Soft housing market brings greater expectations for brokers

Zac Bissonnette — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:10:00 EST

Filed under: Competitive Strategy, Marketing and Advertising, Housing, Small Business

Perhaps some good will come out of the softening of the real estate market. A year ago, homes were selling with little or no effort at all in some of the hottest markets. Some agents were reaping six-figure paydays just for breathing and, in many cases, they added little value.

But times have changed. The Wall Street Journal recently featured a list of 5 Things You Should Expect from Your Agent, and brokers are scrambling to find ways to add value to their listings. According to The Journal, "With the housing market in a dive and homes lingering unsold for months, the relationship between real-estate agents and their clients is beginning to change. Both buyers and sellers are demanding more from their brokers, and getting it."

This is exactly what they need to be doing -- and not just for this rough market. With the growth in online services making "for sale by owner" easier than ever, real estate agents must find ways to make themselves indispensable if they are to survive as a profession.

If the softening of the market forces them to do that, it could be worth it -- a few years of lower paydays is a small price to pay for the revitalization of an industry.

Soft housing market brings greater expectations for brokers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Realtors expect further housing slump

Michael Fowlkes — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:15:00 EST

Filed under: Bad News, Industry, Economic Data, Housing, Federal Reserve

According to the The National Association of Realtors the current housing slump is only going to get worse. The NAR came out and lowered their forecast for home sales today, the ninth time this year it has done so.

The group stated today that it is now expecting to see a 8.6 percent drop in existing home sales. Its previous estimate, made last month, was that 2007 would witness a 6.8 percent decline. It is also predicting that the decline is not going to end anytime soon, and that we should expect to see further decay in the housing market into 2008.

New home sales are also going through rough times this year, and the NAR is predicting that 2007 will end with a 24 percent decline in sales. This follows a tough 2006 which saw new home sales fall off by 18 percent. It is now expecting that new home sales are not going to hit bottom until sometime in the first quarter of next year, not the end of this year as it had previously estimated.

The forecast that prices will start to climb again next year is not being universally accepted by industry analysts. Alex Barron, an analyst with Agency Trading Group Inc. thinks the group is being a bit optimistic in its 2008 forecast. Mr. Barron has stated that "you have to wonder what the NAR is thinking," and that "we're going to see a drop in volume and prices.''

Let's hope that the NAR is right, and there is a turnaround coming in the not too distant future for the struggling housing market.

[Thanks to D'Arcy Norman for the photo]

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Realtors expect further housing slump originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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