HAMPTONS REAL ESTATE, SOUTHAMPTON, NY

Feeling the "shake-out" yet?...the "shake-out" that is taking place, here in the Hamptons at least, is a direct result of the slower housing market and the complete stalling of high-end real estate in general. More and More agents are leaving real estate for greener pastures; this follows the storm that hit most markets, leaving the housing market in shambles!

In Southampton in particular, there are agents leaving this market to go to another nearby area looking for the illusive sale and listing that they can't find here anymore...Established local agents have taken back the territory, so to speak!

Agents that I had rarely seen during the boom years of '05-'07 are appearing back on the streets here. The "Newbies" have left and there is room once more for the established agents to come back out into the light of day and do what they do best: SELL REAL ESTATE!

In today's real estate markets, here in the Hamptons,  there is a big "shake-out" going on: no longer do the agents, who rushed into the business at the height of the market in '07, have anything to rush after---the housing recession has taken care of that! Quickly leaving what they came so swiftly after, these agents are inclined to go back into the world of finance.

Suffering from the fear of loss of income, they appear to have faded away; no big announcement, just an empty desk!....Then again, some of the newer agents have remained in place, as if frozen in time, waiting for the return of the good old days of quick deals and unreasonable price increases. But those days are gone for the foreseeable future.

Business is tough to come by and agents are falling all over each other as they go head-on into the fray...Combating the usual difficulties of a struggling market-place and attempting to use the same techniques that worked at one time, these agents will soon discover that these tools do not work anymore! 

Some, who cut their teeth on a booming market, now see the value of the hard work it takes to make a deal happen--and have either resigned themselves to a career in this profession or have left with out looking back.  

Silently, they are leaving in droves: "OH, she has retired and moved out of state". or.."I don't know what happened, they told me they were moving to Florida; I haven't seen them since"....these are the statements that echo after the departure of more and more agents here in the Hamptons.

I am wondering: Is this a national trend? Are we seeing a calming down of huge numbers of agents swarming into the field--or is it just happeniing here in the Hamptons?