What Goes On

It's been a quiet time in my hometown of rural Wilmington.

Winter is winding down and spring is in the air. The cold months are always the slowest but even when it is cold, if the sun shines the phones ring. It hasn't been too bad this winter despite the "soft" market. (I don't know why they call it "soft" when realtors have to work harder just to break even.)

I've had some relatively productive leads. The hard part, though, is trying to hang onto them. People that want to see a property or even call you just because they have been pre-approved for a loan (yeah!), will soon disappear although you, as a realtor, have tended to their needs.

Listings are a dime a dozen. It used to be that all you wanted were listings. Now, however, a listing is the hardest part of your job. There was a time when, if you had a listing, all you had to do was sit back and watch it sell. But now, with the soft market, listings can languish for months. I used to almost never get a listing. But, surprise surprise, I got a call generated from one of the many prospecting letters I have sent out over the winter. And it was just up my alley. A 100+ year old Greek Revival home that is lovingly updated with a fabulous garden. (Of course the garden doesn't look like much now, but I saw pictures.) My new client and I have so many things in common it is almost uncanny. I met her years ago while working at the public library. We knew each other in passing but I never new much about her. Now I get to market her home in the fashion in which I am accustomed.

I have heard around the office, not once but several times, the statement that an agent would give up all their listings for one buyer. The market is glutted with homes to sell, but if you have a buyer (hopefully that doesn't have anything to sell) and if you can hang onto them and if you can find a seller willing to negotiate (getting more difficult all the time) and the buyer can get financed (again, getting more difficult all the time) then just maybe you will make a sale. There are a lot of "if's" in that statement, you will notice. But an "if" doesn't make it impossible, just harder.

BTW, I lied about it being quiet in Wilmington. At least in my neck of the woods things have been crazy. All in one weekend, the sewer backed up in my basement and the old antique furnace gave up the ghost. My home has survived, I am now living in the 21st century with heat, A/C and an appropriate place for my waste to end up. Oh yeah, and the siding blew off the end of my house in a wind storm. I'm so sick of workmen that right now that if my roof blew off, I would get up there and fix it myself.

And that's the news from rural Wilmington, where the workmen are gone, the market has dried up and this realtor has survived (so far.)