Slow period, is this normal?

[fqp25]

Still in my first year of inspecting, is it normally slow this time of year? I've been getting a lot of things done during this spring like El Nino Winter, but I just agreed to help my brother-in-law paint his garage this weekend, and I hate painting.

I've been marketing warranty inspections this past week(flyers & mailings); just trying to stay occupied. What are some other ways to stir-up business in times like these?

[hausdok]

Hi,

While it typically can slow way down the last week of August and into the middle of September, when folks are getting their kids started in school, it usually picks up about mid-September and goes great guns until just before Thanksgiving. Then things sort of dry up until just after the New Year. However, this year, it's been pretty slow all fall. In fact, I'd say it's slower than any time during the past 10-1/2 years I've been in the business, including when I was injured and folks generally knew I was out of commission for a while.

I receive one or two electronic trade journals or newsletters from various construction or real estate trades every day. For the past six months, these have been typically headlined with stories about how real estate sales, new contruction starts, or number of remodeling jobs, or number of preexisting homes sales are down, or have hit record lows. The real estate newsletters are full of articles by veterans telling the new agents how to survive the draught and similar articles are all over the construction press. There's no doubt that things are slow.

This business and construction in general follows real estate and mortgage trends. Those are cyclical. Right now, we seem to be at the bottom of the cycle and experts are predicting that things will stay this way for about another year before the market corrects itself. Based on that, this is probably not the best time to be a newbee getting into this business, unless you've got substantial reserves and can hang in there for another year or so without going under. Good luck!

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Chris Bernhardt]

Yeah, Its slow here. Worst December that I can remember since year 2 in the biz. Year 1 doesn't count. Phone rang off of the hook day after New years thank goodness. But I am expecting that business will be off this year compared to the last 3 but there is no indication that it will worsen. The market appears to be correcting.

Chris, Oregon

[kurt]

Can't think about this stuff in micro terms. We'll know in about 6-9 months if the market has corrected.

The realtors are all saying soft landing achieved, but it's based on a couple months information. Can't look @ the market in such short term projections and know anything.

NY Times had an article a couple weeks ago showing how the NAR was fudging statistics to make everything look rosy. We'll know in August. Actually, more like May.

[Bill Kibbel]

I'm pretty fortunate to have recognized this slow RE market coming. I geared up for some consulting work to fill in the gaps in pre-purchase inspections.

I hope for the best for new and seasoned serious, honest HIs during slow times. I think it was from Scott P. that I first heard the term "cleansing period".

[Chris Bernhardt]

I knew somthing was wrong last summer when there were a couple of dispersed weeks that were off and they are never off. We saved double what we saved the year before but it appears now that we should have saved double that.

Chris, Oregon

[Terence McCann]

I'm slow - really slow. It doesn't help when your anchor city is voted the poorest in the nation. Thankfully my wife is doing well in her career.

What a long strange trip it's been...

[Scottpat]

Slow is the norm for this time of year. It will start to pick back up in about 6-8 weeks in most parts of the country. Just this week I had seven inspections, and that is more than I have had in one week in several months. Who knows why and when the phone will ring but it will ring eventually!

[sbrooten]

This was my slowest December in 5 years, but it was still respectable enough to pay the bills. I count on taking vacation at Christmas/New Year weeks, and I think I always will. Now, I'm going to the ASHI convention, so would have to stall people off for another week anyway. Here's hoping that business takes off in later January as it has in the past!

[mgbinspect]

Richmond has been a dependable and predictable market until this year. I'm the slowest I've been in 13 years. I too had a bad feeling about 4 months ago and did some major refinancing to reduce my cost of living by about $1000,00 a month. Glad I did it.

Agents keep telling me it's going to get better soon, but we'll just hav to see.

Well, here's hoping that it's just a needed correction and things pick up soon.

Come to think of it, when I lived in Loudoun County, VA the same thing happened and Loudoun County real estate values are again increasing at a rediculous pace.

So, I'm confident things will improve.

In the meantime, I'm just taking advantage of the forced time off. Just got back from a cruise to the Bahamas and leaving for a cruise to Cozumel in February (whether I can afford it or not!) We're not getting any younger and life is too short! When you're busy you don't have the time and when you're not you don't have the money! Working out during the week and snowboarding on the weekends.

Enjoy the time off! This too shall pass.