In these times, double down — on your skills, on your knowledge, on you. Join us Aug. 8-10 at Inman Connect Las Vegas to lean into the shift and learn from the best. Get your ticket now for the best price.
Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in “The Real Word,” a weekly video column on Inman.
This week, Lazine and White discuss the latest from Gary Keller, Grant Cardone’s market predictions and little things that undermine real estate businesses.
Topic No. 1: Gary Keller on the ‘do or die’ housing market
Lazine and White talked about Inman’s coverage of the Keller Williams Family Reunion and Gary Keller’s comments there. Keller believes that 2023 is going to be a hard year for agents. There’s so much confusing and conflicting data out there, Lazine said, and agents who ignore it in the face of an active spring market will struggle.
Many major housing markets are going through price corrections, especially in the West. As interest rates go back up over 7 percent, markets will continue to slow. “Agents are trying to wrap their brains around how to respond to their clients,” White said. There are national headlines, local headlines and what the agents themselves are experiencing individually. “It’s confusing,” White said.
Topic No. 2: Grant Cardone thinks real estate investors will ‘save the housing market’
Billionaire Grant Cardone says that he and other investors will prevent home prices from falling by stepping in to purchase homes. By 2030, institutional investors may own 40 percent of single-family homes. White said that buyers will be back in the market if prices come down and affordability increases.
Lazine said that investors like Cardone are motivated by the oversaturation in the multifamily segment. Buyers should watch what people do, not listen to what they say. Many of the people who are predicting markets crashing are driving up prices and buying houses to rent. These investors are making homes less affordable for starter-home buyers.
Topic No. 3: Troy Palmquist on the little things that undermine your business
In a recent article, California broker Troy Palmquist talked about little things that keep agents from being successful. White and Lazine disagree with some of Palmquist’s points, believing that it’s not so much the “little deals” that undermine business, but the wrong clients. Sometimes smaller deals can eventually lead to big clients, and some big deals never pay off because of the clients and their attitudes.
Lazine and White agree that agents need to run their businesses properly and they need to stop focusing on petty disagreements with other agents. On Palmquist’s last point, they were split, since they believe that agents need to be aware of big-picture items — even the ones they can’t control — so that they can communicate with and educate their clients.
Want to be part of the conversation? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below, or shoot us an email.
