I recently tuned in to a new story talking about officially hitting the "bottom" of the housing market. Due to the rising amount of foreclosures as well as short sales home prices have fallen and its no big surprise. Apparently analysts feel that this trend has bottomed out and will not continue to rise.
Are you prepared for this news? What this means for many potential homeowners, is a rush to buy before prices begin to trend upward. This means buyers who have been watching this market and waiting to "strike" are now ready to move forward. This means the time of multiple offers and careful counters is again upon us.
As with the stock market, the general public reacts on emotion more so than logic. That emotion is telling many that they are about to miss the mark on getting the best deal, and that they had better buy or get left behind.
You'd better be ready for this trend. And quickly! Brokers now need to reconsider their initial offers on properties. One needs to start thinking about putting in offers that keep you in first position. This could mean anything from taking on more closing costs and repairs, to putting in multiple offers on multiple properties.
What this also means, is that buyers are going to start shopping for brokers. Many of these buyers have shunned brokers as of late - because they wanted to wait out this market and not to be pressured to buy. But now that they are feeling under the gun, they will be making quick decisions on choosing a broker.
What does this mean for you? It means you need to beef up your marketing, boost your online presence, and also hit your database.
Your database can be the most profitable aspect of your business if used properly. This includes contacting your less than warm clients to be sure they are aware of us being at the "bottom". These folks may not be paying attention to the news as far as housing goes. Making them aware of this development could lead to your next closing. Again, people react to what other people are doing and saying. And now that "mother media" is preaching rock bottom prices people are ready to react. By simply contacting your database to chat about this development you can end up with new and very active buyer clients.
You might consider having them get pre-qualified now, so that if they see a hot deal they are ready to move in on it. You might also chat with them about the crazy-low interest rates right now. Even go further and do a worksheet showign them how much their monthly payments would be on houses at price points of $180000, $200000, $225000, and $250000. Your clients may not be aware that making mortgage payments is likey to cost them far less than simply renting.
By educating your clients to the current market, interest rate, and availability of inventory you can help them to realize that there has not been a time to buy like this in a long long time.
Next your marketing needs to be more visible. This is the time to make sure you have a website, attractive business cards, phone book listings, and social networks. Why? Because people are scrambling to find brokers, and they often search very quickly and choose even more quickly. So you need to be visible. Radio ads would be a fantastic thing to do now. Regardless of the public and their ability to buy now, they are quite interested in what is going on. They pay more attention to real estate news right now than ever before.
This means that they will respond to radio and television ads like never before. They will be looking at online directories of brokers, yellow pages, etc. Simply put, they are looking for the most attractive ad campaign.
Brokers would do well to heed the advice above. While in the past year many have scaled back advertising, now is the time for this to end. Just like the stock market, you need to be ahead of the curve if you plan to have an advantage over your competitors. You need to be ahead of the curve. You need to strike first.
Its simple, you just need to be ready. Many brokers are calling me now to have me design business cards or design websites, and they are spot on. There has never been a better time to invest in your marketing. If you would like a free consultation from an experienced graphic designer contact me now. I can make this more affordable than other designers because I have no overhead. Other designers simply cannot compete with my prices or my quality. And even more than that, you need a designer who understands real estate. I urge you to act now, before you find yourself wishing you had.
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