Sign of the Times

The face of real estate success sure has been changed in the past few years. Until foreclosures and short sales started to dominate the market in the past few years, the elite real estate sales agents in Tucson were those who sold a few dozen luxury homes.

Now the heavy hitters are the real estate teams who focus on handling bank-owned properties. Last year, the sales volume top producer was Bob Zachmeier, who had a mind-boggling 492 sales averaging $112,568 each, followed by Marsee Wilhems with 350 sales averaging $121,600.

Agents number 3, 4 and 5 in sales volume were the traditional sales leaders: Janell Jellison, Rob Lamb and Russell Long. Their number of sales and average sale prices were 44 and $693,011; 116 and $214,705; and 37 and $656,677, respectively.

The agents in positions 13 through 17 each had over 300 sales averaging under $50,000. The thought of doing all that paperwork makes my head hurt.

The old saw that 10% of the agents do 90% of the work is still true. More than half the 4,600 agents in Tucson last year made two sales or fewer. I don't do foreclosure management, and I rarely sell a luxury home, but I still managed to be in the top 10% in sales production, as I have been since before the real estate boom and subsequent bust. I enjoy doing business the old-fashioned way. I help people, rather than banks, achieve their real estate goals.