From my husband and every other working “Joe” I speak to –the hours we put in, the production pressure, the unemployment scares. Whew! My father and I often would talk about the working world when he was alive. He was a very successful business owner, and he would watch us move at warp speed in order to gain much less than was achieved decades ago, and he had to admit – today “nothing is easy.”

We can all wallow on a daily basis about the tough times but it doesn’t change a thing; so what do we do about it? We battle for our successes like the REALTORS® in this issue’s feature, “How Did You Sell That?” If, instead of communing with each other on how difficult we have it, we share our successes and tips to achieve them, there may be fewer tough days. The writer could have found many more than three stories from Massachusetts REALTORS® of how they overcame obstacles to get to the closing table, and I think this provides a good example of how determined and resourceful today’s members are in serving their clients and customers.

Also, let us not forget how resourceful and determined today’s buyers and sellers are. According to recent research, the number one reason for buying a home for more than one-quarter of homebuyers is the simple desire to be a homeowner, to buy into a neighborhood and become part of the community. However, research also notes that first-time buyer numbers are down in 2011 from 2010 because of the challenges they face to achieving
homeownership.

The bottom line is their determination and resourcefulness is only achievable with the help of a REALTOR®. Moreover, a REALTOR®’s source of success comes from learning from one another and educating yourselves. I hope you get a bit of that education from this issue into which I packed as much sales and marketing information as I could to help you jumpstart your prime selling season. We need each other, we are all in this (today’s challenging times) together, feeding off of each other’s success to squash the
mantra and to keep on squashing it!