7 strategies that separate the winners and losers in a shifting market

According to NAR there were 6.12 million residential sales in 2021. As of May 2022, NAR is predicting 5.41 million residential sales for 2022, an 11.6 percent decrease with 710,000 fewer transactions and 1,420,000 fewer sides. As the recession deepens and business slows, here’s exactly what to do to be a winner in today’s shifting market. 

In a strong seller’s market, almost anyone can take a listing, and it will sell. In a slowing market where the number of transactions drops dramatically, if you don’t have the right mindset coupled with top-notch skills, you’re going to be on the losing side of the equation. Here’s how to avoid having that happen to you.  

Watch your language

Words have power, especially when it comes to determining how you approach a challenging market. Compare these two different lists of comments about today’s market. 

• The high interest rates are killing my business. 
• What’s the point in prospecting when most people can’t afford to move? 
• First-time buyers are a waste of time. Besides, they always lose out to all-cash buyers anyway. 

Now compare the second set of statements:

• The market may be tough, but there are always people who must move. My job is to find them. 
• Slowing market? That’s great news! My buyers will finally have more inventory to choose from. 
• My investor clients love this market — there’s way less competition. 

Can you spot who the winners and losers are here? Clearly, blaming the interest rates, a declining market, or making excuses about losing out on multiple offers is a losing mindset. In contrast, the second set illustrates agents who take charge of their business, no matter what is happening in their marketplace.

Remember, negativity is contagious

This study from the New England Journal of Medicine uses obesity research to illustrate how the people around you can impact you:  

A person’s chance of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese, by 40 percent if a sibling became obese, and by 37 percent if a spouse became obese. If a friend of the friend of your friend develops obesity, you are still 10 percent more likely than random chance to gain weight as well. (In other words) your friends make you fat, but so do their friends, and so do their friends of friends. Obesity appears to spread through social ties. 

It goes on to conclude that obesity appears to spread through social ties. Whether it’s physical, emotional or professional, evidence suggests that those we spend time with impact us in ways large and small.

Consequently, if you find yourself in a situation where agents are complaining how bad the market is, get away immediately. Their negative attitude is like the flu — it’s highly contagious, it’s debilitating, and it will keep you from doing business. 

Shift how you prospect for referrals

Gary Keller has spent decades coaching the top agents in his company. During previous downturns, Keller observed that his top agents who worked exclusively by referral (waiting for someone to call them with a lead) saw an 80 percent decline in their production. The reason? “They weren’t in control of their lead generation.” 

The most important change that you can make today in your prospecting is to get face-to-face not only with your referral database, but with as many potential leads as possible. Here’s why.

According to the NAR 2021 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 82 percent of the sellers and 73 percent of the buyers only interviewed one agent before they hired. In other words, the first agent who sees them face-to-face when they’re ready to transact is the one that gets their business. 

Consequently, spend your time and your money on prospecting activities that put you face-to-face quarterly with your clients and sphere, and at least once monthly on social media, by text, or email. 

Generate listings for free from your own database with Likely.AI

Likely.AI is currently offering agents a FREE Database Refresh Report that allows them to identify the contacts in their database who are most likely to transact in the next 90-180 days. 

The Database Refresh Report provides: 

• The percentage of contacts in your database that have valid contact information.
• The percentage of your contacts that either listed or sold their property during the last nine months.
• The percentage predicted to transact during the next 90-180 days along with who those contacts actually are. 

U.S. homeowners currently move on average about once every 10 years. If you have 2,500 valid contacts in your database, that means about 250 will move in the next year. Likely.ai identifies who that 10 percent is most likely to be. If their prediction is correct at the 30 percent level, that’s 75 potential listings waiting for you in your current contact database. 

Use these two simple tools for instant lead conversion 

One of the best ways to easily generate leads in any market is to wear a baseball cap, polo, t-shirt or your name badge when you’re out in public. When people see that you’re in real estate, the most common question they ask is, “How’s the market?” 

Use this simple reply to motivate them to give you their phone number or email address: 

If you have a specific address or neighborhood in mind, I can send you that information right now. What’s the best place to send it — your cell or your email? 

The best free tool for this situation is NAR’s Real Property Resource app. The app automatically sends them a beautiful set of reports about the property making it simple for you to convert the lead.  

The second way to easily convert leads is Spac.io, the most robust open house lead conversion and follow up system available. In addition to capturing the contact’s information, it provides a comprehensive lead follow-up program plus reports for your sellers on their open house activity.

Moreover, Spac.io allows you to notify all your previous open house visitors of any price reductions with a single click. At $25.00 per month, this is well worth it. 

The LinkedIn coffee meeting

The purpose of your meeting will be to exchange five LinkedIn contacts with someone in your LinkedIn database. Ideally, each contact you share will be able to help the person you’re meeting with either personally or with their business. Here are the steps to follow: 

• Review your LinkedIn contacts and identify five people who might benefit from one of your other LinkedIn contacts. 
• For each person you plan to contact, search for five contacts in your LinkedIn database that could help the person you’re meeting with in some way. 
• Invite your contact to join you. Explain that you’re working on growing your business and would like to help them grow their business and/or help with a cause or charity that is important to them by introducing them to five people you know. 
• Repeat this process at least twice a week to generate a steady stream of 40 fresh introductions every month. 

How to market to the missing 75%

Did you know that 75 percent of real estate searches are in languages other than English? If you think this doesn’t apply to your market, think again: In Los Angeles, 72 percent of the population consumes TV and internet in languages other than English. 

Immobel, the company that powers real estate search sites in 19 different languages for many of the Realogy brands plus numerous MLSs, has launched a new service called XOMIO. XOMIO provides you with 19 different websites in 19 different languages, plus 19 different pages on Google’s foreign language search sites such as Google.fr (Google France), Google.jp (Japan) and Google.mx (Mexico.) 

If your MLS already provides Immobel with an IDX listing feed, the base price is $159.00 per month. If your MLS does not provide them with IDX, then there’s an additional pass-through fee to add IDX listing feed to your sites. 

Using XOMIO is a huge opportunity to tap into a market that virtually no one else is serving. Even more importantly, it’s a tremendous tool for converting your listing appointments into signed listings. 

Are you willing to do what it takes to win in today’s market rather than lose? If so, surround yourself with people who have positive attitudes and proactively search for leads by being face-to-face as often as possible.