Jul 10
29
To be brutally honest, I don’t think things are as bleak as the nice people from the Huffington Post would have you believe. And I find their closing example insulting: a man who just can’t find people to sell fire extinguishers door to door in the desert heat in the middle of summer for what probably works out to less than minimum wage. I’m not lining up for that job either. It is true that we lead the nation in foreclosures, but it’s also true that foreclosure filings are down 15% from last year. The crush of foreclosures and short sales (and the expiration of the buyer’s tax credit) has driven prices down slightly since April. Nevertheless I’m hearing ads for real estate investing seminars and getting ads in my email, so clearly some people think it’s time to take advantage of these lower prices.
It’s also true that the drop in housing prices has meant that Realtor’s commission checks are smaller than they used to be. Strangely enough, I find it encouraging for the Review Journal to print quotes like this:
“So you’d better have a different job because there are 12,000 agents and maybe 500 or 1,000 are making it along and the others are not,” [Real Estate Agent Joe Stewart] said.
Actually there’s over 16,000 licensees in Clark County according to the Real Estate Division. Not all of them are Realtors. As peculiar as it seems, I am looking forward to seeing the number of Realtors in the Valley decline. Hopefully the ones of us that are left will be the smartest and the best.
