With the financial markets still under stress, two major forces in the world of real estate announced layoffs.
Redfin, a Seattle based real estate company, is cutting 20% of its work force, and Zillow announced today that they were cutting 25% of its workforce.
Just yesterday, I had looked to see how our local brokerages were doing. According the the WVMLS statistics, they have lost a little over 8% of the membership. Members of the WVMLS come from Marion, Polk, Linn and Benton counties. There are currently less members in 2008 than their were in 2006. This is a good thing. There is still plenty of thinning to occur to restore some balance to the world of real estate.
Don’t think I’m not sympathetic to agents that have struggled this year. I do feel bad for them, but the fact is that the real estate market is bloated with agents. Fewer agents means each agent can do more transactions which means more experience. This is a good thing for consumers.
Don’t worry, there are still many excellent real estate agents to choose from here in Salem. With the state of the real estate market, your first question will need to be…”Do you have another job.” With marketing of homes getting more difficult, it is really important to pick an agent that is not juggling many jobs right now to make ends meet.
(c) Copyright, 2008. Melina Tomson, All Rights Reserved (ie…be nice and create your own content. Don’t steal mine…)