Warm Thanksgiving Wishes
It's the ideal time of the year to remember and feel good about our families, friends, and business associates. No matter how you're planning to celebrate Thanksgiving, please accept my thanks for you loyalty and support. Here's hoping your turkey is tasty, your family behaves and your football team wins!
Pending Home Sales Recovering
Last month, pending home sales rose by 1% month-over-month to the highest level in a year. On a year-over-year level, pending sales fell 4.8%, which added up to the smallest annual decline in almost two years.
In addition to a decrease in mortgage interest rates, here are other reasons why property sales are looking up.
Inventory numbers are growing, which encourages buyers to shop. During September and October, listing numbers rose to the highest level in six months. While numbers are still down when compared to 2022 numbers, active listings rose by 1.4% month-over-month to the highest level since May 2023.
More sellers realize that bidding wars are over, which means more concessions and price cuts for buyers. Just over 20% of the homes that sold last month were finalized after the seller accepted a slightly lower price. Over 30% of sellers are offering concessions like mortgage rate buydowns.
Some homeowners can't wait out the market. Life events like marriage, divorce, new children and new jobs often require homeowners to sell sooner than later. In addition, there are still potential buyers eager to move to a more affordable area or state.1
The Magic Hashtag Number for Instagram
Almost every successful agent uses Instagram as part of their social media strategy. Part of its appeal is that you can post Reels—video clips that you can edit, dub and/or enhance before posting. Reels can last up to 60 seconds and they're one of Instagram's top performing formats.
You may be wondering how to maximize your Instagram reach with hashtags, which enable visitors to see related content with the same hashtag. Hands-on research and tests run by Instagram Expert users have found that more is better, and that adding more hashtags — up to 30! — can help you build audiences and reach more prospects. This number isn't what's recommended by Instagram Creators, which only recommends up to five hashtags for any type of Instagram post.
While there are other factors to a winning Instagram presence, including creating innovative listings posts, sharing local knowledge, and inviting feedback, hashtags belong in your social media toolkit. Max them out, see what happens, and keep track of your top performers.2
Get More Out of AI with Nexus for Agents
Perhaps you're already using AI chatbots such as ChatGPT for help with writing listing descriptions or brainstorming your next blog post. Even if you've never taken AI for a test drive, you may want to check out Nexus, a new AI network navigator.
Designed for real estate agents, Nexus is designed to help you organize and manage business relationships across a variety of platforms, from LinkedIn to email.
While Nexus is still in beta mode, you can gain early access by following this link.
According to the creators of Nexus, it will help busy agents by providing data-driven relationship management. Nexus will use your interactions with prospects, clients, vendors and business associates to build a database of knowledge. This database will help you decide which relationships are worth nurturing, identify potential collaborators, and make the most of your social and professional networks.
Other tasks Nexus is designed to help with include personalized reconnection emails and perfecting your guest lists for events and gatherings.3
Didn't Make It to NAR NXT? These Topics Did.
Not everyone was able to attend this year's NAR NXT conference in Anaheim, California. If you were too busy (or too tempted by the fact that Disneyland was next door), here are some Cliff Notes with conference highlights for 2024's tech trends.
Another trend: finding new ways for sellers to escape the "golden handcuffs" of unusually low interest rates. These included converting equity into shares—something already seen in the NYC co-op market. New strategies for managing short-term rentals were another topic of discussion.
Although many agents had a successful 2023, some individual agents struggled. More of these agents are putting the "safety in numbers" rule to work by working as a team. Groups of agents can share the costs of marketing, lead generation and branding.
The rise of AI has made plenty of people nervous, especially those that fear that their jobs will be taken over by a chatbot. However, leaders at NAR NXT reminded audiences that buying a home is an extremely emotional decision, and that even the best AI system can't replace an agent in this respect.4
Sources: 1themreport.com, 2blog.hootsuite.com, 3 theamericangenius.com, 4theclose.com,
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