Even as we are all still trying to understand the full implications of the U.S. Treasury Department's recent seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one thing is clear: the people who really need to know what's going on are the sales agents working in your model homes. They're the ones fielding the questions from home shoppers.

I'm hearing from builders all across the country that enough has already changed — beginning Monday, Sept. 8 — to start thinking the takeover of the GSEs might just be the critical tipping point toward housing recovery. Probably the most important thing we've learned is that everyone from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to President George W. Bush now gets it: the U.S. economy will stay down until the housing industry performs its traditional role of leading recovery. And that can't happen without liquidity in the nation's housing finance system.

What we all need to recognize is that housing recovery begins on the sales floor. Maybe it's time for a rousing patriotic speech to let your salespeople know the whole country is counting on them. Mortgage rates started dropping Monday morning. That's increasing traffic. Mark Hodges, South Florida division president for Hovnanian Enterprises, says his sales spiked immediately — and he was able to modestly increase prices for the first time in two years, which actually helped even more because it forced fence-sitters to jump back into the market.

Hodges believes these early sales are to people who wanted to buy this summer and barely missed qualifying for a mortgage. But several builders from Texas called to report that, although mortgage rates are dropping and traffic is picking up, sales are still not happening. Texans like Steve Bartholomew of Main Street Homes in Austin and Nelson Mitchell of History Maker Homes in Fort Worth were especially critical of the $7,500 tax credit for first-time buyers that took effect this summer as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. “We've been pushing the tax credit hard in our promotions, but it's had no effect on sales because it doesn't solve the problems entry-level buyers have with qualifying for a mortgage and coming up with a down payment,” Mitchell told me.

If salespeople are able to explain to home shoppers how the seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is changing the whole U.S. housing finance system and should result in improved mortgage availability and lower rates, it makes them a lot more believable when they tell shoppers, “Now is the time to buy!”

Of course, the final disposition of Fannie and Freddie will have to wait for a new administration and Congress to haggle it out. But if Asian governments are now confident enough to resume investing in American mortgages, so should American home buyers.

Bill notices your salespeople can help with client research. Read more at his blog, Ear to the Ground.