To Grow or Not to Grow!

Hi Everyone!

What a year this has been so far! We have been working like crazy lately and have just finished hiring our last Agent we will hire in this office. We are now officially full! Now we have 20 Agents to help you accomplish your goals of finding your own little bit of paradise. Does that sound like a commercial or what!?

So why are we so busy and most Real Estate Companies are struggling? I think the biggest reason is that we have a very loyal base of customers. Our past customers have always been our greatest allies and they continue to send us new customers all the time. That says alot for my team of Agents and Support staff here. We also generate a bunch of new buyers each month through the Internet and we continue to educate and train our Agents to be better and better. The beauty of our systems, is that we don't lose Agents. We have not lost an Agent to another Agency since we opened our doors in 2005. The winner in this of course is our customers. All of our Agents main goal is to help our customers. They come first in all of our minds and it's great!. I believe that is our biggest asset and appeal.

Just today I had a first time homebuyer in our office. He had called me last week about one of my listings and told me that he was calling all the listing Agents to find out more about the homes. He didn't realize that we all have access to the same homes. We all share the same MLS. The difference of course is that nobody would really give him their full attention when they found out he is hopping from one Realtor to the next. Anyway, to make a very long story short, I explained to him the benefit of sticking with one Realtor. We hung up the phone and within a few minutes he called back and thanked me for being so honest and that Ned, one of our Agents ,was assigned to him and he would meet him. We found him a home within a day or so and he also is using Tropical Mortgage Group. When he was in our office today he came to my office and thanked me for explaining how it all worked and that everyone from Ned to Pedro to Kelly have been so helpful and friendly. I love hearing this of course. It's music to my ears.

Now I have some decisions to make since we have maxed out our current office space. I can either open more offices around the county and beyond or franchise our systems throughout Florida. Franchising seems to be the way to go since I would have control over who owned each office. It would also make managing 50 offices much easier. If I open new offices, I have to do all the hiring, the traiing and all else involved in opening an office. Of course Franchising has its problems too. First and foremost is the cost. Have you ever checked into it? It's very expensive and would take a very large investment of both time and money. Do I have that in me at 46 years old?! Good question. I'm going to be doing the research over the next month or so and make some decisions soon. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, as always, thank you for using Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com and if there is anything we can do to help...you know where we are!

Have a fun night!

Mitch

First Quarter of Brevard County Real Estate

Sunday April 15, 2007
First Quarter in Brevard County

Hi Everyone! So the first quarter has past for Brevard County Real Estate. Some people are saying the market is starting to pick up, others say it's still at a stand still. I'm a believer in letting the numbers do the talking so let's look at them!

As of today, April 15th:

Single Family Homes on the Market: 7471
Condos and Townhomes on the Market: 3435
Land on the Market: 4398
Sold Numbers are from Jan. 1, 2007 - April 15, 2007
Single Family: 1414
Condos and Townhomes: 374
Land Sales: 168

I think you might be getting the picture right now. Compared to 2004 when prices were 20%-30% higher we had around 1200 single family listings including condos and they all sold within 30 days. We also only had 1,000 land listings and they all sold within 30 days. It was a great time if you were selling your property but a terrible time if you were trying to buy. We had priced first time homebuyers out of the market and many of our buyers that would have liked to move up couldn't because they couldn't afford the next house. Crazy Times!

So here we are now on April 15th, 2007 and things have certainly changed. Sellers are starting to realize they need to lower their prices dramtically if they want to sell and even then they should plan on 3-6 months listing times. In 2004 you would have been blessed to find a home under $200k. Today you can buy a brand new home for under $200k. So we have completely changed from a sellers market to a buyers market. This is cetainly the time to buy a home. With interest rates staying around 6.5% or less, and home prices 20%+ lower than two years ago, this may be the best time to buy a home!

Of course one piece of great news for us, Tropical Realty and MitchRealty.com is that our sales have been excellent. We are currently ranked number 2 in the county out of 392 Real Estate companies in working with buyers. Keep in mind we are ahead of companies that have hundreds of Agents where between our two offices we have a total of 30. Obviously we are exceptional at helping our customers which is why our business is extremely strong right now. I definately want to thank all of our buyers who have chosen us to help them purchase their homes. Honestly and Integrity surely pays off!

Well that's about it for now. As always, if there is anything we can do to help don't hesitate to email or call us. We will do anything in our power to make sure you make the right decisions on your next purchase!!

Have a fun Sunday and take care!

Mitch