Scare Up More Business This Month
Halloween is the third-most popular holiday, and 70% of Americans are planning to celebrate it in some fashion. Here's how you can join them.
- Decorate your office with fun, spooky decor and play your favorite Halloween songs.
- Host a holiday-themed get-together at your local coffee shop. Invite current leads, clients and referral partners to stop by and enjoy a pumpkin spice latte on the house.
- Sponsor a pumpkin carving contest. You can share web sources for carving stencils on your social media to encourage participation. Invite site visitors to vote for their favorites. Be sure to feature the winners' creations on your social media.
- Got a lot of prospects in rental properties? Host a door decorating event through your social media and award the winners some RESPA-permitted prizes.
- Host a Howl-o-ween doggie dress-up party with fang-licious doggie treats and branded poop-bag holders with your logo. This will keep your business top of mind during daily dog walks.
How To Convince Sellers to Keep Their Homes on the Market
Are you working with seller clients who expected their home to sell quickly, but are still waiting after several weeks? If they're making noises about pulling their listings, here are some talking points to consider.
If they've noticed other homes being taken off the MLS without selling, remind them that this improves their own position. In addition, while there may be fewer potential buyers than there were during the spring and summer months, the ones shopping now are serious.
Some of today's buyers have decided to act after waiting for the market to improve in their favor. They may be planning to buy now and refinance later. Other prospective buyers need to buy now because their needs have changed. For example, buyers in military service are often deployed to new posts without much advance notice, and families expecting a new addition will need a bigger home soon.
No matter what their motivation, these buyers will want to close the deal quickly before the holiday season ramps up. Winter weather may also be a factor. Who wants to move during a snowstorm?
As always, if you're approached by prospective buyers who haven't yet applied for financing, feel free to send them to me for fast, friendly service and a free loan pre-qualification.2
Seller Trends: Who's Moving and Why
Earlier this month, Zillow released a comprehensive sellers' report for 2023 with details of home sellers' ages, relationship status and more.
The most home sellers (25%) were in the aged 40 to 49 group, which includes both Millennials and Generation X homeowners. Homeowners aged 30 to 39 came in second place at 23%.
On a generational level, Millennials were the busiest home sellers, with Generation X close behind. Boomer sellers aged 60 to 79 came in at 22%, while Generation Z (aged 18 to 29) came in at 13%.
The majority (82%) of sellers said that a life event fueled their decision to sell. These included growing families, marriage, divorce and separation.
Most home sellers (70%) were either married or living with a partner or had been married.
Average occupancy timeframes have dropped since 2020-2021, down from 17 years in 2020 to 12 years in 2024.
Sold homes were slightly newer than housing stock as a whole.The older the home, the fewer sold. Properties built during the 1930s to 1950s were less popular, with homes built in 1939 or earlier only making up 5% of the sold home inventory.3
Key Metrics for Social Media Marketing
While there's nothing wrong with directing your social media to two audiences—prospects and clients—expanding your messages by following these five steps can help you in the long run.
- Awareness: begin to grow your target audience while increasing brand recognition Consideration: participate in online conversations, gather feedback and answer questionsConversion: Increase your responses to listings and social media postings
- Loyalty: Boost your ongoing engagement and collect/share testimonials
- Advocacy: Identify and reward your affiliates
A CE Course for the Times
In addition to smoother, more successful closings, you'll build your own confidence in your expertise. This won't go unnoticed by your clients and can earn you more five-star reviews and referrals.
Many sources of CE hours provide this course, so you'll be able to shop around and find the course that's the best fit with your expectations and budget.5
Sources: 1housingwire.com, 2keepingcurrentmatters.com, 3zillow.com, 4socialmediatoday.com, 5webce.com
Recent Comments