I got an email from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The subject line read: Dallas/Fort Worth ranks second in key statistics. Intrigued, I opened it and scrolled down. The first article read, “DFW Market ranks second in pet-friendly rentals”. Thanks NAR. Annoyed, I continued to scroll down and found “DFW Market ranks second in sales volume”. No idea why the pet article was first… Point being, the US is in an erratic market. People are dealing with interest rates fluctuating from 6.5-8%, personal debt is at an all-time high and inflation continues to hinder everyone. But DFW is as good as it gets for real estate, and for that I’m thankful. Looking at page 2, we certainly have more inventory, up a whopping 35% from 2023, which admittedly was a very low inventory market. That said, sales prices are ticking up a bit, median days on market is still a brisk 50 days, and although pending sales are down a bit sales volume is actually up 5% from April 2024.
I’ve interviewed a younger agent to join John Angell Real Estate Group. Seems like a good guy, ambitious, smart, self-starting. He may come on as an assistant for the time being, which makes me nervous. I could always use someone willing to research social media marketing, hold open houses and do little things I don’t want or don’t have the time to do, but the notion of employing someone and being responsible for their livelihood is kind of terrifying. People who have never had an employee tend to think “bosses” whimsically fire workers, but I’ve noticed the opposite, especially with small businesses. Don’t get me wrong, I’d have no problem firing someone who was lazy/disrespectful/incompetent, but it’s a bit terrifying being responsible for the livelihood of a subordinate. That said, I’ve been in this business 20 years and it’s time. The first question I asked him was, “Why real estate?”, one of his two reasons was what I wanted to hear. “It’s a booming market in DFW” was the first, “I want to help people with the biggest financial decision of their lives” was the second and it was spot-on. There are people who get into real estate for the money, the “flexible schedule”, their appreciation of houses/architecture, but there are long spells where the money is bad, the schedule is inflexible and you’re touring crappy houses. To me, the “Big Why” has always been helping. Don’t get me wrong, that’s no fun when you really don’t like the client, but that’s an uncommon thing.
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