Today’s realtors are stressed out more than ever. The pressure to sell homes, sell them quickly, and sell them in a “not so hot market” has never been greater. Talking with agent after agent each day, I have concluded that they are getting sucked in the toxic dance that has been happening with buyers and sellers. I have a short story that illustrates this point well.

I called an agent inquiring about putting an offer in on behalf of my buyers on his listing. On the phone he was charming, helpful, eager, and it sounded like it would be pleasant to do a transaction with him. We put the home under contract with his sellers and my buyers and the agent went from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. During the subsequent weeks while we were going through inspection, appraisal, and amendments he was defensive, uncooperative, and combative to say the least. I got to thinking why? Why are more and more agents finding it so hard to get along? Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok for an agent to be a hard negotiating advocate for his or her clients, but this isn’t war. The only explanation I could come up with is, “it comes from the top down.”  We clearly have a trickledown effect from the sellers to agents, buyers to agents, and brokerage firms to agents. The mood of the country is essentially setting the mood of all parties involved.

Back to the story: We ended up closing deal and the buyers got the home they wanted, but it wasn’t remotely smooth. It caused a lot of unnecessary trouble and stress for my buyers and all because the listing agent had a mindset of “who wins, who loses, and who gets their way.” It could have all been avoided.

What’s the moral to the story? It’s three-fold: 1) The economy has put a lot of people in a bad mood, but as agents, buyers, and sellers we need to find a way to rise above that. 2) Buyers and sellers need to understand that in most cases agents want to do a great job for them. Beating them up (figuratively) is not going to help. 3) The story above just underscores how valuable a truly good agent can be. It can make all the difference between a smooth and pleasant transaction and one that is a Nightmare on Elm Street.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

What changed? Well it’s certainly hasn’t been because there are more jobs, but I can point to a few things that helped:

1)  The tax credit finishing up at the end of April brought in a frenzy of business at the 11^th hour. It was crazy for a few weeks at the end of the April. Since Uncle Sam was not extending the credit, more people realized the urgency to buy now.

2)  While unemployment is not reversing itself for the moment, I do think it has stabilized, marked by a few good months of positive job growth. This instilled some confidence in people to start spending money again. Jobs are the one area that can turn the entire economy around and prevent a double dip recession. Many large corporations are flushed with cash so the question now is, will they hire employees and expand or will they pay it out to shareholders?

3)  Pent up demand! It’s a term we have used a lot over the last 18 months, talking about the need and demand by people to buy new homes. I have said all along in this column that as realtors, we could feel the pent up demand to buy homes; we just did not know when it would shake loose. It started this summer.

4)   Finally, while new construction is not booming around the country it is doing ok here in Colorado. I know many builders that have started new projects, created new price points, new marketing strategies, and new alliances and as a result are doing pretty well. It’s far off from where we used to be but its start.

The only question that remains is, “Can we keep it going?” I hear the analysts talking every day about the chances of a double dip recession. I don’t have a crystal ball to know one way or another if that will happen. I do know this market is fragile to say the least and we can all hope for the best.

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost

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In today’s real estate market, would one be foolish to buy the first home they saw? Maybe not! There is no hard and fast rule about how many homes you need to see before making an offer. You could see three homes, find the exact one you are looking for, turn to your Realtor and say, “I don’t need to see anymore. Let’s make an offer on this one.” Somehow, over the last four to five years, we have gotten brainwashed into thinking that we need to see 40-90 homes before we can make an intelligent decision. That’s just hog wash. Chances are, after you have seen 20+ homes, they all start to look alike and you can’t remember which one had the main floor office versus the main floor master.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. There is no perfect house, and if you find one that meets 85% or greater of your needs, then you’ve done well. Spending month after month and weekend after weekend looking for a home that meets 100% of your criteria is an exercise in futility. Many times, buyers fail to see the potential of the homes that they are looking at because they are in such a hurry to see what’s next on the list and what could be even better. I found that in life, sometimes we spend too much time looking for what’s better.

You may have looked at 1 home, 10 homes, or 100 homes and I bet for the people out there that have looked at 100, they came back to buy one of the very first homes they ever saw in their search. Trust your instincts when you are shopping for a home. If it feels right, it probably is and more shopping will only delay your purchase of that home. There is no shame in buying the first, second, or third home you’ve seen. In fact, I often say to my buyers after we’ve seen a home and they’ve had a positive response, “Is there any reason to see more or should we talk about making an offer on that home?” Remember what I always say, “Realtors are the only people meant to look at homes for the rest of their lives.”

Dan Polimino is a Realtor with Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty. He can be reached at DPolimino@fullerproperties.com and www.coloradodreamhouse.com/denverpost