Hello again! I have been away from the blog much too long. I hope some of my faithful friends and clients are still checking every now and then for articles.
The last two months have been very busy for me, trying to make some deals come together at last. As most of you are aware, real estate is very slow in many parts of this country, and understandably so given the economic issues and uncertainty that most of us are living with. My revenue dropped more than 50% in 2008, and I have had only one transaction close so far in 2009 until this past week. Fortunately, I have been very successful lately in advising sellers on how to position their homes to sell in a seriously down market, so we have closed a couple of transactions this month, and have another under contract to close next month.
If you have ever run a small business, you probably know that a right of passage for every entrepreneur is having to cut expenses to the bone, negotiate constantly with creditors, and spend every available minute trying to find business when a serious downturn occurs. I can now say that I have experienced the best years in the history of my industry, and am probably experiencing the worst right now. One of my core beliefs is that everything that happens to you in life happens for a reason. Sometime in the (probably distant) future, I will finally realize why I chose to start my own business when and how I did, and I am certain it will be an amazing moment of clarity. Until then, I keep the faith and persevere.
Shortly, I will post the May statistics for Charlotte and the submarkets that I track. I calculated April, but never found time to post them on the blog. Since I just add each month to the same spreadsheet, both the April and May numbers will be in the May file, in case you are interested.
I am going to have to come up with a new schedule for blogging (obviously). Not sure how I can work that out, but I am definitely going to try to be more active in the coming weeks. If you read one of my articles, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it. It will probably help me get back into this habit if I get more interaction with readers.
If you are a client, past or present, thanks so much for allowing me to serve you, and if you are a friend, please know that true friends are the most important people we can know. If you are both, you are truly a blessing!