Why List Your Home Now?

A lot of sellers are assuming they should wait until spring to list their homes. As you will see, this is a mistake.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales? 
 Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.

A lot of our agents are hearing their clients say, “I’ll just wait until after the holidays are over and catch the spring market next year.”

Here is the concern for those clients: year over year, when we look at our real estate market here in Southern California, we’ve got almost 20% less inventory across the board than we had this time last year. Generally, homes are selling over 20% faster than they were last year. Based on that, you’d expect prices to be going on a straight vertical climb. The reality, though, is that they’re only up 2%.

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If I’m a seller holding on to a property, I’m listing that property now.

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When we look at this trend and factor in interest rates being almost a full 0.75% lower, that means buyers have about 7.5% more purchasing power today than they did a year ago, and they’re only choosing to use 2.9% of that. This tells us that we may be right at the top of a market shift.

If I’m a seller holding on to a property that I want to get top dollar for, I’m listing that property now. Not tomorrow — right now. In fact, with our own personal portfolio of property, anything we don’t want to hold through another market cycle is either going on the market or has already been on the market.

If you have any questions about buying or selling, please feel free to get in touch with us. Just give me a call or send me an email, and I’d be happy to help you.

Why an Agent Can’t Be Over-Reliant on the MLS

Today I want to talk about how the MLS has changed in our real estate industry. Ten years ago, our value proposition was centered almost entirely on it.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales? 
 Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.

You may see what’s happening out there in the market, but I want to talk about a functional perspective of the MLS and how it’s changed our real estate industry.

Ten years ago, the value proposition of a real estate agent was basically just the MLS. We had access and everyone else didn’t. They had to go through us to get the info. That’s not the case anymore. The bar has been raised for what a great agent does. Now, I’m worried about agents who rely on the MLS as the cornerstone of their business.

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The bar has been raised for what a great agent does.

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In today’s fast-changing world, you’ve got to do what other agents aren’t willing to do to survive. This means knocking on doors, working your sphere of influence, and finding sellers before they know they’re sellers. That’s how you create the best opportunity for your buyers. You can’t rely on the MLS for that anymore.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line or shoot me an email.

Answering the Question of Why Do I Need a Real Estate Agent?

Not everyone will understand right away all the work we do on their transaction. A lot of professionals like to openly question why they should hire a real estate agent if they could just do everything online anyway.

Thinking about a career in San Diego real estate sales? 
 Email me today for a private San Diego real estate career consultation.

You’ve probably encountered this situation before.

You have a client come to an open house who is a professional, whether it be a lawyer, doctor, or accountant, and they say something like this: “You real estate agents sure make a lot of money. Why do I need to hire you if I can just use the internet and sites like Zillow to buy and sell homes?”

If you run into this situation, here’s what you have to do. You have to help them see it from a perspective that they can relate to. Let’s say the person asking you this question is a doctor. A good answer would be something like this. “As a physician, why would I need you? I can go to WebMD, figure out what kind of prescription I might need, go down to Mexico and get it, and medicate myself.”

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You’ve got to appeal to their professional side.

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Maybe it’s because there is a chance things could go wrong. Something bad could happen, and you could get really sick by trying to save a few bucks. Things can go wrong in the real estate transaction the same way. You might not get sick by not hiring an agent, but you could really get taken advantage of when buying or selling.

In order to win with a professional client, you need to establish yourself as a professional as well.

I hope this tip helps. If you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out and give me a call or shoot me an email. I hope to talk to you soon!