Reflections upon a tough year…

As I sat down to try to reflect on 2008, I realized that is was a tough year all around. Most of my listings made it through the year unsold – not a good thing. It seemed like we were always “chasing the market” down in value, always just a little behind what the price needed to be to sell in this foreclosure-driven market. As I looked at the numbers and the charts that were contained in my last two days worth of posts, I realized that I had been focusing upon a dramatically shrinking segment of the market – traditional retail sales – and had properties listed that primarily would have appealed to the move-up buyer segment, itself also shrinking. No wonder I was having such trouble selling those listings.

I actually sold more homes in 2008 than ever before, it was just that some of the “sales” were really leases and all of the real sales were for lower priced homes – pretty much what how the market did overall. My listings above $300,000 pretty much just sat there and the one million dollar listing that I had only had two showings all year long. There just aren’t that many million-dollar buyers out there these days. I had the pleasure of helping two couples move to Milford this year, both of whom had seen my Web site – http://www.movetomilford.com/ and contacted me because of it.

I also helped four first-time buyers find their first homes and that was fun. Three are young, just married couples and it was nice to be able to share in their enthusiasm at getting their first place. All of them got great deals and were able to buy more house than they had imagined that they could afford. I focused my Web site – http://www.mihomebuyer.com/ - on first time buyers this year and hope that it has been a help to those seeking information about home ownership for the first time.

On the sell side, I had to watch one of my clients slide into foreclosure and that was tough, because he is a hard-working guy who really didn’t do anything all that wrong – he just lost all of his overtime and his wife got laid off. A couple of would-be clients just gave up before we could get their houses listed and walked away from them. I had several potential sellers decide to just hold off listing their houses, once I told them what the current market price would be; and that’s OK, too.

Late in the year I opened a new Web site – http://www.mishortsales.net/ - to try to reach out to distressed homeowners who might need information about alternatives to going all the way through foreclosure and help with the short sale process. I’ve already got a potential client from that site.

I enter the New Year with a renewed sense of hope and a commitment to do the things that I’ve been avoiding doing or just don’t particularly like doing; but, which need to be done in order to be successful. Most of that has to do with sitting down and making the calls that I need to make in order to get more business. Some of it has to do with having the conversations that I need to have with some of my sellers, to get them to a more realistic market price. But mostly it has to do with working every day with a positive attitude and a sense of enthusiasm.

This is a wonderful business to be in. I get to work with lots of really nice people and I get to help them all be happier because of what I do. How great is that? I’ve said before that I live with Pollyanna and work for Little Mary Sunshine. Now, even my daughter is in on the act. She gave me one of those self-coaching books call 212° the extra degree (the temperature at which water become steam and is able to power engines) about taking the extra step, making the extra effort, doing the extra thing (adding that extra degree) that can make the difference between being OK and being great. So excuse me, I have to run off and boil some water to power my little steam engine. 2009 is going to be great!