You know what you do as a REALTOR®, the value you bring to clients, the knowledge you impart, and how earning commissions helps homebuyers and sellers achieve their goals.
In today’s market, it is more important than ever to always be learning, regardless of experience, and to explain your value proposition to potential new clients, both on the buy and sell side. That was one of the vital opinions expressed when industry executives, in a session moderated by Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman, discussed the best paths for achieving success in 2024.
“We’re all involved in an industry that’s rapidly changing, but the fundamentals of how you adapt to those changes and how you move forward have not changed,” said Rick Haase, president of United Real Estate. “The tactics have, but the fundamentals haven’t. One of the key tactics for us at United, and for our agents and brokers, is to enter every day as a student and learn new things.
“It’s said that there are two times when learning is absolutely essential,” he added. “One is when you’re new to a job, and the other is when because of external changes in the job or the industry, it becomes new to you again. If you enter the market as a student, be diligent about understanding new tactics and techniques. Evolve the way you do business, but make sure you have the fundamentals.
“And you have to be very clear and disciplined to understand how to articulate your value proposition to buyers and sellers, especially all the touch points and all the things you did to help buyers find and secure a house,” continued Haase.
Drayton Saunders, president of Michael Saunders & Company, insisted that having energy and a positive mindset, regardless of what’s happening in the market, will produce results for you and your brokerage.
“In every market there are different challenges, with some years harder for the industry and some years harder for the individual,” he said. “What makes a difference is the mindset you have, and the energy. These two things are essential. Energy’s contagious, so you can either spread positivity or negativity. There are so many things out there that are distracting and confusing to buyers and sellers. Our mindset is essential to win the day. Focus on what you’re bringing to the table and what energy you’re transmitting into the world you interact with.”
The dramatic difference between the current residential real estate market and the one from just 18 or so months ago, and the contrast in how agents approach them then and now, was expounded on by Larry Flick V, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS®/The Trident Group. Interest rates, in particular, were a focus.
“Right now, interest rates are more important than ever before,” he said. “That’s because we have a significant amount of pent-up demand in all of our marketplaces. And it’s not just the buyers. It’s the buyers and the sellers. But let’s look at the buyers first. Think about all the buyers that were desperately trying to purchase homes the second half of 2020 to the first half of 2022. For every buyer that had an offer accepted, there were five or 10 in multiple-offer situations that didn’t get the home. And so they would try again. But interest rates moved from the 3% range up to 7% and into the low eights as recently as just a few months ago. All those buyers went to the sidelines, and they’re still there.
“These buyers are going to return to the market when interest rates get back into probably the low sixes, into the 5% range, which I think is probably going to occur in the first half of this year. Buyers aren’t going to see the rates as moving from the threes to the fives, but they’re going to see more of an opportunity as the rates move from the eights to the fives.”
Self-Confidence Counts
Understanding the industry, mortgage rates and every detail about local markets is paramount, but so too is being able to convey a sense of self-confidence to a client, and being able to assure them that they’re going in the right direction.
“We’re in a time where there are some challenges out there to the integrity of what we do,” said Saunders. “I’m passionate about the amount of effort it takes to be good at this business. We are one of the few professions that you have to bring an exceptional amount of professional IQ. Those are all the things you have to learn to get through a process, but you also have to bring that deep emotional intelligence to the table.
“We have to be that trusted guide. And the first thing you want in a trusted guide is confidence that they know where they’re going, so we have really refocused our effort to go back to what we know we’re good at.”
Improving the negative image that many people unfortunately associate with real estate professionals is something Freedman feels is a must.
“The role of the agent, the perception, the image has taken a huge hit in the last five years,” she said. “A lot of that is steeped in reality TV that portrays an agent as someone who just wants money and doesn’t care about anything else. And that’s hurt our image. How can we as a community, and that’s what we are, a community, improve the narrative, the image of what a real estate professional does? People don’t know what we do and how hard it is and what’s involved.”
Flick said that “we need as an industry to share with buyers the same type of narrative when we contract with them that we do when we go on a listing appointment. Too often a REALTOR® meets a buyer and puts them in their car without really explaining the process, without having them sign a buyer’s contract. We would never take a listing without a contract. And we really need to pivot toward working with buyers as we do with sellers when we take on a listing.”
Access your free replay of this session: The 5 Best Paths to Success in 2024
