“Fear less, hope more. Eat less, chew more. Whine less, breathe more. Talk less, say more. Love more, and all good things will be yours.” (Swedish Proverb) from the Jack’s Wining Words Blog. As usual Jack hit the nail right on the head with this recent post of a Swedish proverb.
One of the things that’s I’ve noticed in posts to my discussions of the current real estate market is that lots of people are stating that they are “going in every day and working hard, but seeing less business.” That may indeed be a very succinct way of stating a good part of the problem these days, if one thinks about it a bit. We are all working harder, doing lots of things; but, they are the things that we’ve always done and we’re doing them in a market that has moved out from under us. The people who are currently succeeding are those who decided a year or two back to do something that they’d never done – work with REO listings. When the market moved our cheese, too many of us didn’t move with it – me included. Now it doesn’t matter how hard one works at doing the same old things that we always did – it just isn’t the way to be successful in the current market.
So what are we to do – we who missed the REO boat and don’t have REO relationships with lenders? The main alternatives that I see for us is to become the experts at a few things that still present somewhat viable market opportunities – working with first time buyers (who now make up the biggest buyer segment in my area), helping distressed homeowners with short sales as an option to foreclosure, or focusing upon leases with the people displaced by foreclosures. There is another option, that of working with investors who are snapping up foreclosed homes; but that, too, requires relationships that may not be in place with those investors.
There are many techniques that I’m sure can be discussed about how to go about increasing your business in those segments, everything from holding First Time Buyer Seminars or Short Sales Seminars to buying into local legal news feeds about delinquent homeowners. For my part, I have also created a Web site for first time buyers – http://www.mihomebuyer.com/ and one for short sales – http://www.mishortsales.net/ which have both gained some traction locally. I do find that I’m working primarily with first-time buyers right now and I have
several clients looking for lease properties. The short sale side has been slow, but I have had a couple of opportunities.
I guess the key is not just to “do something”, it’s to “do something different!” What are you doing in your area that is different and what’s working for you?
One of the things that’s I’ve noticed in posts to my discussions of the current real estate market is that lots of people are stating that they are “going in every day and working hard, but seeing less business.” That may indeed be a very succinct way of stating a good part of the problem these days, if one thinks about it a bit. We are all working harder, doing lots of things; but, they are the things that we’ve always done and we’re doing them in a market that has moved out from under us. The people who are currently succeeding are those who decided a year or two back to do something that they’d never done – work with REO listings. When the market moved our cheese, too many of us didn’t move with it – me included. Now it doesn’t matter how hard one works at doing the same old things that we always did – it just isn’t the way to be successful in the current market.So what are we to do – we who missed the REO boat and don’t have REO relationships with lenders? The main alternatives that I see for us is to become the experts at a few things that still present somewhat viable market opportunities – working with first time buyers (who now make up the biggest buyer segment in my area), helping distressed homeowners with short sales as an option to foreclosure, or focusing upon leases with the people displaced by foreclosures. There is another option, that of working with investors who are snapping up foreclosed homes; but that, too, requires relationships that may not be in place with those investors.
There are many techniques that I’m sure can be discussed about how to go about increasing your business in those segments, everything from holding First Time Buyer Seminars or Short Sales Seminars to buying into local legal news feeds about delinquent homeowners. For my part, I have also created a Web site for first time buyers – http://www.mihomebuyer.com/ and one for short sales – http://www.mishortsales.net/ which have both gained some traction locally. I do find that I’m working primarily with first-time buyers right now and I have
several clients looking for lease properties. The short sale side has been slow, but I have had a couple of opportunities.I guess the key is not just to “do something”, it’s to “do something different!” What are you doing in your area that is different and what’s working for you?
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