Tom's Blog

They say (whoever "they" is) that every storm cloud has a silver lining.  And so it is true with the slowly passing housing market crunch.  For example, prices which had been going absolutely crazy have now settled to modest levels. In fact, one home builder I know is building new ranch style, 3 ...

If you bumped into me at the grocery store and said, "Hey Tom, how are things in the real estate business?" I would reply, "Unbelievable!' In my little chunk of northeastern, NC the average sold price for homes in the first half of 2009 is $135,388. The median sales price is $108,000 and there ar...

Simply a question: who are the movers and shakers in the real estate world following?  And who is talking about what the next paradigm might be for our industry after or alongside social networking?

I feel that much of the time realtors place an inordinatly high value on things like marketing, fancy tag lines, business cards with our "mug" shot showing our head tilted at just the right angle, intimate market knowledge, our clever use of the newest technology and etc, etc.  And I'll admit all...

A local real estate firm is in the process of being absorbed into our RE/MAX firm.  It's big news in our small town but shouldn't be all that unexpected.  Why are we surviving when the other agency is folding?  Why are we expanding when others are downsizing?  It's simple really, at my firm we do...

The market update and comparison report shown below could almost be titled: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly except it is hard to find the "good!"  I service the counties listed below and have had reasonable success for the first quarter of 2009.  If you need help selling your property or you are i...

My wife and I were in the local coffee shop a day or so ago and happened to meet a fellow real estate agent from the Outer Banks area.  We had not met before so naturally we started chatting about the market and financing and housing.  After a few minutes she stopped and said, "It's so nice to me...

I received a phone yesterday (if just happened to be my "duty day"!!) from a young lady who wanted to look at a couple of local listings.  As I spoke with her over the phone she confessed that she is a first time home buyer and somewhat nervous about the potential purchase. I discussed the advant...

I've got to be honest it is often a love-hate relationship and sometimes I don't do all that well on the loving end.  I keep thinking of the biblical admonition that says, "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" and how often I fail at that.  And when I first started in the "business" s...

In my market where listings are stagnating and property takes 8-12 months to sell the challenge for real estate agents is not so much to get a listing, rather, it is to keep the listing through one or more renewal periods.  Often sellers will change agents and firms when their listing expires the...