Misery loves company at Realtors expo

"We're trying to keep Realtors afloat," joked David Bronson of Pismo Beach-based People's Choice Brokers, who, along with his colleague Ben Payne and others, sportingly donned bright yellow nautical gear at this week's California Assn. of Realtors Expo.

They were among 12,000 agents, brokers and other real estate professionals gathered in Long Beach to take stock of the market, attend seminars, check out the latest business-boosting gadgets and services, and commiserate over the sorry state of the market.

On a rescue mission of his own, Scott Cranford showed up at a news conference in an orange cape and blue tights to help the aptly named Stormy Mayersky pitch a system that allows home buyers to search real estate listings from their phones via a GPS device.

"You can see details of a home," Cranford deadpanned, "like I do with my X-ray vision."

Ryan Woodward, a mortgage loan officer with Bank of America, told passersby about the lending programs his bank was offering while manning a skee-ball game whose winners walked away with a tote bag, if not a cheap 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage.

"I'm trying to distract people," Woodward said, adding that he also selected one iPod winner a day from the stack of business cards he collected.

Sure, participants lined their pockets with hard candies and played games at some of the 200 exhibitor booths.

But most sat in on a host of educational seminars, such as "Riding Out the Downturn: Tips and Techniques for Navigating the Market Ahead." Marty Rodriguez, a Century 21 agent in Glendora, offered advice on how to create client loyalty now to increase business when the storm passes. The veteran Realtor said that agents' biggest battles today are with sellers who still haven't gotten the message that prices have dropped.

"The only motivated sellers are the banks," Rodriguez said, "and some are getting multiple offers in the under-$500,000 range."

Many agents wondered aloud about whether prices were about to bottom out, which could be a harbinger of better times ahead. Those waiting out the storm searched optimistically for ways to enhance their business while the downturn churns on.