THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604250311
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY ELLEN MILES, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Dave Liniger, chairman of the board and co-founder of Re/Max International, the giant real estate sales chain, got interested in selling houses by reading books and thought they ``made all the sense in the world.''
So, he started investing in the 1960s and can remember the pride of ownership every time he bought a house.
``That personal satisfaction is the American Dream,'' he told local realty agents at a sales meeting earlier this week at the Norfolk Marriott. Liniger got his real estate license, he said, ``to save the commission on his investments.'' Then he sold some property for friends, concentrating on customer service.
About seven years later, Re/Max was born. Gail Liniger, his wife, is currently CEO and president of the company.
Liniger's primary job function is to teach. He gives hundreds of seminars a year. Among the topics discussed in Norfolk was the history of the real estate market, starting with World War II.
The industry expanded then, he said, because of the postwar baby boom, the VA and FHA loan programs, the fair credit act (which allowed women to include their income in qualifying for a mortgage), military relocation and, later, baby boomers buying houses in the 1960s and 1970s.
About that time, he said, ``. . . house prices started increasing dramatically and everyone felt if you didn't buy then, you'd never be able to afford to.'' All these elements made a large, expanding market.
Currently, the market is shrinking because of corporate and military downsizing, the absence of new federal programs and the baby boomers being mostly finished with house buying, Liniger said. ``Once people reach age 45, they don't move nearly as much.''
The next wave of home buyers, the so-called ``X Generation'' is delaying marriage and home buying, hence, stalling the real estate market. ``It's no longer a growth industry,'' Liniger said, noting that the number of real estate agents has begun to decline.
The top producers, he said, are learning better techniques of personal promotion. Their productivity is increasing, while the slower producing Realtors and small companies are dropping out of the industry.
Competition will become even more intense, he predicted. Agents will be servicing larger areas and Realtors will be moving into larger facilities. With the new generation of home buyers being better educated and computer literate, he said, agents are finding out they have a lot to learn about computers.
``Current technology makes the speed of handling business faster, making you more productive,'' he said. ``In the near future, however, the computer will actually generate leads for Realtors, just as (newspaper) classified ads did 20 years ago. The company that is most technologically oriented has a leadership role and is able to train their agents better, will be able to give better service.''
The marginal agents, he said, who're in the business to supplement their income with sales from relatives, neighbors and friends are just fading away.
For 50 years, Realtors gave information to the public that was confidential, Liniger said. Now that information is available to everyone with a computer. For instance, the general public is allowed into the multiple listing service data base.
A few years ago, Realtors on the Internet were unheard of. A few hundred were on the Internet 18 months ago. Today, said Liniger, there are about 10,000 agents who can be reached through it.
Now the public can start preliminary house hunting through the MLS and the Internet, without a Realtor - quite an improvement over lengthy street by street or newspaper searches.
``It allows customers to pre-shop at their pace,'' he said, ``being very selective before they contact a Realtor. It's going to make the business better for the buyer and the seller.
``The most important aspect of real estate today,'' he said, ``is that after a 30-year cycle of thinking it was the greatest piggy bank in the world, it's still a good long-term investment. It's no longer possible to make a quick profit from it, but it's a place where you raise your family and build up an asset because you're not just paying rent.''
People need to be more selective today, he said. Buyers need to choose a house where they want to be living five years down the road.
``Interest rates are fantastic, just about where they were 30 years ago,'' Liniger said. ``Adjustable rate mortgages are very, very low. House prices are reasonable - it's easy to get a mortgage and it's faster than ever to get in. So, it gives a young, two career couple the ability to really build something of value.'' by CNB