Two big signs of a changing market (well, big signs to me, anyway):

The first involves phone calls: I am suddenly being inundated with calls from mortgage companies and loan officers, asking me to send them business. A definite sign that their business has slowed dramatically. From 2003 to 2004, I seldom heard a peep out of loan officers -- they definitely weren't begging me for business. Now I'm getting calls from companies right and left, offering to hold seminars and open houses, make up flyers, mail marketing pieces for me.

I'm also getting calls from every kind of marketing company in the world -- 'we've got a website/email list/marketing plan/new widget guaranteed to increase your business'. The only thing that's guaranteed, as far as I'm concerned, is that those companies ain't getting any of my dollars. Many of them want to sell me names and email addresses from the internet, from people who have expressed an interest in a particular property. Most want me to pay them money up front in hopes that someday, one of their leads will actually buy something. They try to sell me exclusivity on a zip code -- in other words, they'll send me all the leads that express an interest in properties in 20785. Sounds great, except that there are about 600 of these companies out there. Many of the prospective buyers are clicking through on multiple sites, meaning that I may pay lots of money for the same lead through different companies.

No thanks, I'll stick with my own marketing and the referrals from my past and current clients (thanks again!)

The second sign is not marketing, it is a sign of a seller's worry that his property may not sell.  I'm seeing more and more listings where the seller is putting his property on the market for sale or for rent -- whichever happens first. I'm in the middle of one now, and it isn't pretty -- my clients who wish to rent are competing with a buyer who wishes to buy.

Anyway, the marketing phone calls (at least two or three a day) are beginning to be annoying, but they tell me as much as the numbers we hear on the news -- the market has changed and it's not so easy to sell these days.

(C) Susan Pruden.