Pivot! Pivot! 8 tips to expertly prepare for a market shift

Agent

Four real estate dynamos share eight things real estate agents must do to effectively advocate for their clients, improve their skills, safeguard their finances and build a business that stands the test of time The real estate market has been on an incredible run for the past two years with real estate agents handily breaking their previous sales records. However, the market has begun to shift as rising mortgage rates, unhinged home price growth, rock bottom inventory and worries about an impending economic downturn cut at homebuyer sentiment and threatens market activity.

Despite these potential downshifts on the horizon, RE/MAX Victory + Affiliates Vice President Donna Deaton, The My Southern View Team broker-owner Alyssa Hellman, Keller Williams Lucido Agency CEO and President Bob Lucido, and Chicago Properties Firm broker-owner Sam Shaffer said it’s possible to continue fueling success — but only if you’re willing to tune up your sales skills and tactics, business planning and development, finances and personal life to expertly navigate the twists and turns of the market. First gear: Have an intimate understanding of trends in your market

As the market continues its extraordinary hot streak, top-producing agents said the first step to success is to make sure you have an intimate understanding of your market with multiple sources and data points to provide a full picture of what is — or isn’t — happening.

For example, Shaffer said real-time data is crucial in helping his buyers understand Chicago’s unique market that ebbs and flows contrary to most narratives about seasonality. Sam Shaffer “One trend that’s happened year after year is that a lot of people don’t recognize things really slow down in the summer ,” Shaffer said. “People have already established their living situations, they’ve renewed leases, and they’re into their new homes for the school year.”

“Summer in Chicago is just a magical time where the weather’s nice, people are going away to lake homes, friends are getting married, we have holidays, so all of a sudden, all these weekends are starting to get filled up and people aren’t spending as much time focusing on their home search,” he said.

“So if someone asked me when the best time to buy, I wouldn’t have the typical response. Someone that’s looking to be opportunistic, summer — not the fall or winter — could be the time for them.”

Although Shaffer uses data to help buyers identify opportunities, Deaton said she uses her data stockpile to help her sellers understand the slight shift in the market sentiment that’s pushed buyers to back away from making exorbitant bids. As sellers continue to rachet up their listing prices, she said it’s increasingly important to explain not only price trends, but other terms that made deals happen.

“Who can blame a seller for not wanting to get as much as they can our house? No one can,” she said. “I went on a listing appointment last week and the seller’s expectations were, ‘Well, that house around the corner brought in $100,000 more than what you’re telling me I should list at.”

“I said, ‘Yeah, it did. But here are the terms of that house, someone brought cash and an appraisal wasn’t an issue,’” she added. “You have to really give them all the information — you can’t just go in and say, ‘Well, your neighbor’s house sold for this much more than what yours seems to be valued at.’”

Hellman said detailed market research can make or break a deal, so that’s why she goes the extra mile to check in with fellow agents to get additional details on what’s happening in specific pockets of her market, learn what offer terms have been winning over sellers , and suss out other factors that can’t be packaged neatly into a report or spreadsheet.

“I connect with a lot of agents in terms of, ‘So what have you been seeing? Just to make sure that it’s still what I’m seeing as well?’” she said. “I think especially in our market, there’s kind of these little pockets that might be slightly more competitive or slightly less competitive than the market as a whole. So I’m kind of one always looking to identify where are those pockets.”

“One of the things that that we don’t oftentimes see — unless we’re receiving the offer — is where did everybody come in on due diligence, earnest money, or things like that,” she said. “Agents can’t really share that, but they can say, ‘Hey, I submitted an offer a few weeks ago with $10,000 in […]

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