Mind over matter… it’s not just a saying, it really is a way of life and a way to do business. For the past few years the real estate industry has taken a beating on a primarily national scale. Even the Seattle area, which was late on the scene for the price drops and foreclosure situations caused by the financial crisis, got hit with some areas being affected much more so than others. We saw it affect our clients the same as anybody.
However, even with Puget Sound area home values being down on average about 35% from their peak prices in mid-2007, there is always a place for real estate sales to continue. Team Reba has continued to thrive in this market despite the sour outlook because our work environment is affected by changes in people’s lives, both good and bad. In addition, we consider ourselves to be ambassadors of our industry and it’s our role to present a positive (not sugar-coated) outlook and approach to our work so you can be confident in your decisions around real estate.
Here are the main life changes/reasons why people choose to buy or sell real estate:
- when couples get married/move in together or divorce/separate
- when people have children or the kids have left “the nest”
- job changes – getting a job, transferring locations, losing a job
- investing for their future
- economic or medical issues that result in bankruptcy, foreclosure, or short sales
- retirement or health changes cause a move to assisted living
- death
Despite the economy and its effects it doesn’t change people’s life patterns (or not completely at least) so there is always a place for real estate professionals. With the market being down in value and transaction counts being down we did see a loss in the number of real estate brokers (in 2010 agents in WA were changed in title to brokers) of about 20%, so that opened up potential new business for those of us who were still eating, breathing and living real estate.
I’m thrilled to say that during this time we at Team Reba took some aggressive moves and we actually grew our team to respond to the new market conditions. This wonderful team of 5 is a supportive, proactive, positive bunch of professionals that really put their clients first and we’re back to providing the classes that helped launch Team Reba into becoming one of the most well known and respected teams in the Seattle area. If you haven’t checked lately, here’s who is on the team:
If you’re looking for a professional, well organized team to help you with your real estate needs to support whatever change is going on in your life, we’d like to invite you to contact us for a chat about your situation. We cover the North areas of Pierce County, most of King County, and South areas of Snohomish County.
