What to be thinking about with your upcoming listings

Anthony: How can you save your sellers a lot of hassle? Save yourself a lot of hassle by not chasing the market down. The market is entering a situation, where you need to make sure your home sellers are getting ahead of the curve. Anthony Lamacchia here from the beautiful, beautiful Lake Ozark with my friend, Ms. Kathy, who’s going to introduce herself. We’re spending the weekend here, a bunch of us on the lake, but we did a great training the other day.

She and I being in the real estate geeks that we are had a long discussion about the market, and where we think it’s at, and we want to talk about that.

Kathy Helbig-Strick: Yes. I’m Kathy Helbig-Strick with Experience Real Estate Partners, EXP Realty. Anthony and I were talking about I’m an OG of real estate. I’ve been around for 25 years. I’ve lived through this first shift that we had in 2007 and 2008. We were talking about what about this market reminds us of that and what is different. When we get into what some of my thoughts.

Anthony: No, I think you should. When you talk about what’s different, both her and I agree this isn’t a 2008 scenario, where everybody’s going to lose their houses, and all that, but we do agree things are in for a change. For a couple of years, things will adjust if– in the market, I always say, we’ll find its equilibrium, and then we’ll go on another 8 or 10-year run, but in the meantime, you as a realtor have to survive, and you’ve got to make sure your clients survive.

Your clients doing okay in getting through this in a positive manner is what gets you through it. Why don’t you talk about what we were talking about with respect to dealing with sellers and listings because that’s really what the discussion’s going to be for two years? Go ahead.

Kathy: Depending on where you’re at in the market in the United States is depending on, are you on the leading edge of the shift that’s just starting to take place? If you are, you need to pay close attention to these signs that you can be pointing out to your sellers, and make sure you’re staying focused on daily reading the market, not last month, not six months ago, daily keeping an eye on the market, and also making sure that your sellers are understanding what they are in store for.

You’ve got to get good at these really, really tough conversations, and setting expectations because what I learned out of the first shift is going in, and buying the listing, and telling the seller, “Sure, sure, sure, whatever you think, let’s give it a try,” is not the best thing for the seller. What I learned is going in, and showing them actual data, and then getting them priced correctly, or getting them ready to make fast changes if their price didn’t work out. That is where I excelled in my business during that shift because sellers really deep down one honesty, and sellers, you need to have your ears open for honesty.

I saw that first wave. This is what we were talking about the other day. About 2008, really about 2008, a little bit of 2007, a lot of sellers, they were so used to hearing what the great market was that they wanted to ignore it for themselves would start to shift. I always give the example, they’re like, “La, la, la, la, la, don’t. It’s not me, it’s not me.” Everybody else. Even though [crosstalk]

Anthony: The whole market’s slowing down, but my house isn’t.

Kathy: Not my house. My house is the best house in the neighborhood. I’m on the biggest lot. That is not true. As an agent, you’ve got to slap them in the face a little bit and shake them into reality. That is your duty, and that is what’s going to make you stand above everybody else in this market. Get ready for that because you’re on the leading edge of this shift.

Anthony: Well, and one of the things we were talking about, and again, we’re not predicting where, by no means predicting a 70-year housing collapse like we had last time, but we agreed the other night, we were all talking at dinner about her and I saying, this is like ’06 because, in ’06, there were still listing selling over asking, but then all of a sudden, there were listings that weren’t selling. Sometimes, there wasn’t a rhyme or reason with each one, but we did say the properties that are really nice are still selling quicker, but by the time we get to fall, multiple offer situations are going to decrease.

One of the things that she just mentioned is the fact that you could have more of a, “Hey, let’s try an attitude with a high price with a seller over the last two years,” because even if your price was 5%, or 8%, or in some cases, 10% high, in the last two years, you were still selling. You aren’t getting as many offers as you could for the listing, but you were still selling, getting a few offers. That is going to change. It’s changing right as we speak.

Kathy: This is the toughest market to be at.

Anthony: Toughest part.

Kathy: Because it’s only changing in little pockets, and then there’s somebody else that has a great result, and then it makes your seller not trust you necessarily, so you really have to be reading market indicators daily.

Anthony: Well, and one thing you said, and I told you that my first broker-owner. I’m the broker-owner now, but when I first got in the business, I was at RE/MAX, a great company. Allan Fields was his name. He’s a legend in the business in our area. I’ll never forget him standing on a podium at a golf course. We had a monthly meeting, and Allan said, “Do not chase the market down. Don’t chase it down. You got to get your seller, so they go ahead of that change,” and that’s exactly–

Here we are 18 years later. 17 years later, same conversation but this is how it works in the real estate market. Make no mistake about it, folks. Things are going to get trickier, pricing isn’t going to go up, but we’re going to go through this for a couple of years. Things are going to find its way, and then it’s going to take off again, but in the meantime, you’ve got to be able to deal with it. Go ahead.

Kathy: The thing I hate hearing from sellers, every single time unless you want is, “Well, I’m not in a hurry to sell.”

Anthony: Yes, yes, yes.

Kathy: “We’ll see what happens.” It doesn’t matter if you’re not selling at this price today, you’re not going to be selling at that price at 180 days.

Anthony: Of course.

Kathy: That is the worst mindset you can be in. You want to set your house up for a quick sale because that’s when you’re going to get the most amount of money from the beginning.

Anthony: Homes sell for the most money in the first five days on the market period. The second best–

Kathy: [crosstalk] Know about perception.

Anthony: The second best time is after the price adjustment.

Kathy: Exactly.

Anthony: But the best time is in that first week. Most of you know that, but you’ve got to hone your skills big time. That’s what we were talking about the other night before I spoke to her crew, and a whole bunch of realtors down here in St. Louis. We were talking about getting it because what we fear as vets in the business, it’s amazing, I call myself a vet now but I am, is in the newer agents not getting it. Not understanding that, folks, it’s not always prices going up 10%, 20%, 25% a year. It’s not always listing selling right away.

Now, we’re going the other way. I had a broker-owner one time tell me, he’s still a friend in Southern California. He said to me, “Anthony, this is how real estate works.” There’s really pissed-off buyers for a while, and then it flips, and there’s really pissed-off sellers for a while. In between, you get a little bit of both in between, but that’s how it goes. That’s a dramatic example, but there’s truth to it. The buyers have been disappointed for the last couple of years, now they’re getting a little bit more power.

Don’t overplay your hand, home buyers that are watching this, we’re on crashing. It’s mostly a realtor audience, but some buyers watch it. Don’t overplay your hand, and think that it’s crashing, but it is adjusting. Don’t chase the market down and you get the final thought. Go.

Kathy: Right. Yes, definitely. Just get yourself prepared agents out there. Again, go back to watching indicators. What’s happening with your contracts right now and your listing? That’s the best indicator of what is happening.

Anthony: The actives.

Kathy: Yes, the actives. How many more contingencies are coming back into play? Those are all proof of what you can show your sellers of how there are little micro changes that are happening in the market, and get ahead of that curve. That’s the best advice I can give you.

Anthony: That’s it, my friends. From Lake Ozark, show everybody the view.

Kathy: Hey, Ruth.

Anthony: Ruth is right over there.

Kathy: How are you doing?

Anthony: Happy home selling, my friends. Have a good day.

Kathy: Take care.