Charlottesville Real Estate Conversation – May 2011

Big thanks to Rick and WNRN radio for hosting us again on Sunday to talk about real estate … an hour is never enough.

We covered a lot, so much so that I’m going to break this post up into three posts – one this morning, one this afternoon and one on Thursday.

Listen to the show yourself – it’s an hour long, but I think we covered an awful lot of ground, ranging from whether buying is smarter than renting, what is QRM, FHA, VA, foreclosures and short sales, the benefits of quality real estate representation, the sociological benefits of a recession (specific to real estate), why “Reply-All” can be a life-saver and backyard gardens and Farm Colony.

First, two thoughts. One from Seth Godin that applies to his world – marketing (broadly) – as much as it does mine (and ours) – real estate (bolding mine) :

The media tries to report on the world economy or the national economy, or even the economy in Detroit or LA. This is easy to talk about, statistically driven and apparently important to everyone.

Alas, this has virtually nothing to do with your day, your job and your approach to the market. That’s because geography isn’t as important as it used to be, but more than that, it has to do with the fact that you don’t sell to everyone, and the economy is unevenly distributed.

…

Economics used to be stuck in town. Now, as markets and industries transcend location, useful economic stats describe the state of the people you’re working with and selling to.

And what I think is a brilliant insight from my friend Gahlord (bolding mine):

Let’s look at the real estate industry as an example. In the chart below, 2008 is the year in which more people were seeking a house for sale than a home for sale.

I’d argue that Google may have it backwards, as more of my buyer clients are looking for homes rather than houses … or it could be a sign that investors are leading the attempt at a real estate recovery.

As I said, we covered a lot.

Part Three will have a list of all the stories we referenced on the radio.