RealTown's RealTalk

Jerry:

     Your reveiw peeked my interest.  I'll  check it out.  With your permission I would like to use a couple of your lines.  "an inability to shift their business plan to include technology" and "only if" and let's work smarter mood."   I don't  know what in but some time it could come in handy.

There are a number of online excerpts from Keller's newest book which I
presume are done with his consent.
Some are here:

http://www.kw.com/msys/UserFiles/File/SHIFT_Excerpt_1.pdf

https://secure.kw.com/kwu/content/_newsletters/documents/SHIFT_Excerpt_2.pdf

http://millionairesystems.com/msys/UserFiles/File/SHIFT_Excerpt_3.pdf

https://secure.kw.com/kwu/content/_newsletters/documents/SHIFT_Excerpt_4.pdf

https://secure.kw.com/kwu/content/_newsletters/documents/SHIFT_excerpt_7.pdf

https://secure.kw.com/kwu/content/_newsletters/documents/SHIFT_excerpt_8.pdf.

Merv.
**********
Mervin Burgard, Q.C.
203-219 Oxford Street West
London, Ontario, Canada N6H 1S5
phone: 519-679-9900
fax: 519-679-8546
e-mail: mburgard@ody.ca
**********
Please consider the environment before printing.

Rossi said:
"Seasoned agents, with an inability to shift their business plan to
include technology, are also bowing out."

Glad to hear that people on the inside confirm what I have been
saying for a while now. I have been watching this from the outside
looking in, and there is a huge pool of agents who simply do not want
to address technology. The reasons vary, but by and large, many of
them tend to think that this is a "ride it out" period and things
will return to "normal" at some point. I seriously doubt that
logic.

I am not sure that they are "bowing out" as much as they are becoming
irrelevant. They rely on established referral networks to get to the
closing table. If they are in a mentor or training position, then
when it comes to marketing, they completely lack the desire, skills,
and understanding to teach tech skills. You can't teach
something about which you have no clue, and denigrate as
unnecessary.

With most buyers and some sellers now using the Web to find property
and agents, then those who refuse to get on board are just whistling
past the graveyard. When this market returns to some form of normal
condition, then "what works" will be very different than in the past.

The real estate business will look different, going forward. The
number of agents needed to service the market will be reduced. I also
see a concentration of sorts taking place, in terms of those who
generate leads using technology tools, and those who do not. We have
clients who simply cannot work all of the leads coming to them via of
their websites. Among agents with top rankings in large metro markets
(our clients or not), that is not unusual.

Best regards,

Dirk Johnson
Partner - Operations
DomainDrivers LLC
djohnson@domaindrivers.com
703-406-4698
http://domaindrivers.realtown.com
We're an approved RealTalk/RealTown vendor:
http://DomainDrivers.InternetCrusade.com

"There are a number of online excerpts from Keller's newest book". SHIFT

Thank you for the PDFs.  Unfortunately you can't compare the market correction of the late 70s or early 90s with today's market correction.  All that was necessary in past market corrections was to lower the prime interest rates and everything became FHA affordable.  "Been there done that".  However, this market is not cooperating with that resolve.  One big reason for this non-cooperation is that the average home of today sold for a fraction of the amount it sold for in the 70s and 90s at double digit interest rates!  

Another reason for reluctance is property taxes and HO insurance.  Another reason is the fact there were no FHA home loans after 911.  When HUD refused to raise the ceiling on loan limits, back at the turn of the century, opened the door for Sub-Prime Lending.  Sub-Prime lending replaced the MIP with zero down mortgages.  All that was necessary to get into real estate was a signature and decent credit history.  Whether you could afford the monthly obligation was not part of the equation.  Bottom line, we over loaned and over extended our capacity to pay.  We converted our asset column to a liability column and thought that we could borrow our way to wealth.  A few that got in and out early ahead of the curve are selling seminars and websites today.  The rest are taking it in the neck!  The only resolve is to foreclose and wash out the market.  Unfortunately we are looking at more than a million or so households who are finding themselves over extended in unsecured credit and over loaned real estate.  We got a problem the Chinese are coming.