Making the Most of a Seller’s Market

It should be a great time for real estate agents.

Values in most major metros have strongly recovered from the housing crisis, buyers are motivated and rates are still pretty low.

In any other circumstance this would be a great time for agents. However, if you are like any agent I’ve talked to, it’s never been tougher.

Not only have sky-high figures crowded the field with inexperienced wannabes, but the promise of margins have attracted a new competition. It’s the discount brokerages, online shops promising 1% commissions, and listing platforms that gauge the agents they depend on for listings. Making matters worse, these competitors were never built with agents in mind.

The story goes something like this, some VC or tech-bro buys a house. They think they can do it better than the seasoned pro. Their spreadsheets tell them there’s a windfall to be had and all they have to do is reduce the commissions to attract sellers and they’ll pick up so many sellers that the buyers naturally come to them.

While the reality of Real Estate has complicated the aspirations of these companies dead in their tracks, the end result is that agents have a lot of noise to cut through, and all top-producing agents know that success in this business is the following.

70% Prospecting : 20% Salesmanship : 10% Marketing

The problem is that with so much cluttering the market, prospecting has never been harder. Homeowners hate cold-calls. Postcards and mailers are tossed into the trash without being read. Door-knocking is impractical for most and hardly welcomed by homeowners.

When faced with this problem ourselves we looked to build a solution. One with agents in mind. As agents we know the value we bring to every listing and that the most difficult part of this job wasn’t our ability to sell, it was finding the time to prospect for more business.

The solution that we’ve created has been to build a platform using predictive analytics, big data, and artificial intelligence not to cut out the agent — but to amplify his or her business by handling the prospecting portion as efficiently as human (and robotically) possible.

If you are curious, message me for details.