#market knowledge

This is a time of year that I love - many agents are feeling full of promise and inspiration toward making changes in their business! I am also very excited about what is coming up for our industry this 2024 and beyond. We have a strong year ahead of us that is full of changes that many of us have never seen before. You need to be ready!

Whatever your resolutions this year - making more money, taking time off, getting your systems up-and-running, creating a buyer package - there is one critical component that I hope you are including in your business today: education.

This year, education is going to be an important part of what separates successful agents from agents who are left behind and miss the huge opportunities that will be shaking our markets.

Agents are very skilled at putting out fires: transaction fires, urgent buyer fires, listing drama fires. While many of you provide heroic and timely service to take care of your clients, you are neglecting putting time towards your own personal improvement. It's easy to fall flat when all of your time and energy has been spent putting out fires, but this 2024 will mark a period of changes in our industry. These changes mean investing time to expand and update your expertise.

For example, here in Washington State we are seeing a big change to how single-family residential property can be used. House Bill 1110, which passed last year, is already triggering big changes to municipal comprehensive plans through-out the state, allowing townhomes, duplexes, and multi-family units to be built in certain SFR zoned areas. It's a complex issue and agents who understand how this impacts property value and transaction management have a huge opportunity ahead of them.

Another change seen here in Washington State and elsewhere are new laws like HB1337, which allow much broader placement of accessory dwelling units (ADU) to encourage density and expand available housing. This is very exciting news for agents and property owners through-out our state!

And more are on the way. Just this month the Washington State House overwhelmingly passed HB1245, which will allow property owners to split lots. There are caveats of course, including that new lots must be no smaller than 2,000 square feet and not result in changes to existing affordable housing, among other details. When it goes to the Senate floor, we hope for its passage.

How legislation like these bills are changing the landscape of the market and creating opportunities for agents is just one topic of many at my upcoming State of the Market event, next week on the 24th. If you are looking for an easy opportunity to immediately elevate your knowledge and expertise, this is the best chance you may have this year and since it is an online event, you can participate from anywhere.

"But Denise!" I hear some of you say, "I am so busy juggling business. I don't have time to take out of my day to deal with these issues. I'll figure it out when it happens."

I understand the challenges that business brings. As a top-producing agent I know these challenges all-too-well. However, I also know that becoming a market expert was one of the most important things I could have done. The time I have spent developing expertise has paid me back thousandfold.

When I first set out on my plan to become a top-producing agent I saw my plans derailed by the unpredictability of the business again and again. One month turned into six and before I knew it, half the year had slipped by and nothing had really changed. My business hadn't grown and my quality of life was worse than ever. I knew that if I wanted my business to grow, if I wanted more quality of life, I had to find the time to grow my knowledge of the market and my trade.

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If I wanted my business to change, I needed to change. I needed a chance to be able to impress potential clients with my knowledge, not, "Let me get back to you on that." I needed to extend that knowledge through my marketing and connect with clients that were dealing with issues right now. And right now, there are a growing number of clients out there dealing with these issues and more.

I took a close look at how I was spending my time and made a commitment to grow my skills as an agent. After examining my tasks, I realized I was doing several things that were not bringing me closer to my goals. I was having long lunches with clients, touring properties that were too far away and that I had no buyer for, helping fellow agents market their properties. Admirable maybe, but ultimately not activity that was building my own business. I was procrastinating by filling my time doing work-tasks that made me feel like I was working, but that were not bringing in results.

Don't fall into this trap! If you are struggling to invest in your business knowledge and skills this year, look for inefficiencies in your schedule. That might be wasting time on the internet, spending time in the office with agents who aren't out working, touring buyers who haven't been prequalified, or something else. Set new rules in your business that give you the opportunity to invest in yourself!

As I mentioned, this January 24th, I'm presenting my State of the Market online. In three-hours you will learn more about what is happening in our industry, how we got here, and my predictions for where we are headed, than you will experience at any other time this year. Where are mortgage rates headed? How will that impact our market? How is legislation shaping our industry for years to come? How are evolving tenant friendly policies impacting landlords and investors? What must you know about second homes, ADUs, middle-housing, and other opportunity markets? I will be covering all of this and much more, growing your expertise and providing you with client-talking points you can use for the year to come. Don't miss it - go get registered right now!

Today's Zebra Report is on a very important topic - really knowing your stats and your numbers. Our market may appear to be sending mixed signals, but if you have been tracking and paying attention to your local market then you will not only have a better idea of what's actually happening, but you will be in a position to explain it to both prospects and clients.

Here's just one great example. As our market has changed over the last three to six months, I have seen a lot of headlines that look something like. These headlines are very misleading. You need to be able to dive into the stats because when a client comes to you and say, "I just heard that median sales prices in this are have taken a dive!"

Well, let's put that into perspective. Let's say you see a headline like that. You cannot take that at face value. You need to know the area, know the sales that have happened in that area, and you need to be to know: did the median sales prices in that area dive because home prices are going down across the board OR was there something else that happened in that market that made that change of median sale price happen. For example, maybe fewer larger homes have sold, then the inventory on the market has changed. It's not that house values have gone down, it just means that lower priced homes are going onto the market.

Median sale price can be very misleading. You have to get very specific with the inventory that has been sold. You may find that while median sale price declines that in fact, days on market is staying the same and list-to-sale price ratios are at 100% or even higher. That doesn't mean that the market is down in this area - people are still getting full price but the product on the market is at a different price point.

Don't be the agent that mistakenly assesses the market with just one number. Really get into that MLS of yours and learn to understand the whole picture, not just the headlines.

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10 Key Skills for Your Sales Team

By | Rachna Bhalla | Marketing Manager at PhMeter

Business skills are no longer the sole beneficiaries of Big Data. Some skills are immutable. Attitude is one of the main qualities of a sales professional but not only. Other assets can be refined to succeed. Here are 10 key skills that will boost your sales teams in 2020.

1. Negotiation

Strong and confident communicators are excellent sellers. In…

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