Inventory is low, new construction has slowed due to shortages, and an overwhelming majority of the homes that currently exist are over 20 years old. These three factors together create another challenging year for agents—challenging, but not impossible. In this article, we’ll walk you through how you can create supply for today’s demand and navigate your way through construction shortages to create supply for today’s home buyers.
Educate sellers on the value of updating their homes
There’s more demand than supply for new construction, and yet, new housing starts have slowed due to construction constraints. While inventory is low in general, the supply of move-in-ready homes, which the majority of today’s home buyers are looking for, is even lower. But there’s good news! With the rise of concierge services like Curbio, the industry is helping both agents and homeowners realize the value of updating homes to sell.
By updating their homes before selling, your clients will have more money in their pocket, and therefore more money to upgrade their next home purchase (regardless of market conditions). But what’s better is that by updating their homes before selling, your clients are creating supply for modern demand. On the flip side, if you’re having a difficult time finding the right home for your buyers, pre-move-in home improvements could be the solution.
Today’s buyers prefer move-in-ready homes so much that they’re willing to sacrifice square footage. In fact, 70% of millennials will sacrifice space for move-in ready. Unfortunately, almost 80% of homes in the U.S. are now at least 20 years old and 40% are at least 50 years old. As a result, most homes need some improvements before they go on the market. Concierge services can support these updates financially, but can they function properly with the construction constraints we’re currently facing?
How you can find reliable resources for upgrades
While the construction industry has mostly recovered from the Great Recession of 2008, many skilled workers who left the US construction industry never came back and many of those who stayed are ready to retire. Pair these departures with the fact that there hasn’t been a steady influx of new workers from younger generations because of negative perceptions around the industry, and you’ve got a serious shortage of skilled workers. In addition to labor, many goods are also in short supply—including doors, appliances, and, of course, lumber.
Because of these shortages in goods and services, agents are having a difficult time finding contractors with availability to complete even the simplest of projects for their transactions. Unfortunately, the construction industry has stayed the same for decades, which means that once agents are able to find a contractor and start a project, they and their clients face multiple delays and surprise, added costs.
What agents need is a reliable company that will work efficiently and solve problems quickly to prevent delays that pose risks to transactions—and that’s where Curbio has your back.
We’re available to start immediately on projects of any size, and at any point during your transaction. To streamline the process and make home improvements accessible, we defer payment for all of our projects. Curbio’s full-time project managers and network of vetted and trained trade professionals allow us to start immediately. Once we kick-off, we avoid delays in getting your listing on the market with careful coordination of subcontractors and strategic relationships with national material vendors.
You can consider us an on-demand home improvement team at your disposal, but we don’t come with the added cost of many other on-demand services (like Uber Eats). To ensure you and your clients can rest easy knowing you’re receiving a good price for your projects, we’re even offering a price match guarantee.
Learn more about how Curbio works to help agents cruise through to the closing table.