Alex Capozzolo

By: Alex Capazollo

If a shift hasn’t happened in your market yet, there’s still a chance it is happening in someone else’s. The band-aid of low interest rates is currently being yanked off, causing a significant increase in monthly payments for potential buyers. People are in fear of a potential recession. Real estate values are beginning to plateau and even drop in certain markets. The ease of being a seller’s agent is starting to diminish. In short, the whirlwind demand for real estate is dropping as buyers reevaluate whether or not they want to enter the market under current conditions.

As real estate agents, this flux is a little jarring, and we must pivot fast. After all, part of our job is ensuring that our sellers are happy and that we can help them reach their goals.

Here are three actionable tips for keeping your sellers happy when the market shifts.

Create a Trackable Marketing Plan

If the decreasing demand for real estate makes it harder for you to sell a house, you have to crank your marketing up a notch. Much of our marketing efforts are behind the scenes as real estate agents, and although you are busted your tail to sell a property, your clients may not fully realize that. To keep your clients happy and aware of what is going on, create a trackable marketing plan you intend to deploy in the coming weeks.

Doing this serves multiple purposes. If you are not the most organized in your marketing efforts, it will help you stay on track. It also holds you accountable for what you say you will do. Additionally, it allows the sellers to be on the same page as you since they’ll have access to the plan. They may not need daily updates of your actions. However, some sellers will feel more at ease, especially if their house is not selling in the timeframe they’d hoped, if they can at least follow along with your efforts. Keep them as engaged as you feel is appropriate throughout the process.

Generate More Showings

When results are tangible, and sellers can “see” that marketing is paying off, it is for them to understand the value of the marketing efforts behind a campaign. Once showings begin to roll through, they will know that your job as a marketer is working to generate interest. Reach out to all your contacts, connections, and colleagues to generate as much buzz as possible. You may not personally know someone who wants to buy the house, but someone in your network might!

Sometimes, it takes an in-person walkthrough for a buyer to realize that they do really want to purchase a home. Keep your schedule as flexible as possible to do showings. If the property has unique features or is larger, it may be worth attending the showings alongside the buyer and buyer’s agent. That way, you can showcase the highlights and selling features of a property that otherwise might be missed. This also adds to your arsenal of things you’re doing to sell the home. You can report to your seller that you are attending showings to ensure their property is well presented.

Educate Them on the Market

At the end of the day, you can do all of the marketing that you can think of, but if the market itself is shifting too much into a downward trend, the result of your efforts is out of your hands. While you’re putting everything into your marketing efforts, it’s important to ensure your client understands the current market and what that means for them. Make sure they know what’s happening locally. Are prices dropping? Are multiple offers slowing? Is their listing in line with the current needs of the market?

Take stock of their situation, needs, and goals, and communicate what might be needed—a price drop, maybe, to meet the current real estate trends of the area—to come as close to those needs and goals as possible.

Don’t be afraid to be honest. After all, you gain trust by being honest and open up front. You must make the seller aware of any reason that you can see for their home sitting on the market. If this is because of price, then let them know and back it up with evidence of what the market is doing now. They might expect their house to sell in a few days, especially if they watched other homes do the same within the last few months.

The bottom line is that all of your efforts matter, but what matters more is communicating those efforts to your clients and keeping them informed as to the market shifts.

Alex Capazollo is the co-founder of Brotherly Love Real Estate. He has been investing in real estate for +7 years and owns a small portfolio of 14 units. Alex works full-time as a real estate agent in Southern California and enjoys writing on home improvement, marketing strategies, and other real estate topics.