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Wednesday, May 15, 2024

real estate trends

    “Pivot.” I’m reading that word a lot lately. The “experts” are admonishing business owners to pivot, to adapt to the “new normal.” It’s an especially popular theme in real estate right now.

    Seems to me that most real estate professionals adapted very quickly. You had to, right? It was either adapt or perish. In fact, the average agent could probably give lessons on pivoting.

    The poor real estate consumer, however, has been left behind. So, just as you pick up slack for lenders when explaining the mortgage process to buyers, it’s now up to you to bring buyers and sellers up to speed on what’s changed and what they might expect from America’s “new” real estate industry.

    Let’s start with your listing clients and listing prospects.

    Post Pandemic Series
    How has the selling process changed?

    Aside from local market conditions, this is most likely every prospective home seller’s most burning question. After all, much of what they’ll learn online no longer applies.

    Ensure that all of your listing leads are aware of and comfortable with the changes. Don’t let them delay their sale because they’re nervous or confused.

    The listing presentation is the ideal time to walk them through the process. Make it sound as simple as possible.

    Sure, they’re still curious how you’ll go about marketing their home, but how will they and their family be kept safe after showings? What precautions will buyers’ agents take?

    Will you hold open houses? If so, how will those work without exposing both the buyers and the seller to the virus?

    Stage it to sell for top dollar

    While the process of preparing the home for the market remains pretty much the same, staging is not.

    Hunkered down for months in their homes while they took on new hobbies and spent more time with family has caused a shift in what homebuyers are seeking in a home. Suggest to your sellers that they stage a spare room, study, finished attic or basement as a home office or gym.

    Outdoor spaces are more critical aspects of home sales post-lockdown. Sales of inflatable pools, inground pools, patio furniture and décor and even trampolines have spiked.

    One of the most popular backyard amenities is a large garden, or the space to create one. “Gardening supplies and egg-laying chickens are becoming hard to find as people search for both new hobbies and reliable alternatives to bare grocery shelves,” according to Hillary George-Parkin at Vox.com.

    “Anything that keeps kids entertained — and offers parents a chance to take Zoom calls in peace — is, predictably, flying off the shelves,” George-Parkin adds.

    Let your listing clients know this. Help them come up with ideas to stage their backyards for maximum appeal:

    • Kid-friendly space
    • Gardener’s dream space
    • Activity center

    Create a kid-friendly space with a croquet set on the lawn, a swing set and slide, treehouse, trampoline hangout (see photo number 17 at HGTV.com), sandbox or any number of other things that will appeal to parents of young children.

    Post Pandemic Series
    There are many ways to stage a backyard to pique a gardener’s interest, including:
    • Building attractive raised beds
    • Adding trellises along the wall
    • Create a potting bench
    • Adding gardening beds in lieu of raised beds

    Even if you have limited space in the backyard, or just a patio or deck, potted plants and planter boxes will create appeal for the green thumber.

    Swimming pools also gained in popularity during the lockdown. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, with manufacturers in Spain claiming that sales have increased 400%. In New Zealand, searches for homes with swimming pools have increased 70% and manufacturers and retailers claim that sales have tripled since before the pandemic.

    If your client’s home features a swimming pool, of course you’ll want to hit that fact hard when marketing, but encourage your client to stage the pool area to wow buyers even more.

    For those leads and prospects who are dragging their feet (meaning there is no listing appointment), start an education campaign on your blog and share your posts on social media. Back them up with a direct mail piece that updates them on real estate news.

    Sellers have questions and you have the answers. Walk them through all the processes and how they’ve changed, from home inspections to appraisals to closing and staging.

    Post Pandemic Series
    Send the Home Values postcard from the Post Pandemic Series to an area where you’re focusing on more listings.

    Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our Demographic Search Tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy). Or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

    PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

    1. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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    The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

    2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

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    The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

    3. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

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    Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan.  – Click Here

    4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook 

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    Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

    5. The Market Dominator Branding System

    Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a Mega AMrketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this excerpt on the Market Dominator from a recent Q&A Todd Robertson (Director of the Market Dominator) did below.

    For additional questions, you can reach Todd at 866-405-3638 or Todd.Robertson@prospectsplus.com or go to Market Dominator for more information.

    6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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    Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

    7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT” 

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    The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

    Real or Fake News?

    It’s all over the news – the government is harming homeowners and real estate by wanting to do away with the mortgage interest deduction (MID). From major real estate portals to the National Association of Realtors’ website, hand wringing rules the day.

    Is it fake news, the truth or are the reports somewhere in between?

    A little history

    Before 1986, all interest on all loans (even credit card bills), regardless of purpose, was tax deductible. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) did away with all of those deductions, with the exception of mortgage interest.

    Interestingly, the TRA86 was touted very much the same way today’s tax reform efforts are – as a way to simplify the tax code and do away with tax loopholes.

    To itemize or not to itemize

    To take advantage of the MID, a taxpayer must itemize deductions. For itemizing to make sense, his or her deductions must exceed the standard deduction. These deductions include the MID as well as charitable contributions, medical expenses, property taxes, state and local income taxes and others.

    Now, if you itemize deductions you know that it isn’t as cut and dried as it seems. The charitable contribution deduction, for instance, carries a cap. And, filers can deduct only the amount of medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of their adjusted gross income (7.5 percent if the filer or spouse is 65 or older).

    This restriction allows only 19 percent of taxpayers who itemize to claim the medical expense deduction, according to Matthew Frankel at motleyfool.com.

    It is very difficult for the average middle class American to come up with enough in itemized deductions to beat the standard deduction. In fact, only about 30 percent of taxpayers itemize deductions.

    The reality

    Here are the stats:

    • About two-thirds of American households own their home.
    • Only one-fourth of homeowners claim the MID.
    • The average tax savings for households with income between $40,000 and $75,000 is just $152 a year. That’s $12.66 a month,” according to Anthony Randazzo, director of economic research at the Reason Foundation.
    • Households with earnings of more than $100,000 derive nearly 90 percent of the MID’s benefits.
    • “In 2015, the federal government spent $71 billion on the MID,” according to Derek Thompson with The Atlantic. He also calls the MID a “moral indictment of the tax code,” and the $71 billion dollars it costs this country “a public-housing policy for the rich.”
    But … it incentivizes home ownership, right?

    “Economists don’t agree on much, but they do agree on this: the interest deduction doesn’t do a thing for homeownership rates,” suggests Roger Lowenstein at the New York Times.

    Remember Jonathan Gruber, the Obamacare architect? He co-authored a National Bureau of Economic Research study earlier this year that found “The mortgage deduction has a precisely estimated zero effect on homeownership.”

    “One reason for this is the way the MID is structured. As mentioned earlier, a taxpayer must itemize deductions to take advantage of the MID. It is primarily the wealthy who have enough deductions that make sense to itemize.”

    “The value of the deduction increases with the individual’s income tax rate so that higher income taxpayers receive more benefit than lower- and middle-income taxpayers,” according to Tim Manni at HSH.com.

    Manni goes on to say that the MID encourages Americans who can afford to, to buy larger, more expensive homes, “rather than to encourage significant homeownership at low- and middle-income levels.”

    Even without economists’ word for it, knowing the statistics on who actually uses the MID, common sense tells us that homeownership rates and home prices aren’t going to plummet if homeowners can’t deduct mortgage interest on their taxes.

    What the MID actually does

    “The MID benefits far fewer Americans than politicians and the media are letting on and, in fact, it drives up tax rates for the rest of us,” insists the National Review’s Robert VerBruggen.

    Others argue that the MID subsidizes wealthy households and the money saved by doing away with it will help fund tax reform that benefits the middle class.

    Whichever side you fall on over this issue, it’s important to understand the facts. Only then can you intelligently answer your clients’ questions.

    Need our assistance? We would love to help you! Call our support team a 866.405.3638. 

    Gear up For selling real estate to Generation Z

    85 Million Strong & They Want Homes

    Here’s a hot tip: While the rest of the real estate industry is distracted — lusting after millennials, ignoring Gen Xers and barely tolerating baby boomers – get to know the next big thing, Generation Z.

    Gen Z is expected to count nearly 85 million members by 2020, making up almost 25 percent of the nation’s population, according to a study published by Fung Global Retail & Technology.

    The oldest members of this generation turn 23 in 2018 and there are already statistics showing that they will be buying homes.

    Known as “digital natives,” this generation is the first to be oblivious to “life without technologies and services such as smartphones, iPads, Facebook, Instagram,” according to the study.

    Who they are

    If you’re an agent of a certain age, I have some scary news for you: your grandkids are about to enter the housing market.

    What’s even more frightening is that, according to The Center for Generational Kinetics, members of Gen Z think millennials are “old.” Imagine what they think about their grandparents – the baby boomers.

    If you’re a member of the latter, the good news is that your grandkid can be your laboratory when you decide to pursue this younger generation. The rest of the real estate industry has a steep learning curve ahead of them because members of Gen Z, although more like boomers than millennials, have little in common with any generation that came before.

    What they’re like

    To the so-called “super entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” business and making money are already top-of-mind, but don’t look for them to get there using the same, conventional methods.

    Non-conformists, much like their grandparents’ generation, these digital natives are “a generation whose entire world and self-views are crafted by technology, immediacy and access,” Sherry Chris, president and CEO, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate tells RISMedia’s Maria Patterson.

    Although young, they seem to be learning from their predecessors, already socking away money for retirement. In fact, according to the Center for Generational Kinetics, nearly a quarter of Gen Zers had a savings account before they turned ten.

    How will this group’s fiscal responsibility impact the real estate market?

    Almost all of the Gen Zers surveyed in a Better Homes & Gardens ® survey say they will buy a home and 80 percent believe that homeownership will lead them to the American Dream.
    What will it take to work with them

    It’s amazing the things scientists are able to measure. Attention spans, for instance. Apparently Gen Zers’ attention spans (eight seconds) are four seconds less than millennials’, according to Anna Fieler, executive vice president of marketing at POPSUGAR.

    Remember, this is the demographic that dominates on Snapchat and Instagram (they claim Facebook is for “older people,” according to Andrea V. Brambila at Inman.com), so communicating with them means getting to the point almost immediately. They are practically attached to their smart phones, so texting will get you a lot further than an email.

    “In fact, the rise of Gen Z should sound the alarm for all that a targeted Internet strategy is vital for reaching this cohort …,” warns Allen Shayanfekr, CEO and Founder of Sharestates.

    While social proof is important to millennials, gen Zers won’t consult Yelp or Zillow reviews to find an agent. It’s their friends’ opinions they rely heavily on, so providing the kind of customer service that garners referrals will be more important than ever.

    Gen Z represents a pool of very motivated real estate consumers. Start gearing up for them now and you’ll be a step ahead of your competition. Take advantage of our Mailing List Page Option 2 Demographic Search to create a targeted mailing list of Gen Z’s.

    Related: Great Customer Care Equals Long Term Results

    Need help creating your targeted list or anything else? Contact our marketing team at 866.405.3638. They’re incredibly knowledgeable, and ready to help get you suceed!

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