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Coping With Low-inventory Blues Buyers today are making four to five losing offers before getting under contract. However, it’s not only buyers who are feeling discouraged. By Erica Christoffer
Sonia Norville’s typical workday this spring ran from the crack of dawn until 10 p.m., with zero days off, as she shifted between showing houses in person and hunting for promising listings online for her eight buyer clients. The Weichert, Realtors®, agent, based in Union, N.J., drove one couple all over the state, seeing five to seven properties a day for about eight weeks straight in a hunt for the right one. They made offers on eight homes and were outbid every time. “It’s extremely difficult,” she said. “You spend so much money on gas, plus the energy it takes out of your day. And you’re not getting paid for any of it.” With demand for homes far exceeding supply throughout the country and the median time on market falling to a historic low of 17 days in April, it’s not only buyers who are feeling discouraged. Agents, especially 12 | Salt Lake Realtor ® | September 2021
those focused on buyers, may be facing a dynamic they’re completely unaccustomed to. Many have never worked so hard and have so little closed volume to show for it. Every lost bidding war may be taking a toll on their mental health, in addition to their wallet. “Buyers are making offers, and in most situations, they’re not winning the bid, and then they’re getting angry at the agents,” said Greg Harrelson, broker-owner of Century 21 The Harrelson Group in Myrtle Beach, S.C., a firm with 205 agents. “You can’t absorb everyone’s anger and then let that pile up on your shoulders as stress.”
More Agents Than Listings Brad Allen’s agents don’t get a day off. Their situation is similar to Norville’s. There are 4,700 agents with only about
