"Analysis is paralysis," she said. "I've been through the good, the bad and the ugly. And I'm good at ugly."
With the bravado of a touring public speaker, Rodriguez recounted what some deem a mythic rise to success during the tumultuous Southern California market downturn in the early 1990s.
"Her claim to fame is she rose up when the market started tanking," said event co-sponsor Ernest Tepman, a co-founder of La Cañada Flintridge-based mortgage company the OCD Group. "She's truly a legend in the industry."
A tireless work ethic — engrained in Rodriguez during her childhood when she shared a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house with her parents and 10 siblings — is what propelled her through a slow market, she said.
Though the current market does not mirror the early 1990s recession, recent reports of slumping sales and increased foreclosures have recently cast a gloomy shadow over some sellers, buyers and brokers, Rodriguez said.
Mohammed Ehsan, a broker with California Prudential Real Estate who entered the business only a month ago, said one of his first challenges has been finding buyers. Too many people are waiting for prices to plummet, he said.
And Glendale buyers may have reason to wait.
Prices in the northern hillside areas of the city took a downturn in June, according to DataQuick.
The median price among six single-family homes sold west of the Glendale (2) Freeway, east of Brand Boulevard and south of Verdugo Park was $1.01 million, down 27% from the same time last year, according to DataQuick.
Among the 21 homes sold in the area north of Verdugo Park, which includes the neighborhood surrounding the Oakmont Country Club, the median price slipped 9.5% to $741,000.
