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10 tips for guiding sellers through the choppy waters of a market correction

 

https://www.inman.com/2018/09/19/are-your-sellers-ready-for-a-buyers-market/

 

 Carl Medford, REALTOR, CRS

 

This year’s market is not the same as it was last year at this time. Here in the Greater Seattle Area, a region renowned for extreme inventory shortages, short days on the market, multiple offers and contracts way over asking price, everything has suddenly changed.

 

Everything, that is, except seller expectations.

How do you manage clients when the market suddenly develops into something they had not anticipated? Here are our top 10 recommendations for managing seller expectations when the market enters a correction.

1. Memorize the market

When a market turns, everything changes in a moment. Those who benefit from the shift respond immediately, while those who are adversely affected by the transition take much longer to deal with the new reality.

When a seller’s market begins to slow, buyers immediately hesitate, pull back and, if writing an offer, do so under list price — often substantially so.

As a listing agent and local market expert, you must master the signs of a shift and immediately communicate the new reality to your sellers.

Even though our market slowed back in May, most potential sellers still believe it is a hot market and anticipate offer deadlines, multiple offers, limited days on the market and offers way above asking. Our job is to help them understand that, at least for now, this is no longer the case.

The moment we sensed the market was turning, we sent out extensive communiques to our existing sellers. We have also tweaked our listing presentation to encompass the new reality.

Real Estate Success in a Balanced Real Estate Market (Buyers/Sellers/ & Agents)

2. Understand the motivation

Seller motivation is primary. If their need to sell is genuine, they will typically be willing to do whatever is necessary to sell. If they are not highly motivated, however, and insist on “testing the market” or “doing a trial run,” thank them for the opportunity, and then refer them to your competitor across town. Once the listing expires, circle back around.

3. Know the numbers

When the market is hot, it’s not uncommon for agents to lose track of key market metrics because they do not seem necessary. Once the market turns, however, data is critical.

Average days on the market, sold price, price-per-square-foot, percentage of current active properties with recent price reductions — these statistics are vital in helping sellers understand the current market and effectively position their home to sell.

While the numbers are all available on the local multiple listing service (MLS), it’s important that you dig deep in times of a quick turn like we’re now experiencing. Doing a 180-day CMA can be mis-leading. Tighten your parameters and see what’s going on in the past 30-45 days.  Dig even deeper and see what the actual list price would have been on January 1st, contrasted with homes that closed in April (The peak of our Seller’s Market), and then look at the current price of the home based on comps. In most cases, while down considerably from the April high, home prices are still up 5-7% over January. 

4. Prepare properly

Effective home selling is all about the three p’s — preparation, pricing and promotion. 

Fail in any category, and your listing will languish.

Generally speaking, the current generation of buyers have never learned the skills required to improve a property, which is why they prefer move-in ready homes. After spending hours watching home improvement programs, they have refined their tastes and will migrate toward homes that meet their ideals, including beautiful kitchens with solid surface counters, upgraded bathrooms, upscale flooring and so on.

In an increasing market, sellers prep their properties to get the maximum price possible. In a downward market, prep is also important: sellers must understand that the better prepared homes are the ones that sell while the rest remain active.

5. Nail the pricing

Of the three P’s, this is the most important. Sellers must learn that in a declining market, buyers are looking for the best value they can find, which means the best prepared property at the lowest possible price.

Wisdom states, “price ahead of the market” — if a market has turned downward, educate your sellers to price their listings below the last sales.

A common tactic in our area has been for agents to list homes at artificially low prices because they assumed the hot market would provide multiple offers driving the numbers significantly above their fake asking prices. When the market shifts, however, those tactics no longer work: sellers may be confronted with a single offer substantially below what they anticipated.

What to Consider When Pricing Your Home to Sell

6. Promote the home

The old school three p’s — “Plant a sign, Post on the MLS and Pray” — employed by some agents in hot markets, will not work when things cool off. The adage, “You have a minute to sell your home,” beginning the moment a prospective buyer pulls up in front of a property, is no longer true.

That minute has become 10 seconds or less and happens on a buyer’s mobile device nowhere near the listing. If buyers do not like what they see, no amount of open house signs will get them into your listing — they will swipe left and move on.

Help your sellers understand where today’s buyers are looking (mobile devices) and what is required to effectively connect with them. Explain that effective promotion includes anything that will keep prospective buyers engaged with the listing on their phone.

Thoughtful preparation, beautiful staging, professional pictures, drone footage, virtual reality (VR), 3D tours and video will separate your seller’s home from the rest of the pack. Clarify that you will be factoring in targeted ads on Facebook, and Instagram. Also explain our re-targeting program and built in text platform to capture inquiries along with following up with email campaigns and doing everything else possible to cover all the promotional bases.

7. Respond to the leads quickly

All the advertising in the world will be completely ineffective if you do not answer your phone and respond to email or internet inquiries. You have less than 30 seconds to convert a lead. If the market is full of inventory and a prospective buyer cannot access you and the home they are interested in immediately, they will move on, and the opportunity is lost.

Through our website, Ap, Marketing Boards, and Personal Property Websites we have response systems in place to capture leads. So, let your sellers know that their property must be available for showing when a prospective buyer wants to come through.

To further enhance the process, our system provides a comprehensive report on each unique URL visiting a property online, and detailed log of all text inquiries, and also all agent showings.

This provides us with a real-time follow up system — we know who showed a home or requested information, enabling us to quickly respond and to notify all potentially interested parties once an offer has been received.

8. Know your options

Those of us who’ve been in this industry long enough remember the incentives sellers tried last time the market was down, including throwing in cars, trips to Hawaii and other perks designed to get their homes sold.

Although I’m not recommending extreme measures, it is time to dust off some practices we haven’t seen for almost a decade, including credits toward closing costs, bonuses to buyer agents, interest rate buy-downs, and so forth.

One which always captures my eyes and that I’ve seen a lot of lately are increased SOC. Nearly daily I receive e-mails offering a 4% SOC, and trust me…. That get’s agent’s attention!

9. Master the scripts

Top-producing agents take time to polish their skills so they can effectively compete in any market. In a downturn, skills become more critical than ever. I advocate coaching, training and scripts practice ensuring you are at the top of your game.

When you’re sitting with someone and explaining their options, you have to educate them. Remember that they won’t believe what you tell them. That’s why you have to bring them to the point that they understand what you understand. When you get them to that point, you’re no longer telling them it’s okay to buy or sell. Now they’re telling themselves it’s okay based on their understanding.

This means you not only have to analyze the information well enough to understand it yourself, but you also have to understand it so well that you can simply and effectively communicate it to buyers and sellers. As Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, it just means YOU don’t understand it well enough.”

You can only communicate what you know. For those agents who have been in the market seven years or less, it’s time to learn some new skills.

10. Take listings you can sell

When the market heads downward, you only want to take listings you can sell. Having a huge number of listings that are not selling is not a badge of your success as an agent — it is an indicator of your willingness to waste huge amounts of time and money for yourself and your clients.

As a businessperson, you need to not only know the market numbers, you need to know your personal numbers too. To compete effectively in our market, we have a significant advertising budget for each listing. When the market starts drifting downward, many sellers previously sitting on the fence decide it is now time to sell, increasing listing opportunities.

The problem is that unrealistic sellers will insist on improbable listing prices. If you sign a listing at an unreasonable price, you will pour money and time into marketing a product that may look wonderful but will not sell. After a few months with no results, they will fire you or cancel the listing and the money you’ve paid for marketing will go down the drain.

In a declining market, effective cash flow management is crucial for determining whether you stay in business over the long haul. While some agents may take overpriced listings to attract potential buyers, we’ve discovered that buyers in our market are educated enough to realize when listings are overpriced and consequently will not show up.

There is opportunity in every type of market, and it begins with effectively managing your clients. Those who master the fundamentals will be the ones who succeed when the market turns, while the remainder flounder around hopelessly wondering what just happened.

Come To Expect More

We have come to expect more and so should you.  We strive to bring the perfect combination of technology, service and marketing to give you the best chance to sell your home for the most money possible.  Contact one of our local real estate team members today and learn more about how The Cascade Team can assist you with your most prized asset.  We want to be your real estate company of choice.

A Full Service Real Estate Brokerage For Home Sellers

The Cascade Team provides a full service experience that is a step above; by executing a marketing plan for your home that is technology rich and high in service.  We leverage all available technology tools to provide the most exposure possible for your home, and utilize those tools to increase the communication and service to you our client.

Learn more here:

 

 

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