Things in central louisiana have been sloooow the past two weeks. How are things in your neck of the woods? I sure thought that buyer tax credit would have made for a better later summer rush.

In addition, I have had some deals fall apart lately. What's your method for getting out of a slump??

I agree with you on the tax credit. It has picked up here, although not so much for me since I just left my former Broker and started my own office :( I got a lot o work to do (door knocking) that is.

It's usually feast or famine. The last few months have been a little slow as I have been focused on building my brokerage and not working deals as much.

This month I have about 30k in commissions to close.

It has been hard as my mother-in-law has stage 3 breast cancer and it's a rare form. (Metaplastic Spindle Cell Carcinoma) Only about 100 to 200 cases are diagnosed every year out of hundreds of thousands of breast cancer (it makes up 4/10th's of a 1 percent of all cases)

They basically throw everything at it and she is in her second round of chemo (TAC) which has 6 cycles total.

When real estate is slow just give thanks that it can always be much worse. As far as what is closing analyze your mls. What price point and what area is moving. You will find a sweet spot of say a 3bed /2bath on a 1/2 acre lot for 200k is making up 78 percent of all the sales.

Now you devise a marketing plan around that segment to close the deals.All the really successful practitioners I know spot trends ahead of time and cash in before the heard follows.

After these closings I am going to take a week off to recharge for sure.

Tax credit has not had much of an impact on me as most of our sales are for 2nd / vacation homes. I think 1 home I sold (my listing, not my buyers) involved someone using the tax credit. Had a lot of people think they could use the credit as a downpayment, which in theory they can but not so easy to find a lender who will allow it....

First, Super all my best for a fast recovery!

I too have a few deals set to close September, but my time is being spent trying to keep them all together. Two are solid, but whether the others close depend on influences beyond my control (lender credit criteria changes, appraisals, etc.).

A few more in the October pipeline. Just have to find something for them.

As soon as I started this post things started to pick up. I got one of my listings to cut their price (we are now my inline with the sold comps) and a buyer got the go ahead from her lender! Not exactly booming, but I might get to eat a couple of steaks next month!

I live here in NE Florida, Late July and early August were great, but with school starting back I find things have slowed a bit! Hopefully after everyone adjust to school starting and things like that, the business will resume!

I like to think that I am one of those professionals. I started doing short sales heavily about two years ago before most agents even knew what they were, now I specialize in them and many agents know for being a short sale guru. Now it seems like everyone and their mother is jumping on the short sale bandwagon. It frustrates me because most people have no idea what they're doing.



As far as if my area is slow or not, absolutely not! Las Vegas is a very busy market and has been all year! Our market is so busy, buyers are fighting and competing with each other to get their offer accepted. There is a crazy amount of buyer competition in my area. I am sure that a lot of it is from the first-time buyer tax credit.



Super, I am sorry to hear about the rough time you are going through with your family member. I hope things get better for you. Keep your head up and stay positive.

Thanks Len.

It has been rough for sure but closings still have to get completed and clients expectations met.

I am glad I am doing the "commercial cruising" now instead of the
"residential rumble".

I like the hours and the clients much better.

This summer has been really busy for me except for the past 2 weeks. One of the reasons is the inventory here is really low. I have buyers but nothing to show them.

The last 2 weeks I've been crazy busy with listing appointments. As a matter of fact, I'm taking another listing Monday morning (yes, on Labor Day). Others in my office have been out showing houses, and I've seen an increase in showings at my listings. Can't be the people looking to make the move before school starts; might have to do with the last minute rush for the tax credit.

I hope this keeps up to some extent through fall and winter since I'm just on the verge of making my first commission check.

Yes with loan mod workouts and efforts on foreclosure prevention will make inventory smaller and smaller. This will move a shift to a more neutral market. Most developers and builders are waiting for a pent up demand from low inventory before starting any new projects as well as regular sellers who don't want to compete with foreclosures so they can get closer to their price.

Good for you, Lisa! I'm so proud of you! (I met Lisa literally on the day she got her real estate license, or maybe the day after, at a speaking gig in NJ)...

Thanks for the encouragement, Jennifer! Your blog posts have helped me a lot over the past few months.

Just had to chuckle when I remembered the day I was listening to your webcast with Borino and though to myself, "wow, I was just emailing back and forth with this Jennifer chick a few minutes ago. She must be kind of a big deal."