Is your glass half full or half empty?

Hanley Wood has made an excellent economic study on how difficult is the situation on the real estate market; She is playing with the ghost of inflation and flagging the banner of doom. I will admit that the situation is not precisely the most favorable but when she is looking at her glass and saying that it is half empty. At the same time multiple realtors around the country are excelling in this market and even though the sales market did declined 2.6% this implied that 4,733,000 houses changed their owner in that month.

So, what are the successful real estate agents doing? They are increasing their presence in the Internet and in their farm areas. They are showing their customers that they are not only the more knowledgeable person in their market they are widening their possible clientele since they are using new techniques like virtual tours.

When a realtor uses virtual tours he/she goes one step further in the International market. Now not only the realtors and clients on their city can have an access to their listings. The use of the Internet allows everyone to reach you and your velocity on responding to your clients will ensure your share of the market.

If you are still not convinced that the glass is half full just think of this 0.01% of the houses sold in June represent 47.3 houses. My very modest opinion is that we can fight for at least one of these 47 houses with teeth and claws. To do this you need to apply all the new technologies available to increase our presence in the Internet, we also need to have automatic systems allowing us to respond to the prospects as soon as possible. You should also not forget the ranking of your page on the Internet. Increasing the SEO of your page is a must.



Reference: Wood, Hanley; "Housing Market Key Indicator Alert - Aug. 21" retrieved from the Internet at: http://brokeragentpro.com/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=1515

A Growing Real Estate Market

In this times that all the Real Estate Agents are hearing is that the market is shrinking, there is still a certain part of the real estate market that is continuously expanding.
As health care improves the number of Americans reaching their senior years is increasing at a tremendous pace. Some of them choose to live in active retirement communities while others look at facilities that allow them the assistance needed for their needs.
According the US census there were 37.3 million people over age 65 living in the United States in 2006 that is approximately 12 % of the US population. Not forget that this number is growing exponentially and is expected to increase to around 86.7 million people by the year 2050.
This market is spread all around the country and Florida is an excellent place for retirement due to its excellent climate. To address the needs of this growing community REaltors shoulkd increase the Interenet presence of their lisitng using virtual tours to increase the possibilities of obtaining a share of this market.
To prepare Realtors to focus on this growing group of the population the National Association of Realtors created the SRES designation. Those Realtors interested in addressing the needs of Americans ages 50 and over need to understand that it is not easy for people to downsize or move from their homes, therefore to cope with the stress generated you will need a lot of patience, but on the other hand you will be rewarded with the knowledge that you helped a person to obtain a better living condition.
Based on this and the continuous need of learning to correctly serve the community it will be a good time to go back to school and obtain the SRES designation.