John Adams: Recession not over for real estate industry

Now that the "summer of recovery" is finally over, we are told that the recession actually ended over a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. The NBER is made up of more than 1,000 economists and leading scholars, and I'm guessing not more than a handful consider themselves part of the small business community.

But those of us who depend on the real estate market for our living don't feel much like celebrating.

Home Depot co-founder and noted philanthropist Bernie Marcus responded on CNBC that the current administration is so out of touch with small business that Marcus believes things may actually be getting worse.

His point was that uncertainty over future costs has paralyzed the small businessman, and he went on to suggest that we would be better off if Congress went on vacation for a couple of years.

As he described the early days of Home Depot, Marcus related the recurring fear he had that they would be unable to meet payroll on a weekly basis. I personally remember visiting the first Home Depot out on Memorial Drive in the late '70s and wondering whether this new idea could ever survive against Sears. That's the challenge of small business.

The real estate agent is the ultimate example of a small business in America today.

The agent is an independent contractor and almost universally draws no salary. He has no job attendance or performance requirements. He can't even be required to attend meetings.

Unless he pays for it himself, he gets no health insurance. He has no retirement program and no matching program unless he sets it up himself. He will never be granted "tenure."

The stimulus program, such as it is (or was), has largely been directed at helping big businesses and big banks. I'm still not exactly sure how much the rest of us have benefited from the expenditure of $787 billion.

Marcus reminded us that some 80 percent of all new jobs in this country are generated from the small business sector, yet this is the part of the country that seems to be suffering most.

It's no wonder that the Georgia Association of Realtors has lost 37 percent of its membership since 2007. That drop is simply a reflection of the broader residential real estate market, paralyzed by foreclosures and lack of job security.

I don't know when things will start to turn around. But from the perspective of a small businessman engaged in the real estate world, whatever we are doing now isn't working.