I just returned from a Mike Ferry seminar in San Diego, the trip was short, but I learned some very valuable lessons and met some very interesting people.  Some of the brokers I met have been in the business for many years and told me that prices have gone done 60%- 80% since last year in their area.  To put things in perspective, prices here in New York City have dropped 10% to 15%, a fraction of the drops in the West Coast. When I asked my friend Karen Bernardi her thoughts on the market, she very wisely stated, “the game has changed but I still love playing it,” and as I see it, this is what it is all about!

Mike Ferry, one of my closest mentors and advisors, gave all of the brokers at the conference some great advice.  Mike said real estate brokers are the KEY players in helping the country get out of this economic mess. In 2007 there were 2.1 million agents and today there are 800,000 active agents in the country.  Only the strongest, most dedicated brokers survive and they do so by following these simple rules:  1) set a realistic price, NO more overpricing.  2) ONLY work with motivated sellers.  Don’t work with sellers who put their home on the market just so they can see how much they can get.  3) Buy a rental property or convince your buyers to do so to take advantage of a lower interest rate in this time of recession.  If brokers follow these simple rules, the market will show movement, it will regain confidence, and we will be able to get out of this recession. In the seminar many attendees said they anticipate that 2010 and 2011 will be years where we will enjoy an abnormal market similar to the heydays of the mid 2000’s. Of course no one has a crystal ball to predict the future but this positive outlook on the future of the market definitely have me excited.

Yesterday I attended the Professional Women in Construction (PWC) Developers forum where I spoke about development in demanding times. I was on the panel along with J.J. Bistricer, Executive Vice President of Clipper Equity; Ivanka Trump, Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization; and Louise Sunshine,...   READ MORE