As I’m sitting in an eerily quiet office 2 days before the new year, my thoughts have turned to the difficulties everyone in our industry has experienced in 2009. A good friend who has been a home remodeler has just joined his third Real Estate Brokerage in search of a niche in which he can make a living. Practically all of Tucson’s  Custom Homebuilders, many of whom I’ve done business with,  have transitioned into other areas where they could or are still trying to figure out how to do that. Many of the agents whom I saw around the office in 2007 and 2008 are no longer here. Even some of the bank employed asset managers in charge of REO Properties that I deal with are starting to sound a little burnt out trying to administer the throngs of new foreclosures piling on their desks. And across the board, real estate agents who continue to be productive have adjusted to new marketing methods, new ”scripts” with sellers and buyers, more complicated  and longer transactions, more DFT’s (defaulted transactions), trimming expenses and lifestyles, and generally working harder while making less. And unfortunately, our industry is but one of many experiencing these same problems.

So what are the opportunities in this? For all of us to be more empathic to others as we all go through this recession together. For us to stay in touch with the lighter sides of life and look for things to laugh about with our family, friends colleagues  and clients. For us to volunteer more and forget about our troubles by helping others.  For us to take better care of ourselves, both mentally and physically whether that means longer walks, some meditation time, more time on the EFX , tennis court, golf course or local hiking trails, etc. To become more connected to and spend more time talking to the important people in our lives. To find things we enjoy doing that require less money to do them.  And of course, to spend more time with our animals as they are the ultimate source of continual, never ending love. Something no-one can get too much of.

I know we will get through these times as we always do.

I am simply wishing us all an easy landing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 2:48 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.