Bright MLS

3 ways to help buyers in the current market

By Debbie Freer

In today’s market, multiple offer situations are becoming the norm, with buyers placing offers on properties sight-unseen and well above the asking price in an attempt to buy a home. So how can you help give your buyers an edge? Use the following Bright tools— which are included with your MLS subscription—to provide insight into the competition your buyers can expect.

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View shopping activity in the brand-new Bright MLS T3 Home Demand Index. Statistical reports are helpful for a lot of things, but they don’t typically tell you who is shopping for a property. The Bright MLS T3 Home Demand Index pulls in showing and MLS views on listings in order to give you a unique, forward-looking perspective. The ZIP code on the District of Columbia Metro Area Index map lets you dig in even more to see where interest is most concentrated. Maybe your clients have to live in a particular area, or maybe they are willing to shift their region slightly to contend with less competition. Start using this innovative, new way of looking at the market at homedemandindex.com, or learn more at www.brightmls.com/HDI.

See the number of agents working with buyers in the Market Performance Reports. How many people are actually out there looking? That’s the question on everyone’s mind. The Market Performance Reports, found under the Market navigation menu in Bright MLS, give you a more granular view into buyer activity. In the “showing” section of the report, you can view the total number of agents scheduling showings to get an idea about the number of buyers. You can also scroll to the top of the report and see how many properties went pending or sold that week, compared to the number of agents scheduling. If 114 showings result in only six sales, your buyers can expect some serious competition in their price range and area. Learn more about the Market Performance Reports at brightmls.com/MPR.

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Run a search for their area and walk through the results based on very specific criteria and some loosened parameters. Understanding the number of people you’re competing with is important. Knowing what you’re all vying for is equally important. Your buyers likely gave you a wish list. You can enter all of their must-haves into the Bright Residential Sale search and show them what they can expect in terms of available listings. You can also loosen some of that criteria or extend the area to help them see the possible additional options that they may be willing to consider. Learn more about the Residential Sale search at brightmls.com/SearchTips.

Learn more about your Bright solutions Want to learn more about Bright solutions and how they can help you and your clients? Register for an upcoming class at brightmls.com/training.