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I’ve got five points to help you in this market shift to be able to continue growing your business, keep the ball rolling forward, and seeing the momentum in your business. So let’s get going and let’s get started. Welcome to my car office today.
So number one, the number one point I want to talk to you about is strategy and strategizing with your sellers. This is going to be so key and it’s going to be so critical and so crucial to help your sellers feel confident in the market and with you as their real estate agent. When you are strategizing and communicating and working with your sellers, especially through a shift in a market like this, they’re going to know that they truly have the best agent on their side to help them accomplish their goals. We are all going through this together, nobody has that crystal ball of how is this going to work out, how is this going to pan out? What is this going to look like in even three to six months from now? But as we’re weathering it, we have to remember that our current listings that we have need to sell their homes and we have to help them do that.
Number two, our listings that are on the table, most of them still have a need and a desire to want to sell, but are probably a little bit on the fence of like, “Well, what is this market going to do?” Or they end up panic selling, going, “I’ve got to get my house on the market to stay ahead of this because I don’t want prices to come down.” So number one with this in this strategy point of view is that it’s going to be critical to not only be looking at comps, but as we’re looking at comps, comps now are things that have sold in times of multiple offers, in times of low negotiations and low concessions. We now have to know that’s going to be a little bit different and plan and prepare for that. And we want to really pay attention to what’s active on the market, what price point are people listing at, similar to the property that you’re looking at listing?
What’s currently under contract, and when did it go under contract and how quickly did it go under contract? And then as we follow those actives and under contracts, they eventually are going to move into solds. And so we’re going to be able to update our market trend and data and information as well and we want to follow that. So we’re going to strategize. Another thing about strategizing with our sellers is, is it in our seller’s best interest to just drop the price? I would say not necessarily. And I’m working with a lot of my sellers in our advertising and marketing efforts, which I’ll talk to you about in just a second, is to see what’s best for buyers.
A lot of buyers want to buy and need to buy, but they also want to have security. If you drop the price of a property $10,000 on a $600,000 purchase price, that’s going to change their monthly payment by a dollar or two. It’s not going to make a huge dent, maybe $10. It’s not going to make a huge dent in their bottom line, but if they can use $10,000 towards their closing costs at closing and be able to keep that money in the bank that they were going to spend on closing costs, that gives them more flexibility.
If they can use that money to buy down their interest rate and change their monthly payment and help them control what that scenario looks like in their situation, that’s going to help them as well. Oh look, neighbor’s taking out the trash. So number one is strategize with your sellers, but also cautiously remember that dropping the price might not be in their best interest initially. Though, we are seeing a lot of people just drop prices because that’s what they initially go to is, “Oh, somebody wants a lesser price.” So think about it from a buyer’s perspective and what’s important to a buyer.
Number two, be the market expert in your area. And what that means is follow these trends. Follow what’s really happening with actives, with under contracts, and with solds. How quickly is that movement happening? Is July a slower month? I know in both of the markets that I work, July tends to be a little bit of a slower month for people than the rest of the year. And we’re seeing that the beginning of July, around 4th of July, was incredibly slow with people just making that transition to be able to go on vacation. Number one, they’re, “I want to just enjoy the 4th of July.” We really haven’t enjoyed the 4th of July in a couple of years and celebrated our nation. People did that a lot this year.
Number two, the market is shifting, so I want to watch and wait and see what’s going to happen. That’s kind of a mentality that’s happening right now as well. So watch these trends and then communicate these trends. And when you communicate these trends, whether it’s through your blog posts, through your email newsletters, through video marketing, however, you are reaching your buyers and sellers, that’s going to help you stay on top of what’s going on and stay in front of your clients, both past, present, and future. And also be able to get referrals because somebody’s going to say, “Hey, this person really knows what’s going on.”
Number three, marketing and advertising. Now, part of my marketing that I just touched on and talked about that’s critical and essential is don’t necessarily jump to price drop as the first thing that needs to be done. Let’s paint a picture and paint a scenario of what could be a better option for buyers in our markets. What are the buyers wrapping their minds around more than just, I know sellers are thinking, “I’ve got to get this price sold.” But it’s our job to help guide them through that process and do the best job. But then in our marketing and advertising efforts, we need to communicate that picture clearly.
This is also going to come across in our public remarks. We talk a lot about that in Real Estate Listing Masters as a major advertising point, communicating the feel of this property, the benefits of this property, why buyers should be buying this property now. But we can also put in there that our sellers do have the opportunity to negotiate based on buyers’ needs a little bit if our sellers are okay with that. Get everything that your sellers agree to in writing before putting it out for the public to see, that’s always my recommendation. But yes, we should be marketing and advertising appropriately and strategically.
Number four, we need to be educating our buyers. Our buyers still want to buy. The buyers that are in the pipeline still want to buy, but now they’re in this like, “Oh my gosh, what’s happening? Interest rates have gone up significantly. Can I afford to buy? Is this the best time to buy? How does that affect my payment? Can I qualify for less? Now, I see prices dropping everywhere, so should I wait to buy?” And if we have a pulse on the market, and if we have some negotiating room and ability with sellers, we should be talking about that with our buyers and just going in and trying it. Like I said, most of our sellers have to sell and so now they’re willing to negotiate some of these concessions that they haven’t been willing or able to do because we’ve had multiple offers on the table.
So let’s educate and talk to our buyers, ease their fears and concerns on an individual basis a little bit. Make the best plan and scenario possible for them. And we’re going to be able to create lifelong relationships. I don’t talk about buyers a lot because we talk about listings specifically, but this is a time that we need to really be educating buyers and working with them in their best interest. I’m having conversations with my buyers to say, is your interest rate higher now than it would’ve been just a couple of months ago or a couple of years ago? Yeah, it is. But is it going to stay like that forever? No, it is going to be, in my opinion, still a really great opportunity to get into a property. And we look at our historical trends, our ups and up and down graphs that we have and that we see and that we use, to be able to paint that picture of historically what prices do. And it’s very important to look at that information and to convey that to help our buyers be able to know and understand that information.
Number five is stay positive and work. It’s going to take work, especially if you’ve been licensed in just the last several years. It’s been a different kind of work, it’s been a, “Hey, I’m licensed.” And it’s a lot easier to get sellers especially and to be able to put that house on the market, in any circumstance and in any photos, any comments. Now you’re going to have to work at it a little bit harder to be able to market appropriately, to be able to advertise better, to be able to communicate more effectively. But also to be patient because it’s not the time of multiple offers. Historically it is normal for homes to stay on the market for a lot longer than 24 hours.
And knowing that and going back into what I would call more a “traditional” market, even though it hasn’t been, especially for newer agents, we want to take that into consideration and we’re going to shift our work focus. Our work focus now is not going to be on taking in multiple offers. We really have to pay attention to how are we using our photography, how are we using our listing remarks. How are we making our properties shine to make buyers want to come in and look at our properties and be able to offer on them and negotiate on them? And then how are we going to make that process the best experience for our sellers as well? We have to stay involved, we have to be strategic, we have to be communicating.
So I hope these five points are helpful for you as a listing agent, for you as a real estate agent as a whole. We’re in this together to be able to make this the biggest and best transition possible in this shift. We want our buyers and sellers to feel comfortable in their decisions, in their timing, and in the overall picture of what’s right for them. We do know that people have to sell still and people have to buy in any and every market. The reason that they buy and sell changes and so we want to stay on top of that and know those reasons and help our clients really accomplish their goals. I hope this information is helpful. As always in your real estate marketing for listings efforts, if you have questions, please drop them below. Let me know what questions you have and how we can help guide and assist you. I hope this information was helpful. And we will talk soon.
