“Realtors are in for a very tough road”

From Inman News:

Some housing markets in for short-lived correction

The housing market in some parts of the country has slipped into a short correction that’s not expected to be as severe as past downturns but strong enough to challenge the real estate industry to rethink business practices.

“Realtors are in for a very tough road,” said Richard DeKaser, senior vice president and chief economist for National City Corp. “They make money on transactions, and we will see a 25 percent decline over the next 12-month period with all kinds of pricing pressure coming,” he said during a panel discussion at Inman News’ Connect High Net conference this week in Miami.

John Tuccillo, founder of John Tuccillo & Associates and former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said the problem for many agents will be their lack of experience working in a down market.

“Seventy-seven percent of Realtors in this country have never been in a down market,” he said. “They don’t remember what tools they used … if they hadn’t seen it before then they need to find someone to show them what to do now.” Agents need to learn how to work their risks and their databases and also how to market again because they’ve not had to do much beyond taking orders in previously hot markets, he said.

“When it’s that kind of market, it’s like being laid up in a hospital bed and you get up and your muscles don’t work,” Tuccillo said.

The economist thinks the number of agents in the business will level off, though he’s not predicting a “wholesale slaughter.” He also expects some consolidation of brokerage companies during the slow market.

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10 Responses to “Realtors are in for a very tough road”

  1. DD says:

    ” Not expected to be as severe as past downturns”

    Boy talk about being optimistic, it sounds like wishful thinking to me!

  2. James Bednar says:

    Is he trying to say that all past severe downturns were expected?

    jb

  3. Jay says:

    Stiff said the current housing correction “will be far less severe than it was in the ’80s.”

    I love predictions that don’t offer any supporting reasoning, they are fashioned as if statements of fact. Dow 30,000 anyone?

  4. Spelunker says:

    i have had run into several agents that totally talk down to you unless you show devote, slobbering interest in the home they are showing. Their is a certain skill to the job that i have only seen demonstrated once or twice; show the house and sell it without BSing me to death about the house, market or the seller.

  5. Spelunker says:

    i have run into several agents that totally talk down to you unless you show devote, slobbering interest in the home they are showing. Their is a certain skill to the job that i have only seen demonstrated once or twice; show the house and sell it without BSing me to death about the house, market or the seller.

  6. Arr Elle says:

    Thank you Gary for the inspiraton (smile)

  7. BC Bob says:

    “The economist thinks the number of agents in the business will level off, though he’s not predicting a “wholesale slaughter”

    Level off to what??? It’s like a herd of sheep, from day traders to RE agents/mortgage brokers. Now the sheep get sheared!!!!

  8. gary says:

    Arr Elle,

    You’re quite welcome. :)

  9. LowBall says:

    “Since Japan’s “bubble economy” of the late 1980s burst, prices have plummeted by about 50 percent on average, and by as much as 70 percent in some locations.In Tokyo commercial land prices have plummeted by about 80 per cent “

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