“Unprecedented.”
It’s a word the real estate industry has been using a great deal over the past year and a half. Lockdowns created a sense of uncertainty that had the markets wavering in the early months and made home showings and open houses impossible. But plummeting interest rates and buyers looking to escape packed cities for homes in suburban or semi-rural areas made already low inventory nearly disappear. Now—more than halfway through 2021—the market shows little sign of slowing down through most of the country.
How do agents stay prepared as they work with eager buyers in an incredibly competitive market?
According to Chaille Ralph, Vice President of Operations & Analytics at Better Homes & Gardens – Gary Greene, it’s vital for agents to stay on top of the market in frenetic times like these.
She believes that deep market knowledge is the key to agent success in today’s market.
“We utilize the numbers from Aergo—the statistical information and graphs have been important for us to be able to share the snapshot of the market with our agents and with consumers,” says Ralph.
At the company’s 22 offices across the greater Houston area, their network of nearly 1,100 agents has use of Aergo. As the Houston area’s largest brokerage, Better Homes & Gardens – Gary Greene wanted to ensure that their agents were equipped for success with reliable real estate data. With more than $3 billion in local sales volume in 2020, their team has a clear focus on market activity, staying on top of the trends, and guiding clients in their buying and selling journeys.
Terradatum, the creators of Aergo, aimed to create a product that pairs reliable, accurate data delivered directly from the MLS with visual reports that help agents quickly get up to speed with their market, even with areas they may have little familiarity with. Aergo’s real-time mapping feature allows users to select a custom area, helping agents hone in on spots of interest in their market.
“We want agents to be able to easily access both high-level and detailed views of their market and we want the data to be easily digestible. We believe that Aergo’s design accomplishes all of these goals,” says Terradatum CEO Mark Spraetz.
“Our first product, BrokerMetrics®, has been the real estate analytics tool of choice for brokers around the country,” adds Spraetz, “and we wanted a high-performing product that agents could depend on to educate themselves and inform their clients.”
Turning the attention to brokers—they also benefit from the use of real estate analytics in this dynamic market. If you’re a broker, ask yourself a few questions as you look over recent office activity:
- What pockets of the market are the majority of our sales coming from?
- Where could we benefit from opening a new office?
- Is our team equipped to support our growth, and if not, who would be a good fit?
The answers might surprise you.
The brokers/owners who use BrokerMetrics have the opportunity to spot up-and-coming agents for recruiting, monitor the competition, and find new areas for office growth.
“BrokerMetrics takes a no-frills approach. No distractions—just straight-forward, relevant data that helps brokers stay up to speed on the statistics that matter for their business,” says Spraetz. “For recruiting on the go, we created the Terradatum App, which delivers Proficiency Metrics [a BrokerMetrics tool for recruiting and coaching] directly to a broker’s phone or tablet so they can monitor co-op activity and contact agents of interest directly from the app.”
All real estate professionals, agents, and brokers alike, benefit from having access to reliable market data. In today’s conditions, it’s even more vital. Ensuring that you’re up-to-date with the activity and trends helps to solidify your position as a market expert as you navigate it with your clients.
Terradatum was founded in 1989 on the principle that MLS data is the key to unlocking the market for real estate professionals. Since that time, it’s been the company’s mission to deliver MLS-backed real estate analytics to brokers and agents across any available platform. Terradatum partners with nearly 300 MLSs nationwide, and their leading product, BrokerMetrics®, is used by more than 13,000 real estate offices in North America.