Jeff Castner

Spending the last 10 years in a non residential sales capacity I have forgotten the subtle joys of prospecting on what I like to call a retail level. Prospecting, cold calling, and knocking on doors at any level is not for the faint of heart. Being a true believer in the power of the internet I was very excited to get www.jeffcastner.com up and running. I have been studying the latest in SEO, Keywords, and pay per click. Confident that I am going to do what the others haven't, I applied all my recently acquired knowledge to the site.

On Thursday Night the fruits of my labor began paying off. My blackberry gives me the familiar chime alerting me to the fact that I have an email. I quickly look to see who is sending me an email. Holy Mackerel, it is a lead from my new web site. My mind begins racing, yes I am a guru, I knew I had all the internet answers, see that world I am the King of Internet Leads!

I quickly notice my new prospect is named Sally and she is looking for a 3 bedroom condo in Chicago's Gold Coast. Not only am I the King of Internet Leads I am the King of high end internet leads, my ego is saying to me. Without giving it a second thought, I begin drafting an email to my high end buyer Sally. I craft what is undoubtedly the best and quickest response Sally is going to get from any Real Estate Practioner in Chicagoland. The whole time I am explaining to my companion what a genius I am.

With in seconds my email gets kicked back as undeliverable. It can't be, I must have typed the wrong email address. I think Sally must have entered her email wrong. Even through I don't know what property she was looking at I quickly look at the email and notice Sally being a very serious buyer left me her phone number. I start to dial 3-1-2-5-5-5-1-2.....Wait it can't be. Concern, panic, shame, and embarrassment quickly show on my face. Bad email, bad phone number, lets review the lead again. Sally Whacker, sallywhackcreateswood4u@yahoo.com, 312-555-1212, looking for a 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath Condo in Chicago's Gold Coast, price range 150K-199K.

Oh the joys of prospecting. Whether knocking on doors, cold calling, or using the latest and greatest technology it is still a numbers game. Some will, some won't, move on. Here's to you Sally Whacker, thanks for the lesson learned!

Is the real estate market really starting its comeback? According to a number of trusted sources it seems the long awaited real estate comeback may have begun. Real Trends reports the March homes sales were the best on a year over year comparison in the last 18 months. Business Week has also reported two fairly positive articles on the housing market. Locally in Chicago we see number that are slightly better than those reported by Real Trends. Unit sales were down about 4%. Although prices still haven't made any gains units sales increases will be the key to stabilizing prices.

Back in November there was talk of the "soft" bottom meaning we would see some slight monthly increase as well as monthly decreases. The swing should start to flatten out.

Traditionally housing has led the country out of recessions. It seems that we might be seeing the beginning of the end.

The concept of agency is one that has always been of interest.

I remember looking at my first condo back in Columbus, OH and with in 2 minutes the listing agent handed me a document, asked me to sign it, and informed me that she would be representing me in the transaction. Without taking a breath she then handed me another document saying this form gives my acknowledgement that she was representing both the seller and me (the buyer). Excited about the prospect of owning my first house I went ahead and agreed to the dual agency.

As my tenure in the industry has grown I often look back to that 5 minute conversation and think to myself what a scum bag.

By definition an agent is legally bound to put the client's interest above their own. The nature of the real estate transaction makes this a very difficult proposition. A seller's agent desires the highest price. A buyer's agent is looking for the best deal. I am not an ethicist but this seems by definition impossible.
This begs the question; can you actually put the client (people) first and act as a dual agent. Wouldn't it be wise as professional to explain to a person that we are performing only ministerial acts, or better yet find a trustworthy colleague to properly represent the other party?

Dual agency seems to me to be one of those issues that continue to plague the industry. To me it is the equivalent of walking into a court room and seeing the prosecutor give his opening remarks, then without missing a beat, walking over to the defendant and beginning the defense.

According to Frontdoor.com we can expect the following in 2009

1)Continued Market Adjustments

2)Action from the OBama Administration

3)More Homeowner Assistance

4)A Calming of the Bank Chaos

5)More Review of Mortgage Underwriting

6)Low Prices & Low Rates

7)Cool Tech Devices

8)Wiser Consumers

9)Leaner Greener Home Buying

10)An increase in consumer Confidence

As I ponder these 10 predictions, which I whole heartily agree with, I can't help but wonder what the industry will look like in 3 - 5 years. The continued market adjustments will undoubtedly effective both the number of real estate sales people and brokerages. Those that survive will surely be the best practitioners in the history of the industry.

As the OBama Administration begins to tackle the problem we as an industry need to stay involved in the process by actively lobbying our legislators to not fix the problem with a band aid. All too often we are doomed to repeat history by not learning from history.

With this in mind any Homeowner assistance has to be responsible homeowner assistance. Some people will unfortunately lose their homes.

Any calming in the banking industry and review of the underwriting process will be good. A mortgage banking friend of mine reminded me that the tighter underwriting standards are the equivalent of underwriting circa 1990. People still bought homes in 1990.

Low prices & Low rates should prove good for all of us. As home ownership becomes more affordable buyers should start entering the market again.

Technology, continues to drive the future of the industry. I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of representatives of Zillow this week. I am always amazed that it is industry outsiders who are now driving the change in the industry. Wiser consumers can only help the industry. We as real estate professional have to continually raise the bar and hold ourselves to higher and higher standards. Technology and more informed consumers will force as to focus on our value proposition.

Leaner & greener home buying may very well see the McMansions of the early part of the decade fall out of favor with tomorrow's home buyer. Austerity may very well become chic.

I think in some areas we have already begun to see consumer confidence as it relates to real estate begin to increase. Consumers have begun looking at real estate bargains. Slowly we should see inventories and marketing times decrease.

Just my $0.02

As I crawled out of bed this morning and turned on the news I was amazed to here that "50% of all home owners with loan modification agreements are delinquent". Assuming the report is true, I was wondering what this tells us about the current situation in which we find ourselves.

I can only assume that the majority of the delinquencies are home owners who purchased with little down, had very high loan to value ratios, and qualified for loans under the very loose underwriting guidelines in vogue a few years back. I heard an industry insider speak a couple of weeks ago, and he posed a question, "What do you call someone living in a home, that put no money into the home?" Answer a renter.

Housing is the single biggest line item (if there is a line item) in our gross domestic product. I applaud all the efforts the government is making to jump start the housing industry. The first step in this process is to let market forces work, as compassionately as possible, the issue with these types of distressed properties. Once we rid the market of these we will begin to see some "normalization" of the market. As I learned in college, a big party leads to a big hangover, and the only cure is time.