Welcome to the August edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick from At Properties!
This month Carrie talks about how, despite it being the busy season, sales are actually down year-over-year. She discusses best practices around working with buyers and sellers in this climate, and also discusses why many of her clients are selling their homes and renting luxury apartments. I provide a marketing tip about delivering inexpensive back-to-school care packages for your contacts with children.
Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of keepin it real the old the largest podcast in the country made by brokers for brokers. My name is DJ Paris and today we have our Monday market minute with Kerry McCormick. So if those of you new to the show, who aren’t yet familiar with Carrie, she is a top 1% That top 1% of 1% Producer at in Chicago, I misses out of 44,000 Realtors, she’s consistently year over year in like the top 20 of 44,000 Realtors, she’s been in the business for 20 years, a total superstar clearly and generously donates her time to speak to you the listeners once a month about what’s going on in the Chicagoland market so that you can better educate your clients or maybe your client yourself that wants to just know what’s going on in the business. So welcome once again, my oldest co host and friend Carrie,
Carrie McCormick 1:16
you can’t say I’m the oldest Am I the oldest? Sure
D.J. Paris 1:19
that didn’t sound good. You’re You’re, you’re the you’re a seasoned co host I have. I know I should have, we should I should redo that. Because you’re certainly not old. But it’s funny. It is funny. By the way, before we get into it, I want to plug, make sure that everybody who’s listening goes and follows Carrie on Instagram for a couple of reasons. One, because it’s really good. The quality of content that she puts out there on a consistent basis is incredible. And it’s a real example of what good quality content looks like in social media. So follow her on instagram.com forward slash Carrie McCormick real estate. We’ll also post a link to that in the notes, but just look for Carrie McCormack that’s to season recording real estate, and you’ll find her so what’s going on? Carrie,
Carrie McCormick 2:12
thank you so much for that great introduction. I really appreciate it. And I appreciate everyone listening and being here. So here we are, we’re in mid year 2019. And overall, I would say it’s really been a challenged market. The volume has been down about six and a half percent this year. And we just we’ve got tight inventory right now. But even though that the volume is down, you know, real estate is selling the number one thing I’ve seen is it has to be priced. Right. I know everyone keeps hearing that. But it just I’ve tested a few different things this market and with marketing and just different strategies. It all plays together. But really, you know, you’ve got to be priced right. And in addition to that price growth is slowing. So usually in Chicago, our typical growth is about 2% a year. And now this year, it’s down to about a half a percent. And, you know, there’s a lot of contributing factors to that, but one is the tax consequences that happened about a year ago. And that’s really affecting, you know, everyone’s affordability in the real estate market. The other part is the luxury market. So, you know, homes over a million so in the first half of 2019. We saw 614 homes in the city trade hands for a million or more. Which if you look back to 2018 It’s a 15% drop, which is a huge, huge drop. However, the altra like the tippy top ultra luxury market, over 4 million is actually up a little bit, which is interesting, but we’ve got some Uber luxury buildings such as like one Bennett Park, we’ve got nine Walton that has these, you know very super, you know over $4 million properties and we’ve seen a little bit when I say a little bit it’s been like three or four property uptick but it’s it’s interesting to see that the Uber wealthy, you know are still buying here in Chicago. One thing I wanted to talk about which for me has been a change in my business is rentals. So for the first time in my 20 years, a lot of my sellers are downsizing in instead of buying you know two or three bedroom condo, they are deciding to rent right and all these great rental buildings you know, it’s it goes back to you know, taxes it goes back to just wanting to live in easier life not worrying about maintenance on a home, you know, the roof, the lawn, you know the tuckpointing etc, etc. And then again the unknown with the taxes. But because I’ve done a lot of rentals recently I’ve been and touring and visiting all these class a rental buildings, and I’ve noticed that there’s an amenity war going on. Yes. So it’s the amenities have become a big factor in clients making decisions. So like rental buildings like the old town park in the Sinclair, they have spas, they have spa services, you can do massage rooms, saunas, steam rooms and gyms. When Bennett Park which is one of my favorite buildings Nima Essex on the park, they’ve got this new service, which I love. It’s called Hello, Alfred, that allows the tenants to schedule like in home grocery deliveries, you could do maid service, you could get fresh flowers delivered daily to your home, you could actually even get turned down service. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 5:48
I was gonna say I dated a woman recently who got turned down service. And I was like, I didn’t know that was it? But yeah, they’re all doing it.
Carrie McCormick 5:55
I mean, think about that. It’s it’s like a simple life, meaning, you know, I mean, you pay for it. But it’s just this ease of not worrying about anything and having everything done for you. So rentals have become very socially acceptable they’ve become we’ve got a ton of them here in Chicago. And they’re just to me, it’s really amazing. It’s an amazing opportunity for some of our, you know, sellers to go into.
D.J. Paris 6:22
Yeah, and it’s also one of those things that it’s typically a temporary thing anyway, right. So you help somebody with a rental, you know, you and then eventually they’ll probably purchase something in the future to even if they came from selling a home and they rent and they’ll probably buy something down the road anyway. Right? Yeah, so
Carrie McCormick 6:39
it’s a good little stepping stone. Another thing I wanted to talk about is buyers. So there’s a lot of new agents that have entered the marketplace, new real estate agents that have entered into our space. And I get a lot of questions I love, you know, helping new agents and coaching and problem solving. So anyone listening who’s new and want some advice, I’m always, you know, happy to help. But one question I’ve got recently, quite a bit was about working with buyers, and how to minimize the risk of, you know, their time and effort, because you can work with a buyer for I don’t know, you know, weeks months, you know, I’ve got one that’s going on a year. And I always say that, you know, working with buyers is always risky. Because you know, you spend a lot of time your own time with them and efforts. In it, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to buy something. And you know, even if they find the right house, are they going to buy it or they’re going to put an offer in is that offer going to be accepted is the you know, is the appraisal going to appraise out. So there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, you know, even when you get someone to make an offer on a home when they find the right home. But you just need to know that and you need to manage the process very closely all the way through. And it’s just important to have open communication with your buyers. And always be honest and be a good listener. And to be solution oriented, because things will go wrong, nothing’s ever smooth. And you just need to be patient, communicate and be solution oriented.
D.J. Paris 8:24
So yeah, and also to remember to that buyers need your guidance, they need your emotional guidance, along with the financial guidance, like, obviously, you’re the one that’s going to tell them, you know, give them advice on on what to you know what to submit a bid at and when to submit a bid, but also, it is a very stressful experience, especially for a first time homebuyer to know what’s happening next, you know, and just to manage expectation and emotion and that’s, you know, the, the job of a great realtor does that.
Carrie McCormick 8:57
Yeah, and you know, things like I mentioned and you know not to be pessimistic, but things go wrong. And every agent out there has had, you know, a deal blow up or something go wrong, or you know, someone’s upset but it is you need to just take it step by step with the process. And if it does go wrong, you know, don’t let it get you down. I mean, it’s happened to all of us is you just have to learn from it. And, you know, learn from it and move on you. It just it’s part of it’s part of the job and you know, anyone that’s listening, if you ever need any advice, like I mentioned, I’ve got 20 years of experience and I’m a good listener, I’m a good problem solver. And sometimes it’s just helpful to you know, talk it through with somebody and you know, everyone’s got a managing broker and colleague so you know, use use all your resources to learn and do better
D.J. Paris 9:48
one. Speaking of working with buyers, you have a new development that you are working with. So tell our listeners about this because it’s very exciting.
Carrie McCormick 9:56
Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. So at properties and myself we just are working with L Cove in Wicker Park. It’s a new 55 unit development. There’s 55 condos and 12. New townhomes, brand new development delivering fall of 2020. It is, if you want to look it up in the MLS, it’s 1255 Polina Street, we do have a beautiful sales gallery that’s located at 1295 North Milwaukee Avenue. We’ve got a full kitchen in there. We’ve got finished samples, floor plans, we’ve got a great VR. So I would encourage everyone listening, stop by our sales center, take a look at what’s new, it’s hard of Wicker Park. It’s an amazing location, and really great floor plans and community. So feel free to visit that website. That
D.J. Paris 10:48
website, by the way is and I’m looking at the pictures it’s incredible, is alcove M. d B. So Mary David Paul alcove, Mary David paul.com. And I’ll put a link to that in the notes. It is.
Carrie McCormick 11:01
So everyone asks what what does it stands for? St. Mary David Paul, but it’s good question. It’s Milwaukee division, and Polina. So it’s this really great alcove community that we’re creating right in that intersection.
D.J. Paris 11:20
That’s very cool. And I love I love that intersection. I just think that is such a fun you have adages, right there and super cool place everyone go visit that. And so congrats on that development. That’s very, very exciting. Okay, speaking up, we do have listeners who, who are buyers, sellers, renters also investors, and if they are interested in working with you or your team, what’s the best way they should reach out to you
Carrie McCormick 11:50
always call me it’s the best and easiest way 312961461
D.J. Paris 11:56
To awesome. And real quickly, I’m gonna give a quick marketing minute it is we are now in August. And I had a quick idea. So everyone who is listening thinking, gosh, like how can I reach out to my my network, we know that your network is your net worth. Here’s a good reason to do that. I actually had two reasons. But I’m just gonna give you one today and save the next for next time. And the first is it is back to school season, right? Or we’re getting close to that. So think about all the people you know, in your network, who have children who are going back to school, whatever ages that is, and think about maybe dropping off a little care package. You know, school supplies, you know, it’s simple, it’s easy, you don’t have to worry about branding yourself on it. If you’re you know, pinched for time you just go to the Walgreens or wherever and get some notebooks, pens, paper, folders, anything like that. Kranz if the children are young enough, and just deliver you know, a little care package for you know, a few dozen of your clients that is so huge and simple and easy, and it will be appreciated and use the most important part. So anyway, that was my quick marketing minute.
Carrie McCormick 13:05
I love that. It’s so cute.
D.J. Paris 13:07
I love it. Well, anyway, that is that’s gonna wrap it up for this time. Kerry’s got a crazy busy Sunday, as per usual and she was so generous with her time. So on behalf of the listeners, we thank her as always, and on behalf of Carrie and myself to the listeners, we thank you for listening. Remember to follow us on Facebook, you can download any of our episodes right from our website, which is keeping it real pod.com In fact, you don’t have to download it. You can stream it right from your browser. Obviously any podcast app you find that you use on your phone, just search for keeping it real podcast and you’ll subscribe to us that way too. So anyway, thank you Carrie once again, we will see Carrie next month. And thanks for everyone for listening. So thank you
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