Sign of the times - Tomson Burnham LLC

As I clicked on eBay this morning to check and see some items I was watching, I got the ad for a 10% coupon. 10% off if I purchase via paypal. Integrated into everything I looked at was the little bar showing the 10% off price to entice me to enter the bid.

Later this morning, I was at Great Harvest (I’m a sucker for their bread) in Salem Oregon, and received a .50 off coupon from them along with a nice little chart showing me why it was cheaper to buy bread from them. Please buy bread here was the unstated plea.

Sitting down at the computer, I started to scroll through my RSS feeds, and read about Realogy. Most people in the non-real estate world don’t know who Realogy is. Realogy is a behemoth in real estate whose company-owned and franchise brands include Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA, Sotheby’s International Realty, and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. Those are some big companies in the world of real estate.

According to the article at Inman News as reported by Bloomberg…

Bloomberg reported that Realogy “is at risk of violating the terms of its bank loans” and is “trying to reduce debt by almost $600 million and stave off default. “

With home sales and average homes prices dropping that is less of those 6% commission dollars heading into the corporate coffers. Many of the biggies are having woes due to the large overhead costs associated with those companies.

I know in many areas of the country, franchises are merging, and independents are merging as well to try and stay afloat. It is hard sometimes as a small brokerage to compete with the large newspaper spreads of the larger companies. Those types of products aren’t effective at selling homes, but they do sell the company to clients.

It’s times like this that I am very thankful to have my own business here in Salem and my own small brokerage. Low overhead costs means I can pass those lower costs onto clients. Somehow, I think in the times ahead, we’re all going to need it.