The Professionals Only Market

By Joel Persinger
YourRealEstateDude.com

This past week I had occasion to bump into a few Realtors I know. Without exception each one asked me, “How’s business”. One fellow went on for quite some time about his single client who has, according to him, been quite a challenge. He expressed his frustration at having no choice but to work with a client who is a stinker simply because she’s the only client he has. Then he finished his lament with, “I keep wondering if this is only happening to me.” What I found most interesting was that each and every one of these folks expressed the same lament in almost exactly the same words, “It’s not that I don’t have any business, I just don’t have any business that will close escrow.”

So, why do so many real estate people have plenty of clients who want to sell or want to buy, but few, if any who can actually achieve it? The answer is simple. This has become a “Professionals Only” market.

In the terminology of “business” TV news shows, the current real estate climate is called a “down market” or “slump”, etc. Lenders have experienced serious losses due to loans going bad and have tightened the requirements that borrowers must meet in order to get a loan as a result. Sellers have to compete with thousand of “foreclosure” properties being sold by banks. Banks price these properties low so that they will sell fast. This drives prices down, often to the point that the average seller can no longer afford to sell. Thus, fewer people can buy and fewer people can sell. The situation gets worse when we consider the number of distressed sellers in the marketplace who owe more on their home than the property is currently worth. There are also those folks who are frozen in place because they can’t sell their current home in order to move up to a larger one or downsize into a smaller one. No matter how you look at it, the bottom line is that it is much harder to buy or sell in this market than it was before.

When times are good and properties are selling like hot cakes everybody who has a desire for fast cash races down to the Department of Real Estate to get a real estate license. Suddenly the market is flooded with thousands of new real estate agents, most of whom have no idea what they’re doing. Real estate firms, anxious to get their piece of the fast market pie, lower their hiring qualifications so much that just about anyone who can fog a mirror and has a real estate license can hire on. The result is a market full of inexperienced, opportunistic agents.

By contrast, our current market is agonizingly slow. Inexperienced, opportunistic agents don’t thrive in such markets because there is no easy money to be had. They have never actually established a business or built lasting relationships with their clients. Instead, they simply grabbed the business that fell into their laps during the good times. Neither do they know what to do in order to help any clients they may have now. Thing have become more difficult and complicated. Some of these opportunistic folks may hang on for a while, but most will leave the business before long leaving only the career minded, professional agents behind to serve.

So, if you are one of the clients hoping to sell or buy, where does this leave you? In my humble opinion, it’s time for you to leave the amateurs behind and look for a seasoned agent who has lived through times like these before. This is a “Professionals Only” market. Hire a professional. There are plenty of them out there.