Real Estate Survivors

The designated broker in our office does a Market Report each month for the previous month on the 13 counties included in the NWMLS.  I just realized that the market is truly showing signs of turning around. Each posting of the Market Report is showing an increase in sales over the previous year's sales. This is very encouraging.  But what I am thinking about today is the tenacity of those real estate professionals who have managed to hang on in their profession since the market took that terrible down turn back in 2007, 2008. I am realizing what incredible survivors we have been.

The real estate world has changed dramatically, and agents, now all of us called "brokers" in Washington State, have had to be continual learners over the years. This need to be a continual learner is not going to cease either. New technology keeps us on our toes, as do all the changes that the lenders keep making. Sometimes it is hard to keep up, but we do. I am proud of us as a group of professionals who can survive the hard times, and therefore are even better at their profession today as the market revives.

The latest Market Report is not quite out yet, but will be soon. To follow these reports go HERE, where the reports are filed as blog posts. 

News about Simpson Lumber Company

The rumors are true.  Simpson Lumber Company, a mainstay of employment for our area for the last 125 years, is selling off two mills to Sierra Pacific Industries.  This company does not plan to operate the mills, but is closing them down. They do plan to construct a new state-of-the-art sawmill on our waterfront. Mill operations will be coming to a close over the next two months. The new sawmill will not open until sometime in 2017. 

Naturally this change makes all of us nervous as good employment opportunities are important to our region.

Mason County Transit

The Mason County Transit Authority announced some good news for our County.  They have been given a grant of $80,000 from the Peninsula Regional Transportation Planning Organization, through the Federal Highway and Federal Transportation Administrations. We already have one of the best transportation systems around, but this grant is going to make things even better.  Find out more about it HERE. 

Check out the great searches

The designated broker in our Shelton Land & Homes, LLC office has given his website a new look, and made it even better when it comes to searching for property.  Go to the website and then click on the "properties" button HERE.  You can search for several properties with one click of your mouse.  My favorite is the "Search for Lake Waterfront" link.  I love looking at all the beautiful homes that are for sale on Mason County lakes. 

The Quick and Easy Search is still on the website, too.  On that web page you can also do fast searches with just one click of the mouse button.  Go check it out!

Disappointment

Hurrumph!  I am so disappointed.  Recently I posted about a new APP we had for our IDX search.  I loved that APP, but now it's gone!  We use IDX Broker for our IDX service, and I like them, but when we upgraded so all our IDX search pages would be mobile friendly, they decided we no longer needed a mobile APP.  This makes no sense to me, because how are people supposed to get to the IDX pages without the APP on their phones? I've done a lot of complaining to them about it.

Now I'm wondering if I can learn how to make a mobile APP.   I notice there are programs out there for making mobile APPs, but so far I am too early in the learning curve to know how to approach this new venture. 

We've been fooling around with John Borgert's website, www.jborgert.com, to see if we can make it even more user friendly.  The focus is on providing easy and quick searches for people.  Once you do a search, the new IDX format does make everything fit in the window of whatever you are using -- smart phone, iPad, desk top.  So that's good.

You can do a search right now, if you'd like to do one. Just try John's website.