Bruce W McKinnon, MBA, Associate Broker, CRS, GRI, ABR, SRES, GREEN, ePRO, CLHMS

Seattle Home Buyer: I am constantly looking at my stock portfolio and asking the same question. How about you? Where is the bottom? How bad will this economic dip or recession last?

Real estate agents are in denial? I don't think so, Half the agents in many offices are GONE. Offices are closing or merging to reduce overhead. Agent incomes are in the tank. People are having trouble feeding their families. YET — for those who are hopeful for the future, we need more of them. My mother use to tell me as I was growing up to BE POSSITIVE, walk on the bright side. And we should. We owe it to our families and our self esteem.

WHAT DO WE KNOW for sure? Death and taxes — right? WE know that the economy of the US and the World flows in waves. Up and down. Always has. That is a fact. Yet, it seems so many people in the world are always waiting for things to improve so they can THEN make their fortune. We hear that all the time. How realistic is that? If the stock market is off 2000 points and homes are down 20% to 40% (after jumping the same percentages from July 2004 to July 2005) , is this a correction. Is NOW the bottom?

Yes, you do know the story. Most of us wait for the bottom until the bottom passes on to "going up" or the "all time high". That is when we have just got to jump in. Or, to say it another way, THAT certainly is the place for us to jump in -- RIGHT?

Maybe your friends in the real estate business are NOT in denial. Maybe just smart investors. They may be focused on that old AXIOM "buy low, sell high!" People with foresight maybe. If we listen close, isn’t everybody saying that it is a buyer's market. Maybe it is?

What if NOW was the time to buy? The perfect time? What is your strategy? - Sun Sep 14 2008, 04:04