My New Year's Resolution

As I contemplated what to make as my first post of the New Year, I decided to start out the year on a positive, upbeat note and write a post that looks ahead, not back. I suppose that all of us would like to be able to see the future, but then we’d all be rich and likely bored to death. The unknowns about the future make if both scary and exciting. Many choose to focus on the scary and are paralyzed by fear, uncertainty and doubt. I choose to be excited about the possibilities and the challenges and about the rewards that await those who can overcome the challenges.

There is consensus among the pundits that 2009 will start off pretty much as 2008 ended, with a continued high level of foreclosures and continued devaluation of property values. There is no consensus on when we will bottom out and start back, with the best-case scenarios starting in the second half of 2009 and the doomsday forecasters putting the beginning of the end of the recession out as far as 2011. Whoever turns out to have been right, we have to play the hand that we’ve been dealt going into the year.

The fact is that people will be buying and selling houses in 2009, just as they were in 2008; and, they will need all the help that they can get to do either in these trying times. Sellers will have to focus especially hard on setting a competitive price for their houses, making sure the house is competitive in terms of the 3-C’s of real estate – Condition, Clutter and Cleanliness. Sellers will also have to commit to the other two P’s of real estate – Patience and Persistence – (Price is the first P of the 3-P’s of real estate) more than ever.

Buyers will need to be more focused upon what it is they really want, to avoid becoming endless shoppers and many will need the best advice that they can get on how to deal with banks for foreclosures and short sales. Buyers of distressed properties will also need to be extra diligent in their investigation of the property, with a thorough home inspection being a must. Buyers also will need to put in the effort to do the research necessary to get the best possible mortgage deal that fits their needs and repayment capabilities.

So, where will the sellers and buyers get all of the help that they need? Well, Duh! Call me of course. That’s what’s so exciting for me. There are just tons of people out there who will need good real estate advice and I am well positioned to provide that help. My challenge, which I’m excited about tackling, is getting the word out so that as many of those people as possible at least know that I’m here and that I can help. This Blog is obviously one vehicle for that and I will be using as many others as I can.

I already have a FaceBook page and will be joining several of the other social networking sites. I send out a monthly, paper-based newsletter to about 500 people right now and will be expanding that mailing list as the year goes on. I email weekly MLS updates to 105 potential buyers and will be adding to that list as the year goes on ( and hopefully taking a bunch off the email list as I find them homes). I already do a multi-picture display on the MLS and Realtor.com (as well as over 100 other Web sites) and I produce my own virtual tours for both sites. This year I’m adding video and will be putting all of my listings up on You Tube and other video sharing sites. I’ll also continue to work to make sure that my four real estate Web sites come up high in the results on Google and other search engines.

Most of those are technology-based approaches, which work but which need reinforcement using a more personal approach. So, this year I’m committed to putting ion a greater effort at direct social contact with my clients and prospective clients – more phone calls, more face-to-face meetings, and, yes, even more cold calling on For Sale By Owners and Expired listings. I hate cold calling; but, I’ve finally figured out that no matter how long I sit here typing away on Internet sites, there are just lots and lots of people who will never see that work and will never call me on their own.

I’ve resolved call them in 2009. For me, that will be the biggest challenge of 2009, but, hey, it’s not like I said that I would climb Mt Everest or jump out of a perfectly good airplane (I’m not big on sky diving either). All I have to do is pick up the phone and make the calls. I can do this!

So, if your phone rings, pick it up; it may be me. Happy New Year!