Broker Agent News is a great industry publication, and I hope everyone gets a look at this. You can subscribe for FREE . . . one of my two favorite 4-letters!

Today's has a good article by Walter Sanford . . . .Twelve Positive Real Estate Trends for 2008  which I think gives us more than a little cause for optimism.

Take a look and see what you think. I'm most cool with 4, 7 and 10:

4. More people than ever are starting to 'get' that the BUYER can compensate his/her broker. This is changing the way we deal with buyers, the way buyers are choosing representation (grasping BBAs and even asking to enter into them!) and how FSBOs are viewing our services (most of the time they are just wrapping their mind around what's always been the case--that the buyer having a rep is GOOD for them--but that shift is meaningful no matter)

7. More people are starting to 'get' that we earn and deserve to earn what we charge, determined from dozens of transactions and years of business planning.

10. Most of us have been 'adjusting' and 'correcting' long enough now that everyone's getting bored with the hype, and it's settling back in to business as usual!

So read the articles and be happy. If you're still here, you have an excellent chance of survival in 2008 and beyond. Keep up the good work!

What other trends do you think will be good for all of us next year?