The blogosphere naysayers were right.  Sharp declines in the Portland real estate market it over the last few years coupled with bank threats to seize our assets have proved too much in our relationship and as a result we are calling it quits both professionally and personally.  I have decided to leave the real estate industry and pursue my passion as a writer and follow in Paul’s footsteps as a real estate novelist (à la The Piano Man).  Jenny is leaving Prudential Northwest Properties for a competing firm.  We will be putting the 2424 NW Lovejoy house up for sale and the Portland Real Estate Blog, AlphabetDistrict.com, TurnerRealtors.com, PDXRelocations.com and PDXBuyers.com will be sold to the highest bidder.

The last paragraph, with a few but not many embellishments, was the picture others were painting of us over the past years.  Those that knew us better than we knew ourselves said we would be bankrupt, divorced and that Charles “will not be a Realtor in 2010.”  April 1st seems like the best time to set the record straight.

The reality is that for the third consecutive year, we are a part of Prudential Real Estate’s Chairman’s Circle Gold- a designation awarded to the top 2% of the company’s 60,000+ agents across the country and were 2008 RISMedia Realtors on the Rise.  We’ve worked hard during our declining market to position ourselves to thrive in the inevitable ups and downs of the market.  In fact, if the majority of our pending transactions close in April it will be our most successful month, ever.

You can’t take any one part of real estate and hang your hat on it.  Now is a great time to buy- for some.  A house isn’t worth X because a market index has dropped or gained X- that’s like saying a share of Google is worth X because the NASDAQ has dropped or gained.  You can’t extrapolate the value of a part from the average of the whole.  The Home Buyer Tax Credit has helped the industry but does not make it.  Real estate technology, as good as it is at this point, can’t replace the human element of what we do.  As the first paragraph shows where human’s are involved there is room for error.  Arm yourself with all the information and make a decision what is best for you.

Finally, if someone can explain what a real estate novelist actually writes about (assuming it is not this blog) it would be a great help to start my new career.