In real estate, and maybe mortgage offices, where people are hired on a 1099 with no pay unless they actually do a transaction, there have always been certain offices with unproductive people. They show up at the office, pound away at a computer all day, talk on the phone talking the talk, but missing the walking-the-walk part, since they rarely go out to meet with potential clients!

“There for coffee”, was just a term I coined many years ago when discussing a problem office with an owner who had 1/3 good agents, 1/3 new ones who were going to be good agents, and 1/3 just “there for coffee” … … They had a nice office to go to, seemingly had no need for income, and rarely brought a client transaction into the office.

The real estate market is still shaking. New data suggests that home prices have hit a new record low. In every new study that comes out, homeowners from Miami, to Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, have seen their home value go lower every time.
Is that disappointing? Of course it is.
Should we sell? Is not a good time.
Should we stick to it? Yes, if you can.
Have we hit bottom? Nobody knows.

Banks are facing their worst foreclosure crisis.
Don’t take me wrong, it’s good if you are in the market to buy a home for yourself or if you are an investor, but if you are not, and you own a home, most likely the value of your property is down at least 15 %.

Why do banks care if you are loosing your home? By having to sell repossessed homes, banks have to literally slash their prices down. It gets very costly for them, after all, they have to pay property taxes, maintenance costs, and whatever utilities that need to be paid, all of this expenses for a house that it’s just sitting there, vacant, and the bank is getting nothing in return.

The latest study by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 cities, revealed the news that for 22 consecutive months home prices dropped. Only from April to May, 2009 the decline was of 0.9 %

-R

National licensing will reduce the number of LO’s…there will be no where to hide and what will be required of loan originators will be much more than what we currently have in the State of WA. It’s my understanding that the new legislation will include EVERYONE (including bankers, lenders, brokers, etc.) and ANYONE who originates a residential mortgage.

With that said, LO’s who are not committed to this industry should leave now before the exodus happens and their other job is taken.

Great spending some time w/ you and Kim too. We should really “connect” more often

Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia

It is now time for those who are just there for coffee, or don’t want to learn everything possible about their industry, or who can’t weather a bumpy cycle, or just want too much money (this point goes to LO’s, real estate agents as well as sellers) to bow out now. Just go do something different with your time.

There is plenty of room in our market today for those who want to work hard, learn everything they possibly can about their industry, and plenty of room for success for sellers who price their properties well, work hard on their condition will find buyers.

What there is no room for, is those who are “just there for coffee” or some of the predatory things that certain LO’s, agents, and even sellers & buyers were guilty of in previous years.

Buyers are out there, and many want to buy, many are buying, but they are being extremely picky, and rightfully so. For the many buyers who are sitting on the fence waiting for the signal that things are calmer, or we are at a bottom — that signal rarely happens. You’ve got to find your own comfort level, and be sure you are getting the best advice you can find.

I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. If you are ever in Seattle, Please Please…let’s go for…what else in Seattle…COFFEE! I’d love to have a real conversation when it isn’t so late and I haven’t been to three parties beforehand.

Hope you are feeling better…though I think it will be quite some time before you are feeling “good”. That was a pretty nasty accident.