Less Online Leads

Anthony: Are online buyer leads not as successful as they were? Are there not as many? The answer to both of those questions is yes and that’s because of the market. Folks, listen, we openly talk about how with the market change and interest rates going up there is a substantial decrease in the amount of buyers. I would bet that about half of all first-time buyers got completely wiped out and no longer exist because they no longer qualify for what it would take to buy in their area. Half of first-time buyers are gone and then about a third of the rest of the buyers are gone as well.

Now, why are they gone? Well, they’re gone because interest rates went up and their affordability went down. Also, keep in mind the amount of wannabe buyers out there, wannabe sellers, those that wanted to buy and sell their existing home, well, for sell-buys, everything just got more expensive. Think about it. Think it through. They have to pay a higher interest rate. They’re in a house right now where they probably have a 2% or a 3% interest rate. If they put their home on the market and they sell their home and they buy a new one, they’re looking at a 5.5% interest rate.

I know late this week, interest rates dipped to about 5.2%, I don’t expect that to stick but they’re looking at a 5.5% interest rate and they can’t sell for as much as they could have if they put the home on the market in the winter. It got more expensive on both sides. For those of you that are working with online leads, either with consistency, maybe you’re buying them or they’re coming to you on your listings, you have to just understand that there are going to be less of them for a while.

Here’s the deal. It isn’t bad that there’s less because there were too many and that’s why quality fell. In the last two years with rates going down so far, it ended up so that there were a ton of wannabe buyers. There were a ton of buyers that were like, “Well, I really want to buy. I mean, if I can sell my home, get $300,000 and buy something bigger, I really want to but I don’t really need to,” so they became buyers. They became buyers who were clicking all around on Zillow, clicking on realtor.com, searching on Google, et cetera and now they fell out.

Don’t be shocked that this has happened. There was an unordinary amount of buyers in the marketplace for the last two years. Now that is adjusting back down to normal. As that happens, people are like, “Oh my God, there’s less buyers, I’m getting less buyer leads.” Well, of course you’re getting less buyer leads. There’s less buyers. We’re going back to normal here. This is an adjustment period. Don’t worry. There’s always buyers buying, there’s always sellers selling. You will roll through it as long as you’re working hard.

Here’s an additional tip that I wasn’t going to mention but I will. Work on your relationship database. Work your sphere of influence. Be in touch with the people you know. Provide market data. Become the authority. Be the go-to person that people look to learn about what the hell is going on in the market. I see a lot of people doing reels and fancy videos, and they’re funny and all this, but I don’t see that many people putting out market data.

Put out market data. Talk about what is going on out there. Talk about how many homes for sale, how many homes are being listed and all those kinds of things. When you do that, you will draw more people to you over time because they know that you are the source of information. Mr. Millen, anything to add, buddy?

John Millen: No, I’m just worried that people are going to think that I got demoted to be your personal driver.

Anthony: [laughs] Well, today, I guess you are the chauffer pal. Yesterday I drove with another video I did on my own personal Instagram, @AJLamacchia. I did a video yesterday.

Anthony: Thank you. What did we talk about yesterday? I talked about how people are too fast to believe bad things. Then two days before that I did a video on how people are generally too slow to believe good things. They’re too skeptical. I talked about those on my own personal Instagram. Did that video yesterday and a bunch of friends were texting John and I saying, “If Anthony’s doing videos, why the hell is he driving? You should be driving, John.” John likes to drive and I don’t, so it works out well. We are headed back from Saratoga, back home bright and early on a Saturday. May you all have a wonderful weekend.

Robert Mara, it is not a buyers’– .Okay, he said, “Buyers’ market more right now.” I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s a buyers’ market. We’re not there yet. We’re still mainly in a sellers’ market, particularly in the major cities, closer to the major cities. As you get out on the outskirts, suburbs, rural areas, it is vending but it’s still airing on the side of sellers’ market. That’s all folks. Have a great day. John, any parting words?

John: nothing.

Anthony: Nothing? Too early for you buddy? We haven’t even eaten breakfast yet. We’re going to stop and eat soon. Probably going to stop at a McDonald’s, breakfast for champions, folks. Have a good day.