Down economy, down business?
With a continually struggling economy, challenges vary across the nation ranging from restrictive lending to rising foreclosure rates making transactions more and more difficult to get done. Gone are the days of calling a lender every day, rushing them along- the response is a frustrated “we’re trying” now. Underwriters have a rough time getting loans through, buyers are scared because of the media coverage of the housing crisis, but some real estate transactions are still getting done.
We asked on our AG Facebook Group, “what are you finding the biggest challenge to getting a transaction done this quarter over last year?” The answers were different depending on where each agent was and their specialty, but one thing is for sure, it’s rough out there.
Thank you to the brave people above for sharing their challenges with us. Tell us in comments below if you relate to any of the challenges above or if you have your own challenges to contend with.
Greg Barnhouse
March 23, 2010 at 5:12 pm
For me, it has been short sales that were not listed properly by the listing agent, when I have had the buyer side of the transaction. Can be very painful, very drawn out . . .exactly the “opposite of short”. . .
Erica Ramus
March 23, 2010 at 6:39 pm
For me, it’s other agents. This is a strange profession, where our paycheck is determined by the performance (in large part) of another party!!! So if the other agent drops the ball, or doesn’t perform up to standards, we could lose OUR SIDE of the deal and our clients loses and we lose our paycheck. Isn’t that weird?
You could perform 100% perfectly and not get a paycheck because another agent dropped the ball.
I have a deal now 5 months pending. Other agent said today, “I didn’t realize you needed to close so soon or we would have rushed the lender.”
If this was not true, it would be funny.
Patrick
March 23, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Lenders, appraisers and everyone else who is overwhelmed and under reactive! @mySeattleblogs in ^Seattle
Ralph Bell
March 23, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Buyers & Agents are avoiding short sales altogether. Foreclosures that sat for long periods of time are now selling. At least in the Austin market. We are starting to see multiple offer situations all over town.