Welcome to the January edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!
In this episode Carrie talks about how inventory is down and how brokers can encourage their clients to take advantage of the current real estate climate. She also answers a question about tax reform and how it may affect buyers and sellers. I provide a marketing tip on how to clone your best clients!
Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:16
Welcome to keeping it real, the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris. I am your host for the show. But also today is our monthly episode with a very great and super interesting and fun carrying McCormick. So thank you Carrie for being on our show. This is our Monday market minute.
Carrie McCormick 0:39
Hello, everybody. And thank you, DJ for having me. Glad to be here. Glad it’s 2018
D.J. Paris 0:45
Happy New Year. That’s right. All right, I am going to turret well. First of all, we for our newer listeners tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
Carrie McCormick 0:54
Sure. So I’m Carrie McCormack. I’m with App properties. I have been in real estate for 19 years now that we’re in 2018 I can officially say I’ve been in it for 19 years. I started in the development world and then moved into brokerage and been in brokerage ever since.
D.J. Paris 1:12
And we should also mention you are a top 1% Producer pretty much for a long time now and which is a big deal because there are about 35,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. So you are in the very top 1% Yep, well, you’ve earned it and also very well known in the community and industry as well. Everybody knows Carrie. She’s also was voted best dressed realtor out of all 35,000 last year from the Chicago agent magazines. Another very big deal. And also, if you are somebody who is like, Gosh, I wonder how to use social media as a broker. Nobody is better in particular with Instagram, also Facebook, but Instagram Carrie McCormack, I’ve never seen anyone better follow her. What’s your Instagram? Tag?
Carrie McCormick 1:53
Sure. It’s Carrie McCormack real estate.
D.J. Paris 1:56
I mean, it is truly impressive. All of her posts look amazing. You’re consistent. And anyway, so I just wanted to make that point. So let’s, I’m turning it over to you. So tell us what’s going on in the market.
Carrie McCormick 2:07
Yeah, so I just want to round out 2017. Because usually at the end of the year, we see housing activity slowed down for a few weeks during the holiday. There’s a lot of buyers and sellers who want to take advantage of it slower time. But December ended up to be a very active month in the market. So we ended 2017 Very strong. So usually during the holidays, I like to take downtime, and I like to spend it with my family, but my phone never stopped ringing. And there’s many buyers who are in the market, who have been hunting for the perfect home for the past few months. And they haven’t found it because of low inventory. So what’s happening now is they’re getting ready for the spring market. And they’re hoping for new inventory to hit the market. So we’re starting early, it’s beginning of January beginning of the new year. And typically, again, this is still a little bit of a slow down, slow time in the market. But we’re seeing it pick up because again, due to low inventory, there’s buyers out there waiting and ready to buy something.
D.J. Paris 3:11
That’s great. So what what are you what are you dealing with with your clients right now? Are there any particular trends that you’re seeing this time of year, for example, the property tax, the new law that’s gone into effect that might affect charity? Taxes, as are people asking about that?
Carrie McCormick 3:28
Oh, they definitely are. It’s I don’t see so far yet. Obviously, it’s still the beginning of January that it affecting too many people people are asking about it. One of the things is the deductibility of state and local income taxes. And of course, the property taxes, households can still deduct both of these taxes, although now they’re limited to $10,000. We have new buyers new first time homebuyers who didn’t take advantage of some of those old tax laws. So to them, there’s not a big change, but to the other homeowners that there is also it’s important to understand that there’s new limitations on mortgage interest deduction. So that’s another thing that’s going to change some of our new homebuyers here and move up buyers for both their primary residence and second homes. The one change that it did is it eliminated it for equity lines of credit doing the interest deduction. So again, with these changes, it is affecting it a little bit. I haven’t seen a big impact yet on my buyers and sellers. But I’m sure as we roll through the year we’ll see that I always tell people though, again, people ask me these questions about the tax changes. And I’ll say it to everyone here is make sure that you always check with your tax professional to stay on top or ahead of these changes.
D.J. Paris 4:54
Yeah, absolutely. And also, our broker should really start thinking about supporting the lobbyist organization are passively dealer. And if you’re not familiar with what that is, you can contact your local board, for example, Chicago Association realtors or Main Street, North Shore Barrington, and ask them, you know about what those dollars get used for how to how to learn more about it, because the IRS, these are lobbyists that are fighting on your behalf. And also, the consumers behalf too. And we interviewed at the very, very for the first episodes we did here was with Beth Wanless, who’s one of the lobbyists here locally and works in on the on the state level too. And she talked about, you know, all the different resources they have for brokers, but also what they do. And so that tiny little donation that you make, you can make when you do your MLS dues, is $35. I think it’s really, really reasonable. But it pays for a lot of stuff to help protect your future as a broker.
Carrie McCormick 5:55
Absolutely. So I also wanted to talk a little bit about 2018. And some of the predictions that we have overall for the market. Just as a summary, I would say I think we’re going to have a very strong 2018. The problem that we’re going to have though, is going to be inventory, it’s really been a thorn in our side in 2017. And I think that it’s going to continue into 2018. And there’s been a legacy of slow homebuilding not not rentals. But as far as you know, single family homes and new condos, there’s been a little bit of slowdown with the homebuilding over the past decade. So again, I still think we’re gonna have a shortage of inventory. I do think that the number of sellers will, we will see a little bit of uptick in some of the sellers just based on the natural, you know, relocation, natural, upsizing and downsizing. But the problem that we’re also going to face is this chicken and egg situation where, you know, sellers want to sell, and they’re not going to have a problem selling their home. But they’re out there looking for their next home, and there’s no inventory for them to because they can’t find the next home or their next dream home. They’re resistant about putting their house on the market. So it’s, again, one of those chicken and egg games that we’re playing.
D.J. Paris 7:17
So what are you telling your your clients who maybe feel that way? Like, well, I don’t want to put it on the market, because then where do I go? Once it sells?
Carrie McCormick 7:25
Well, I’m actually encouraging them to put it on the market, because there’s such low inventory, you play the supply and demand game, they’re gonna get the most for their home. So you know, I’m encouraging them to put it on the market, you know, we can price it aggressively. Hopefully, we get a buyer, we can move out a closing date, you know, a little bit longer, maybe we go 90 days versus the traditional, you know, 30 or 60. So maybe we do a longer closing, and we hope that there’s other inventory that comes on the market. Or if there’s something that’s been sitting on the market for a while, you know, maybe my, my new buyer can negotiate a great price on it. So I am encouraging everyone to get into the market, and put your house if you’re gonna sell, now’s the time to do it again, supply and demand.
D.J. Paris 8:11
Well said, and I also want to make a point that, you know, I just asked Carrie, well, what do you do in that scenario? She had an immediate answer, because, of course, you know, she’s prepared. And she’s also been doing this a long time. But I always encourage all brokers to have answers to these questions. You know, I didn’t talk to Carrie ahead of time and say, Hey, tell me about what you think of a tax law changes I just asked her and she rattled off a three minute answer. That was pretty impressive. So you know, your your clients, Gore going to be asking, you know, it’s the winter, what should I do have an answer for that. And you know, definitely prepare yourself to have these conversations. I think it makes you look really professional. And obviously, this is a top producer, who’s doing who does that. So thank you, Carrie for all of that. I wanted to talk and I also wanted to get your thoughts on this, I have a very simple and quick marketing minute. And this is called cloning your best client clients rather. And it’s very simple technique. But I’m going to just very kind of go through it specifically so that you have an understanding of what this is. So this is when you’re looking to get more buyers or sellers and you hopefully have at least one that you can reach out to so what I want everyone to do who’s listening who’s a broker is think back to their the best experience they had with one of their clients could be a purchase or a sale. But whoever that that person was that you work with that client, I want you to think and if it was a married couple, usually one of the two of them probably is employed probably has as a job. And I want you to think well what is what are those people do? Right? So let’s say you had a client that was a nurse, this is an example that just came to me and you would love to work with more clients just like them, right? So what I want you to do and maybe make a goal to do this once a month and find, you know, 12 clients over the next year that you can have this conversation but I want you to call that client now could be somebody you’ve bought or sold a home to five years ago, it really doesn’t matter, but somebody had a really good experience with. And, and it might not even be their profession that you’re going to use in this next step. But think of something that’s unique to them. And a lot of cases, it’s a profession. So this person’s a nurse, let’s say you would contact them and say, you know, hey, Mr. or Mrs. So and so I had wanted to say I had a really great experience working helping you buy or sell your home. And I was wondering, I’m working on my marketing plan for 2018. And I was wondering if I could get your advice? Could I take you out for a quick cup of coffee, whenever you’re free, right. So schedule that meeting. And when you ask somebody for their advice, and that’s all I want you to say is, you know, I’m working on my marketing plan, I would really love to get your advice about something, when are you free for a quick cup of coffee, it is one of the most flattering things you can ever ask somebody for their advice, that’s all I want you to say. And then schedule that meeting. And then when you show up, sit down with them. And then this next part is sort of the part two of part one, schedule the meeting, ask for advice, or ask them that you’re going to ask for advice. And part two is when you sit down, say, you know, I just wanted to say that working with you was such a pleasure. I wish all of my clients were were you know, so much fun. And you know, you were just such a joy to work with. And I’m working on my marketing plan for this year. And I want to get in front of more people just like you, you know, now if they’re a nurse, you may want to say I would love to work with more nurses this year. And I was wondering if you had any thoughts about how I might go about doing that? Right. So what you’re doing is you’re asking them for their advice, you’re sitting down, you’re complimenting them. And then you’re saying, Gosh, I would love to work with more acts just like you know, their nurse maybe say their profession. Because if for example, nurses, obviously all work in the same building, they might even eat together or congregate together or go out together socially. But typically, what you want to do is say I would love to work with more acts just like you. If you were me, how would you go about doing that? Or what advice would you have for someone like me, and then you shut up and you say nothing else? You just let them think about it. And I bet you in most cases, in fact not. But I know in most cases, those people will pause, they’ll think about it. And they’ll give you a pretty good answer of well, you should come to the hospital, we all eat at 12 o’clock, I can introduce you to a few people, or we are going out or not you should come by. And now not everyone’s going to have these ideas, right. But some will or somebody might, for example, somebody might say, oh gosh, you should talk to if whatever, if they work in an office, you should come talk to my HR person, they might be willing to send an email out to everyone saying that I had a really good experience with you. And if anyone else needs a broker for buying, selling, renting, you know, I’d be we’d be happy to pass your information a lot. So it’s called cloning your client. And it’s real simple. And it sounds easy. And it is easy. But do that you’ll be shocked if somebody were to come to me my previous broker 13 years ago before I got in the business and said, I would love to merch work with more technology. I was in technology, more tech people just like you how would you do that? I’d be like, Oh, come to the office. I’ll introduce you to some people.
Carrie McCormick 13:06
Yeah, that’s a great idea. Yeah, so
D.J. Paris 13:09
that was all I got. I’ll keep it short and simple, but do it and report back and Carrie and I will be back again in exactly one month. And once again, happy 2018 on behalf of Carrie and myself.
Carrie McCormick 13:22
And I do want to add one last thing if you guys don’t mind. So last last month, I got a ton of phone calls from your listeners. And I want to say thank you to everyone who had called me. And I encourage any broker any listener if you have any questions, and been in the business for a long time. I love working with new agents and new clients all the time. So if you have any questions, always feel free to call me 312-961-4612 happy to chat answer your questions. Maybe sit down for a cup of coffee.
D.J. Paris 13:54
There you go. And also if you’re somebody who’s looking to buy or sell a home Carrie is also obviously a great source. Follow her on Instagram as well. It is truly impressive. All right. Thank you Carrie.
Carrie McCormick 14:04
Thank you.
D.J. Paris 14:05
I know you’ve got showings to go to so I’m gonna let you go. Alright, thanks so much. All right.
Carrie McCormick 14:10
Have a good day.
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