Real Estate Agents Bail Out of Business In Tampa Bay Area
With a down real estate market, it has gotten tougher to sell homes for a living in the Tampa Bay area over the past two years. The median price, which means half of the houses sold for more, and half of the homes sold for less, has slipped, making buyers skittish. This pressure which was not present when numerous Realtors were licensed during the hay day of 2004-2006 has caused some local real estate agents to fall by the wayside, dropping out of the business totally.
The Greater Tampa Association of Realtors (GTAR) reports that for the 2008 calendar year, 7,096 agents renewed their memberships with the association. This is a 20% drop from the 8,878 members they had in 2007.
During the housing boom, there were an abundance of people who wanted to sell real estate in the Tampa Bay area. Let’s face it, anybody who could fog a mirror could sell a house during this time period. The membership of GTAR grew in 2006 to 9,604, which was a 46% jump from the 6,547 they had in 2004.
The median sale price has dropped and the inventory has inflated. There were 19,354 homes for sale in December 2007, five times the number for sale the same month in 2004. At the current pace, it would take approximately 17.5 months to sell the entire inventory currently listed for sale.
The hand writing is on the wall, these are the toughest market conditions that many agents have ever seen, including some agent who have 20 plus years in the business.
It is believed that of the current GTAR membership, another 20 to 25% will be gone by years end. Similar scenarios are playing out around most of the country.
A similar purge is under way in the home lending industry as well. Many of the mortgage brokers that you saw in advertisements two years ago have already moved on to greener pastures.
What does all of this mean to the consumer and the career Real Estate Agents? We have seen similar ebbs and flows in the real estate industry in the past. I believe it means that when the dust settles, and the faint of heart and part timers looking for a fast buck fall, the survivors will be the smartest, toughest, best educated bunch of agents this area has ever seen.
Many of the smarter agents have utilized this down-time to hone their skills by taking classes, learning about the internet and working on the systems that make their business flow during busier times.
Dave Tipton, Broker ~ Florida’s Beautiful Homes™
