Every day brings on new challenges in real estate.  It appears to be more difficult to get files to close.  Why is that?  Most agents in our area are producing less than they did for the past several years.  Everybody has an opinion about what this market holds for us in the future, The problem is...we don't know.  Yes, that's true...we don't.  Everything we knew to be true and predictable from previous years, no longer holds.  An example of this is that our listings would generally pick up in March and homes would go under contract at a pretty good pace until end of May.  Things would slow down in June (vacation month) and then pick back up again in July and August.  Things would slow down again in September and we would get a second wind in November and December and then slow down again in January.  This cycle would repeat year after year and we could almost chart it for our prospective clients.  This year, our listings picked up in January and we wrote so many contracts in April that our heads were spinning.  Then it all but stopped May 1st.  The tax credit that ended April 30th was the reason for this.  April actually "stole" production from May.  Here it is first and June and we don't expect anything to pick back up until about the second week in June....but at what level?
 
The mortgage industry is changing daily....we cannot keep up with it.  We have an issue right now with a loan that isn't going to close until the HOA agrees to subordinate or we can find a lender that will accept the "60 day letter".  Goodness...we didn't see this coming.  We are talking to the HOA right now to get them to change their bylaws...otherwise no owners will be able to sell their house with the new lending rules.   We have another property listed where the HOA has lawsuits and lenders will not make loans on it, so we are forced to only accept a cash sale...how likely is that?  We don't know.  Bottom line....which may be a good thing actually...is that inexperienced real estate agents and loan officers will not be able to stay in the business.  While I do not like to see anyone's livelihood affected, an inexperienced or part time agent usually does more harm than good in a transaction.  We typically end up doing all the work on these files in order to protect our clients' interest.  We firmly believe that each party to the transaction needs to add value or the consumer is the one hurt. 

Looking at a few statistics, our Houston Board of Realtors shows that our monthly housing market peaked in 2007 and has declined for 2008 and 2009.  BUT, the number of real estate agents is growing in our area!  What this means is that there are more and more agents trying to get less and less business.  But many of these agents are invisible to the public because their production might be less than five transactions per year.  I hear from people directly or indirectly that they see my signs "all over Pearland".  It is true in our market, that the consumer can probably name about 5-6 real estate agents right off the bat.  But in reality, there are hundreds of agents who call Pearland..."home".  The consumer wants an agent that is experienced and knows how to navigate around the "turbulence".  When we run into a brick wall, we have to see if we can go around it, over it, under it or drive right through.  We do not stop until we have exhausted all avenues.  Depending on the "issue", we sometimes contact the title company to discuss with their attorneys.  Sometimes, we get the lender to call their account executive.  Sometimes, we have to re-negotiate with the buyer and seller.  Every problem is a learning experience and our team shares experiences with each other in this regard.  Have I mentioned that we have the best Team!  Many top producing agents will have team members that had difficulty being a "solo" agent because their production was not high enough.  Getting on a team made sense because they could get the business from the Team Leader.  While I do have four team members, each of them could "fly solo", as we call it.  But, the advantages of being on the team for us is that we can share experiences, help with the overflow of buyers from time to time, trade weekend phone duty and spend more time and money on marketing.  Our marketing dollars go further and we have greater exposure with our combined efforts.  We enjoy our #1 status on Google for the search terms "Pearland Real Estate".

If you're thinking about buying or selling, give us a call!  There are many cute slogans about real estate, but I personally like "A World of Local Expertise".  We market globally, but sell locally!  Call us....we want to be Pearland's Preferred Realtors!

Kathye Warfield
www.PearlandHomes.com
281-485-1946