3 Things the Market Is Practically Begging You to Do

Stat No. 2: Trustworthiness is the Top Quality Sellers Consider when Selecting an Agent

Eighty-six percent of consumers say trustworthiness is “extremely” or “very” important when choosing an agent.
That’s totally understandable. When your biggest asset is at stake, you want to trust the person guiding your transaction.
So let’s think about what makes someone trustworthy…
Or better yet, let’s examine who we don’t necessarily consider trustworthy…

• Complete strangers
• Salespeople who only show up when there’s something in it for them

At Marketing Edge, Jason Pantana examines a phenomenon known as the “mere exposure effect.”
This basically says the more familiar people are with you, the more they naturally trust you.
So if 86 percent of consumers are telling you that you MUST be trustworthy to even be considered, what’s that mean to you?
It means you need to be putting yourself in front of them over and over and over again to create that familiarity that breeds trustworthiness.

• Do you have your own brand?
• Are you visible and involved in the communities you serve?
• Are you farming/marketing to the same neighborhoods consistently or jumping around to wherever you take your next listing?
• Does your website or your marketing give any insight into who YOU are as a person, or do you come across like a real estate robot?

All of these questions lead to huge opportunities to build trust with homeowners NOW so when they decide to sell, you’re already in that “extremely important” category of being trustworthy.

Stat No. 3: The Largest Share of Home Buyers are Millennials

Millennials – the racially and ethnically diverse generation between the ages of 24 and 38 – account for 42 percent of all home buyers and 61 percent of all first-time buyers, says Zillow’s report.
Those are big percentages, and they’re likely to get even bigger.
The media loves to report about avocado toast and other meaningless Millennial trends, but here’s what we know for sure:
These people were raised on the Internet.
As a result, they’re accustomed to Amazon-level service and ease of use.
You know that experience: Where you order something late Friday night and somehow it shows up on your doorstep on a Sunday morning! (How do they do that?)
That’s the standard you’re up against when you work with 42 percent of buyers.
So here’s the big question:
Are your services and systems up to that standard?
If your answer is no, it’s time to adapt how you do things.
Strive to make working with you as easy as ordering from Amazon.
Where can you streamline? What can you eliminate? What more can you do prior to meeting with a buyer to make the process smoother? What “extras” can you provide to make your service more beautiful?
You need to be asking yourself these questions and refining your systems on a regular basis, because that standard isn’t reversing course anytime soon. It’s only going to get higher and higher.

Let’s Recap… Next Steps

So what are the three big takeaways from the Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018?

• Sellers are begging to be educated on the process
• The more familiar you make yourself to people, the more likely they are to trust you… and hire you
• Millennials dominate the buyer market, meaning your servicing systems likely need improvement to meet the standards they’re accustomed to

Let me know what data-driven actions you’re going to take in the comments below!