I've garnered over 40 clients from Active Rain since September 2007, when I became a member. I've always watched my own market like a hawk, because I strongly believe that numbers give us a picture the media can not accurately portray; not timely anyway.
I was perusing various market reports from other agents and I had a hard time getting a clear picture of what was actually happening in their particular markets. The reports had too much information and too many details.
Our clients just want to UNDERSTAND what's happening to the market. The simpler the reports, the more of a following you'll have.
We need to DISTILL the MLS information and present it in such a way that "Joe the Plumber" will understand it (sorry, I just couldn't resist it!).
•1. Total inventory
•2. How many units have sold for that month or that quarter
•3. Units sold represented as a percentage of total available inventory
•4. What that translates to in terms of time (at that rate of activity, how long will it take for us to sell out of the current inventory - the absorption rate)
Here is an example:
Condo Market
1. Total available: 1,000 condos
2. Total sold per month: 100 condos
3. Percentage of sold: 10%
4. Absorption Rate: 10 months (at this monthly rate, it will take 10 months to sell out of the current inventory).
Now, that is simple enough for anyone to understand, don't you agree?
You want to compare apples with apples, so: condos with condos, homes with homes, land with land. Also note that investors like to see quarterly activity, since those provide the most reliable figures illustrating accurate shifts in the market.
Make sure you post those statistics to the general public via Localism.com for the specific area of your study. This will portray you as the expert for that area and garner you valuable leads. I've also discovered two AR groups you can post these statistics on, which would otherwise garner you very few or no comments. The members of these groups actually read and comment on these statistical blogs:
If you pick a couple of your favorite subdivisions, blog about them and post quarterly statistics about the sales activity in those subdivisions, I guarantee that you will garner leads from those blogs! I believe in it so much, that I've made each one of my agents pick one subdivision and post a statistical blog about it. I did it as part of a training session. A few months later, one of my agents came and gave me a big hug; as a result of the blog she wrote during that class, she was contacted by the developer of that project. Even though the building has been put on hold because of the economy, as soon as it starts back up, she has first dibs to market an entire subdivision. Not too shabby... all derived from one mandatory statistical blog posted on Active Rain and Localism!
Thanks, Mirela. I have been posting market reports on here for a little over a month now. I try not to present TOO much but maybe I need to be even simpler...
Kris: Simple AND post the absorption rate, which is very significant, and yet very seldom included by the agents in their reports. The absorption rate is the best indicator for both the buyers and the sellers.
Mary: A Realtor after my own heart! Instead of just bookmarking this, you're off to gather your facts. Bravo! Come back here and give us a testimonial after each client garnered because of what you're putting together right now!
Thanks so much for the tips!!! I try to keep my market reports simple because I think sellers just want to know "how much time will it take to sell my home". I have a hard time showing the facts and then seeing people believe it right now!!! I swear it's the truth!
Hi Mirela, thanks for making this so simple! You made such a great point, it is what they want to see, not a bunch of complex information to get lost in.
Sandy: If you regularly cull and post your statistics, you will not only fare well with leads you'll garner from Localism, but you will be able to recite the stats to seller clients when you pitch them for the listings. They will be impressed, I assure you. Both buyers and sellers have immense respect for agents who actually do their homework...
Excellent advice. Part of my 2009 business plan is to start doing market reports and post more hyper local community information. It's encouraging to read your results. Thanks!
Denise: I'm so glad you think so! It's very important to me to contribute back to our AR community a bit of what I've garnered from here. Forty plus clients in little over a year is nothing to sneeze at. I tried to figure out what brought me those leads and I seriously think my statistics had a lot to do with it.
Amanda: Great name by the way! I liked your name so much that I gave it to my daughter!
Excellent plan! Localism is a very powerful tool and it's best when used in the microcosm sense of it - right at the source: the subdivision or condo project level. When you insert a blog all the way down to that level, it serves its purpose best of all: it is visible at state level, county level, city level AND its ultimate destination, the subdivision level, which is exactly where your buyers and sellers will "recruit" you as their agent!
Mirela, thank you for the information. I am still relatively new to AR, and have always wonder if anyone actually read these reports. I will consider posting market statistics for my area, after reading your post.
Lourdes: The only people who read those reports are the buyers and sellers. Prior to finding these two groups those statistical blogs received zero comments most of the time.
Lourdes: BTW, I just closed a deal on Friday and just received the commission check today. The seller found me via a statistical blog posted on Localism.
Actually, I assume it's the Localism statistical blog that brought her in, but I'm actually going to ask her if that's correct and I'll post her answer here.
This was a wonderful and encouraging post. You did a good job capturing your audience by disclosing the amount of success you've had... I will be following your advice!
Gail: the year end re-cap is de rigueur, but regular market statistics for your area are just as important.
Putting last year's statistics side by side ths year's has been an education. Although in our MLS, I can still obtain the sold comps from last year, I can not get the "active" listings, thus I can not figure out the most important piece of the puzzle - the absorption rate. Compiling the stats and posting them on AR last year leaves that most important imprint I can compare this year's figures with. Do you think that's important to understanding my current market? You bet!
You know what they say: "Liars can figure, but figures don't lie..."
I strongly encourage everyone to extract and post easy to understand market statistics for your area. You'll be glad you did!
I've recently started doing statistical blogs...picked an area noone had been in yet and did a breakdown of monthly and since last year. It will be interesting to see if anything happens with it...I also did the absorption rate for my own neighborhood....hopefully I will have the same success as you!
Sonja: If I go to Localism.com for your subdivision, will I be able to find more blogs from you for that subdivision than any other agent in your area? If I read your blogs, will it be evident that you are an exceptional agent for that subdivision? Will your blogs prove that you know that subdivision better than any other agent? Statistics help a lot, but so do educational posts about your subdivision with pictures and news about it. Together they are the lethal combination for obliterating the competition...
Mirela, that is a good post with pertinent and relavant information for your audience. It is important to be credible forst and the result is a following. Kind of lioke a pied piper.
Bo: did I miss something? English being my second language, I've had to rely on the dictionary for all meanings, yet colloquial terms sometimes supersede...
My ex husband once told me that the proper name for that plant growing by our waterfall was "pompous ass". You could imagine the look on my clients' faces when I uttered that term in reference to that plant. I knew by their reaction that my husband had been "pulling my leg"...
Wonderful job! Thank you so much for the great tips. I'm new on Active Rain, but I definitely plan on following your advice. Thanks too for the links to the two other groups. I definitely plan on checking them out. I look forward to hearing more from you! Great job! :)
Okay, perhaps that was a little too literal a translation. The pied piper in the fairy tales was a leader that led the rats/ mice that were terrorizing the villagers of a small town/ In my memory, he was the good guy...or in this case. the good girl....that being you.
Sounds like a good story. Kids always understand things so much better than adults... (Unfortunately the adults are the ones extracting meanings for Dictionary.com!)
How appropriate! According to the Chinese zodiac, I was born in the year of the Rat, which is the first sign of their zodiac. Here is s summary of the attributes that go with that sign: "Creative problem solver. (Yup, that's me!). Intuitive and resourceful. (So far, so good!). Loves to collect things (I collect first editions & old books). Attractive to the opposite sex (I sure hope so!) Hyperactive worker inclined to bite off more than it can chew (now they REALLY got me!). See, just how appropriate your term was?
Bo, BTW: Here are the years for that Chinese Zodiac sign: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008. OMG, I just now realized that my son was also born in the year of the Rat! That in itself is the best testimonial for all the above characteristics. My son is an awesome human being and I have the utmost respect and admiration for him. Remarkable!
Thomas: Good! Start statisticking then! I love that term you've just coined!
Shawna: I have my own favorites and I "microcosm" those, but I post market wide statistics regularly. It helps me understand exactly where the market is. Since I do the work anyway, I might as well post it and farm for clients. I don't like relying on the official statistics, which are "doctored" and latent and too general for my taste. If I am going to best represent my clients, I need to know about the trend as soon as it occurs, not after it has been "seasoned"...
Shawna: I am at the top of the page for Localism for EVERY area of Myrtle Beach and for several projects withing specific areas. I hope that fully answers your question.
Yes, it takes that kind of dedication! ...But then again, 40 (mostly Investor) Clients, is nothing to sneeze at...
How long did it take me to blog that much? Probably half as long as it would have cost me to pay for the kind of advertising I would have had to have in place to garner these many high quality leads...
Teresa: Thank you! I appreciate your input! The big job, our part, is making it simple, which is much more labor intensive than copying and pasting....
Mirela great job with this post. I see a lot of market reports and I am left scratching my head. The ones that give no explanation of what the statistics mean are my biggest pet peeve. How can you leave it up to the consumer to interpret the data? This is worthy of a feature...flagged!!
Wow Mirela great blog and I have actually just started doing something along those lines. I love your tips and words of encouragement. You are one of my favorite bloggers.
It is incredible that you have gotten so many leads from AR ! That is really encouraging. I have not thought of doing this for individual developements instead of just a whole town.
Mirela, This is a great post and I am going to work on market reports today - because of this! I do a few for my local towns and try to keep them simple. I think the idea of targeting a subdivision is terrific! I'm fairly new to AR, and SO appreciate all of the helpful tips. Thank you!
Just read your post, thank you for alarting me to the two areas to post to. I do monthly market reports for Southern and Coastal Maine real estate and post them to localism but shall not be able to post to these groups as well!
Mirela, I really appreciate this blog. I know statistics are appreciated by cients and customers and you've now inspired me to do more. Thanks. I'm sharing this blog with my good friend who has connections in Myrtle Beach. Who knows, maybe you'll get more business from this one too.
Mirela - Thank you for such an encouraging post!It's exactly what I needed this morning. I have tried the market reports and didn't like how mine turned out. I'm back to it TODAY! I'm going to read a couple of your for inspiration first. I promise not to copy! LOL
Mirela - thanks for the post. My Market Reports get lots of visitors, even the older ones which is surprising considering how things change. I'm just updating my areas now and then I do Market Reports for the end of the quarter. Like you, I believe that the numbers tell the story. If you look at mine, feel free to comment. I think I could learn from your simplicity idea. I'll check out the groups too.
Great information, this is something that I have seen a lot of people on AR do but I have not started yet, I will jump on this bandwagon as soon as possible.
This is one of the best blogs I have read so far since I joined AR. Not only was it well presented but I am going to take your advice and apply it to my market. Thank you so much for inspiring me! Is there a post for teaching how to post the stats on Localism (to portray myself as the expert of the area)? I know how to upload pictures to Localism (and will be sharing this with the community in my next post) but have not determined how to post stats for my market. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for breaking down the market numbers...4 easy steps to show the current market values...I like the idea of quarterly as well....Have a Merry Christmas and congrats on the feature.
Mirela, and anyone else interested in this topic, I specialize in a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida called Pinecrest, Florida (7 1/2 sq. miles). Every month I post the previous months sales and I have a page on my website with market trends.
I would love to have your opinion on my site. If you have the time can you please go to my website, www.MarieStory.com and click on "PinecrestBlog" and look at November's closed sales entry, do you see all the information a consumer would like to have there? Then click on "33156 graph" and let me know what you think of this page. Are these graphs easy for you to understand?
I have been doing this for about a year and a half. Thank you so much in advance.
What a great blog. I do the same stats for my area but since I am new to blogging it never occuried to me to have a quarterly blog with the stats for my area. Thanks for the idea.
you really do a nice job of posting the statistics in an easy to understand way for consumers, most of this statistic stuff is difficult enough for realtors
Thanks Mirela, I am new to AR and was actually going to sit down today to post local market statistics (or at least come up with a good game plan). This post really helps to get me started!
Mirela - this is excellent advice because when I read most agents market reports, my eyeballs tend to glaze over and I don't really come away with anything!
I haven't done much as far as market reports, but I now realize that I should - and I think the simpler, the better - thanks for the advice, great post!
I agree with you about this, "The reports had too much information and too many details"
Keep It Simple, Stupid. :)
Also, these types of reports are the perfect exmaple of how agents need to evolve considering the sharing of data about properties from the MLS.
It is no longer enough to be the "gate keeper" to the MLS - we now need to be able to communicate what all of this data really means. That is how we add real value to what we do.
Mirela - Thanks for your no nonsense post about market reports. This has probably saved me some time researching a bunch of numbers that are not needed!
I have been considering this idea, so I will give it a try. It will also make me more informed in the process. Clients are very savvy these days and would like to know that you know your stuff.
I do this in my listing appointments already and it is really an eye opener for the sellers. I tell them we have to know the numbers so we know what we are up against. Great post!
Mirela, Thank you for sharing. I will follow your lead.
Marie Story, I am no expert on this topic. I will only now start posting statistics. But first, I had trouble finding the two spots your were mentioning. I did find it, but each click required will likely decrease viewership. Google will find it though. Second, Mirela tells us to make this simple. You may be providing too much data, and not enough analysis. Instead of bar graphs, line graphs might be easier to look at. Just my gut reaction. I do like what you are doing though, and might copy a little of what you do to. :-)
Mirela, wow ! Great post ! I can see why there are so many comments ! Great tips and so true. I have always found those reports boring and tedious to generate but I understand how important they are. Your illustration in terms of the value for lead generation is a great testimonial ! I have done the reports in the past but need to be more consistent. It is also critical to make them understandable as possible. You are right - many of the ones I have seen are cumbersome and do not offer much value ! Great tips for all the Rainers !
p.s. Subscribed to the group that was not subscribed to yet, Market Reports AND your blog ! There is great vaule here as well !
I am comment nr. 100. What's that thing that you have to do: coffee at Starbucks for the person making the 100th comment? Consider it done! I'm going there now!
I love this post! I'm so glad you guys found it captivating! I look forward to reading your statistical blogs!
I am being coached by Crouch (he still doesn't realize what a challenge THAT will be!) but I'm not going to get my license in the near future. That's going on the back burner, for a while. I'm not very fast, but I'll get there eventually! :)
Bruce: One day you will be ready and then it will all zoom into place. It took me years to get into Real Estate.
We had a family friend who kept telling me that I needed to go into Real Estate. For years he held to his opinion. I had absolutely no calling for it. I took an introductory class and the information was way over my head at the time. I did not like decorating. I did not like looking at homes. I did not like the business aspect of it. There was nothing enticing about Real Estate to me. The only thing I truly enjoyed was the art of negotiation. I have always been a natural at it.
I found myself at a cross roads one day. I decided to heed his advice. I asked the Anthony Schools people what the fastest time was for going through their school. They said they had a guy in 1978 who finished the school in five weeks. I said: "Ok, five weeks it is, then!" I was there at 9am and left the school at 9 or 10pm, whenever they closed. I didn't skip a single day. I was done in 5 weeks.
I got my GRI during my first year of Real Estate and obtained my Broker's license as soon as I was qualified for it (I think it was 2yrs). I was 6+ months pregnant when I went to take the state license Broker's test. Agents were telling me not to worry if I failed it. Several of my co-workers took the CA Broker's test several times and still did not pass. One guy in our office had taken it 16 times and still did not pass. When the postman brought the envelope with the test results, I asked him if I could hold his hand for luck. I can not tell you the joy of finding out that I had passed after my first try.
Sometimes it's good to listen to the people who know you. Had I not listened to that family friend, I wouldn't be here today. My natural instincts would never have taken me toward Real Estate...
We had a family friend who kept telling me that I needed to go into Real Estate. For years he held to his opinion.
Good morning Mirela,
That's a great story. Congrats on zipping through in five weeks! It's true. Sometimes friends notice capabilities in us that we have overlooked or ignored.
Wishing a warm Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Mirela, another stellar post. I'm slowly building Localism and just starting to do market reports. I like the quarterly idea...doesn't seem so daunting as monthly. But I'd like to do monthly ones as well. It just takes so much time.
Sharon: Investors and other professional analyzers only look at quarterly; it's a much better snapshot of what's happening.... Don't worry about monthly, although I like doing monthly, mostly for myself, even though I do share the stats. I want to know where we stand at all times...
Hi Mirela! First of all, congratulations on that little gold star! Well deserved! I do those market reports/market absorption rates as well and I do think that's what the consumer wants to see! Very good demonstration and congrats on the sales as a result of your reports here in the Rain! Here's to a fab 2009 for you!
Great article on statistics. I'm with you on getting the word out to my sphere of influence on what's going on in their particular market area. I am trying to get my agents to do more in 2009 with getting statistics out to their farm areas. Thanks!
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Hi Mirela...I wanted to ask if your example was easy enough for SP to understand but being that it would not be nice to do that I will not.
Seriously, good post and good advice.
Kate