Congratulations! You are now a well-informed Trusted Real Estate Advisory. So, now go out and have some fun with Real Estate!