Restoring Consumer Confidence
I recently read on a media site about what we need to do in order to restore consumer confidence. Of course they were talking about restoring confidence in real estate. In the past Realtors were always rated at the top of trusted salespeople, but lately our numbers have been slipping. Vince Leisey, President, Prudential Ambassador Real Estate recently said,
To begin with, I think we need to recognize that consumer confidence fell for a variety of reasons that had nothing to do with our ability as sales professionals. Consumers lost faith because as home prices dropped, equity was eroded. At the same time, unemployment was going up as the stock market was tanking.
I don’t think it’s consumer confidence in Realtors that needs to be restored, however. I think it’s consumer confidence in the economy that has caused the plunge in our real estate recovery. With jobs disappearing, people just don’t feel safe about making a major purchase - whether it’s homes, cars, appliances, furniture, or whatever!
In fact, Business Week published an article today that said although job losses were lessening, the recovery will remain slow.
Most employers either don’t need more workers or can’t afford to hire them. Even after business starts to pick up, they will hold off as long as possible before adding to payrolls, economists predict. As if that’s not bad enough for the unemployed, the competition for jobs keeps increasing because population growth adds about 1% to the labor force every year. Factor in that labor productivity has been growing at roughly 2% a year—meaning companies can produce the same output with fewer workers.
With a long, drawnout recovery predicted by economist, restoring consumer confidence may be years away. Meanwhile, the best thing to be done by the public is to be choosy about your Realtor. Expect them to perform professionally and in an informed way.
