OMG! We have to switch gears to a real estate buyer’s market?

A real estate listing agent’s nightmare is when headlines read “At last more choices for home-buyers.’” What it should say is “Oh, crap, how do I deal with this?” That’s right – we’re entering a real estate buyer’s market.

I once considered myself a listing agent (before I left the industry). I think it’s safe to say that buyers’ agents vastly outnumber us.

And, like Trump’s supporters back in November of 2016, these buyers’ agents are getting ready to gloat.

Can you blame them? After all, for the past couple of years they’ve put up with their clients facing multiple offers, working with in-despair clients who can barely afford a home watching interest rates cut them out of the market, and clients whom they’ve worked with for months who suddenly decide they just can’t take it anymore.

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Sure, you can view it the way I do: real estate is a Contact Sport. If you can’t deal with getting hit, get out.

Or, as most of my former, more genteel real estate colleagues do: just ignore how stupid they think their colleagues are for specializing in buyer representation. Because, guess what?

The worm turns.

“U.S. housing market may be shifting, say some real estate economists,” read the headlines.

Well, duh.

Easy Agent Pro’s clients have been pointing this out for almost a year now. But, we digress.

Listing agents, it’s time to get humble. It’s a real estate buyer’s market now.

Tons o’ real estate listings

Well, maybe not yet, but it’s coming. When it does, how will you, as a listing agent, adapt?

Sure, it will be massively tempting to tell your sellers who didn’t take advantage of the amazing sellers’ market “Neener, neener, neener. . .I TOLD you it was the best time to sell.”

But not wise.

Do you even recall what a real estate buyer’s market is like?

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane

2013: “The tide of the housing market shifting from a sellers’ market to a real estate buyer’s market” claims the unnamed CNBC reporter as he throws the topic to our favorite Queen-of- Doom-and-Gloom when it comes to real estate, Diana Olick.

“Home price gains are shrinking and sellers are starting to come back down to earth,” she crows.

We stop the video right there to point out the “sellers” aspect of a real estate buyer’s market. Coming back down to earth doesn’t happen overnight, as you seasoned listing agents know.

After years of media reports of rapidly escalating home prices, multiple offer situations and uber-quick sales, those sellers who chose to wait until the tail end of the sellers’ market to jump in are hard to convert.

They’re not going to get that their home is no longer the belle of the local real estate market, that their hoped-for price is now a fantasy and that it may take longer than two days to get it under contract.

And, those sellers who put big bucks into the house are going to be majorly pissed off by this real estate buyer’s market

Especially when buyers start nit-picking them over price, terms and more.

Yes, complacent listing agents, this is where the pedal meets the metal, where you actually have to prove your mettle. But, we have faith in you.

You can do this.

Presentation is EVERYTHING in a real estate buyer’s market

This is when counseling your sellers about the mundane topics of curb appeal, cleaning, de-cluttering and staging become critical.

After all, “presentation” is one of the cornerstones of achieving market value

And, don’t just pay lip service to these topics. Provide in-depth walkthroughs on how to do everything from sprucing up the front of the house to deep-cleaning the interior.

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And, look out for your competition because seller services are about to take center stage

Many savvy agents are offering FREE staging services. From Silicon Valley to Billings, Montana, we know agents who are offering staging – and not staging consultations, but actual staging — as part of their selling services. And they have been, even in a sellers’ market.

Some also offer a pre-listing home inspection, free of charge

It’s no longer enough to offer your “opinion” on how to prepare a home – to compete, you may need to actually PAY for staging, for a home inspection or, as many in competitive markets like Silicon Valley offer pre-sale handyman services.

Check out the seller services your competition offers because we guarantee you that your potential listing clients are. Then, check into how to offer valuable services now, rather than when it’s too late.

Find a stager, home inspector or handyman/woman that will take payment from escrow, do it yourself, but do it.

Yeah, it’s going to cut into your commission. But, really, you’ve had a long, lucrative run. Giving up some of those bucks is going to become the norm. Try to make as many as possible tax-deductible.

Oh, that damned negotiating stuff

If you’ve been a listing agent for more than a minute you can recall the last buyers’ market. Newbies, on the other hand, are in for a rude awakening.

No longer can you chuckle over seemingly stupid requests in an offer because you have three others that are cleaner-than-clean. You will actually be expected to negotiate on your client’s behalf.

“Good grief, how do I do that?” you may ask yourself as a new listing agent.

Very carefully, answers the washed-up listing agent.

While price is the typical hot button in a contract, “the devil is in the details.” Yeah, we researched to find out who said that first, but, as much as we abhor Wikipedia, they offered up a really cool definition:

“details are important” in a real estate buyer’s market

“Details,” when it comes to a real estate purchase agreement are the terms. In a buyers’ market a listing agent has little ammo when it comes to price, but terms. . .well, that’s where you can work your magic.

And, if you have examples of how you’ve done this in the past, use them for all they are worth. From your clients’ testimonials to full-blown case studies, let potential listing clients know how you’ve met adversity with success in a buyers’ market.

(Disclosure: I wrote the aforementioned case study. But, it’s pretty cool, if I do say so myself.)

Shameless self-promotion aside, now is the time for all good listing agents to figure out how they are going to deal with the oncoming buyers’ market. Don’t put off your planning. Face it and go for it.

We’ll be with you all the way, so keep checking back.

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