Position: Broker/owner [and at the moment, sole agent]
Company: Patton Brantley Realty Group
What it does: Real estate sales and investments
Revenue: $50,000 to $100,000, “depending on how the rest of the year goes”
Next Goal: Start investing in properties and building the company with new agents
Last year, plunging property values helped drag the national economy to lows not seen in decades. To most people, this might seem like the worst possible time to enter the real estate business. But to Patton Brantley, a 30-year-old Realtor formerly with Burns & Co., this year felt like the perfect time to start his own company.
“There’s a niche for someone my age going after first-time homebuyers,” he says, noting most property virgins are between 23 and 35 years old. “I’m close to their age, and I was a first-time home buyer fairly recently. So I know what it’s like to be purchasing a new home with everything that’s going on in the market right now.”
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The Capital Region’s real estate market has been more stable than many other areas, but sales are sluggish here as well—down 22% in May compared to last year. But experts say lower-priced, entry-level homes are still moving, in part because of an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit available this year as part of the federal stimulus bill.
On May 29, the Federal Housing Administration announced it would allow its lenders to provide short-term bridge loans that would allow buyers to apply the credit to their down payment or closing costs or to buy down their interest rate, making the credit even more attractive. The National Association of Realtors says first-time buyers are driving the market right now; a NAR survey found 53% of all properties sold in March were to first-time buyers.
“When I tell friends who are paying $1,100 a month rent for a two-bedroom apartment that they can own their own home for the same amount and get the $8,000 tax credit, they are amazed,” he says.
Brantley says he had been talking about getting his broker’s license and striking out on his own for months. His girlfriend convinced him in November to finally go for it.
He’s been open since March, and says business is good so far. “I just needed that little push.”
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