It’s
highly likely that almost every single one of you already read the Yahoo!
Finance article about the survey that Chase recently completed. For the seven people who decided to take a
nap under a rock last week, I’m going to share some of the major talking points
here – the rest of you can step away and have an ice cream or paint your cat’s
toenails.
First
off, the survey shows that an ALARMING 68% of Americans are starting the home
search on their own (gasp!) with 45% using a computer or laptop (as opposed to
some other type of technologically advanced processor like a microwave oven) as
the first step in this search and 13% using their mobile devices. (In other related news from the Department of
the Obvious, scientists have found that fish still have no use of a bicycle and
looking directly at the sun is inadvisable.)
With numbers like these, we should just throw in the towel and join the
circus, right?
Here’s
the weird thing: in the very same survey, they found that homebuyers – after
all’s said and done – rely on the pros to get the deal done. In fact, roughly three quarters (that’s
scientific talk for “every three people out of four”) of Americans want
to meet with a mortgage professional to consider their financing options; these
same people feel that a realtor is essential.
Yes, you read that correctly: ESSENTIAL!
The
survey also reveals a couple of other things that allow us to be optimistic:
• 72%
of homebuyers don’t plan on staying in their home for the long term. A big part of that mindset is based on a
“fear of missing out” – in other words, homebuyers are viewing their residences
more like a wardrobe: it needs to change as their life changes (a starter condo
downtown could be the real estate equivalent to a concert t-shirt and jeans
while a 5-bedroom rambling ranch in the suburbs might be a Brooks Brothers
suit). The key, of course, is for us to
be the clothier and the tailor that accommodate ALL of these wardrobe changes
(with no wardrobe malfunctions).
• 66%
believe that the value of their home will increase over the next five
years. Couple that with the “fear of
missing out”, and you have a very motivated mindset to help you sell a lot of
real estate.
While
there’s very good reason to be optimistic (I’ll pause here while you do the
happy dance), this doesn’t mean we’re returning to the Pre-Bust days when
anyone with a pulse could sell a house or write a loan – and that’s
a VERY GOOD thing. Our performances MUST
live up to the expectation that we are professionals – that the homebuyer’s
belief that we are ESSENTIAL is well founded.
How do we do that? We learn that
one extra new “thing” each day; we put in an extra hour or two to make sure we
know and can do more than the people in the next office over who are off eating
ice cream or painting their cat’s toenails.
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