HERE'S TO THE PROFESSIONALS WHO SURVIVED AND SOME ADVICE TO BUYERS & OWNERS.    

All of us have been waiting for some recovery in the real estate market for 6 years.  Yep, we woke up in early 2007 wondering where our buyers had gone.  It would later prove that 2006 -- somewhere around middle of the year -- was the end of a good run upward in real estate values in Coastal Georgia.  Sellers were stunned that all of a sudden there was no activity in the Golden Isles; business just shut down.  Thus began our local version of 'this economic present darkness'!  Never before had a recession lasted more than 10 or 11 months.  Never before had brokerage companies found themselves with no 'sales pending' files.  In my 34 years of real estate sales experience I had not imagined anything like it.  

So we spent 4 or 5 years watching builders and Realtors and appraisers and mortgage lenders go broke or severely cut staff.  We saw many of our community banks have their doors shut by the Feds.  The Island traffic circles were lonely for the daily 'trades parade' as the mow & blow guys, plumbers and electricians went home or moved away!  Yet, slowly but surely, inventories fell as we began to broker cut rate, quality real estate to the few investors savvy enough not to look for a bottom but to look for value knowing that it would eventually come back.  Then, with the 'good stuff' mostly gone and with our banker friends all looking for jobs, we saw some light in 2012 that appeared to be the end of the tunnel.  All indications are that we have weathered that huge storm.  

Many of us are no longer in business, but a stubborn remnant of us (real estate professionals) early on decided that we'd still get up and go to work every day.  Those of us whose clients endured foreclosures and bankruptcies became either victims of the same or counselors to owners of now toxic real estate.  Still we survived with hopes to once again do what we do best: provide professional real estate services to customers and clients as well.    

It's my gleeful pleasure to report to you that business is good.  It's very good by comparison to what we've recently experienced.  For most of us, this is out to be the best year since 2006.  Sales are up and inventories have stabilized.  But the good deals are not all gone.  Every segment of the market offers great opportunities for hungry buyers.  Foreclosures are not finished; there are enough to choke a goat still in the pipeline.  And, banks are holding a lot of stuff that they must get rid of over the next couple of years.  I feel that the luxury end still has some price cutting coming, but it appears that the 'bread and butter or 'entry level' pricing' in every market has turned.  If you want a great buy on a condo, lot or home in our market, I urge you to contact your broker and get serious.  If you're thinking retirement in a few years, don't delay.  These lower prices will be good for now and perhaps into next year.  But you're going to see prices firm up sometime next year, and we'll see sellers calling the shots as the foreclosure inventory lessens.  When you see builders again producing spec product, you'll know you missed the bottom.  It's just around the corner! 

Roland L. Daniel, GRI
Broker