Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Good Food Served With Good News on Turkey Day

Attitude is not everything, because the most positive attitude alone will not help us pull out of our current economic crisis. A positive attitude accounts for a lot. A positive attitude is the starting point for success, but more importantly, a positive attitude, teamed with a focused strategic plan AND action can become an unstoppable force.

Let's get busy.

Each Tuesday morning, at Real Estate One in Ann Arbor, MI, we hold an office business meeting of probably 50 to 75 full-time agents who are in the marketplace every day. A good chunk of these meetings focus on a market 'pulse' of what we experience, what other people tell us, and more importantly, how we respond, and what our approach is to the marketplace. It is somewhat natural, and very easy to go with the flow of our endless bombardment of bad news, and perpetuate a "woe is me" mentality. Or, we can go out into our individual worlds, and 'be the change' that we want to see. We can achieve that by maintaining focus on the fundamental elements of the real estate market here and now: If you want to buy, it is a great time, and there are lots of financing options available. If you need to sell, you will take a hit. However, if you are selling a house in Ann Arbor, you will take less of a hit than you would if your house were in many other markets, and chances are you will get a better deal in your new location.

Stepping back for a bit wider view, several of us agents see the mountain in front of us, and are choosing to climb the mountain rather than lay down and die at the foot of the mountain or whine about how big the mountain is. When we are bellying up to the Thanksgiving table, filling our plates with a Michael Phelpsian sized meal, you will not hear us say that the market sucks even though the market does suck. You WILL hear us talk about climbing the mountain with a focused plan. You will hear us talk about the proactive plan being advanced by the National Association of Realtors to stabilize and stimulate the real estate market on a national level.

The NAR® has recommended to Congress a four-point plan to stimulate home sales and stabilize housing valuations. The four-point plan’s principles are consumer-driven to help foster a housing recovery to support an economic rebound. Here are the 4 Points:

1) Eliminate the repayment piece of the first-time home buyer tax credit that was passed in the February stimulus bill, and to expand the tax credit to include all home buyers.

2) Making the increased FHA and conventional loan limits permanent to stimulate home sales and stabilize prices.

3) Urge that the Troubled Asset Relief Program be put back on track by targeting the funds for mortgage relief through a mortgage interest rate buy-down.

4) Finalize legislation to prohibit banks from entering into the business of real estate brokerage and property management.

I'm very pleased that the NAR leadership has decided to be proactive, unlike some other business leaders that come to mind.

Positive attitude is step 1. A solid, focused Plan of Action is step 2. Implementation of the plan is step 3. I hope you will join me in taking these 3 steps, which will lead you to a great 2009!

1 comment:

Bud Gibson said...

Did you see the nightline piece last night? They had the foreclosure king on. In Detroit, he was buying houses for 2 cents on the dollar and reselling them for an effective price of 53 cents on the dollar.

In a way, that's depressing. However, it does indicate a market exists, and if we can just get the right liquidity in the market, things will start to move, albeit at half off, probably not that bad in Ann Arbor.