All markets shift.  SUVs are selling like hotcakes and along comes soaring gasoline prices and WHAMMY!  Suddenly everybody wants hybrids and energy efficient cars.  This has happened before.  I am sure it will happen again.  And, as you know, it happens in real estate as well.

MARKET SHIFTS CAN HURT 
YOUR BOTTOM LINE

 Some agents are so well established in their niche that they do well in an extreme buyer’s market or an extreme seller’s market.  If you are there, Wonderful and keep up the good work.  If you are not there yet and your bottom line suffers when the market shifts, it is time that you develop strategies that will make it easy for you to follow the money.  So, let’s look at a brief overview of where the money usually is.

 THERE IS ALWAYS A MARKET

In a seller’s market, buyers outnumber the sellers. This kind of a market tends to drive prices upwards and make it difficult for the new or inexperienced agent to get listings.  Even experienced agents who have neglected their marketing can get pinched in a seller’s market.  And yet, Listings is where the money is in this kind of a market. New home sales usually do well at these times.

BUT SOMETIMES IT MOVES AROUND

In a buyer’s market, there are more people who want to sell than there are people who want to buy.  The money is still in Listings but now the money is also in working with buyers. Competition can get pretty fierce and steep for agents who use search engine placement to attract buyers, especially as so much of good placement these days relies on Paid search engine placement.

There is really no excuse for being unprepared for market shifts in today’s world since the Internet and good Web Design make it easy to be ready for almost any eventuality.  It is also easy to be prepared when we offer Free Custom Web Planning for agents and brokers.  Visit me online at http://www.sellrealestate.net/FreeWebPlan.asp. Tell me what you want to accomplish and I’ll help you with an Always-Be-Prepared Web Plan.

ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE

Data on your Website can be slanted to appeal to buyers, sellers or both.  Obviously, your featured listings will be of interest to buyers but sellers will also want to see how you showcase your listings.  Buyers are certainly interested in accessing your MLS data to find properties that are for sale but sellers use the same data to get an idea of their home’s value. 

RELOCATION IN RIVER CITY

Relocation sections on most Websites focus on out of town buyers but in some areas local sellers are taking their money and leaving town. Why not target those people, help them find a good agent in another area and get a referral fee? 

ANOTHER WAY TO THINK OF FSBOS

Evaluate the FSBO market and help them by offering free advertising on your Website.  Then you can leverage that to give yourself an advantage with buyers and to pick up listings.  

ALWAYS BE PREPARED

  Prepare ahead of time is always the best advice.  A Website that can succeed in different markets will make it easier for you to shift your gears as well.  You will not be delayed while you prepare for the new market.  That fact alone, could easily give you the competitive edge you need.

  There must be a law of nature that insists that all markets will shift every so often and yet many of us find ourselves unprepared when change occurs. Of course, when huge car companies are caught unprepared, we take comfort and excuse ourselves for our own lack of foresight.  A better strategy might be to learn to expect and watch for the shifts and to be prepared when they occur.  Nothing is more certain than the fact that things will change.

EMAIL – TRIED AND TRUE

  Email marketing is a low cost, easy to manage step that will protect you when market shifts occur.  Actually, a good Email marketing strategy will help you thrive in static and in changing markets.  As part of our Custom Web Designs for Real Estate agents and brokers is a monthly E-newsletter called The Real Estate Report.  This newsletter is professionally written and is sent out automatically each month.  Our clients report that the newsletter alone is a good source of new business each year. 

NETWORKING – OLD AND NEW

  Networking is another powerful strategy that has been around forever but has taken on new meaning with the Internet.  We create Custom Websites that encourage networking.  Link Sharing is one of the strategies we encourage.  We can make it easy for anyone to visit your site to request a link exchange.  In other words, you agree to give them a link if they agree to give you one.  Web crawlers, such as Google, evaluate the relevance of Websites based, in part, on how many other sites link to them.  If you would like to have good placement on Google for no cost, think Link Sharing.  Call me toll free 888-814-5347 or Email noel@revalues.com if you would like more information on Link Sharing.