Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 24, 1993 TAG: 9301260195
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: EC-21 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLYNE H. McWILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
REAL ESTATE MARKET SHOWS PROMISE
Real estate sales in the Roanoke Valley saw steady improvement, ending the year with the best December since 1989. Looking back, sales might resemble a fine wine: They got better with time.Sales in 1992 leaped over 1991 figures locally and across the state, giving realty brokers and agents some hope that the recession is indeed over.
Although December's numbers dropped from earlier months, they were still 54 percent higher than sales in December 1991, according to the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors. Sales for all of 1992 were up 52 percent over 1991 sales. Last year's increase was the largest since records were first compiled in 1983.
Cathy Keene provides a good example of the trend. She said she was discouraged when she decided to get her real estate license in August 1991. Agents, brokers, family and friends warned Keene that it was a bad time to start in a business from which many were making an exodus.
Keene didn't listen, and a year later she's glad she didn't quit. She sold nearly 20 homes, real estate worth a total of $1 million, in the year after getting her first contract.
"It's been unbelievable," she said. "I was quite surprised."
Keene said she took the real estate sales class to learn how she could sell her own home. She and her husband put their house on the market for six months through another agent but it drew no offers.
When Keene was able to sell her own home, she decided she would try making a living selling real estate. While other agents were going out of the business, Keene said she was keeping busy. In fact, during the week of Christmas 1991 she sold seven houses.
"It kind of snowballed," she said. "I don't know if I'm lucky or what."
Keene, who works with Norma Forney on deals, now works for Better Homes and Gardens Gwyn & Harmon Realtors.
Other agents in the valley are claiming that 1992 was a record year for them, including David Eells, a 22-year veteran.
"I was hopeful at the beginning of 1992," he said. And for 1993: "I'm optimistic."
Eells, an associate broker with Mastin Kirkland Bolling Realtors Inc. who works with Edna Moran, said he and others in the industry are aware of the shaky economy caused by job losses in the valley. But he said his approach is to see what he can do to help those people.
Keene said she thinks the recession was magnified by agents who sat back and "grouched about things" instead of getting out in the market and working.
"If there's going to be a recession, there's going to be one," she said. "People are always going to get tired of where they're living or renting and are going to buy and sell."
Selling real estate is a self-motivating profession, Eells said, and "when things start to get slow, you start to review and you get back out there."
Eells and Keene said interest rates, which hit their lowest point in 20 years in 1992, have helped real estate.
Keene said that even if interest rates increase some, she thinks 1993 will be a good year. She and her partner already have signed seven contracts for January, Keene said, and have started plans for February.
"Attitude is the key to success," she said.