The Mortgage Go To Guy!!

When I first moved to the State of Florida, I was very surprised to find Realtors and Mortgage Brokers that were so busy and so successful that they would limit their businesses to loans, listings and buyers of over a certain dollar value.  The reason it was so surprising was that the dollar amounts that were mentioned were enormous to me. 

One listing agent I know would not work on listings under $650,000.   One Mortgage Broker said “No first time homebuyers”.  I even knew of some agents that would not take anything but multimillion dollar listings or superstar, VIP buyers.

In this current market, changes are creating a new paradigm for Real Estate Agents and Mortgage Brokers everywhere.  There are many who are just leaving the field. They are just absolutely sure that there is no way to survive this market downturn.

I understand the doom and gloom…. everywhere you turn, some journalist has opened their umbrella for the fear of falling pieces of sky or has gone into their bunkers with cases of water and canned tuna.  

“The End is Near” is written all over their cardboard signs and they’ve already posted all their worldly belongings and family heirlooms on eBay.

It is hard not to be affected by such naysayers because they’re simply everywhere.  They were hired to write the stories that we have read daily with our morning coffee…. and that means that they HAVE to know what their talking about, right? (add a pinch of sarcasm)

What really makes me feel good about this market is the exact opposite of this trend though… it is a phenomenon that shows that not only are there resilient souls out there in the Real Estate industry but that they also know that there is still money to be made and clients to be served.

I was looking at a listing flyer the other day and someone whispered over my shoulder, “That agent used to only sell $2Million and up!”  The listing was for $459,000. 

The Journalists might say,

“Oh how the mighty have fallen….”

I say, “The people that know how to hustle and the people that know how to sell know how to survive.”

Who do you want selling your house?

• The agent that caters to VIPs and outsells his/her entire office single-handedly every year … OR…
• The one who jumped on the bandwagon two years ago who knows a friend of a friend but really hasn’t learned how to sell real estate yet? 

 The sign of the times is that now the real pros are still busy.  They are proving they are:

• The best salespeople
• The most knowledgeable in their field
• The ones with the most market knowledge
• The ones that know how to market themselves and their properties best
• The ones who are going to do the best job on whatever property they list
• The ones who belong in the industry

If you want to join their ranks and things are slow… the clock is ticking.  You need to be learning all of those things you don’t currently know.  You should be bolstering your marketing efforts and reaching out to past customers about anything and everything…

and most of all… you need to be allying yourselves with the people in your peripheral industries that will also be there when the dust settles.  Now is not the time to be working with someone that won’t be around in 6 months.

The market is correcting itself…. will you still be standing or will you be a casualty?