Strategies to Win in the New Environment: The Activities That Are Driving Success

Strategies to Win in the New Environment: The Activities That Are Driving Success

by Paige Tepping

Kicking off 2021 on a high note, RISMedia’s “Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year,” a virtual event co-presented by the National Association of REALTORS® on Jan. 7, took a closer look at what real estate professionals across the board are doing to set themselves up for continued success during the session, “Strategies to Win in the New Environment: The Activities That Are Driving Success.”

“A lot has happened over this past year, but our panelists quickly turned situations, challenges and trends into opportunities,” said J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, who moderated the lively discussion.

Jumping right in, Scott turned to Michele Harrington, COO of First Team Real Estate, to discuss how she’s helping her agents navigate and implement an abundance of technology. To combat this overload, younger agents within the company, who have a better grasp on the technology, are coaching the more seasoned agents who may not be as proficient.

“As brokers and owners, it is important that we understand that not all agents want to learn to embrace technology,” said Harrington. “If we can figure out a way to make it easier on them by doing it for them, it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Taking things off the agents’ plates is the name of the game for Anthony Lamacchia, broker/owner of Lamacchia Realty and CEO of Lamacchia Companies. “We kept telling our people to dial the phone, write the handwritten notes, send cards and call past clients, but they were having a hard time, so we created incentives for our agents,” he explained.

The firm’s “Working By Referral” course, which runs twice a year, has been a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to getting agents focused on obtaining business from their sphere of influence.

“We all know that when agents are in touch with the people around them, they obtain business from them regularly—and we made it a little easier for them to do that,” added Lamacchia.

Shifting gears to address the inventory shortage that’s apparent throughout a majority of markets across the country, Scott asked Todd Sumney, chief industry officer of HomeSmart International, to share his tried-and-true strategies to drum up listing inventory.

Sumney challenged attendees to make 2021 their year by engaging their database, creating their own listings and tracking their progress. The three tactics he suggested? A CMA challenge, a video challenge and making the effort to do more things virtually.

“We’re in a situation where we have low inventory, and the desired outcome is more listings, so go out there and create your own inventory,” explained Sumney. “You’d be surprised at how many people you can get to show up to a 10-minute virtual open house versus a traditional open house.”

For J.B. Goodwin, founder and CEO of JBGoodwin REALTORS®, if there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s the importance of adapting. “Everyone thinks real estate is harder now than it’s ever been, but the way we’ve changed our practices because of COVID is no different than how we’ve adapted over the years to other market conditions,” he explained. RE

Be sure to mark your calendars for April 8, 2021, when RISMedia and the National Association of REALTORS® present “Spring Into Action,” a full-day virtual event packed with strategies to help you maximize the spring and summer markets. Visit action.rismedia.com for more information.

Paige Tepping is RISMedia’s managing editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to paige@rismedia.com.

What Do Sellers Actually Want? New zavvie Report Reveals 6 Megatrends

Commentary by Stefan Peterson

Amidst the seemingly endless speculation and debate about the new ways of selling—including iBuyers, buy-before-you-sell bridge solutions and institutional buyers—one important factor has been neglected.

What do sellers actually want?

At zavvie, the first complete brokerage selling solutions platform, we realized we were in a unique position to consider this question. Today, zavvie helps bring thousands of offer requests each month to verified buyers around the country. Looking at our data, we thought it would also be useful for brokerages and others in the business. That’s why we created the new quarterly zavvie Seller Preferences Report (https://zavvie.com/ seller-preferences).

This is the first quarterly report of its kind encompassing all selling solutions available to homeowners throughout the U.S. The Seller Preferences Report analyzes current iBuyer and buy-before-you-sell bridge solution-provider sales activity, including market locations, business volume and trends, and current buy boxes. The zavvie report also examines offer strength, offer acceptance rates, service fees, average concessions and time to close for sellingsolution providers.

Here are the six seller megatrends we found during the past quarter: • Despite the unprecedented strong seller’s market in the second half of 2020, iBuyers managed a strong rebound at the end of the year, proving that their value proposition of speed, certainty and convenience is compelling even when sellers can sell quickly for top dollar on the open market. • Paradoxically, though iBuyer offer strength has declined steadily since COVID-19, iBuyer offer acceptance rates have increased. • Homeowners are five times more interested in bridge offers than iBuyer offers right now. • The average home price in a bridge transaction is 72% higher than an iBuyer purchase. • Consumer demand for iBuyer and bridge programs is high throughout the country, including smaller markets where the national solution providers don’t yet operate. • Consumer satisfaction with iBuyers is high, averaging nine out of 10 in satisfaction scores, zavvie research shows.

The data reveal these new selling options are aligned with consumers and will continue to become more relevant in the marketplace—and therefore, modern brokerages and agents embracing these new options will flourish. On the flip side, those who ignore the new options risk extinction. As one of our brokerage partner executives recently told us, “Most agents bring a CMA to a listing presentation. My agents bring offers.” Who do you think is going to win in the long run?

Bridge is the future of real estate and will continue to grow rapidly. It’s a sort of “magic wand” that lets homeowners and interested sellers become cash buyers with no contingencies, and gives agents a chance to win more listings by offering those bridge solutions.

The zavvie mission is to connect brokerages, agents and their clients with all the new ways of selling while preserving the agent’s role at the center of the transaction. As brokerage operators ourselves, we believe passionately in the role of modern agents in serving their clients. It is our hope that the quarterly Seller Preferences Report will help brokers and agents take advantage of what we’ve learned. RE

Stefan Peterson is chief data officer and co-founder of zavvie, a technology company that is empowering the modern agent by making it easy to provide today’s consumers all the selling options: iBuyers, bridge and open market. For more information, visit zavvie.com.