It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery
of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity…
and to try to humbly comprehend…the intelligence
manifested in nature.
                                    Albert Einstein, 1931


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       To start this first glorious full month of fall, I will  be picking up where I left off last month, as I’m not sure I properly stated my premise that you should interpret the world for yourself directly, and not accept solely what the Internet, the newspapers, the television, and radio talk shows tell you is happening in the world at any given moment.  Believe what you see, in other words.  And believe that What you see, if you have made wise or fortuitous choices in selecting the elements of your life, can be much better than what other people are seeing.   I may be prejudiced in favor of my own bucolic back yard, but this seems particularly true in upstate New York in the still-warm autumnal-sector of the year. 

         Everyone knows the one key element of real estate is LOCATION,
and that’s what sportscasters mean also when describing a major league pitcher throwing strikes—“He’s got good location today…”—and there’s my one obligatory reference to the MLB playoffs and World Series to come.   Good location in real life is tested any time you have a day off, and ask yourself—Is THIS where I want to spend my time today?
Is THIS the air I want to breathe, the water I want to drink, the sights I want to see? 

         If you can answer YES to these basic questions at a given moment, you are happy at the core of things, and should be grateful for your circumstances, your home, and your location. 

         If you can answer YES to these things on a regular basis, then you have made good real estate decisions, and have learned to amuse yourself in the most mundane and zen of ways. 

         And if you are in a profession like mine, a consulting and counseling and advice-giving enterprise, I don’t know how you would feel comfortable doling out pearls of business-wisdom during the 5 or 6 day workweek unless you are content with your own life on the off-day(s).    On that basis, I take the last Sunday of this blessed September of 2007 as a full-day off, enjoying the 70-degree sun with late-season lawn mowing, yard chores, garage clean-up and light raking, a little bit of brush burning, some cooking and kitchen clean-up, and some deck-reading in the sun.    I listen to some music; I come in and watch some NFL football now and then (the Giants aren’t on till later tonight). I shower and shave late in the day instead of first thing.  My kids and wife are all busy—daughter playing at her cousins’ house, second son at play rehearsal, oldest son getting a homework project done in advance of an Open Gym hoop workout later in the evening.    Things are peaceful and at this point in the week I feel no agita, no agitation, no sense of having to hop in the car and accomplish something… at least for a few hours.

 WAYNE THE CONTRARIAN….

         My momentary bouts of serenity do not mean that I feel
financially secure, much less superior, or spiritually cocky;  I am a “solvent debtor” as Miles’s business professor last year described this state of being:  when my bills are paid up to the moment, there is ample food in the fridge, and I have a half-a-day of free time, I am as content as any rich man.   I am well aware there is suffering and discord in the world but I choose not to indulge in that imagery right now.  The sun in my face and the smell of cut grass, with cool well water to drink, is enough for me on a day like this.

         I worked 27 of 30 days in September, early mornings, late nights,
just like the first good surge of my career, 15 years ago when my first son was born.  I deserve to slack off for a day, I tell myself.  The spring market that never developed is showing up now that summer’s officially over.  It is a weird but true thing to be telling some of my clients that:

 I am very busy, but the market is slow.   

How is that?  There are several factors—longevity  in the business, good word of mouth, lots of repeat clients, and an association with JustListed.com that provides multiple inquiries from Buyers—local and all over the country.

We as dedicated Realtors have to work harder than we used to in this market to make deals work, and to find the BEST deal, the most specific property for our demanding and knowledgeable buyers,   There is more to choose from, more to show, more to investigate and research, more emails to send.  We have to move even faster in a slow market to overcome the sluggishness that is out there, and all the negative news we have to counteract.

         Reports are rampant of a slumbering market, and a tottering economy; just today (October 2nd) the Evening News on NBC reported that National Association of Realtors statistics show a 21% drop in Pending Sales from a year ago in September 2006.   Rabid stock apologist Jim Somebody gets on the TODAY Show and tells people NOT to buy houses, even though interest rates are still near all-time lows and inventories are high and prices are dropping to attractive retro-levels.    Fortunately, the best clients I have are hip and savvy and selective, and don’t let dire forecasts of doom from suspect sources influence their personal real estate quests. 

THE UPSIDE OF A DOWN MARKET…

         I am grateful to be able to say that I’m busier than I’ve been at any time since leaving RE/MAX, where I was well-established for eleven years, and launching SPA Realty as of March, 2006.   I ventured out to start an independent firm at a time when the market was shrinking and there were too many inexperienced agents fighting for too few sales.   It seemed daunting at times, but my core clientele was strong and devoted and kept me going when new business was harder to come by.

         The slower market, in fact, gave me more time to focus on my core clients, the few dozen investors and movers who are always on the lookout for new opportunity, expansion, or diversity.   Instead of the million incoming calls and inquiries that occurred during 2002-2005 when the phones were lit up all the time,  now there is more time in between to breathe and do research, to focus on those that are in serious search mode at any given moment. 

         And in a slower market, there aren’t as many spurious calls, as many curiosity calls, or tire-kicker calls.  The calls that DO come in are of a different quality now; more serious and less frivolous.   I would rather get one good call a day and being able to focus on the new client’s needs, than to get besieged with 10 or 20 a day and have to filter through which ones were most pressing and important. 

 THE DOWNSIDE OF A QUIETER MARKET…?

         Of course some of my more competitive colleagues would argue that you have to make the phone ring multiple times per day to pay the bills (depending on the size of your staff or your ego or your overhead), and that fewer customer calls can never be a good thing.  Fewer calls implies lower consumer confidence.  In the traditional, old-school real estate business model, the barometer of activity starts with making the phone ring, a signal that a certain buyer is making the initial attempt to discover what a certain price is… or that, at least, other agents are calling the office to show your listings on a given day.  Phone calls are a significant marker, no doubt.   And like the dwindling sightings of honeybees in the great outdoors, the lessening number might be a harbinger of tough times.

         But I would argue that most or many of the good leads that come in these days are SILENT—they arrive by email.

         It takes a lot of hours at the laptop to answer the requests for information that come in these days.  There are automated systems that help generate the responses, but certainly most consumers appreciate  personal replies that can enliven an email conversation, and I enjoy that conversant application of writing and research skills which are brought into play in those cases.   

PROSPECTING TECHNIQUES IN A DOWN MARKET…

         Almost everyone in the civilized world has been cold-called by someone asking if they “know anybody trying to buy or sell real estate??” This is a sign of an agent (or a “team-member”) with chutzpah, ignorance, or a phone book in their hands with names they barely register.  It is also either a sign of “aggressiveness” they will like to tell you, or it is a sign of desperation, depending how you look at it.  Don’t they have any people to talk to that they KNOW already?  Even licensed agents or brokers get calls like this:  other agents asking if they could list or sell our property—which brings to mind piranhas attacking each other, in a limited habitat. 

         I have never in 20 years made such a cold-call, nor will I.   I also do not hang out at public luncheons or chamber mixers or happy hours to “network.”  I will rarely hand out a business card unless I am asked.  I have not ever featured my face on a billboard, though I did once rent ad space on a few hundred shopping carts—big mistake, and very embarrassing to shop there during that year.

         The point is, yes, your face has to be “out there” once in a while so people remember who you are and know where you work, but it doesn’t have to be 12 feet tall on a billboard, or on TV all the time, to be effective in business.

                           In doing good, avoid fame.  
                                                      --Chauang Tzu, 3rd century B.C.

         Easier said than done, but if you’ve found my website and are reading these words, that’s fame enough for me.

 

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                  We always solo;
                  and we never solo.
                                             --the late great keyboardist Joe Zawinul,
                                        about his seminal fusion groupWeather Report

 The trick to this business, I think, after 20 years of practicing it, is to get the job done for your client effectively without your own ego getting in the way.  Some others may believe their powerful ego IS what gets things done, but they are denying how many other people are involved in the cooperative process.  The NETWORK, as in the Verizon Wireless commercials on TV these days, is always around us, and is indispensable.  Other agents, clients and home-sellers, real estate attorneys, bankers and mortgage originators, appraisers, inspectors, the MLS staff, advertising media, title searchers, website providers, and office receptionists or appointment setters are all part of the process of selling a home or property. 

  If any agent blows their own horn by saying I do it ALL for you… they’re jiving you, and kidding themselves.   I might tout myself as an “Independent Voice in Real Estate Representation,” but that means I don’t work for a large company that tells me what to say, not that I am totally apart from the NETWORK that makes it all happen.

         On that note, I’m going back to work for another month, hoping for the sweet Indian summer weather to continue.  I’m listening to John Coltrane’s classic version of “Summertime,” which is not always appropriate in October, but this year feels right.  Though it’s still a bit disconcerting to see tree toads hopping across country roads on 70 degree evenings in October in upstate New York, that to me is preferable to the blizzard we had on this same date a few years back.

         Check out my piece on the Westside Arts Festival under Saratoga Updates, and a brief preseason preview of Section 2 Basketball coming this week on the HOOP Page, and some Musical Reflections on a new section of my site I’ve planned for a while. 

         Till November, be busy and be well.

                                                      --Copyright Wayne Perras 2007