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Realtors' ranks thinner but maybe stronger
After coming through a few hard years, a smaller but perhaps stronger group of real estate agents is looking forward to better times.As Loudoun County's real estate market dropped in 2006, Realtors were dealt a new view of business – longer days on the market for listed properties, a decrease in home sales and a consumer fear of purchasing or selling property.
In the years prior, with houses moving faster than agents were able to list them for sale, many people were getting involved in the real estate industry, whether to give it a go as a career or to make a quick buck.
Both the Dulles Area Association of Realtors and the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, two of the largest Realtor organizations in the area, showed a large increase of membership at that time, with NVAR and DAAR seeing their largest one-year jump in membership in 2004 and reaching their highest level of membership in 2005 and 2006 respectively. However, both organizations felt the strain of the market when membership dropped in 2007.
But, as 2008 rolled around, Realtors throughout the county said that the market is slowly moving again and DAAR and NVAR membership numbers began to rise.
The bad
Those rough couple of years have taken their toll on some Realtors.
Weichert real estate agent Doug Schmude said he believes some real estate agents came into the industry at the height of the market not for the business but for their love of money.
For some of those agents, he said, a lack of knowledge and experience led them to make mistakes when listing properties.
If a house hasn't sold within six months, he said, either the home's location is wrong, or its price.
“Something's wrong there if it hasn't moved,” Schmude said.
That something, according to Schmude, is agents who were concerned only about producing profit.
“[Some agents] only cared about commission, not about the client,” Schmude said. “Their god is the consumer.”
Schmude said he met one buyer who, at the time of the sale, put no money down and whose seller had paid the rest of the transaction costs. He had been facilitated in buying more house than he could afford, and now he is facing foreclosure and ruined credit.
Julio Laranjo, of Long and Foster in Leesburg, said he thinks a majority of agents who had been working the business part time are leaving. The real estate industry, just like any other business, requires “hard work and diligence and those not willing to do that won't be successful,” he said.
Laranjo said some agents may have had “a romantic idea” about showing homes, but instead had a lack of commitment when other duties, such as picking children up from school, got in the way.
“It's about the customers' need, not ours,” he said.
The good
Many of those who made it through those years are seeing some improvement now.
Real estate agent P.J. Riner, with Weichert Realtors, described the recent real estate movement:
“From August to September [of 2007], someone put the brakes on and people were scared to move on anything,” Riner said. “This brought the numbers down. But then in January, someone pulled a plug and things got moving.”
Bonnie Selker, an agent with Keller Williams in Ashburn, said that in the last 60 days, the Ashburn area (ZIP Codes 20147 and 20148) has had 323 home sales.
“This market is insane, but business is flourishing,” Selker said.
Riner did say that while business is going well for her, she was worried in the late part of 2007 -- but her worries were economy-wide.
“I was not just concerned about real estate, I was worried about all business owners – restaurateurs, nail salons, everyone,” she said.
Riner, who sold 24 properties in 2007, said business is going well for her right now and that there are deals out there, especially since interest on loans is still at a historical low, in the 6 percent range.
“This is the last opportunity to purchase at a great price in a great loan market,” she said.
Selker added, “The prices are what is driving the market, and regular sellers are having to compete with short-sale and foreclosure homes.”
Dean Makarita, an agent with Long and Foster, agreed with Selker and Riner that the market is improving.
But he added that the economy as a whole is still keeping people a little wary.
“We have a conglomeration of issues going on right now,” Makarita said. “People are sociologically in their shell, there is a gloomy spring, gas prices are high – all those things together have people shellshocked.”
He also added that the market went too far too fast.
“The market is like a sprinter,” he explained. “For three years, we were sprinting when we should have been pacing ourselves. Now we are huffing and puffing.”
The future
Whichever view Realtors hold regarding the current market, one thing they have in common is the outcome for the future – people are coming back to buying real estate.
“The market will never be like it was in 2003 or 2004,” Riner said. “But if you are an agent, get ready to ride the next wave because the market is going to do quite well.”
Schmude has been in the business for 15 years and has licenses in three states. Two months ago, he sold a house in three weeks in this area.
Laranjo said his team is doing great. “I see the market leveling off,” he said.
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