Charm City Baltimore Real Estate: Baltimore, Maryland Real Estate & Homes

Since the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission released its recommendations in late 2005, most informed Marylanders have been told that the roughly 60,000 jobs that are being relocated here will be a boon to the economy, but an enormous challenge to utility, transportation and education infrastructure, and a shot in the arm to the flagging real estate market.

Will it? A recent poll of affected workers at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey indicated that only about 40% were planning to move when their jobs moved. Because of that, the SUN ran a story last week that said the DoD was hiring Maryland workers for new job openings, so that they wouldn’t lose 60% of their workforce all at once when the move takes place. So, although the economic impact will seem to be guaranteed, with Maryland workers getting 60% of these jobs and up to 24,000 new households, the initial indicators are that the majority of the jobs will be taken by people who already live here.

So, is the state of Maryland planning for a big party that will be relatively small? If there really are only 24,000 new households relocating to the state, spread over localities from Anne Arundel, Howard, Harford and Cecil Counties to the City of Baltimore, should the state plan for twice that number?

The decision over these improvements will be made in a very tight budget environment, and the decision must be made fairly quickly in order for the work to be funded and put on the roughly 10 year plan the state maintains. Roads and schools take a while to plan, engineer and construct. The O’Malley Administration needs to look carefully at what needs to be done and avoid over expenditure. And localities and the real estate industry — builders and brokers — need to temper their expectations. The golden egg might just turn out to be a lump of coal.

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When it comes to a real estate transaction or working with an agent, some otherwise smart people make some pretty dumb assumptions.

Would you call five lawyers, and tell each of them that you will pay the first one that writes up an acceptable Will, based on the criteria you provide? Or, to move it to the other end of the trust spectrum, would you call up five car dealers and tell each one that you’ll buy your car from the first one that brings you a special order at your price with your list of features?

If you did, you probably wouldn’t hear from either the lawyers or the car dealers again.

I got a call from a successful area businessman today who basically asked me to do the same thing. Once it was clear none of my current listings suited his needs, he wanted me to keep an eye out for him. That was fine, until he declined coming to see me or hiring me as his buyer agent. Seems he has a friend who also is an agent, and he just couldn’t become a client of someone else. So, he basically thinks that I will work my butt off looking for properties that meet his criteria — with no promise of loyalty on his part to make sure that eventually I am compensated for my work. Its clear he also expects his friend to do that too… and who knows how many other listing agents he’s called and asked to do the same thing, once he discovers their listings also don’t meet his needs.

Does he think that he’s savvy and has five agents working their collective butts off for him?

In the end, real estate is about trust and loyalty between agent and buyer, or agent and seller. You might get a newbie, a raw hungry rookie, to do something like this once or twice until they had gotten tired of working for free, but no seasoned agent will bite on this kind of one-sided offer. We’ve all been burned by the potential buyer who won’t declare loyalty, work with you and reward your efforts.

So, think about this when you think its easy to get five agents to work for you at the same time. Fact is, they aren’t. If you want an agent to work their butt off for you, deal with them fairly and exclusively. Then you’ll find what you want.

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