Have We Hit Bottom Yet?

Well....Maybe! In my opinion, we are more much closer to pulling out of this economic mess, especially the real estate aspects of it, than not. There is little doubt that we have shown more property in the last few weeks than we did for many weeks before. Secondly, our "lookers" (who were just tire kickers a few months ago), are genuinely interested in the details now.... "how much is the electric bill, does the refrigerator stay, have the values in the neighborhood consistently gone up over the years???" These are real "buyer" questions.....not just ho hum concerns to keep the tour going. Third...and most important of all....we actually have three (count 'em) closings, all lakefront homes, in the next week!

Of course this is good news for us, but perhaps more important, its great news for the buyers of these properties. I was surprised that any of the three properties, because of their offers, actually reached the closing stage. We saw some significant price reduction in these three deals, more than I expected, yet the sellers all seem very happy too. A fourth contract that we were working, during this same timeframe, did not get done, and I believe it was the seller's unwillingness to negotiate that killed it. If all of these assumptions are correct, then we are on the comeback trail as evidenced by 75% of our little buyer/seller sample.

What could be more ideal for a real estate recovery? Buyers are getting bargains, sellers are getting long held inventory sold, agents and inspectors, attorneys and surveyors, and pest control people, lenders too.........are all getting a paycheck! WHAT A DELIGHTFUL CHANGE!

You know what else? This spurt is going to make us work just that much harder over the next few weeks. J & M