June 13, 2008
Before there were fax machines and .pdfs!
Currently, I serve on the Education Committee with the Richmond Association of Realtors (i.e. RAR). I am sure many of the younger members of that committee roll their eyes whenever I begin to wax and wane on the "good old days" of real estate. While I am the first to appreciate and praise all our modern conveniences (ask me about pre cell phone days some time), I do miss how impersonal real estate has become.
In the good old days, whenever we had an offer for a listing agent, it was necessary to coordinate the delivery of the offer. Most times this meant physically placing the offer in the listing agent’s hands. The same applied to counters; and due to the nature of real estate, many of these exchanges were nocturnal. For some of the oldtimers in the Richmond real estate game, I can remember the exact place I met many of these people for the first time. I might not remember exactly when or who the parties to the contract were, but usually I can remember where the property was located that we were negotiating.
Nowadays, an offer can be transmitted via facsimile or e-mailed as a .pdf. With current gas prices, this is not all bad, but it does take away some of the personal nature of the business. These days it is not uncommon for me to be in a committee meeting at the RAR and be seated next to someone I don’t recognize. After we introduce ourselves, I often find it is someone with whom I have done a prior transaction, but just had never met.
Real Estate Youngsters, think about occasionally delivering a contract and meeting the other agent. If you insist on conducting business electronically, how about doing so with .pdfs? Your facsimiles are just too blurred for my tired old eyes.
About a year ago, I got a complimentary copy to a new magazine called, Garden & Gun. Only in the South would someone think a magazine with such a title would succeed. When I got that complimentary copy, I took the loose subscription card out and carried it around for probably a week meaning to subscribe. I never did.
With the horrendous decline in the number of sales in the Richmond Area, I thought it might be interesting to see if the decline is uniform across the area or whether certain areas are performing better. Here’s a look at May ‘08 versus May ‘07 and Year to Date ‘08 versus Year to Date ‘07.
And the malaise continues…. Year to date, the number of sales for 2008 in the Metro Richmond Area trails 2007’s number by 34 %. As I have said before, this huge decline in number of sales should not continue through the entire year. Beginning in September of 2007, the final 4 monthly sales figure for sold units in 2007 are comparable to the monthly activity currently occurring. I am projecting that the metro Richmond market will finish 2008 with a decline of approximately 25 % in total homes sold.
My preliminary "spin" for May 2008 is a flat market. It appears we picked up "no steam" in May; and once again we will not have a Spring Market. The number of sales closed was very comparable to April’s number. The "pending" sales dropped in May from April’s improved number. Inventories were up slightly and a number of submarkets had signficant increases in units sold. I’ll comment further on the market conditions later this week.
I feel a little bit like Shoeless Joe Jackson myself these days. There was a time when you couldn’t drive through a neighborhood and not find a father and son out "whipping the pill." Growing up with my three brothers, we had a hall closet where all our athletic gear was stored. Basically, it contained 3 things - a baseball, a football and a basketball. Of course, there were gloves, bats, and maybe the odd tennis racket in the closet, too, but hours of enjoyment and entertainment could and were had with one of the balls, especially the baseball.
I bank with BB&T. If you don’t know what BB&T is short for - it is Branch Banking & Trust. BB&T’s origins are in Wilson, NC. Wilson is a sleepy eastern Carolina town with deep agricultural roots. If you have ever known any true Tar Heels from eastern Carolina, then you know what their accent sounds like. Nite, lite, rite are good examples.
That’s my older brother, Ken. He was a little younger then, but like all of us Smiths he doesn’t like to have his picture taken too often. These days Brother Ken sells real estate in the Northern Neck. If you’re looking for waterfront or waterview real estate, than you need to contact Ken. Ken knows the water and especially the waters of the Northern Neck, because Brother Ken has been a marine contractor (seawalls, piers, etc.), a commercial fisherman, and plyer of every cove, creek or tributary found in the Northern Neck.
Here’s a great opportunity for what I have tagged as "A Home for Many Generations." This 6 bedroom 4.5 bath Colonial was custom built for local home improvement guru, Mr. Fix-it, in 1986 by Allen Coleman. It is located in the The Colonies at Wilde Lake, which is located off Lauderdale Drive at Causeway Drive in western Henrico. The schools for this community are Nuckols Farm, Pocahontas and Godwin.