How to answer the question: What’s happening with buyers and sellers?
Speaker:
Tristan Ahumada
Moderator/s:
Howard Tager
[01:40] “It’s a lack of clarity that creates chaos and frustration.”
It’s up to us as agents to be able to bring some of that clarity even though we don’t have it. The one thing a lot of the leaders in the industry did own is uncertainty. They were all clear with everyone and says, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen next…” but they owned it. “Let’s figure out what solutions we can bring to the table.”
One of his sellers asked, “What’s happening with buyers and sellers?” It’s a common question everyone is asking across the nation. Knowing that question, we have to be prepared to answer that.
One of the things we’ve done is, over the last few days we’ve created a 7-day raw link period of this. We are now tracking “Just Listed” every single day, “Pendings”, and “Sold”. This way, we’re creating a graph to see how the market is changing every day. We’re prepared to be able to give this to our sellers and buyers because every area is different. And the more information you have, the better.
[03:15] Graphs and Other Data
10-year Treasury Rate vs 30-year Mortgage Rates
Over the last 50 years, the 30-year mortgage rates have moved in unison with the 10-year treasury rate. It’s important to use this information to be able to show your clients.
Until the last two weeks, the interest rates are incredibly low. And you have to put that in people’s faces so that they know that there’s still opportunities.
Historical Chart of Interest Rates and Mortgage Payments Over the Last 5 Decades
Especially for first-time buyers, what they don’t understand and you need to explain to them is it doesn’t matter whether interest rates are 3.5 percent or 4.5 percent. Historically, when you start to really go back in time, cost of capital is cheap and will be is cheap. It’s 12 percent in the ‘80s, ‘90s is 8 percent. It’s still insanely low. And they’re estimated to go even lower over the next few weeks or months.
Just showing people the difference in payments creates opportunity that they don’t see. And it’s our job as professionals to be able to translate that for them.
Annual Home Price Appreciation
It’s the perfect graph to show, leading up to what we call now “The Great Recession.” It shows how the appreciation of prices was happening in comparison to the last six years.
We’ve got a stable economy; the unemployment is low. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with our economy. So as soon as we see a turnaround from this, the market’s gonna skyrocket. People need to understand that the more listings you built up now, the more clients you talk to now, the more opportunity you’re gonna have as soon as this turns around.
According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist of NAR, during the last recession, real estate was on a wobbly ground. We don’t have that right now. This is the message that the consumer needs to hear, and it needs to come from us.
[06:30] “Recession” vs “Housing Crisis”
Just because we hear the word recession doesn’t mean it equals to housing crisis. That’s the type of verbiage you want to give to the consumer. It says, “Look, many experts predict a potential recession but, housing will not be the trigger and this will not be a repeat of 2008. In fact, home values will likely still continue to appreciate.” And this gives you an opportunity to show them exactly what can happen by showing them facts. You’re creating clarity so that there’s no chaos. It’s our job to do that.
NAR released their “Coronavirus: A Guide for REALTORS®” which includes the things we need to do as agents.
[07:30] What We Need To Do on Facebook
Kyle Whissel is doing a thing called “Quarantine Conversation” which is an opportunity for agents to explain how the market is working, what we need to do, how things are working in real estate and mortgages, so that people understand that things are still going on; properties are still selling.
It’s a great opportunity to create Facebook groups right now. Another agent created an education group to show parents what to teach their kids, curriculums to create—it’s an opportunity to come together where everybody’s online right now on social. So why not create communities.
I suggest you do Facebook Live thru your business page because you can go on there with a click of a button. Facebook now allows you to add captions. This way, people are watching online a lot so you can have them read it if they happen to be in a place where they can turn on the volume.
Create “Watch Parties”. And then whatever you do, download it and use it on Instagram, IGTV, use it on TikTok or YouTube. There’s a lot of opportunities to be able to use this.
[09:03] Tech Tools You Need Right Now
These are all opportunities for you to connect virtually.
Ylopo - Google PPC, Facebook Lead Ads, DyVA, Homebot
BombBomb
Zoom/Google Hangouts/Loom
MarcoPolo
EvaBot - A gifting tool. This way, if you don’t get to see your clients in person, you can still send them a gift. It really connects people.
Veme.ly - an app where you can edit your videos and add captions.
Asteroom
AM Cards - a card service you can use to contact your clients.
[11:00] How To Prospect Right Now
This is where to focus:
Past clients
Sphere
Online leads – Last Logins - you want to contact people that are logging in, especially for Ylopo leads.
When you have these conversations, it’s not the time to sell right now. It’s the time to come from a point of contribution. This is not the time to push. It’s the time to be there to start a conversation, and anyone that’s motivated will tell you because they’ll have questions. So the more conversations you have, the more motivated people are.
[13:09] Expenses
You need to look at the things that are working. You need to double-down on the things that are working, then go through your accounts and see what’s not working.
Because while everybody else is hiding and running, you need to be the people that are strong enough to lead this industry into a whole new world.
Right now, you need to be reaching out with your clients. And if they start engaging with you, you need to start putting more reviews on Google.