Market News October 14

Teach the Long-Term Benefits to Help You Sell Today
While short-term forecasts of leveling home prices and increasing mortgage rates may scare off many, especially first-time buyers, help your customer see the big picture.

Homeownership is a long-term investment that will show equity as homeowners pay down their mortgage. The sooner we can get them in a new home, the sooner they will recognize their long-term equity. If a prospective buyer is looking for 3-year home, this may not be the right time to buy. But, for those looking for 5, 10, 15-year, or forever homes, it is critical to educate them on appreciation. The national average from 1991-2021 was a 290% increase in home prices. Even the last 5 years, the national average is nothing to ignore at over 60% increase in home price.¹

Three Bone-Chilling Marketing Ideas for Halloween
Holiday marketing is an effective, fun way to refill your pipeline, which means that Halloween is a particularly fang-tastic time to implement new ideas. Here are three spooktacular real estate marketing ideas:

1. Have a haunted open house.
Instead of a traditional open house, hire a DJ to spin novelty songs, decorate the lawn for Halloween, put out some bales of hay for potential buyers to sit on, and hand out candy.

2. Hand out spooktacular candies.
Take the time to order content with your contact information or attach your business card to the wrappers. This is the perfect way to get the attention of your trick-or-treaters' seller and buyer guardians.

3. Create spooky social posts.
And schedule them so the holidays will not sneak up on you. Everyone has monster schedules these days and doing this takes the pressure out of remembering to say "Boo!" each Halloween.²

Top Productivity Hacks for Agents
If you find yourself needing to play catch-up on weekends, here are some tips that won't take too big of a bite out of your Saturdays and Sundays:

• Tackle that long list of emails in your inbox over the weekend. Then, you'll be able to use Monday for cold-calling, client relationship building, and more because you've knocked those emails out early.
• Take the time to schedule out the week ahead. A little downtime planning can go a long way, especially when your work week starts to take on a life of its own. It's good to already have a plan in place.³

Change Your Focus to Reach Your Goals
Many of us plan ahead by setting a time or date in the not-so-distant future when we'll eventually reach our goals.

It could be New Year's Eve or your birthday two years from now. But there's a better way to reach those goals: focus on specific and immediate changes.

To accomplish this, develop a list of the changes you want to make. They could include starting your workday earlier, looking for new tasks instead of waiting for them to become necessary, or initiating new client-building activities.

Then hold yourself accountable for making those changes. The reality behind this strategy is that the calendar doesn't drive motivation...you do.⁴

Four Ways to Calculate Square Footage
The MLS can be a source of excellent information...but you've probably noticed some inaccuracies, especially when an agent or surveyor miscalculates a property's square footage. Simply missing the square footage of one bathroom or bedroom could throw off a home's value significantly.

Here are four ways that help ensure you calculate the price per square foot correctly:

1. Find comparable neighborhood homes.
You need to look for neighborhood homes that are the same size or close to it. A good guideline is to keep the range within 10% plus or minus.

2. Measure the inside of the home.
Take the time to measure the inside of the home accurately. This is critical to ensuring that every square foot is accounted for and included in the listing for maximum resale value.

3. Measure the yard and outdoor spaces.
The square footage of the yard and any outdoor spaces can add tremendous value, especially if a buyer plans to add an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU). This is often true in urban areas where this space is truly coveted. Most buyers and sellers tend to focus on the home's size, but you need to make sure both are covered.

4. Review the public tax record.
Home tax records are publicly available online from your County Appraiser's office. This is typically the most accurate assessment of square footage. In fact, lenders and appraisers consult these public records as support for the value of a home.⁵

Sources: ¹keepingcurrentmatters.com, ²theclose.com, ³mckissock.com, ⁴theamericangenius.com, ⁵rismedia.com