Clearing up the confusion

It's always funny to me ( I was goingto say amazing, but littleamazes me anymore in real estate) how mixed the messages are that come out of our industry every week. Depending upon what you read and from whom, the market is up or it's down. Existing home sales went down, then they went up and next week who knows what wil lbe reported. RealtyTimesreports one thing and Realtor.com reports another. RealtyTrac reports doom and gloom in the foreclosure market and NAR reports that Lawrence Yun (the National Association of Realtors house economist) is optimistic that things are getting better.

I suppose part of the problems is that so many different groups or sources are reporting from so many different perspectives. If you're a foreclosure oriented company you're going to focus upon and report upon foreclosures and distressed properties. If you represent the real estate industry and are trying to convince buyers and sellers to jump into the market, "Now" is always the time. If you're an economist you seldom know what's going on today until you can look back with 6 months of perspective and try to tell us what you think happened and why. Of course location has lots to do with what you hear or see, too. We are still in the pooper in Michigan, yet I get emails from agents in other parts of the country who tell that things are boomingand some who claim never to have had a depression at all in their housing market. Now, that is amazing.

So what's the casual observer to think of all of this confusion and contradictory information that they see reported in local papers or read on the Internet? Well, for one, that's probably what makes them a little skeptical. As an industry Realtors don't appear to have our act together - again exacerbated by the great local differences. Still, I think it's incumbent upon me as a local Realtor to be able to answer the questions "How real estate these days?" within the context of both my local markets and the greater national market that the clients hear about. Whatever they see on NBC or read about on Zillow or read about it in a local paper sets a backdrop for them when they ask that question of us.

I believe that you need more than just your good looks and a quick wit to deal with those questions. While I still have my wits about me, the looks have long ago faded. That's why I spend so much time tracking my local market - collecting data and creating statistics that don't exist anywhere else. You can't just claim to bathe local expert. You have to have the facts and the insight into what's happening in your neighborhoods and market. I can't get that just from my personal experience or the sales that I make. There's no shortcut - I have to collect the data, organized and analyze the data, maybe chart the data, but most importantly understand what the data is saying about my market. Then, I can go out without fear and present myself as THE Realtor for this market. It's up to me to clear up the public's confusion.

So, if you live in my market area in southeastern Michigan, go ahead and ask me - "How's real estate going?" I know and I'm ready to help you understand the real estate condition around here, too.