Stockbrokers got disintermediated pretty good by the internet too. And you know what's coming for realtors.
My only question is what took so long?
Real estate careers cooling off - Everyone once wanted in the business; now those days are gone
At the height of California's recent housing boom, it seemed that everyone in need of a job was jumping into the real estate industry.
California's red-hot housing market - one of the hottest in the nation - was especially enticing to job seekers in search of fast money.
Homes became a flash-point for multiple offers, with some houses selling in a day or even within a few hours of being put on the market.
"You really didn't have to know or do anything," said James Joseph, owner of Century 21 Grisham-Joseph in Whittier, Coldwell Banker Ambassador in Whittier and Century 21 Ambassador in Brea.
"It didn't require communication skills, patience or even much in the way of negotiations. It seemed like when you went to a party everyone either had a real estate license or was getting one."
But those days are gone.
"So many of the people who got into this industry over the past two or three years have been order takers," he said. "They took a lot of orders, but now we're getting down to the people who know how to sell in a normal real estate market."
"If you look at the overall picture, 80 percent of the people who have real estate licenses weren't in the business five years ago," he said. "So, you've got a very young group in the business and many of them don't have experience in a normal - let alone depressed - market."
November 15, 2006
Remember when all those stockbrokers got laid off post-NASDAQ-bubble? Well, say goodbye to the realtors post-housing-bubble
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9 comments:
Everytime I see a picture of t-rex he's in the most monsterous pose,
Everytime I look at my dog he's lickin his balls. WTF?
I have always loved the BS business jargon like disintermediated. Sorry Keith but some buzzwords just suck
Realtor came over yesterday door to door looking for listings. Make up on crooked probably from shaking hands.
i was talking with a re appraiser yesterday in "it's different here"-marin, and she said business is really slow. but she also must have had some of that koolaid cuz she was saying now is a good time to buy.
Dear incisive HPrs and real estate agents alike. I am here to blatantly put the basic truth out there, weather or not you like it, dislike it, or otherwise. I frankly don’t care, but the fact of the matter is...There is no housing bubble, there is no impending doom on the American economy. All that’s going to happen in the future is the government it going to strip away slowly our rights until houses are assigned to families based on name race and gender rather than bought. "Why don’t you run home to your mommy?" I can almost hear you responding to my post with that drab over used response. And here I sit; getting entangled in the eternal time waster of old farts past your prime such as yourselves. I already feel as though the few miniscule minuets I am wasting to type this are inevitably doomed to be the most ill spent minuets of my day, but I truly cannot reiterate enough how insignificant your lives must be for your social life to revolve upon virtually arguing with stupid teenagers pretending to be 'terrorists/millionaires'. So in short, I hate HP and what its done to my mother 'sportsarena' 'flying monkey' 'V for vendetta'. She has become a droning HPer with nothing better to do than make sure the computer is comfterbly out of my grasp, and opened to this horrid, revolting blog from virtual hell.
Not so fast. Washington Post last Sunday had an interesting twist on this. In this declining market, sellers want RE agents, and in at least some cases, the agent can help with setting realistic prices, strong-arm sales and marketing tactics, etc.
Most realtors are not full time. Many are part time, either stay-at-home moms, retirees, and people who are not dependant on the income. Many in places where prices were soaring may have jumped in for quick profit and those will definitely be flushed out.
As long as there are houses there will be realtors to dispose of them. Builders will need them. Banks will need them. A resolution trust will need them. The long-term professional realtors who are firmly established will survive, the novices will be flushed out.
Not that I love realtors or feel they earn their commisions, but I guess when the market gets bad that is the test of if you realtor earns their money. Personally in a bad market I'd never list for more than 3 months and have a commision scale that reflects effort, 4% if sold in 30 days, 3% if sold in 60 days, 2% if sold in 90 days, not sold, bye-bye.
When I was trying to buy a house in Austin in April of 2005 I found a great foreclosure in Lakeway. It had been empty for at least seven months. It needed some repairs (leaking roof, pool etc) had some nice updates but could use a few more. A great 1/2 lot overlooking a golf course but not ON the course, a wonderful three level deck with a pool, nice custom built home. I put in a bid that reflected my "as is offer" because if the house had black mold from the roof leak that was an issue not to mention a new roof would cost $20,000 for they type and size, and the costs to repair the pool, update the kitchen and baths, and that I wasn't going to offer more than the average price per sq ft that foreclosures were selling for in Austin/Lakeway, and of course I wanted the bank (Washington Mutual) to make a counter offer.
The house had origninally had a first and second for a total of $438,000. The first was $285,000. The house had been bought by Californians who bought in 2000 and took out the second to put in the decks, pool, tile floors etc and lost the house because they couldn't sell it during the four year house-recession Austin experienced after the dotcom meltdown.
The realtor refused to even present the offer to the bank unless I came up to the price of the first loan. Now this house had been in foreclosure for a year. The bank didn't own the paper on the second which was wiped in foreclosure. They had all the costs of maintaining the house for year and taxes at the previous appraisal was $12,000 a year to the bank.
My agent wouldn't report the guy to the board because of the backlash she'd have to experience and it would hurt her and her business so we let it go as angry as I was. Point is that even in the down turn market here in Austin realtors didn't go away, but then they never had the volume of other cities. Most are ethical, some are not (like this dude and another agent who stole a client from my agent but she got her and got paid).
I just started in the business and I love this market. I know its not the quick selling market it used to be but this is a market where beginners like me have a chance to show others that we can learn and service our clients without comprimise. Family is in real estate but I am newly licensed so I don't have any licensed experience nonetheless when you have parents for agents you see how the ups and downs of housing markets affects the family budget. I've seen it all but I've set to experience it all as a formal agent.
Its in these markets whether you make or break it and I do plan on making in through this one and being there when the next wave comes.
I know this market is harsh but the simply fact that I disregard deconstructive criticism and that there is a home,lot,units bought and sold everyday, no matter what market it is.
The question is whether out of all the agents out here (Los Angeles California, are willing to push to the limit and stand out from their competitors.
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