Long time no see!
We’re watching White Mountains Arizona Real Estate trends coming into the 2013 market. And there are some “markers” that you, as a potential buyer or seller of White Mountains AZ real estate may not see, but we do. And that’s what OTHER real estate agents are doing and why they’re doing it.
A big market temperature indicator (what agents are doing) is the explosion of real estate websites. Where an agent might have had none, now s/he has a website. Where an agent or brokerage might have had one, now they have two, three, or more. Why? Well, the fact is that the buyer pool is relatively small compared to a couple of years ago, the inventory is fairly low, and a lot of agents are not coping well with what they see as an anomaly. So, they think they need to do something—something that brings back the “good old days” of lots of buyers, lots of sellers. As if intensified marketing can actually affect THE market. It can’t…. Not really.
Many agents got into the business during the “bubble” time, when, anyone who could fog a mirror could sell a few homes, and conversely, anyone who could fog a mirror could BUY a home. We're not telling you anything you don't know... But, we’ve been in business for much longer-- good times, not so good times-- and realize that in “normal” (non-bubble) times, our market is somewhat sleepy-- that's good for you, because you can sneak up on some deals! But, our expectations haven’t been violated to the point where we’re concerned that current conditions are scary-bad and we should freak. Don’t get us wrong, we LIKE business, we want MORE business, but we don’t see the current market as ominous or an anomaly in the bigger picture or historically. We have some perspective. We have a lot of experience.
So, the explosion of websites, the multiple investments in expensive marketing programs (real estate agents are popping up everywhere like dang gophers!) indicates that many real estate agents are asking, “Where are they?!” Meaning where are ALL the buyers and sellers they experienced in the past. Well, we know where they are, and that’s a subject for another post.
But it made us think about real estate consumers and what they’re doing or not doing at any given time in any market climate. What is the ONE thing that many have in common? And we realized and acknowledged again, that talking to a Realtor is something that a lot of people just don’t want to do. There, we said it And we thought about why people generally don’t like to talk to Realtors. And we made a video.
So, laugh at us, laugh with us—we hope you enjoy our “Realtors-- a Necessary Evil?” video!
