Turning Data into Action

THE SCHMIDT REPORT TURNING DATA INTO ACTION is a Secret Weapon in Residential Real Estate

BY DIANE SEARS

As someone who breathes life into the statistics surrounding residential real estate in Central Florida, Jason Schmidt watched with interest when COVID-19 hit the region in March. Residents were under “stay at home” orders as the virus started to spread, and it wasn’t clear how the unfolding scenario would affect housing sales, which had been on track for a banner year.

In the first quarter of 2020, there were more houses on the market than there were buyers. In Orange County, for example, there were almost 4,500 houses for sale, compared with about 17,000 a dozen years ago. The dynamic of supply and demand was driving prices up, making it a seller’s market. Was that about to change?

Schmidt is the president and broker at Stockworth Realty Group, a Windermerebased firm with 18 agents who handle luxury real estate sales. He’s also the publisher of The Schmidt Report, a 300-page quarterly proprietary publication that examines all facets of the residential real estate market in Central Florida.

“What we ended up seeing was that in January through March, we were on pace to have a record year within our region,” Schmidt said. “And then in April, we saw a fairly significant dip. We saw a decline in total sales of between 10% in some markets and 20% in others.

“But what we didn’t expect to see was inventory remain low and, in some areas, even drop further. Because of the uncertainty created, a number of people who normally would have capitalized by putting their houses on the market didn’t.”

Schmidt’s team needed a competitive advantage, and they had one with The Schmidt Report. He added information from April into the first-quarter report, and it showed what was happening.

“April was a declining month, but May and June were record months for us,” Schmidt said. “Agents have had to shift a bit in the way they interact with people and the way they show homes. But interest rates are low. We have no expectation that mortgage rates are going to tick up that much, which helps keep demand in place. And because we’ve got such low supply, we’re seeing quite a lot of real estate activity.

“This report is something our agents have that sets them apart and makes them unique. For us, we’ve recovered what we lost in April and are set to have another record year.”

Today’s version of the report has developed since 2013, when Schmidt began compiling a quarterly document of three or four pages as a valuation analyst for Isleworth Realty, part of the Tavistock Group that created the posh Isleworth community in Windermere and is also developing Lake Nona. The report helped the firm’s real estate agents by providing basic information about economic indicators that affected the luxury market, such as number of sales, volume of sales, inventory and median value. It contained no analysis.

Agents kept asking Schmidt questions, tapping into his analytic skills to examine how the data could be used in forecasting. Because he formerly worked in commercial real estate, Schmidt holds an unusual distinction for someone in residential: a CCIM designation, which stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member.

The report expanded to 20 or 30 pages, then 40 or 50, and eventually hundreds. “When I first started it, I had no intention of it becoming the giant monster it has become,” Schmidt said.

The Schmidt Report fulfills two goals: to give agents real-time, actionable information they could share with their clients to help them make decisions about buying and selling homes; and to give local business leaders more highlevel information than they can get from other sources.

“I have some tools and technology set up that allows me to pull large amounts of data much faster than you would if you were doing it manually,” Schmidt said. “The sections are set up in a template format where each section is a mirror of the report’s previous section. We do that because if the agents are familiar with an individual section, and they have a client who might be interested in another market area, they can quickly go to that section and the format is the same. They know what information they can get, how to get it and how to read it. It’s all consistent.”

Today, The Schmidt Report fits with the values Schmidt and CEO Mark Hayes have set for the firm, which is to provide agents and other employees with the tools they need to excel.

“My belief is that all of our efforts should be focused on being the best professional practitioner we can be instead of the best salesperson we can be,” Schmidt said. “One of the differentiating elements of our company is that in a lot of real estate operations, the broker competes with the agents. The broker is out selling against the agents. That’s not the way we’re structured. Mark and I don’t compete with them.

“Our job is to make sure the agents have the tools they need to go out and be successful, and have the organization give them not only business to help them grow, but also resources to make them successful and competitive.” T

MY BELIEF IS THAT ALL OF OUR EFFORTS SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON BEING THE BEST PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER WE CAN BE INSTEAD OF THE BEST SALESPERSON WE CAN BE. —Jason Schmidt