May 11, 2022
It’s been approximately 1 year since Covid 19 became a reality in our market, and our world and our industry will never be the same as a result. For me, as I reflect on the past 12 months, they seem like they went by so quickly, but in the moment it was like a long drawn-out affair.
I recall our March sales numbers were very robust during the first 2 weeks, and then, in the final week of March, we witnessed the bottom dropping out of the market. April came in with an over 60% decrease in showings and a 60% decrease in sales. We were forecasting for the worst, as I know many of you were also.
2020 turned itself around and we saw unprecedented growth in sales volumes, appointments, and appreciation in the outskirts. Now, just 2 months into 2021, and all that demand that was gaining momentrum in the fourth quarter of 2020 has fuelled January and February of this year - home prices took off like a rocket.
Every year we in the real estate industry like to label the year with a boogeyman or boogey-person, to make us feel better about our self diagnosed paranoia about the market. This boogey-whatever comforts us when we fail, and allows us to wallow in self pity. Is it the stress test, the foreign buyer tax, the government intervention, CMHC making a major rule change etc.? This year’s scapegoat is none other than the ‘Low Inventory Monster’. This horrible being is the party pooper that is raining on our real estate industry parade.
I have to admit that the scapegoats of the past were often out of our control. We were limited to how to educate consumers in order to navigate the changes, and getting creative with our lenders. But inventory is something we have some control over. What? You disagree?
Come on. We make the market; we beat the bushes; we have various broadcasting channels at our beck and call. Be it social media, or our coming soon signs, our geofarming postcards which say 120% over asking, or word of mouth. We fuel the market.
CREATE A “MAKE ME MOVE” CAMPAIGN Have you been effectively curating and effectively distributing content which gets home owners off their butts? You should be circulating information about:
You can find all of this type of journalistic hype in any media outlet, so its not coming from you, but from a trusted source.
THE BUYER’S HOUSE THAT GOT AWAY How many buyer leads did you just forget to follow-up on last year? According to industry studies, almost 50% of those buyer leads had a home to sell. The problem is, these buyers are at different points in their search, and its up to us to nurture them through the various stages in their search process. Patience can prove profitable, and these buyers can be a source of qualified listings.
ARE YOU REALLY PUTTING YOUR RESOURCES IN THE RIGHT PLACE? Many of you proudly profess that all of your business comes from past clients or referrals. In that case, you should be spending 100% of your time and resources on this listing lead generating source. How many of you have really created a system of touch points with your past clients and referring audience, to ensure a steady supply of listings?
ROMANCE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD REALTOR® Many move-up buyers or downsizing buyers are hesitant to put their homes for sale unless they find something to buy that suits their needs. By staying in touch with the neighbourhood super lister, you can find out about inventory before it goes to market. If you have segmented your database and/or SOI (Sphere of Influence) by real estate tenure, you can bring this inventory to them first and then get their listing. Remember, these neighbourhood REALTORS® pre-market their listings, so stay on their social media feeds.
TROLL SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CLUES Social media is the perfect place to mine for listings based on milestone events. Engagements, births, job promotions etc.. These are people who may not know that they need to move. On LinkedIn, you can search by occupation and employer, so why not market directly to people who work at banks or tech companies who can work from home, and launch your make me move campaign to them.
YOU'VE GOT EQUITY! Are you regularly doing equity checks with your SOI and past clients? Make sure you have a call to action with the equity check. Don’t just send it without some sort of way to get your foot in their door.
“I know I haven’t been in your home since you purchased it with me, but if you made some improvements since then I can modify my evaluation”. Or, “If you are thinking about improvements to your home, I can discuss with you the best features and improvements which can give you the greatest return on your investment.” If they say they are going to do their kitchen, start sending them listings in their area with new kitchens. This is a subtle way to get them to move rather then go through the pain of a renovation. Or just be helpful and send them useful content on kitchen trends etc.
WHAT IS MY HOME WORTH? There is lots of uncertainty in the market right now and for that matter in any market. Get people using our What’s My Home Worth tool, where they can within seconds get a pretty good range of value, it starts a conversation. Start keeping track of who and where it is being used, and you will start to see patterns which will help you to re-market your listing services in those specific areas. Get your tribe hooked on the neighbourhood sales module that you have in your RealIntro profile. You can monitor their usage of it, and get some valuable intel on how often they check it, and if they are trolling other neighbourhoods, a sign that they want to make a move.
THERE IS GOLD IN THEM THAR RENTALS! Create a database of rental properties by going to rental sites on a regular basis. Input the addresses, contact names, phone numbers, email addresses, rental rates, beds and baths, and look up the names of the owners on Geowarehouse. Now you have a complete database to market to. Many landlords are looking to cash out these days. Get a handle on capital gains and how to effectively get tenants to vacate when the sale is completed.
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE! The CREA HPI (Home Price Index) is one of the most powerful tools you have to convince home owners to strongly consider making a move. The last thing a home owner wants to know is that their home is plateauing in value. The HPI tool can show you what’s really happening in the market and can help you identify trends. It compares types of properties across different neighbourhoods over time. You can show how some property types have performed better, and how different neighbourhoods do better than others. This is hugely valuable when people are considering moving or not.
EMOTION CREATES MOTION! Target market areas where there are a lot of listings, sales and coming soons. As people in a neighbourhood see a lot of sales activity, they experience the sell-off mentality. Leverage this emotion. Work those neighbourhoods where you begin to see initial signs of sales intensity, because those people in that neighbourhood will want to be a part of this trend before its too late.
REVERSE PROSPECT FACEBOOK GROUPS I have spoken in the past about getting on Facebook groups to connect with buyers, but have you ever reverse prospected these groups to find people moving from one area to another? Why not be a resource for those people who are on Facebook sites about moving to Niagara, or Brantford etc.? These people are exploring a move and probably have a home to sell, so why not connect with them and plant the seeds of you being the ideal REALTOR® to sell their home.
This may come off a bit too strong, and a tough pill to swallow, but the next time you want to blame a boogey-person for the woes of the real estate market, look in the mirror first.