renters

How to Help Your Clients Get Their Boomerang Kids Out and Building Equity

Aug 19, 2020

Gen X – those born between 1965 and 1976 – was the hardest-hit cohort during the 2007 Recession, with a nearly 60% drop in median household net worth. Blaire Briody, at BusinessInsider.com says that this is “the largest drop of all age groups.”

Amazingly, this is also the generation who has seen the greatest comeback since then.

Between 2010 and 2018, “… the median net worth of Gen X households has risen 115 percent,” according to Andrew Soergel at USNews.com, citing a researcher at Pew.

Today, we have a new crisis (the pandemic) and it’s impacting members of two generations: Millennials (age 25 to 43 this year) and Gen Z (age 24 and younger).

To deal with closed college campuses and the financial impact, many of these younger folks have gone home, to Mom and Dad.

Many of their parents want to help. If you have clients who are parents of Millenials and Gen Z the following are ideas you can share with them to get their kids to finally and forever leave the nest to feather a nest of their own.

*Rent By Number Series* with custom sub-heading

How to structure the deal

Many parents fear creating a financially-dependent, adult wanna-be by helping their Millennial or Gen Z child purchase a home.

If their son or daughter is generally mature and responsible and just needs a bit of temporary help, parents most likely have nothing to worry about.

A lot also depends on how they structure their assistance, and this is where you come in, offering solutions.

The different forms of “help”

Helping an adult child realize the dream of homeownership comes in many forms. Naturally, if your clients have the means, they may just want to purchase a condo or starter home outright and gift it to their child.

But there are alternatives, including:

Loaning the money, at a lower rate than lenders charge, which will help make the mortgage payments more affordable.
Buy a home using a share-equity agreement.
Gift the child the down payment and closing costs for a condo that he or she purchases.

The “Bank of Mom and Dad”

The best advice you can give your clients is to meet with their financial advisor, accountant and/or attorney to obtain advice about loaning the adult child the money for the home – either the down payment or the purchase price.

This way, they’ll understand all of the ramifications and have legal documents drawn up to protect themselves.

Whether they will charge interest on the loan is up to them, but, again, urge them to get the advice and assistance of professionals.

The co-ownership option

Co-ownership of a condo or starter home offers parents the opportunity to share in the equity that is built up over the period of ownership.

This option isn’t without its pitfalls, however. For instance, when the home is eventually sold, it may subject you to a capital gains tax.

“However, if parents are going into the purchase simply to help the kids qualify for the mortgage and intend their contribution to be a gift, they can structure ownership so that their interest is nominal, and work with a lawyer to place that interest in a trust for the benefit of the kids,” according to Derrick Penner of the Globe and Mail.

The operative words there are “work with a lawyer.” We cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring your clients get professional financial and legal advice.

Mom and dad own it and lease it to the kid

If your clients have been contemplating buying an investment property, this may just be the ideal way to get their child into homeownership. Your clients will retain the tax benefits of owning the condo and the rental agreement can be structured so that they gift a percentage of ownership annually until the child owns the condo outright.

There are a number of ways to help an adult child move into homeownership. Go through your CRM and make some phone calls to parents of young adults. You may just have found a goldmine.

Send a postcard from the Rent By Number Series to a prospecting list of empty nesters and get them excited about another solution for their boomerang kids.

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. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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

Renters Earning in Excess of $70k: The Ideal Target Market

May 21, 2020

Pre-pandemic housing news was enough to give a reader whiplash. While many prognosticators had a vision of a “strong housing market through the end of the year,” others were firmly in the opposing camp. “Housing market will probably slow,” blasted the headline of a popular housing market website.

Nothing much has changed, despite social distancing mandates and the rest of the inconveniences and heartache brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fact is, the housing market is doing just dandy in certain regions across the country. Utah’s real estate market, for instance, has remained “blistering,” according to a report at KSL.com.

In March, Utah homes sold more than a week quicker than they did in March of 2019. The median sold price in March 2020 was $35,000 more than last year as well, according to the blog at UtahRealEstate.com.

Regardless of whether your market is up, down or stagnant, folks still want to buy homes. Many renters who make in excess of $70,000 are waking up to the fact that their current home is inadequate and that those monthly rent checks they write enrich the landlord’s bottom line, not theirs.

But they don’t understand that they have options.

*Renter/First Time Buyer Series* postcard

Why?

With an unemployment rate just shy of 15 percent, it’s easy to become pessimistic about the real estate market. After all, requirement number one for getting a mortgage is that you need to prove you can make the monthly payments.

Sadly, it’s those Americans least able to handle unemployment that lost most of the jobs. “Job losses were highest amongst the nation’s lowest-paid workers,” according to Matthew Speakman at Zillow.com.

In April, for instance “62% of April’s loss in employment was felt by workers in industries paying below-average wages,” typically those in the hospitality and leisure industries, Speakman claims.

It’s highly likely that many, if not most of these employees are renters. It’s equally unlikely that they’ll be able to qualify for a mortgage in the near future. This is not your target audience of renters.

Your target should be renters who earn in excess of $70,000, especially the 1.35 million-plus American households who earn $150,000 per year or more and who “became renters between 2007 and 2017.” (US Census data)

That wealthier Americans in the nation’s most expensive cities are choosing to rent should come as no surprise. In San Francisco, for instance, where the median starter home costs about $895,000, there are more high-income renters than homeowners, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

As rents rise, however, they’re awakening to the fact that perhaps a fixed-rate mortgage payment is far better than the wildly accelerating rental rates of late.

So, why are these people choosing to rent rather than buy a home?

Many are cash poor and don’t understand that they don’t have to have a huge chunk of money for a down payment and closing costs. Others assume they can’t afford to purchase, despite having a decent income.

To successfully pursue this real estate audience requires targeted marketing that dispels myths and speaks to their pain points.

We’ve been seeing an uptick in agents who are purchasing prospect lists targeting renters earning in excess of $70k.

Along with the list, they also typically choose one of our targeted marketing campaigns for Renters/First-Time Home Buyers.

Here are some suggestions on additional topics you may want to use to attract these tenants.

That up-front cost

“I was a long-term renter because I wanted to wait to buy until I could afford to stay in my current neighborhood,” a new homeowner tells Jennifer Bradley Franklin at BankRate.com.

So, why the long-term tenancy?

“I didn’t realize that there were affordable options,” she told Franklin.

One would think that with all the information at our fingertips, real estate consumers would be better informed about down payment assistance, closing cost help and the various low-down loans available.

It’s the assumption that the up-front costs are higher when you buy than when you rent that keeps many of them out of the housing market.

Dispelling this myth is a worthy goal in your marketing efforts.

While most down payment assistance programs are reserved for low-to-moderate-income earners, there are some for those who earn more.

The *“Most Renters Should Buy”* Direct Response Report

In fact, with more than 2,000 down payment/closing cost assistance programs nationwide, you are bound to find one for your higher-earning, home-buying prospects.

Or, let them know that the FHA-backed mortgage has a down payment that can go as low as 3.5% and there are no income limits for borrowers. You would be shocked to know how few consumers are aware of this.

Buying a home builds wealth, renting doesn’t

Back in 2018, when household net worth in the U.S. hit a record $98.74 trillion, homeowners saw the most gain.

In fact, “The average homeowner has a net worth of $195,400, 36 times that of the average renter’s net worth of $5,400,” according to Patrick Sisson at Curbed.com.

This is something that many would-be homeowners don’t consider when they sign the lease agreement. From that moment until the lease expires, these renters are adding to the landlord’s net worth, at the expense of their own.

Address this in your marketing. Let them know that, as Sisson says, “Homeownership may be one of the most significant, and surefire, means of increasing net worth.”

Send a postcard from the Renter/First Time Buyer Series to a targeted prospect list of renters who earn in excess of $70k.

Need help targeting a specific niche of buyers or sellers? Use our prospect list tools 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 Free resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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

3. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

6. The Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Meet your 2020 homebuying clients

Dec 11, 2019

It may seem like buyers are buyers, from one year to the next. Buyers’ agents understand, however, that no two clients are alike, and that “buyers,” as a group, hold certain commonalities.

We’ve already officially entered the decade of the first-time buyers, as millennials aged into the housing market. Classifying “buyers” became immensely easier. We know a whole lot about the largest group of them in the market.

Of course, whether buying or selling real estate, who reaches out to you for help depends on the types of consumers you’ve been stuffing into your pipeline this year and last.

And, how consistently you’ve kept in touch with these real estate leads.

In a perfect world, your CRM is impeccably organized, your leads segmented, your follow-up spot on and you perform multiple touches throughout the year.

The Ready to Own postcard from the First Time Buyer Series is available in the postcard section.

Since the world isn’t perfect (nor are most agents’ CRMs), 2020 may be feast or famine time (as usual, right?).

Here’s what the “experts” are saying

Don’t you love reading the year-end prognostications about next year’s real estate market? While in late 2018 the experts were far more committed to their guesstimates of the 2019 market, this year, they are all hedging their bets.

Nobody is really sure what the real estate market will be like in 2020. Except for Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller.

In September, he stated “that the U.S. housing market could start to see a fall,” according to Harsh Chauhan at CCN.com. Chauhan bases his predictions largely on the fact that existing home sales fell 2.2 percent in September.

Hey, isn’t that the time the market slows every year?

The Six Move-Up Mistakes Homebuyers Make Report is available in the Free REport section.

The truth is, Americans, by and large, are optimistic about the economy. NAR’s latest quarterly survey finds that 63 percent of buyers “feel optimistic” and 52 percent are happy with the way the economy is humming along.

So, will 2020 be a buyers’ market or a sellers’ market?

I really wish that the media would survey the country’s real estate agents when putting together their year-end roundup of expert opinions.

What are the chances that an economist or other “expert” sitting behind a desk, set in front of a wall of framed college degrees, has actually worked with real estate clients? Day in, day out, over the past year?

It’s agents who are closest to the market’s pulse, who feel the changes as they happen. It often takes a month or more for the media to catch on.

Agents across the country have told us they agree with Freddie Mac’s forecast of “a projected upward tick in housing supply” next year. While it may not be upward enough to balance the market, it will bring relief to many buyers.

Speaking of which, look for demand to remain high for homes in the lower price ranges. In Chicago, for instance, this includes anything priced lower than $325,000

Who are these buyers and what do they want?

“If you’re selling a house next year, expect to see a lot of young couples walking through your doors during open houses,” claims an unnamed writer at AZBigMedia.com.

Oops. Millennials, by and large, don’t like open houses. Members of Generation X, on the other hand, love them. According to NAR studies, 63 percent of Gen X homebuyers claim to have visited open houses before buying.

Which is great news for open-house holders

Unlike Millennials, Gen Z clients are more likely to have a home to sell before buying, giving their lucky agents a twofer.

They’re buying more expensive homes as well. They require less hand-holding. Hopefully, you’ve been pursuing this cohort because they and baby boomers will be the clients who bring you the best commission checks.

Yes, Millennial first-time buyers are expected to still loom large in the 2020 real estate market, so if the cohort is among your target clientele, relax.

If, on the other hand, you’re pursuing the more-bang-for-the-buck type of Gen X transaction, get to know the master-planned communities in your market. Specifically, those that offer homes with:

Three to four bedrooms in a minimum of 2,300 square feet
Single-story homes for the older members of the cohort (many hope to age in place)
Plenty of nearby amenities, such as parks and good schools
Quick commutes to the nearest city

Baby boomer homebuyers, on the other hand, are typically looking to downsize, so they’re competing with Millennials for those low-priced smaller homes.

Many in the cohort have decided to rent while others are aging out of the housing market entirely.

Boomers’ hot buttons?

Efficient floorplans with lots of storage options
A laundry room is a must
Energy-efficient appliances and windows
Homes that offer smart-home technology
Home office
Lots of natural light
Single-story homes with no stairway access
Homes in walkable neighborhoods near shops and eateries

The cohort’s cold buttons are just as important, so don’t show them:

Homes in golf course communities (unless they voice a preference for them)
Homes with an elevator or wine cellar
Anything with more than one story

The Perfect Timing postcard from the First Time Buyer Series is available in the postcard section.

Fortunate is the agent who steadfastly targeted the older demographics this year and last. Next year may just be your most prosperous yet.

Send the Perfect Timing postcard from the First Time Buyer Series to a targeted list of renters.

Need help targeting the perfect list of renters? Use our mailing list too l 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 Free killer tools to help your success this year!

1. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan – NEW 2020!

2. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan – NEW 2020!

3. Get the ALL-NEW “Insider Secret “Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

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

4. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Looking for real estate listing leads? Target landlords

Oct 16, 2019

Reading housing market news is an exercise in frustration.

For every so-and-so “sees stronger housing market this fall” and stories of the various “hot” real estate markets across the country, there’s a “Housing Market will Probably Slow” and “Housing Market may be at Risk in Recession” article.

The fact is, the housing market is sitting pretty right now, according to agents we’ve spoken with. Who knows better than those wearing the boots on the ground?

Remember, many of those who bought homes during the lowest point during the recession were investors – something the folks at CoreLogic refer to as the “investor buying fury of 2012 – 2014.”

Yes, many of these buyers were institutional investors, but the so-called “mom and pop” investors, bought a lot of homes as well.

Core Logic claims that small investor activity in the real estate market increased their share of the investor buying pool from “48% of all investor-purchased homes in 2013 to more than 60% in 2018.”

There’s your target audience: absentee owners who bought the property from 2012 to 2014.

Realtor marketing postcards for neighborhood updates — The Neighborhood Update postcard is available in the postcard section under the Neighborhood Update Series.

While homeowners may be loath to list during fall and winter, landlords are not. Especially after receiving your brilliant and laser-targeted marketing pieces, convincing them to sell.

They have tons-o-equity

Want to hear something surprising?

People “who purchased a home following the Great Recession have seen their home equity climb by 261%,” according to Alcynna Lloyd at HousingWire.com.

She calculates that the average homebuyer in 2012 “is now sitting on $141,000 in equity.”

Let that sink in. That’s a whole lot of equity, especially for a tenant-weary landlord who just wants out from under his or her investment.

The market is perfect for sellers

It’s only natural to assume that when prices skyrocket, owners sell. This market over the past year or so proves what happens when we make assumptions.

Homeowners aren’t selling.

The reasons are plenty: they’re afraid they won’t find a replacement home, they think their value will continue rising, they’re scared a recession is looming and they have no idea how much equity they have in their homes.

Investors, however, are in an entirely different situation and the bottom line for them is money.

“Investors who don’t have the longest investment horizon, who only want to do this for another five or 10 years may not want to wait and see when the next cycle comes,” Doug Imber, president of Essex Realty Group in Chicago tells Debbie Carlson at USNews.com.

Costs of owning are going up

When home values increase, property taxes do too. That’s a hunk of money that can easily turn a cap rate from good to bad.

ATTOM Data Solutions claims that in 2017, property taxes rose by an average of 6 percent in 2017 and an additional 4 percent last year.

With home prices continuing to skyrocket, it’s a safe bet that the new appraised values will bring an additional hike in taxes.

Just Listed postcards are available in the Postcard section under Just Listed Series.

Then, there’s that recession on the horizon

Landlords who needed to sell their properties during the last recession and had to sit on them instead may be nervous about a coming recession.

Never mind that home values have gone up in all but the last recession (which was largely caused by the bursting of the housing bubble). When it comes to our pocketbooks, common sense leaves the building.

Although most economists don’t expect the coming recession to impact the housing market, nothing is guaranteed.

A recession could very well impact their profit margins. If the competition is lowering rents, it puts pressure on all landlords to follow suit.

And, if mortgage rates remain low and rent high, it makes more sense for their tenants to buy a home instead of rent.

Rents won’t rise forever

Our research into how much rents have risen yielded numbers that were all over the map. ApartmentList.com claims that the national average, year-over-year rent growth is only 1.4 percent.

“Our national rent index fell by 0.1 percent month-over-month,” the report claims. “This is the second straight monthly decline in the index following robust rent growth through the summer, indicating that this year’s peak rental season has come to an end.”

Other points to highlight include:

Rents are outpacing income and that’s not sustainable
Building costs will soon outpace rental rates
The market is set to change, and supply could catch up with or outpace demand

The bottom line in all of your marketing pieces is one question: “Does this particular real estate investment still make sense?”

How to lure landlord leads

The first step in drilling down into the landlord niche is to choose a farm area. This might be a condo community or two or it could be a subdivision or even a ZIP Code.

Then, come up with a strategy:

Ensure your online presence shines.
Determine which marketing vehicles you’ll use to reach out to landlords. Think old-school on this one – postcards are ideal (and, no, not just because we sell them!).
Ask your title company rep for a list of absentee owners in your chosen farm area and take a look at our mailing list options.

Your first mailing can be anything from a current neighborhood update report to a just-listed or sold postcard.

The most important aspect of this lead gen method is to come up with a follow-up plan and then keep to it, consistently, at least once every two months.

The Tired of Being a Landlord postcard is available in the Postcard section under the Rental For Sale Series.

Happy prospecting!

Send the Tired of Being a Landlord postcard to a targeted mailing list of landlords.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list too l to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!