Category: Monday Market Minute With Carrie McCormick

Welcome to the March edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick from At Properties!

In this episode Carrie first discusses how the city market is doing before launching into advanced strategies when working with buyers in multiple offer situations. She discusses how buyers can write personal letters to sellers and also suggests making a video to introduce themselves! Lastly she provides some buyer “don’t’s” during multiple offers. I provide a marketing tip around skill building to increase your value to customers.

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Today’s keeping it real episode is brought to you by not standard a premium luxury custom menswear experience in Chicago with the highest quality fabric source from the top mills in the world and more than 7000 customizable details each not standard product is as unique as you are booking an appointment with trusted stylist Lauren Lipton at not standard.com That’s kn o Te standard.com forward slash Lauren, L A u r e n and mentioned in DJ Paris me to enjoy a complimentary shirt and 15% off your first purchase

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcasts made by Chicago real estate agents for Chicago real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris and I am your host today on the show. We have as usual Carrie McCormick for her Monday market minute or carry talks about what brokers need to know what is happening with the Chicagoland market. If you’re not familiar with Kerri McCormick she is a top producer. And just to give you an idea of what a top producer she is, by the way, she is a broker at at properties and has been very successful top producer for 20 years. However, she is not only a top 1% producer, she is a top 1/10 of 1% Producer because I did the math earlier today and there are 41,000 brokers in Chicago Carrie is always consistently in the top like 15 or 20 out of 41,000. So we are so honored to have her on the show. She just recovered from a two week illness and is still dedicated to coming and helping our listeners. So welcome. And thank you Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 1:55
Well, thank you very much for having me. And, and first off, I also want to thank everyone that listens to your show, because during the month I always get you know, phone calls, I get emails, I get messages, DM messages from the listeners, you know, asking their questions to me directly, sometimes, you know, they’ll call me. And I just want to say that’s one thing I love about our community here in Chicago is giving, giving back to the community. I’ve been doing this for decades, two decades now. And I’ve learned a ton. And I’m happy to help anyone with any questions, give advice, whatever it is, please keep the questions coming. And love to hear from everybody. Awesome.

D.J. Paris 2:40
So what are we talking about today?

Carrie McCormick 2:42
So I’m just gonna hit on a few things. One, I always like to start with some stats of where the market is, you know, we’re, we’re in our spring market and the new listings in the city of Chicago were down 7.3% For detached which is the single family homes. But they were up 4.6% For the attached which is of course the condos and the townhomes. So again, they were down for the single family homes and they were up for the condos. Now pricing is a little bit on the opposite side, the median price for the detached homes again, single families were up almost 6% But down 4% For attached properties. So just you know in this early spring market, we’re watching you know the inventory come up. We’re watching the sales, the under contract, a lot of things are moving here, we’re you know, off to a nice healthy start of the spring market. But one thing I want to talk about is working with buyers. I am very listing heavy, if you will I do a lot of listings, and I love to market properties, but I do work with some buyers. And one thing that I found in a competitive market like we’re in is how do you position your buyers for success, especially when there’s multiple offers. One thing that I do is I monitor the private listing network which is the PLN and all the other off market networks. Buyers should be prepared and it is our job to prepare them no matter what the market is but they should always present a good face for the seller in negotiations. And as much as a buyer may want to put on the boxing gloves at times. You never want the sellers or the sellers agent to get turned off or frustrated by your by your offer or the way that you position your offer because they will automatically shut down and obviously you’re not going to have a good income out income outcome with that if you if you go in you know looking for a fight so you always want to position yourself in the best light in in the eyes of the seller. I tell my buyers you always need to come across genuine and sincere and you don’t want to be just a name on a piece of paper with a price So one thing a lot of agents have been doing in Chicago is writing a letter to the seller. And this came up a couple of years ago, and everyone started doing this and presenting letters to the sellers. And it worked really nice because again, you give it a nice personal touch. Well, just a quick story is I just had sold a home with multiple offers. Every offer that came in, wrote a letter to my seller. And oddly enough, each letter was almost the same thing, obviously, with different names. So what happened is, we had six offers on this home, six letters that came through, which were almost all identical. And to my seller, they thought, Well, this was very insincere, like, what do you guys, you know, thrown around a template out there of these letters. And it kind of appeared that way. So what I thought it is now buyers need to again, be sincere, be genuine, do a little research on the seller, obviously, we’ve got Google, we’ve got Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, do some research on those sellers, see, if they have a dog, see where they went to college, see, you know, where they went on vacation recently, find something that you can speak to with the seller and put that in your letter. Because also keep in mind, that seller is also going to do research on that buyer. You know, they want to know who’s buying my home? What are they like? What do they? What are their interest. So it is important, it’s kind of like interviewing for a job, in a way, you know, you everything’s online. So you want to make sure that when you present your offer, you’re presenting it in the best light possible. One new technique that I don’t say that I came up with, but that I thought of, is to send a video to the seller. So do do a quick video or have the buyer do a quick video like, you know, hello, this is who we are, this is our dog, smokey or, you know, whoever it is, and, you know, this is what we do. This is why we fell in love with your place. Now you put some tone to to the contacts, right, so now they can see you they can understand you know where you’re coming from, it’s just kind of a nice touch, and it’ll set your, your buyers apart from everyone else.

D.J. Paris 7:21
Yeah, and just thinking about if two offers came in at the exact same price, but one of them had a personalized letter and a video, or one or the other and the other didn’t, all things being equal. I suspect the one that we had the letter or the video might be more likely to get accepted. It definitely

Carrie McCormick 7:41
gets more attention, right. At the end of the day, the seller wants price in terms. But definitely I mean, it just it gives it a different touch. It’s always worth trying, especially when you’re in a very competitive market.

D.J. Paris 7:53
Yeah, and oftentimes, maybe you know, it can be to that the seller price isn’t the most important thing it isn’t I mean, I’m sure everyone listening, the default is to think price is most important. In most cases, it probably is, but not in all cases. And sometimes people just want to sell their homes to people they like. And if you can show that I’m a real person, here’s a 32nd video about why I love your home. That and it’s genuine, I mean, that goes a long way that’s worth that’s actually worth something. I agree. intangible. So and by the way, it’s fun to do too. And it’s it’s kind of adds another level of humanity to a sort of otherwise kind of, you know, sterile transaction. And we’re going to offer this and hope that they don’t counter but I

Carrie McCormick 8:38
will tell you though, a don’t this did happen once to is I was representing the seller, we got a few different offers. This is just a few months ago, but one of the offers started liking them on Facebook, liking them on LinkedIn, that’s a little much. And then you know, kind of stalking them sending them messages. And so it really turned off my seller, right? Because it was a little creepy. So just again, you got to do it professionally. You’ve got to be careful with it. Obviously just do it with integrity and sincerity.

D.J. Paris 9:15
Yeah, it’s such a great idea. And it really separates you from everyone else. So great idea. So for for my marketing, I do a quick marketing minute at the tail end of our of our monthly episode with Carrie. And honestly, I couldn’t come up with a really cool marketing tip this week. I’ve given a lot of them in the past. Everyone can go back and listen if you’d like. But I realized maybe the most important tip is the least exciting tip that I could give but maybe it’s the most important one which has to do with your skill set. I learned early on I was in a different career and the top salesman that was there was a very likable person, but he was also the most skilled person in the whole company. And I asked him Hey, When do you ask for the sale? Because a lot of times for brokers, we might think the same thing. When do we ask for for head love to represent you and sell your house or I’d love to help you buy a home or or whatever the transaction is. He says, if you’re really good, you never ask, you don’t have to ask, because you do such a good job that everyone knows that. And then over time, people just refer you business. And I went, Well, that makes sense. And the truth was, I wasn’t very good at it because I was new and hadn’t really developed that skill set. So for everyone listening, if you’re new, and you don’t yet have 20 years experience, like Carrie does, which is worth, you know, a price above rubies, what you can start to do is build that foundation, which means every day spend 15 minutes 20 minutes perfecting or increasing your knowledge of your craft. Here’s a really simple example if you want to hyper focus in a particular geographic area. Let’s say you want to be the Linkin Park person. You know, somebody like Nico apostles a really good example of he lives in Linkin Park. He loves Linkin Park, that’s where he’s focused his energy for a lot of years. And maybe he knows it better than most brokers, but he also studied it. And if you studied whatever geographic area you want to focus in on, if you just went to the MLS and you learn every single home that’s for sale in a particular neighborhood or suburb. And you did that for two or three months, you’ll be so incredibly knowledgeable that you’ll be very valuable to anyone who wants to move to that area. And you can’t obviously know the whole city and all the suburbs, but you can know a couple of them or at least one. So if all you did was spend 15 minutes a day studying the MLS and really learning how much a single family home goes for what places are available for sale, how attached, you know, how condos are doing, if you know the inventory and know the numbers, oh my gosh, when you find a client who’s looking for that, you’ll be so insanely valuable. So spend time every day learning and perfecting your craft. It’s this, it you know, it’s like one of those things where you look at somebody who’s really fit. And you realize that every day they do push ups or setups or they do some you know, and maybe they’re not the gym for an hour a day. But if I just did 15 minutes of some exercise today, I would definitely be stronger at the end of the year. So do your 15 minutes, do your push ups every day, whatever that is, and perfecting. You know, a lot of times I was talking to Kerry offline, there’s a lot of brokers that don’t work with investors, because they don’t really understand investments. It’s a totally different world. And I suspect if you spent 15 minutes a day learning about investments and different types of lending products and all the different vocabulary for investors within a year you will know as much as just about anyone and you can really now surface a whole nother industry that you previously weren’t able to. So you know, spend some time every day perfecting your skill set and increasing it and you’re going to be so valuable to people you won’t have to spend as much time marketing so that’s my tip. All right. Awesome. Well, that does it for this month’s Monday market minute. Carrie if there are any listeners out there who may be their brokers maybe their buyer’s or seller’s and are looking for a realtor to work with what’s the best way someone could reach out to you

Carrie McCormick 13:13
sure it’s best way to reach me is just to call me 312-961-4612 Of course you can shoot me a quick email as well which is Carrie ca RR ie at@properties.com

D.J. Paris 13:29
Awesome. Well on behalf of Carrie and myself we thank you for we are coming up on our 100th episode and the numbers just keep increasing with zero marketing. I hope that means we’re we’re creating value I know we are carried hears it from from listeners I hear it as well. And on behalf of both of us. We thank you because we wouldn’t do this if people weren’t listening. And so send us your questions. Tell a friend subscribe on Facebook, subscribe on iTunes, Google Play Anywhere you find podcasts and we will see you next month. And thanks Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 14:02
Thank you

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the February edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie discusses how the market slowed last year, but that in 2019 we’re starting to see some increases in activity. With rates being down, Carrie is noticing her buyers are poised to purchase and provides a tip on how to prep them now with a sample contract. I also talk about contacting past clients to discuss the possibility of a refinance.

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcasts made by Chicago real estate agents for Chicago real estate agents. This is our monthly series called them the Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick. If you are a new listener and haven’t listened to one of our Monday market minutes before Carrie is a top producer without properties for over 20 years has been a top producer. Last year she finished in the top 15 of all realtors in Chicago and that’s out of 40,000 Realtors. So we are so honored, she comes on once a month and tells our listeners what they need to know about what is happening in the Chicago real estate market. And also, before I bring carry on, everyone should follow Carrie on Instagram, just do a search for Carrie McCormack real estate. That’s the thing, you can also find her on Facebook as well Carrie McCormick real estate, and welcome to the show. Carrie,

Carrie McCormick 1:06
thank you, thank you Happy 2019

D.J. Paris 1:10
Happy 2019.

Carrie McCormick 1:12
So just to get started, the one thing that people have been focused on is interest rates. And with the Fed holding off on further interest rate increases, we see that this year is starting off very good. So we’ve seen a lot of activity in the market. All of us that have been in the market for a while we know that q2 was kind of flat. So last year of 2018. Really after, I’m gonna say like July, the rest of the year was just flat. And the reason going back and looking at that, you know, interest rates were increasing, taxes were increasing, there’s a lot of talk about increasing taxes. And you know, the second bill came out and people were worried about that. And actually, the wage growth wasn’t as favorable either. And it just created this affordability issue. And people I think were just hesitant about buying. People were out looking, but they weren’t actually pulling the trigger and buying. So I do still think that housing affordability is going to be an important storyline this year. But we are definitely seeing buyers starting to get out into the market. And they’re getting motivated to buy, which is great. So also, one thing to look at is last year in 2018. Because of the interest rates and taxes, a lot of people have just decided to rent. Right? So now we’re seeing an uptick in the rental rates just because of the whole supply and demand factor. So rental rates are starting to tick up this year, which now those renters are saying like, why would I rent or pay more in rent, now let’s go by, right, because interest rates are going down. So again, looking just at the economics of the market, we’re gonna see a shift this year. But we’re going to be tied to those lease months, because, you know, obviously the spring, like April and May are big lease months, so those leases will end then and we’re gonna see buyers enter the market at that point as well. So I am happy to report though, I’m starting to see multiple offers start to happen. We’re seeing high traffic counts at open houses. I do work all of my open houses. And this past weekend, I had 22 People in WoW, one of my open houses. It was energetic, it was exciting. And I woke up the next morning with three offers in hand. So you know, again, the excitement’s there, as long as you price and position the property correctly, you’re going to start getting activity in offers on those. But for now, inventory still remains low. However, in the next few weeks, I do expect that to change quickly. So my suggestion to the brokers out there is if you are working with buyers, prep them now, one thing that I started to do, which is just a little tip, is I started going through the contract already and sending them a sample contract with you know their information on it and reading through it. So just so they know what to expect. We have a new 7.0 contract that is out, right, a little different language, so I’m walking them through it. So when we do make an offer, they they’ve already read the contract, they know where I’m putting information in and they’re ready to go. And lastly, everyone knows get your pre approvals letter ready for it from your lender. So make sure you’ve got that in hand. So your offers ready to go. You’ve got your pre approval, and you can make your offer.

D.J. Paris 4:41
Now is there a preferred lender or do you have a lender that you prefer to work with?

Carrie McCormick 4:46
Of course I do. And hopefully they’re listening and they know who they are. You know, I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ve learned a lot over the last couple of years and one thing that I would say is important is to surround yourself Have with pros, I always say like pros use pros, I’ve met some of the most incredible service partners and vendors. And I’ve created what I call my little white book, not black book, but little white, maybe it should be my little white black book of providers that I have for either whether it’s inspections, it’s mortgage lenders, of course, it’s handyman, it’s plumbers, it’s, you know, everything that you possibly could need. Wallpaper hangers, I’ve got, you know, people for blinds and carpet, everything, I’ve got the best of the best, I think, team around me, and that adds value to my clients. So they, I can hand that over to them. And even like I said, designer, so if I, if I know that I can refer my clients to these people I know they’re being taken care of, and it’s an extension of my service. And you know what I stand for my, in my job?

D.J. Paris 5:58
Yeah, that’s not so important. And I know also to some of these vendors, for the listeners who are brokers can also be your partners, when it comes to advertising, some of them can partner up. And they can do all sorts of different advertising, whether it’s postcards or mailers, or even other digital marketing as well. So don’t be afraid to reach out and say, Hey, I’m thinking about doing this marketing initiative. And can you help out with that, and we’ll co brand it together, it’s very common. Great idea. And so I have a quick idea of to piggyback on what Carrie mentioned, with respect to lending rates and pre approvals, and the buyer market starting to pick up. So because rates have dropped, and I don’t know how much longer that will happen, because I don’t have obviously a crystal ball, or the expertise to know but for right now, they are pretty low and they have dropped. So a couple opportunities for brokers, obviously, anyone who’s renting you can reach out to them and, you know, talk to them about making the transition to purchasing a home or, and maybe even a better idea or not, not a better but certainly as good of an idea as contact everyone you’ve already worked with, or anyone you know, that owns a home and say, Hey, I don’t know if you’ve been checking the news, but rates seem to be down. I don’t know if it makes sense for you or not to refinance, but I just thought I’d put that bug in your ear. And you should reach out to your lender or I can provide a lender if you don’t have a good one that you want to check rates with. And I can tell you as a homeowner, myself, that lender has never ever called me to say, hey, it’s a good time to refinance. So no, but the only way I ever knew to refinance is I saw like a new story on it before I got into this business. And I went, Oh, maybe I should look into that nobody ever called me. So I think it’d be a great opportunity just to keep your name in front of your clients and provide value. And, you know, it doesn’t mean they have to refinance, but it’s just you’re providing value by letting them know it might be a good opportunity. So that was my little tip.

Carrie McCormick 7:51
It is important. Yeah, I mean, always providing value to your clients is important in whatever fashion it is. So love it. Love that tip. Anytime

D.J. Paris 7:59
you can have a good reason to contact a client and not say, hey, I need more business. Can you refer your friends to me, which I think is a very hard thing to say and not something I would be comfortable saying but when you can actually say hey, I was thinking about you. And rates are down, you may want to look into refinancing seems like a great way a great reason to pick up the phone and call somebody. So all right. Well, I think that does it for this episode of the money market minute. Please send us your questions. So you can do that via Facebook. You can find us at keeping it real pod, also our website keeping it real pod.com. Send us your questions for Kerry. Any questions you would like her to ask we’ll have on a future episode in a month. And also follow us on Facebook and and follow Carrie on Instagram, Carrie McCormack real estate. And Carrie, what’s the if there are any buyers or sellers, renters investors? Anyone out there that is looking for a broker to work with? How should they reach out to you?

Carrie McCormick 8:57
Oh, thank you. Yes, absolutely. The best way to reach me is just to call me 312-961-4612. And if you prefer email, it’s Carrie at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 9:10
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you to the listeners, if every listener could think of one person that they feel could benefit from hearing these kinds of podcasts, forward this over to them, we would appreciate it. Our numbers keep going up. Because of you guys telling every other people because we don’t spend even $1 in advertising. So we’re very grateful to everyone who’s listening and we’re grateful to people like Carrie who come on the show every month. So on behalf of Carrie and myself, we thank you for listening and we will see you next time. Thanks Carrie. Thank you

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the January edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie looks back on 2018 and provides insight on how real estate brokers (as well as buyers and sellers) should be thinking about 2019. Listen to hear why Carrie is optimistic and learn some tips about what to tell sellers during the winter months. I provide a marketing tip on how to add more rentals to your business during slower sales cycles.

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 the second episode of 2019. But this is our first episode of the Monday market minute, of course, you’re listening to keeping it real. We this is our monthly series with Carrie McCormick from App properties, who is nice and generous enough to come on once a month to tell our listening audience what is going on in the Chicago market. Before we get to Carrie, I want to brag for Carrie. Because as of the end, and I have not asked her for this, she probably would not have allowed me to do it. So I’m going to do it. But until before she tells tells me I can’t she This is a big deal. Carrie was ranked the 14th highest producing Realtor in Chicago for all of 2018. And that is out of 40,000 Realtors. So we are Carrie is an unbelievable producer, as I just mentioned. And we’re so grateful to have her on the show. So happy. Happy New Year. And thanks for coming. Well, thank

Carrie McCormick 1:15
you and Happy New Year to you. And thank you for all that you do. Yeah, this year is really, you know, I’m really optimistic. And I’m looking forward to 2019. But I first want to talk about, you know, everyone’s been asking me, of course, you know, just kind of recapping 2018 and talking about 2019. But I would say that the economy remains optimistic. But it’s recalibrating. So things are starting to change a little bit. I think we’re going to see moderate growth this year. And as I’ve been reading a lot of articles, as many people do, I have been reading contrasting views on home prices, whether they’re going to you know how much they’re going to increase in also, depending on mortgage mortgage rates. So two of the ones that I read, one is realtor.com. Their 2019 forecast is projecting a 2.2% growth this year. And then Freddie Mac is projecting kind of double that rate at 4.3%. So you can see how there’s conflicting information. So it’s, you know, who’s right or who’s wrong. But, again, reading into some of the articles that I’ve gone through, it looks like that all signs are pointing to higher inventory this year, both from new build activity, as well as new homeowners entering the market as sellers. So there still is a desire to own a home, especially with our young Gen Z and millennials. But it’s it’s a little bit more challenging for them as we know, interest rates have gone up. So you know, it’s a little bit more difficult and the affordability factor of them buying a home. And also the wealth by equity generation that a home brings. So in the past, for those old timers like me, you know, we would invest in a home and we could flip it and we made money and it’s just the times have changed. So that gap has definitely decreased. Going back in 2018, for me, the second half of 2018 was slow. So really the whole second quarter of 2018 was slow. I was very busy. We did a lot of showings a lot of buyers, you know, we had we worked really hard of trying to get buyers to pull the trigger. But there was really no sense of urgency in the decisions. They were kind of waiting to see what would happen with the market waiting to see what would happen with interest rates. So we did a ton of showings and a lot of hard work of getting these buyers to push forward. So again, it was busy in that sense, but it was slow just the overall production I would say of getting things sold. This first two weeks of January have been extremely busy for me whether it’s listing appointments, showings on my listings or buyers that are asking me to go out to look this weekend. I am booked from 8am to 8pm both Saturday and Sunday. I’ve got it’s just it’s insane and I’m happy I’m bent I’m ecstatic to get people out there and it’s you know, we’re still in January.

D.J. Paris 4:22
Yeah, that’s that’s an amazing start to the year and amazing end to last year even though it of course was slower. You still obviously did incredibly well. When it comes to your sellers. Do you have any tips for people looking to sell their homes you know, what can sellers do right now to get their homes ready?

Carrie McCormick 4:41
Sure. I’ve got some great tips and they’re they’re pretty basic, but it’s a good reminder for everyone. My number one tip and people just kind of look past this is painting. Really painting I’ve read numerous articles on this, the the amount of return on it as 109% on your investment, but you could eat You can benefit more from it if your colors are unusual. I always say that colors. They’re very personal in your home, whether you like blues or reds or greens or you know, whatever your style is, but the general public, you need to appeal to the masses. So you definitely need to go and neutralize your home. But even if it is neutral, a fresh coat of paint just makes it feel cleaner and better. So the colors are grayish, you know, the grays are going out and beiges are coming in. But I would go somewhere in the middle, something extremely neutral. So paint is my number one tip for people, kitchens, everyone wants a nice kitchen. So investing in your kitchen does make a lot of sense. 80% of homeowners say that the kitchens their favorite room. So when the kitchen is updated, buyers are more forgiving on other outdated areas. So I’m finding that my clients are more likely to tolerate an outdated bathroom if they have an updated kitchen. So if you’re going to spend money on something definitely go the kitchen route because you’re definitely going to see a return on that.

D.J. Paris 6:07
Yeah, probably nobody wants to look at a kitchen go oh, I now I get to remodel that right a buyer might want my probably is more willing to remodel a bathroom for versus a kitchen I’m guessing

Carrie McCormick 6:21
for sure, definitely. But with the bathrooms Don’t forget about him if you’re not going to do a remodel, but just make sure you regrout or replace the caulk and just make it look clean and fresh. And lastly, I would say your exterior and your curb appeal. I know it’s not the best time of the year but just make sure that the the old debris is picked up you know anything that has fallen in the yard. Just get it cleaned up as much as you can. And of course once this weather breaks, that you know get into the mulching and the planting but you know at this point just don’t don’t leave it arrive make sure it’s it still looks presentable, get a new doormat, because your curb appeal means a lot.

D.J. Paris 7:01
Yeah, first impressions are everything. And you know, those are the easy things to fix to

Carrie McCormick 7:06
like cars or the easy things. Yeah.

D.J. Paris 7:10
We should also I want to pause for a second because I forgot to mention this at the beginning that everybody should be following Carrie on Instagram for really the sole reason that I’ve yet to see a another Realtors Instagram who does it quite as well as Carrie, if you don’t believe me, please check her out. And it’s a great masterclass on how to have a business Instagram account. That really is impressive, which is Carrie McCormick real estate. So just go on Instagram. So yeah, it’s it’s awesome. And you do it all yourself, which is even more impressive.

Carrie McCormick 7:43
I do it all myself. And that’s a great segue into this business that I met. I actually met her through a gal that works with me and through Instagram. It’s a small Bucktown business it’s called Mitchell black. They specialize in custom wall art, wall coverings, wallpapers, decorative flooring, I went into their store which is at 1922 North Damon. Just to get a sense of you know what they do. And you know, as clients are getting their houses ready, if there’s a wall that they want to spruce up or do something different. This business has the coolest ideas, you can go online and look at them. It’s Mitchell black or on Instagram. But if you’re in the area in Bucktown, I want to give a shout out to them. It’s they have the coolest stuff. It’s at 1922 North Damon, it’s called Mitchell black stop in and see him Yeah, that’s

D.J. Paris 8:36
that’s great. And I that is a good good thing because we I get questions all the time from listeners who are asking, like who does carry use for various vendors, various services. So this is a great thing we can start doing is promoting businesses that that you’re a huge fan of, because our our lists are listeners who are either brokers or buyers and sellers could obviously use these services. So I’ll post a link to to their website in the description as well. So thanks. Oh, thanks for that. So I wanted for my market minute. And I’ll keep this short because I’ve actually, I take that back. I’ve not given this tip before but I did not come up with this tip. So in our previous episode that was just released. Ryan de April actually gave this tip. So really this this credit goes to him. But it’s such a great tip. I want to reiterate it. So one of the when I spoke with Ryan, one of the things he coaches for his brokers as he says you’re supposed to make before you start work, make 10 calls to your sphere of influence. And then I said, Okay, well that’s in theory, that’s a great idea. What do you say? And he goes, Well, he’s a very humbled nice person. And he goes, I would never ask for business because he’s not comfortable doing that. So I said, Okay, so what do you why do you call these people? What do you say, would you get him on the phone? He said, Well, this is the he goes, that’s actually the easy part. He said, All you have to do to get a reason to give these people a call to let them know that you’re Thinking of them is to go on social media, if they’re on social media, in particular, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and see what’s going on in their lives. And then you will find some event that has happened. Maybe it’s a major life event, maybe it’s a minor event. But something that has happened, maybe they just went on vacation, and you can call them and say, Hey, I was just on Facebook. And I noticed that you, you know, weren’t so and so and so place. Just thought that was awesome. And I was just thinking about you, I hope you had a good vacation. See you later. And he said, By the way, he goes, You don’t have to call, you could send them a little Facebook instant message. He goes, it doesn’t have to be a call, but anything like that, you know, you use these social media platforms to do a little research on what’s going on with your clients or your sphere of influence. And I thought that is so smart, and wouldn’t have occurred to me. So I wanted to reiterate it for the audience.

Carrie McCormick 10:51
I love that. And it is it’s it’s great social media has so many great attributes to it. And that’s one of them is just keeping in touch with people finding out what’s going on in their life. I love it.

D.J. Paris 11:00
Cool. Well, I think that’ll do it for our first 2019 Monday market minute with Carrie McCormack. I’m sure Carrie is going to have an even more amazing year as she did last year. But we are so grateful because again, this is somebody that does not have time to do this, as you heard for her weekend coming up, but she still makes time. So we’re so grateful for her, please follow her on Instagram, which is Carrie McCormack real estate, we’ll post it, we’ll put a link to that in the description as well. And if you’re in need of a realtor, she carries the person she’s been doing it 20 years. She’s amazing, very successful, and she’ll take unbelievable care of you. Or if you can always reach out to her too if you’re a broker. So with any questions, and you can also reach us with questions. So if you would like to hear Kerry’s take on anything related to the Chicago real estate market, send us an email or visit our website at keeping it real pod.com Or visit us on Facebook keeping it real pod, send us a question and Carrie will answer it. So thank you so much, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 12:02
Thank you look forward to that too.

D.J. Paris 12:04
All right. On behalf of Carrie we say goodbye and we’ll see you in a month.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the December edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about how the Chicago market has slowed and how both buyers and sellers are backing off at the moment. What do real estate brokers say to clients when buyers think homes are too expensive and sellers think pricing is too low? I also provide a marketing tip how working with management companies will open up twice as many rental listings than what’s on the MLS.

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 Keeping it real. The only podcast made for Chicago real estate brokers by Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris. I am your host and welcome as well to our monthly episode of the Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from App properties. Welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:33
Thank you so much excited to be here this month, it’s December, it’s the end of the year.

D.J. Paris 0:38
Well, and before we get started, it is the end of the year. And just in case you’re new to the show, who is who am i Who’s Carrie McCormack? Well, I am just the host, so enough about me. But Carrie is one of the top top top top producing realtors in the entire Chicagoland area out of just shy of 40,000 Realtors, she is in gosh, I think the top anywhere from like the top 20, usually in the top 20. So she is in the top like 1% of 1%. She’s done hundreds of transactions just this year alone, total superstar producer, we are so grateful to have her on the show. And she’s too busy to do this. And yet she still finds time time or too busy for you. Well, you’re very sweet. And we love having you on the show. So what Carrie does, by the way, she comes on once every month, and talks about what brokers need to know in the public about what’s going on with the real estate market in Chicago. So I will turn it over to you.

Carrie McCormick 1:31
Well, thank you very much. And I always like to think it’s like boots on the ground. Because, you know, obviously, this is my full time job. I’m entrenched on the streets every day in our market, and I’m talking to buyers and sellers every day. So it’s you know, it’s really just firsthand knowledge and what I experience in the market. And probably all of our listeners know that this Chicago fall market has been extremely challenging for our sellers. And what I think that that’s happening is that sellers are trying to cling on to the spring prices, you know, we had a great spring here in Chicago. And sellers still want those prices that their neighbors received. While there just are not enough buyers out in the market right now that are willing to pay those prices. So recently, I read a Fannie Mae survey, and it said the proportion of people who think it’s a good time to buy a house has decreased significantly from the spring. So it was an to net 21% from 29. So it started at 29%. And then it dropped to 21%. But also the proportion of people who think it’s a good time to sell has dropped as well. And that dropped about 10%. So if you look at the math, you would expect, you know as a zero sum transaction, right, so both abortions fell. But it seems that sellers are unhappily realizing that they’re not going to get what they thought their house was worth six months ago. And buyers think that the homes are too expensive. So this explains right now why their transaction volume in Chicago has fallen this fall substantially.

D.J. Paris 3:13
Yeah, what are you telling your Do you have some do not do you but obviously you have had selling clients who have overvalue their homes. Are those difficult conversations?

Carrie McCormick 3:23
Oh, they’re extremely it’s not that they’re overvalued. It’s that the market has changed. Right? Right. It’s interest rates have gone up, taxes have gone up. So the affordability factor for buyers has completely changed. So sellers are still expecting their price, but buyers can’t afford it anymore. So it’s something has to shift. And it’s kind of a standoff between buyers and sellers. With with the big questions kind of like the chicken in the egg is what’s going to come first our price is going to drop, and buyers are going to react and start buying or, you know, our buyers just going to change the affordability factor instead of buying let’s say a $700,000 house this year, they’re going to end up buying a $500,000 price. So we’ve got a little standoff going between buyers and sellers right now. And it is a little difficult conversation. But that’s our job as Realtors is to be an adviser to our sellers, to tell them how the market is tell them how to position themselves for success, depending on what their goals are.

D.J. Paris 4:28
I think that’s great. Do you have any predictions for the spring?

Carrie McCormick 4:32
Well, of course nobody knows how the spring markets going to go but I’ve been doing this for this January will be 20 years this will be my adulation anniversary this January. And historically Chicago has always had a great spring market. This is our time to shine. And buyers have been on the sidelines for quite a few months now. So our fall market was slow or winter market was slow. So they’ve been on the sidelines kind waiting this out. I think they’re getting a little fatigued with that. And I think they wrap their arms around, again, the interest rates, the taxes, just their affordability factor. So I think we’re going to have a spring market, a good spring market, I don’t think it’s going to be anything crazy. But I think it’s going to be there. We’re going to, you know, move some inventory. And I always tell people keep in mind, we’ve got a good economy, right. There’s nothing wrong with our economy’s doing doing well. Young adults are forming families and they need a place to live, whether it’s rental or you know, if they’re going to buy, we have currently we have low housing inventory, we have good employment, we’ve got some great companies here in Chicago that spurring employment growth. And keep in mind, Chicago is a great city, and people want to stay here. So we’ve got a lot of positives. We just need these buyers to make a move. And I think it’s going to happen in the spring.

D.J. Paris 5:53
Awesome. Well, I. So in addition to Kerry’s market, minute, I do a little marketing minute. And I wanted to piggyback a little bit on what Carrie said with the sales market being slightly less than I think brokers who are listening or even the public listening would prefer. And what we’ve seen, at least even at our firm, I’m sure at Kerry’s firm as well is there’s been a little bit more movement in rentals. So I wanted to give you a quick marketing tip. If you’re a broker and you find yourself either wanting to do rentals or needing to do rentals or just trying to stay busy while the sales markets maybe a little slower. So if you find yourself wanting to do more rentals, or even just having a client that needs a place to live, typically it’s been my experience that brokers will traditionally go to the MLS as of course they would for a sale look for whatever rentals are available. And that’s their database. And that is a database. However, it just for people listening Did you know there is a another database that is a more invisible database, but also works directly with brokers but do not does not list their properties on the MLS. These are property management companies that either own or manage or both have buildings, whether it be high rises, or three flats, really buildings and all shapes and sizes, even single family homes for rent, but owning or manage these buildings. And we’ll work with brokers and we’ll pay you a commission. And in addition to getting the commission, it’s because it’s not on the MLS there is no listing broker, there’s no cooperative broker, right? It’s just while you’re the CO operative broker, so you would get in most cases, these buildings, these management companies do pay out one month’s rent, so you’re not splitting it as you would be on the MLS. Right. So how do you get access to these listings? Well, what I would do is first get some clients that are looking for apartments, and then whatever neighborhoods they’re looking into, if it’s in the city, look for the big high rises, that would be the easiest way to go. If it’s an area of the city where there are high rises and call those management companies and ask them well, first thing I would do is ask your managing broker, if you have relationships with these management companies, likely they do if they don’t, you can call these buildings directly and say, Hey, I’m a broker, I have a client that’s interested in you know, a unit in your in your building, do you pay a commission, if I bring you the broker, or sorry, bring you the renter, and you will find out that traditionally, they usually pay one month’s rent, sometimes even in the off months, they might even pay one and a half times rent, right. So it’s a, it’s certainly not a bad way to stay busy. And also, renters become buyers, as we know. So if you aren’t familiar with this, we’ll call it a non MLS database. Again, you could just look for the big management companies that manage properties or own buildings, or both in the areas that your clients are looking at. And contact those management companies and ask and you will be shocked. The vast majority of them do work with brokers. And you can ask to be put on there. We call it hot sheets. But basically, it’s their availability lists because since it’s not on the MLS, they usually email out their availability every so often. So just call a few of these buildings. And there you have a bigger database than just the MLS. So I don’t know, Carrie, if you’ve ever used management companies for rentals, but I have

Carrie McCormick 9:01
I have done that. And my tip to the brokers that are listening is since you’re dealing with the management companies or their you know, the corporate offices, you do there’s a little more paperwork on the getting paid side and you do have to follow up with them quite extensively on that front. So it’s a it’s a great tip, just you got to keep after him a little bit. So yeah, my experience

D.J. Paris 9:28
carries, right and so that what she’s mentioning is getting paid. So once the you know, the renter signs the lease, you know, in a traditional MLS transaction, you get paid pretty quickly. Sometimes with these management companies, since it’s anonymous transaction, your your office, your managing broker will or whoever works, your office will send an invoice to these companies and it’s essentially a build for them to pay. So be prepared to wait. That’s the downside is that sometimes you get paid, you know, within a few weeks, sometimes you don’t. And that’s just unfortunately the nature of working with management companies. So that is definitely a downside. So you’re not going to get it as quickly most most of the time, but hopefully you will get it. You’ll get it. Yeah, but you will get it. Well, Carrie and I wanted to thank everyone for listening over the last year and beyond. And we’re so excited to continue the show. Happy holidays to Carrie Carrie, to you and to all the listeners.

Carrie McCormick 10:19
Yes, everyone. Happy holidays. And thank you DJ for such a wonderful year and having me on your show. You do so much for our community and I just want to thank you and of course thank everyone who listens.

D.J. Paris 10:31
Well thank you and we will see you guys in 2019 and we’re excited to bring you more tips and tricks and tell you more about the market.

Carrie McCormick 10:39
Happy selling and happy holidays.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the October edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about how the Chicago market has started showing pricing discounts due to home sales being down (more than any decrease in the past seven years). Where are the buyers and why have they dropped off? The good news is that there are several neighborhoods in Chicago booming right now and Carrie shares those with you. Then, I provide a marketing tip about working with renters in a down sales market and how 46% of buyers right now are first-timers (previous renters).

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:13
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcasts made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers. My name is DJ Paris, and today is our regular monthly episode The Monday market minute with superstar producer at properties broker Carrie McCormick, welcome. Oh, thank you, as always, well, just in case this is anyone’s first time and they have not heard you on the show before. You’ve been in the business almost 20 years, or is it over 20. At this point,

Carrie McCormick 0:42
I’m going to stick with 1920 Just makes it sound like a long time. So it’s been 19 years, almost 20. Actually, January will be 20.

D.J. Paris 0:51
And not only is Carrie been a producer for quite some time, of course, she is a top producer, top 1% producer and even more than top 1% She is actually always in about the top 15 brokers in all of the Chicagoland area, year after month after month, year after year, which is a big deal because there’s about 40,000 of them. So for her to take time to be on the show, she does not have time to do the show. And yet she still does. And she comes on every month and talks about what’s going on in the market for Chicago as things brokers need to know and buyers and sellers. And we are so grateful that she does this on a Saturday when she I’m sure has a million other appointments. So thank you again.

Carrie McCormick 1:30
Well, thank you love doing it.

D.J. Paris 1:32
Alright, let’s get started. What’s going on?

Carrie McCormick 1:35
Well, we have been dodging this day of reckoning, but all Chicago people know winter is coming. And when winter comes, we start seeing price cuts here and we’ve seen them over the last couple of weeks, we start seeing price cuts, price changes, you know, just a nice shift in this market here. And for the past several months, I would say there’s been a lack of motivation on the buyer side. So this month’s home sales have declined a whopping 15% from last year, which is the biggest decline in Chicago in more than seven years. I think last month, it was about 7%. And this month now we’re hitting 15%. So it’s a big, it’s a big drop. And every day, when I’m talking with my buyers, and obviously mostly my sellers, I get the question of where are the buyers? And why is the market slow? Well, it’s just not here in Chicago. And it seems to be nationwide. So as a matter of fact, yesterday, I was speaking with a another agent from the Ohio market, and then an agent from Tennessee market. And everyone is sensing a slowdown. It’s whoever I talked to whether they’re here in Chicago, or in another state, everyone’s sensing a slowdown. And, you know, there are several factors that have dampened our demand. The Of course, the change in the federal tax code that Trank deductions for property taxes, and we’re seeing an uptick in the mortgage rates that have changed the overall affordability of owning a home. It’s not that just people are afraid of the rates, because historically they still are low. But it’s really the the affordability of of owning a home and the price point that they can buy in. And some p some people, some buyers have reached their limits of what they’re willing to pay. And this applies across the board. I’m not just seeing it was savvy, you know, buyers and investors, it’s first time homebuyers. It’s move up buyers and investors as well. Go ahead.

D.J. Paris 3:41
Yeah, no, you’re right. And I know mortgage applications are down seven to 10% On average right now as per even over like a month ago. So you know, I know rates aren’t everything, but boy, they’re really affecting people’s willingness to even move forward.

Carrie McCormick 4:00
And it’s important being in this market, you know, being a real estate agent, this market of having your, your network of people because I talk with the title companies all the time I talk to my mortgage lenders all the time, the inspectors, you know, the appraisers, everyone that’s involved in the process of, you know, buying and selling a home and just talking to them about the market and what they’re seeing and what they’re experiencing. And it’s it’s the same, you know, we’re all in the same boat. But but you know, there’s some buyers out there and the buyers that are out there, they do want to deal. They want new construction, it seems like the resale homes are getting hit a little bit harder than the new construction. And if it is a resale home, people want to deal you know, they want they want a good deal.

D.J. Paris 4:46
Yeah. Now, are there any are there any areas in the city here that are still doing well, despite, you know, the overall slowdown?

Carrie McCormick 4:54
You know, that’s that’s a really good question. So yes, most of the neighborhoods have cooled down here in Chicago. But Logan Square has really turned up the heat. And there was a recent article in cranes just about Logan Square. It was a really interesting read it was just the other day. And they did say that the single family homes in Logan Square shot up more than 19% this year. And that that data came right out of Chicago Association of Realtors, and also the number of horses that sold there. Almost 9% In the same period. So we’ve got Logan Square did really well. Another neighborhood called Avondale, which is just a little bit north of Logan Square has stayed warm, they shot up about 12%. And then also I’m starting to see some Southside neighborhoods showing some increases, there was a neighborhood, Auburn Gresham, Roseland, South Chicago, if you look at their numbers, you know, they’re they’re staying warm down there. Now their numbers are doing pretty well. But I always tell people hang in there, you know, this is Chicago, we’re a very resilient city. Everyone needs a place to live. You know, we just we have these downturns and been in this industry for 19 years, I’ve been through this before. You know, we just got to work hard price homes, right? And just stick with it.

D.J. Paris 6:16
Well said, and for everyone who’s listening, you can also submit your questions to Carrie directly, so you can send those to us. If you’re not already following us on Facebook, just facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod. Also keeping it real pod.com Or website, you can submit questions through that as well. Let’s move over to my marketing idea, my marketing minute for the week. And I’d like to get Kerry’s thoughts on this too. So I was recently very, very grateful. I was invited by Zillow to come out to New York and see their New York operation which was super cool. And they were nice enough to have me out there. And they just recently about two weeks ago or so are released their 2018 consumer housing Trends report. It is awesome. So just so that everyone knows, obviously we know who Zillow is, but how big they are is really impressive. 186 million individuals visit zillow.com every single month. So they just aggregate Oh, it’s incredible. They they know more, they have more data on buyers and sellers than any other company. It’s super, super critical. So they aggregate all this data, they you know, just publish it for free. I’ll post a link to this report because it’s super cool. Whether you’re a consumer or broker, you should check it out. But there are two couple stats that really shout out at me that I think brokers could use in their marketing. Number one is home. We’re talking about homebuyers only here 42% Of all homebuyers are millennials and that’s interesting to me is a huge number a huge number. And then the other number is 46% of all homebuyers are first timers. Now maybe that’s not so surprising to people listening. It’s something that I always forget. So we’ll just round that up to 50%. We’ll say half of all homebuyers are first timers. And brokers of course, no, that’s the low hanging fruit. These are people who have traditionally not worked with a realtor before. Maybe they worked with one to help find an apartment but probably not. So you you have one out of every two people buying a home has probably never worked with a realtor before. So what can a broker do with this information? Seems a couple of ideas. Number one, and I know brokers typically don’t get their real estate license to do rentals, right? That’s not anyone’s probably most anyone’s dream. But it’s an opportunity to build a relationship right away. So if you’re not flushed with sales, and it’s a little slower, because the markets slow down, and you have maybe fewer buyers or sellers at the current moment, maybe reach out to some of your rental rental clients and maybe help them find an apartment or the second part is if you really don’t want to do rentals, but you still should work with rent with people who are currently renting because those are future buyers, as we know, and half of all buyers are first timers. So these are people that are renting right now. What I my idea for everyone is to reach out to companies that have a lot of employees that are younger, maybe millennials, and this this was me. Many years ago, I worked at a technology firm, there were 150 of us all in our 20s I’m guessing 95% of us were renters, but we were starting to make more money in our late 20s. And I thought boy, it wouldn’t have been smart for a realtor to come in and say you guys should be thinking about buying in the next year. And all they would have needed to do is reach out to our human resources department and say, Hey, can I come in and bring in lunch and talk about the path to ownership and then maybe bring a lender in and an attorney to help share the cost of bringing in lunch and do a 15 minute presentation and I guarantee that realtor would have walked away with a ton of clients, or at least a ton of opportunities for clients. So this is something where you can reach out to your sphere of influence. Ask them where do you work? What’s Your office like, Do you have a lot of younger people? Do you have people that may be thinking of buying? Or maybe you just want to work with renters right now and say you have people renting I’ll help them too. But you can reach out to these companies and offer your services. Right. So that’s an opportunity as well to just think about how do I get in front of more people that are currently renting, that are maybe going to be buyers? So Carrie, do you have any any thoughts on that?

Carrie McCormick 10:24
That’s actually a really great idea. And I have never done that. But I think I may use your idea.

D.J. Paris 10:32
Yeah. So I do it. Well, yeah. I mean, all it would really take is reach out to some of your existing clients and say, Where do you work? What’s what, how many people are there? If I reached, could you talk introduce me to the human resources person or whoever? I don’t know. Just something to try. And I do love renters.

Carrie McCormick 10:46
I think that’s, you know, you can’t dismiss the whole rental pool because the renters turn into buyers and you know, these people, no other people. So it’s I love rentals. I think it’s a great a great tip you have

D.J. Paris 11:02
Yeah, I interviewed an app properties broker, Susan Panozzo. A little while ago. Yeah, I know, you know, she does like 100 rentals a year and then gets like 20 sales a year out of those rentals. So anyway, all right. Well, that’s that’ll do it for this week. Oh, follow Carrie. First of all, everyone needs to follow Carrie on Instagram. It’s It’s unbelievable. She has absolutely without exception, not just because she’s on the show. But this is the Absolute Truth. The very best real estate broker Instagram account I have ever seen. And that’s Carrie McCormack real estate. Which it’s incredible. She does it all herself. She doesn’t hire an agency. It’s pretty cool.

Carrie McCormick 11:42
I do. And I get I get that question, honestly, at least once a day as Who does your social media? And I say I do that like No, seriously, who does your social? I do. I love doing it. It’s fun. And I enjoy it. So But anyways, anyone that has any real estate questions, I’m always open to a phone call, or a text message or email. I’m always here to help love to share some of my ideas with people. If there’s any questions you have, I’m always willing to give back.

D.J. Paris 12:12
And if you’re a consumer, and you’re looking for a realtor to work with, well, I would want to work with the person who’s the 15th highest producer out of 40,000. That’s who I would choose. So how could How can somebody reach you via telephone or email?

Carrie McCormick 12:25
Of course, so my cell phone is 312-961-4612. And I do try to answer my phone all the time. You can text me as well that number or you can email me at Carey ca RR ie at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 12:44
Well, that will do it for another Monday market minute. Carrie is so generous. We’re so grateful that she does this. And again, she doesn’t have time to do this. In fact, we know we were supposed to do this at 11 o’clock and Carrie says Can we push this back 15 minutes I have an appointment. So that is how incredibly busy she is. So thank you. Thank you. And on behalf of Carrie and myself, we will see you in a month and thanks for listening. Thanks Carrie.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the September edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about whether the market is slowing down. Days on market has recently risen for EVERY major Chicago neighborhood. Carrie shares some seller tips including having exterior photos done before the winter arrives, and making sure the property is move-in-ready. Then, I provide a marketing tip about making weekly 60 second Instagram videos for your contact list to get them hooked on YOU!

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:16
Hello and welcome to another episode of 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. And today on the show, we are doing our monthly market minute with Carrie McCormick from at properties. So welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:35
Hello, thanks for having me. As always, you’re welcome.

D.J. Paris 0:39
Carrie comes on every single month and talks about what is going on in the market. What Realtors need to know what buyers and sellers need to know. And let’s talk about why we have Carrie on the show. Aside from being a wonderful personality for this podcast. She is also a top producer. Not only is she in the top 1% of Realtors in the entire Chicagoland area there are, by the way, 40,000 realtors, she is in the top 1/10 of 1% of production this year alone, probably almost every year. I’m sure she’s in there. But she has as of right now in the top 1/10 of 1%. I don’t know if you even knew that you know that? Well, that’s because you’re so busy that you wouldn’t know that. But I took the time to look that up just a few minutes ago. And that Anyway, she’s great. So welcome Carrie to the show.

Carrie McCormick 1:27
Thank you. Thank you. So here we are in September, we are in the beginning of September. And as everyone knows, I live and breathe real estate. And it’s been an interesting last 30 days in the market because the housing chatter has increased this summer of a market slowdown. And the data that I read appears to support those claims. And everyone is attempting to predict the next residential real estate shift. And you know, really kind of just the next financial shift in general. So here’s an interesting little story is I was on my last listing appointment the other day. And the seller and I great guy got into a discussion of just like the overall market, you know, the stock markets, the international market. And of course, we talked about the real estate market here. And on the counter of this gentleman’s home, he had shared with me the July issue of Fortune Magazine. And if you look on the cover, it’s this black and white cover, and it’s this gentleman announcing the end is near. And if you go online, you can read this article, it was written by Jeff Colvin. And it was I read it because there’s a lot of graphs and you know, history. And you know, a lot of predictions are based on data and graphs. And it’s called The end is near for the economic boom growth, and it will slow in the bull markets going to expire. Very interesting. Not that I’m thinking that the end is near whatsoever. But of course, when magazines and the media and you start seeing this on the news, you know, everyone starts talking about it. So it’s really been, you know, a hot topic for me to discuss with my sellers, with my buyers, and just, you know, general conversation. So if anyone has a subscription to it, I’d suggest reading it’s a great, it’s a great read. But right now, I think it’s too early to predict a change. And, you know, we’re starting to see some of the prices shift. I’m starting to see, you know, the some of the summer inventory that’s out there. People are doing price changes, you know, starting to cool down a little bit. But I always say that Chicago is a very resilient market and we typically don’t get hit as hard as the East and West Coasts when there is a cooldown. I think we’ll be okay for this fall. But we’re starting to see a little bit of summer inventory, making some of their price changes.

Now, I also want to just talk about the inventory because that’s also been a little bit of a topic for the last couple of months is the inventory and, and days on the market. So the median days on the market for the residential properties rose in every single neighborhood in Chicago. Or sometimes I always say that Chicago is very neighborhood specific. They’re kind of a market of their own. But I looked across every major Chicago neighborhood and everyone’s market time is up and particularly in Logan Square in Avondale. Now everyone remembers Logan Square was the hot neighborhood that you had to move into inventory wouldn’t stay on the market for a while. So right now for Logan Square the condos that went under contract last month spent 100 A No Not 100 210% more time on the market this summer versus last summer. So again, when you start look Qing and digesting all of the data in each neighborhood this year definitely or this summer, I should say this summer definitely took a little bit of a slowdown versus last summer. And everyone’s trying to predict why. Why did that happen? So it’s the question I get every day all day long. But I do want to also talk about some positive things, I looked at my my data. And actually, I’ve sold 104 homes in the last 12 months, for which it’s been very busy in the last 12 months, and my focus has always been on listing homes for sale. So I thought I would offer some seller tips for getting into this fall market. And number one, if you are going to be selling your home this fall market, you have to be realistic about your pricing. That is the number one thing, really look at the data, look what’s sold in the last couple of months, look what’s coming on the market. You know, just look at the attributes of your home and be realistic about your pricing. I’ve also noticed that when buyers come in, they want a move in ready home. Buyers do not want to do a lot of work, they don’t have time anymore, they want to walk into a home and feel like they can move right in. And buyers even have a hard time envisioning changing pink color. So you have to do that you have what I call it is setting the stage set a stage of the home, when a buyer walks in, all they have to do is fall in love and imagine themselves living there. Also think about this, when a buyer comes into your home, this is actually a second showing. The first showing happens online. So everyone sits at home, they look at your home online, they study the pictures, they look at different angles, they look at the video, the floorplan they have already mentally moved into your home. And when they come to your home in person, it needs to fit exactly what they were imagining online. So again, this is the second showing, walking into your home has to be perfect. The paint, the staging, everything about it has got to be perfect. So make sure you’re priced right for this bull market and make sure that your home is show ready for buyers to come in.

D.J. Paris 7:29
When would you say priced? Right. Are we talking about pricing to sell? Well,

Carrie McCormick 7:33
I mean, if you’re serious about price, about selling this fall? Absolutely. Because the fall markets have very short window. You know, we’ve got September, we’ve got October, we’ve got a little bit into November. But once we start hitting those holiday months, you know, really we’re taking the slowdown. And at that point, you might want to wait until spring market. Now

D.J. Paris 7:52
Yeah. What if your seller is not ready to sell this fall? But they do want to sell on the spring? What do you tell them now?

Carrie McCormick 7:59
Yeah, that’s a very important question. And there’s two important things. One, first and foremost, take your exterior photos. Now we still have leaves on the trees, the grass is green, everything looks good. Have your realtor come out and start photographing the exterior spaces of your home. So that is number one. And most importantly, because you do not want to be taking pictures in January, February, March and here in Chicago things do not look.

D.J. Paris 8:27
That’s really smart. That’s a very smart idea.

Carrie McCormick 8:29
Yeah, so definitely take your pictures now your exterior pictures now. And then start your updates on your home. So if you’re going to, you know, do some painting, or you know, I always tell people paint your front door now because the weather allows that you can’t do that in January, February. So paint your front door if you’re doing anything your outdoor decks, get them powerwash get them stained, you know, get your exterior ready. And then of course, start working on your interior projects. You know, declutter, take out some stuff from a closet, I always tell people that you’re moving anyways. So start boxing it up, you know, getting some of the stuff out of the house, do your painting projects. If there’s anything that needs to be fixed, if you’ve got outlets, if you’ve got light fixture or light your fans and aren’t working or whatever it is start getting those ready so you don’t feel the pressure in the spring so you can ease into it.

D.J. Paris 9:22
Now what about buyers for the fall? What are you telling them?

Carrie McCormick 9:26
So yes, if you’re a buyer that you’re on the sidelines, you’re waiting to see what the fall market brings? I would say that it’s going to be a competitive market. I think there’s going to be few options for you. So time will be limited to make decisions. If you see a house that you like, I would suggest moving pretty quickly on it. I would get your pre approval ready. I would like I said just move quickly because the good ones will sell fast.

D.J. Paris 9:53
Perfect. Well, thanks very much. We should also mention Carrie is aside from having all this great data and obviously being extremely successful working with buyers and sellers, she has a really impressive and absolutely worth following a couple of social media accounts in particular Instagram and Facebook, you can find her just by searching for Kerry McCormick real estate. So instagram.com forward slash Carrie McCormick real estate or you can search that way too. And same with Facebook Carrie McCormack real estate, if you want to see how to really run a successful social media campaign, I’ve never legitimately never seen anyone do it better than Carrie. So absolutely. Yeah, it’s not it’s absolute. Just the truth. Absolutely.

Carrie McCormick 10:37
I do it all myself. A lot of people asked me which company I use, and you know, who designs everything, but it’s one of my passions, I love design, and I love doing it.

D.J. Paris 10:49
Well, this and this brings me to my tip my my marketing minute tip of the week. And this has also to do with social media. So I was thinking about this. So my background is in marketing, it’s not really in real estate. So I always think from a marketing perspective, and I probably have more of a buyer seller mentality than a realtor mentality, simply because that’s really more of how I see myself. And I was thinking about this recently because we have it well, at your firm, there are 1000s of realtors, we have a lot of realtors in our firm. And I get the question a lot is like how do I do social media. And I always tell them, check out what Kerry’s doing. In addition to though I thought of something, I realized that oftentimes we forget that our contact list the people that eventually will become buyers and sellers may are not always in the market, right? They’re only in the market when they’re in the market. And maybe they’re not super, always super interested in real estate when they’re not in the market. But I thought well, what is everybody always interested in? And I thought, well, the weekend, it occurred to me that all of us share a commonality that the weekend is where we can do go do fun things. Well, not maybe Carrie, she’s always on showings, but everyone else gets to go out and do fun things. And I thought, you know, I know me, I personally because I live in the city. And I know carries the city all the time as well. We’re there’s so many things to do in the city, but not just the city, the suburbs, too. But there’s so many things to do. It’s hard to keep track. And I thought you know, what if, as a realtor, what one way that you can connect with your audience all the time, and this will always be of interest to them is to say, here’s what’s going on for the weekend. So if you focus in a particular suburb, for example, that’s even easier, because you could just look to see what’s going on. If you’re a particular neighborhoods in the city you specialize in, you can focus on that. But I thought you know, wouldn’t it be fun? Because I know, personally, I subscribe to three or four newsletters, including like Chicago magazine, and timeout and Thrillist. And these these, they send me an email every week saying here are the top things to do over the weekend. And I thought, boy, you know, wouldn’t it be cool to make a 62nd video, saying here are the three coolest things to do this weekend? So this is something any broker can do. I don’t know of anyone currently doing it. So there’s a huge opportunity, and maybe you specialize in a particular market. Give it a try. Yeah, well, I don’t know that you need to do anything more than you’re doing. But I

Carrie McCormick 13:10
got that idea. I think that’s a great idea. And if you look back in some of my social media, I didn’t do video, but I did. Like posts about the weekend. But the interesting thing, like you said about Chicago is I look to see what’s happening on a weekend. There’s hundreds of things to do. Yeah, it’s overwhelming. It’s overwhelming. We’ve got an amazing city and amazing things to do. But I love your idea.

D.J. Paris 13:31
Yep. So I will leave that with you guys is create think about content in addition to real estate content that your audience is interested in. So I always thought what’s going on on the weekend seems interesting. So think about that. And you can post that on Instagram and you could do a 62nd video, you just turn turn your phone towards yourself, make a quick video, and then call it a day. So anyway, we’re gonna sign off. So this was Thank you Carrie again, make sure everybody follow Carrie on Instagram and Facebook again. It’s Carrie McCormack real estate. McCormick has to seize. And obviously you can see how real good social media marketing is done. She does it the best. And we will see you guys on our next Monday market minute which will be in a month. It’s a lot of answering there. And other than that, thanks. Oh, by the way everyone should. If you’re not currently subscribed to our show, you can subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, anywhere podcasts are served. You can also stream every single episode we’ve done at keeping it real pod.com Find us on Facebook as well keeping it real pod. And we’ve stream all at least post all of our stuff there too. So on behalf of Carrie and myself, we thank you for listening. And Carrie, we’ll see we’ll see you next month. Sounds great.

Carrie McCormick 14:45
Have a great day.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the July edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about whether she believes we’re headed for a real estate (bursting) bubble. I ask Carrie a question about rising lending rates and how she answers clients with those concerns.  Then, I provide a marketing tip on how making sure brokers are asking their clients for reviews on Zillow, Google, Yelp, and Facebook!

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:16
Hello, and welcome to another episode of 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 of the show. And today, as we do every month, we have our Monday market minute with superstar producer Carrie McCormick from App properties. So welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:34
Hello, hello, and happy July happy July 4 To you

D.J. Paris 0:39
Happy July 4 to you as well. And Carrie is not just one of the 1000s of brokers that that property, she is one of the very top brokers in the entire Chicagoland area, she is usually in the top 20 or so producing brokers in all Chicago, which is a very, very big deal. She’s been a producer for almost 20 years now. So we’re very excited to have her on the show, she has a ton of experience a lot of knowledge. And every month she comes on and talks about what brokers need to know about what’s going on in the market. So welcome, once again to the show.

Carrie McCormick 1:12
Well, thank you, thank you. So I was hoping actually I hate to say this, but I was hoping that July 4 week would be a little bit slower. So everyone can enjoy the holiday. But the market still is moving. And we’re not seeing a break. So last year, you’re just I always like looking at it from last year to this year. And we’re really in a very competitive housing market. Just again, we keep talking about the shortage of inventory. So we are still seeing it. And we you know, the prediction is that month after month, we’re going to still see a very competitive market, and there’s no signs of slowing down. So as you look at the economic news that we are seeing, it’s all positive and demand is quite strong.

D.J. Paris 2:02
Have you seen anything? Or do you have any opinions about interest rates? We know the Fed just recently raised rates? do we how do you feel that that’s going to affect the future market or the present marketing?

Carrie McCormick 2:14
Yeah, so I would say for the short term, it’s actually a positive thing, because what that’s doing is it’s creating an urgency to get a home under a contract before, you know the rates go up even higher, and they can’t afford what they want. So it’s in the short term, it’s creating a sense of urgency, again, to get something under contract, long term, you know, depends on where the rates end up going. Long term, it could slow it down a little bit. But for the short term, everything’s looking good.

D.J. Paris 2:45
So if you have buyers that are maybe on the fence, or if listeners are out there, who are brokers who have buyers who haven’t yet pulled the trigger, this is a good conversation to have, hey, the Fed just raise rates, this will affect interest rates, maybe it’s a good time to get more serious about making a decision.

Carrie McCormick 3:01
Yeah. And it’s again, it’s giving them a little sense of urgency, which is always good for the market. Another thing that, you know, I’m starting to get a lot of questions from my buyers, and my sellers is, you know, if we’re heading into a housing bubble, so because I’ve been doing this for almost 19 years, I clearly remember the housing bubble, you know, 10 years ago. So it’s always, you know, in the back of my mind, because I remember, obviously, I didn’t know that was going to happen, but I remember, you know, the conditions leading up to it. And, you know, being part of it, and understanding, you know how that affected everyone. So I’m starting to hear that question. And those terms come up again, a lot is, you know, is there a housing bubble? What do you think’s going to be happening? So one of my data sources that I look at is the National Association of Realtors, which I would highly recommend everybody take a look at their site. They’ve got some great information on there. And there’s the chief economic gentleman, Lawrence Yun, I believe that’s how you pronounce his last name. And, you know, his comment is that he does not worry that that there’s a housing bubble. And what he his comment was, quote, unquote, he says home prices are clearly rising too fast, and they’ve outpaced people’s income for the last five years. Is it a housing bubble coming in? His answer is no. And he says, because the fun fundamental supporting factors of today’s housing market versus what happened 10 years ago are drastically different. And he’s right. And what’s changed in my perspective is the underwriting guidelines, because I remember in 2000 or the early 2000s people could get mortgages, interest only loans interest, you get 0% down I mean, They barely, like checked, you know, anyone’s information, even appraisals of properties. You know, we had, hopefully, it’ll get in trouble for saying this, but there was drive by appraisals, you know, appraisers didn’t even go into the houses, which, you know, was, it was, it was, I don’t know, it was just kind of a crazy time. But now the underwriting guidelines are so strict. And you know, everyone is doing their, their due diligence. So that is a drastic change in, you know, from 2000, early 2000s. To now. You know, in plus, last, you know, when the housing bubble was here in the early 2000s, or 2008, it was we didn’t have the supply and demand issue that we’re having today. So, there was plenty of inventory back then. Right now, there’s not a lot of inventory. So, you know, I’m going off of what he’s saying. And I don’t, I don’t sense it either. Hopefully, we’re not going to have a bubble.

D.J. Paris 6:04
Well, let’s Yeah, let’s hope not. And I know that one of the key frustrations for realtors these days is a lack of in Chicago, at least it was a lack of inventory. So I imagine there’s not too much anyone can do about that other than just deal with it. But I imagine that’s Is that is that a source of frustration for your clients?

Carrie McCormick 6:23
It is it really is. And, you know, people, you know, don’t have a lot of patience, either we go out looking a couple of times, and you know, we can’t find what we’re looking for, you know, the rent is always on the back of people’s mind of, you know, maybe I’ll just rent for a little bit until the right thing comes along. So it is frustrating, but we’ll see what this fall market brings, I’m predicting that it’s going to be a strong fall market. So we’ll hopefully get some more inventory. And, and, and keep the market moving.

D.J. Paris 6:53
Awesome. Well, I, for my marketing minute want to just very quickly give everyone a very simple and obvious thing that every broker should be doing. And it’s very, very, it’s something you can implement immediately, which is asking for reviews. So of course, we know that well over 80% of all home searches start online right now, they ultimately most of them finish using a realtor, which is a good thing for everyone listening. But of course, all of your clients are always looking online, you know, you you are not the sole source of inventory for the client, since they can kind of access it all now anyway. But sorry, my dog barking in the background. But real quickly from from a review perspective, we know that not only are our buyers and sellers looking online for inventory, they’re also looking to see reviews of you, right. So very simply, if you’re not asking your clients to review you on line, you’re missing a huge opportunity, because your clients are likely going to look you up. I mean, I was just recently about to go to a doctor and I said, you know, I’m just going to check to see what the reviews were on health grades or whatever the you know. So I mean, I do it even for doctors. So all you have to do is get the links to I think a couple of sources. So immediately after a transaction, or you can really do it at anytime. But I think after a transaction, when the client is likely happiest with your service, and it’s most front of their mind, you’re going to want to send them an email saying, hey, the best way you could ever thank me, if I did a good job for you is to tell other people about me. Here’s one way to do that. And I would provide a link to this to the Zillow review site. And you can get your own specific link at Zillow, the premier agent site. Also Facebook is another place people will look and then to others, of course, Google. And then lastly, Yelp. And what I will do in the notes is provide links on how to get the specific links for your business on all of those sites. But making sure you send those in an email and saying, Hey, if you could take one minute and review me on one or more of these sites, it would really help me out tremendously. And of course, you know, we all know why. So make sure you’re asking don’t assume people are going to do that on your behalf. And we all know that there’s businesses you go to who they continually hound you to say please write us a review. And ultimately, I think it’s a great idea. And I don’t know that I do it more than once or twice asking is that’s probably enough. But definitely ask don’t assume people are going to even think to do it. I mean, we go to the grocery store, and most of the time when you check out they even circle it on the receipt they say please, you know, let us let management know how I did. Here’s the review like so. You know, that’s just my my quick advice there.

Carrie McCormick 9:34
And I think that’s great. And one other thing to add to that with the Zillow reviews is that if someone does leave a review or testimonial for you is you have the ability to reply and comment to that person. So I would highly recommend doing that as well you know, thanking them for the review and it shows up you know, on your testimonials that you know there’s engagement there and it also will will help I don’t know how it does but it helps kind of your stats because it’s showing engagement

D.J. Paris 10:03
yes and just to further that point you can on most review sites you can reply so Yelp is what is that way Google Facebook as well actually pretty much all of them so great point yes definitely always review if for no other reason then it lets the person who wrote the review know that you read it but yes, it also looks good and probably helps your stats. Okay guys, Kerry’s got to run to a showing in Wicker Park right now so she was so gracious to do this because she’s got 12 minutes to get to her appointment so thank you. Carrie, what’s if you have if there are any buyers sellers investors renters out there who want to work with you, how can they reach you?

Carrie McCormick 10:38
Yes, thank you. So my phone number is always the best way to call I pick up my phone all the time. 312-961-4612 But I’d also encourage everyone to check out my Instagram page I love doing some posting on Instagram. It is Carrie McCormick real estate and of course just the the regular old email Carrie at app properties.com

D.J. Paris 11:01
Yeah, if you want to see the best possible Instagram account that I’ve ever seen for a real estate professional Kerry’s got it. This is no exception. No exaggeration. Check it out. It’s amazing. So anyway, until next month. Thank you Carrie and good luck at your showing.

Carrie McCormick 11:15
Thank you guys. All right. Buh bye.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the June edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about the most appreciated (and most depreciated) neighborhoods in Chicago over the past year.  I provide a marketing tip on how brokers can use Trello to create virtual whiteboards to track their prospects, contacts, and transactions!

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:16
Hello and welcome to another episode of 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 to the show and today is another episode on the Monday market minute with my co host Carrie McCormack. So welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:34
Good morning. Hello, everybody.

D.J. Paris 0:36
And if you are, this is your first time listening to a Monday market minute Carrie comes on and talks about the state of affairs with the Chicago real estate market. And basically information brokers also buyers and sellers may want to know about what’s going on today. Carrie is a top producer at properties. She’s been a top producer for a very, very long time. She’s actually last I checked in the I think you’re the top 15 producers in the entire Chicagoland area for the year, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment considering there’s over 40,000 realtors. So anyway, Carrie has been doing this 19 years. Correct?

Carrie McCormick 1:14
You got it? It seems it seems hard to say that number. But yes, I’ve been doing it for 19 years.

D.J. Paris 1:20
Amazing. Well, what’s going on? What are you want to talk about this week?

Carrie McCormick 1:23
So I thought we would do something a little different. You know, it’s we’re headed into our mid year. And I always like to look back at some of the neighborhoods that have performed well here in Chicago, and I thought I would talk about the five neighborhoods with the highest home appreciation. And I’m sure there’s some that you can guess which you know, and then there’s some little surprises in here. But the number one neighborhood that had the highest appreciation is Lincoln Park. So they almost saw a 10% appreciation in their home values from last year.

D.J. Paris 2:00
That’s that’s really surprising to me, because Lincoln Park has been just so steady for so long.

Carrie McCormick 2:05
So they really lead the pack in the last year. The next one, which was not much of a surprise. But of course we’ve got the West Loop. We’ve seen an explosion over there. I mean, there’s cranes galore happening. And the West Loop is almost hitting a 10% increase as well. The number three is Humboldt Park. So we’ve seen a lot of our buyers. Look for more affordable housing, you know, looking to branch out into these wonderful neighborhoods, Humboldt Park has a ton of great things to offer. So Humboldt Park saw an increase in their home values about 7%. The next neighborhood is Roscoe village, one of my favorite neighborhoods. Yeah, so I’ve lived in Roscoe for 13 years. And it has made a big leap. And it’s, you know, just a fabulous neighborhood. The schools there are tremendous. So we see a lot of growth there because of the schools and the wonderful tree lined streets. So Roscoe village, again, was about 6.75% increase in the last year. And to round out my top five, another one of my favorite neighborhoods, which is Lakeshore east. A lot of people don’t know the neighborhood there. But it’s a little oasis, right by the lake, they offer wonderful amenities a park in their walk to everything, just some really great housing opportunities there. And they saw about a 5% increase in the last year. And it’s

D.J. Paris 3:33
and it’s really quiet over there too far as close as close as really it is sort of its own thing. And it’s only really a couple blocks from everything else. So it’s kind of this way. Yeah, it’s

Carrie McCormick 3:45
a little hidden gem.

D.J. Paris 3:47
It is it is and there’s a lot of cool high rises, right of the Aqua is over there and Harbor Point tower and all that stuff. Okay, so if we were to go the other way, are there any neighborhoods that have had, you know, a really significant decline in the last year?

Carrie McCormick 4:01
Good question. So this was a shocker to me. And it’s the Gold Coast. Really? Yes. So the Gold Coast was probably one of the biggest price drops in Chicago and they came in 9.84%. lower than last year.

D.J. Paris 4:21
Mm hmm. In any any idea of why that might be.

Carrie McCormick 4:24
You know, I looked at some of the data and I really haven’t figured out why I don’t know if people are just moving out or if there’s not much inventory over there for people to choose from. I don’t know it just we just saw a big decline in the Gold Coast.

D.J. Paris 4:39
Wow. That’s amazing. Yeah. Well, I think to like the Gold Coast, a lot of times people park themselves there and then live the rest of their lives there. So maybe it’s an inventory thing like yours. Yeah,

Carrie McCormick 4:50
it could be it could be so you know, looking at all the neighborhoods and doing some of this research. It’s always interesting because and I’ve said this before that Chicago is now Not just one market, there’s, you know, several, there’s almost I think 80 different neighborhoods here. And they’re not all created equal. You know, they offer different pros and cons as well as unique levels of competition and supply and pricing. So, you know, all the neighborhoods are just very different. And if you’re not looking to spend an arm and a leg on a property, you’ll probably want to avoid the city’s most expensive neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, you know, the near Northside, Lakeview Lincoln Park, as we talked about, they came in as an average price of 1.175. For an average price in Lincoln Park, which is pretty high. Yeah. And go ahead,

D.J. Paris 5:47
would you say, is there a certain neighborhood? I didn’t mean to interrupt you, so feel free to finish that. But is there a certain neighborhood you feel is kind of like maybe Linkin Park? Isn’t the deal deal of the century right now? Are there other like, Is it gold coast? Because it’s down? Or are there other? Is there a neighborhood that you think is really like the deal right now going on?

Carrie McCormick 6:06
You know, I do. So there’s a neighborhood called North Park and I say that’s like the deal of the year. So to me, it’s a true steal, when you look at North Park, homes average about 67 days on the market, and which is lower than the city’s average, but you know, 67 days, and there’s the homes they’re selling at 30% below list price. And I know so it appears that there’s plenty of inventory in that market, including single family homes and condos and townhomes. So right now, if you’re looking for the deal of the century, I would look in North Park.

D.J. Paris 6:41
Yeah, that’s, that’s good. That is good to know. And it’s, you know, that’s sort of like so North Park is kind of like Cicero divan, sort of like that, right? It’s kind of over over there. And it’s an area that probably is off the radar for some people. But boy, I’d like to buy something 30% off as far as I know.

Carrie McCormick 7:03
So it’s, like I said, it’s the deal of the century, well, hopefully will spur some, some market activity over there and raise some prices.

D.J. Paris 7:10
Awesome. Well, I would like to move into my marketing minute, although it’ll take a few minutes to talk about this. But I, I did want to give everyone out there all the 1000s of listeners were so grateful to have, in addition to what Kerry mentioned about what’s going on the markets talk about marketing. So I have a tool that actually just wrote an article about this tool, because I’ve been hearing brokers use it and I use it my personal life. And I’m not a practicing broker. So I’ve heard practicing brokers are now starting to use this tool, which is kind of interesting, because it isn’t specifically a real estate tool. So here’s what it what the tool well, first, I’ll give you the tools name, it’s called Trello, tr, e LL. O. And I’m going to try to explain what it does and why brokers seem to be interested in and and also how I use it, we actually use it for this podcast, what it is, is a project management app. And it has, you know, you can go to trello.com, there’s a app you can download for your phone. And what it really is, the easiest way to explain it is imagine as a broker, you have a giant whiteboard, and I’m actually going to talk about two different whiteboards. But we’ll just start with one for now. And this whiteboard could be your all the clients you’re currently working with, you’re going to put on this whiteboard on little sticky notes, and you’re just going to put their name, and you’re gonna create columns on this whiteboard. And it’s going to be the various stages of every deal. Maybe it’s Hey, I just met this person for the first time or I took them out on a, if it was a buyer, I took them out and show them, you know, places or an open and they just made the first offer and and you’re gonna be moving that sticky note from left to right to the different columns as they progress from, you know, through that whole transaction, right? So that way, if you had this kind of whiteboard, you could see you could wake up every day, look at the whiteboard and see, oh, here’s where every single one of my clients currently is in the stage, you know what stage they’re at for their transaction. And I personally like that, because I find oftentimes with other CRMs, which are client relationship management tools, and there are tons of them. Sometimes it’s just hard to get a visual look like are they call it like a 10,000 foot view of what’s going on? Right? So Trello allows you to do that it creates these virtual whiteboards. And then you create columns. And you can just drag people, you know, in this case, if it’s a client, you could just drag them from column to column. So you could say I wonder how many people are in attorney review right now that are in my pipeline that I’m working with? Well, there it is. There’s the attorney review column, you have to create it, but it only takes a moment. Okay, so I think you guys generally get the idea. You can drag and drop people from status to status until they’re all the way at the end. And then you can do other things with them. And you could create another whiteboard, even for your prospects. So you meet somebody at a party and you think I should, okay, what do I do after I meet somebody? Well, maybe I write them a thank you note or it’s nice to meet you email or something. So you create that status and then you just drag them in there after you You do that. And then it’s, oh, it’s been, you know, then I do a one month thing or a three month thing or whatever. So you get the idea. You can create these whiteboards. And then it just gives you a chance to visually see everything. Because oftentimes for a lot of the software for to dues or managing prospects and clients, it’s not that visual. And it’s hard to see, like, I wonder how many people are currently in my pipeline? Well, you can make a column, you know, for that, and then just drag people in and then drag them out. And it’s so easy because it’s this drag and drop system. And it’s free to that’s the best part. I mean, you can pay for additional features of Trello, you probably won’t have to I know I don’t, by the way, we use this for booking guests on the show. So we had somebody who was recommended to us to interview last week, but a few weeks ago, they somebody had recommended written in so we drag them into this recommended by listener column, then we reach out to them. And then when they say, Yeah, I want to be on the show, we drag them into the Hey, they’re interested. And then we when we scheduled it, we drag him into the scheduled and then so and so. So we just pushed all the way from left to right. And it’s so easy and customizable. So anyway, I just wanted to explain that in a little bit more detail, so people could get a sense of what I’m talking about visually. But anyway, so that is my marketing tool carry. I don’t know, I’m sure you have systems in place and tools in place. I just have found there’s not very many that you can visually see everything at once.

Carrie McCormick 11:21
No, I love this idea. Actually, I haven’t used it yet. But I’m definitely going to take a look at it. And I like the concept.

D.J. Paris 11:29
Yeah, check it out. It was actually developed. It really for for IT professionals because I used to work at it firm. And this is what IT professionals do. Or if you guys have seen the the TV show Silicon Valley, they always show this is that they show this giant whiteboard and all these sticky notes for when there’s different tasks to build software, and then they just move people you know, they move the sticky note from column to column. It’s the same idea. So anyway, I’ve heard brokers talk about I thought you guys would find interesting. Okay, we’ll wrap this up. Carrie, thank you so much for being on the show. Um, two things. If anyone is ever interested in working with Carrie, obviously she works with buyers, sellers, investors, writers, etc. What’s the best way they should reach out to you?

Carrie McCormick 12:11
Of course, I always say call me three one to 9614612 you can always email me as well. It’s Kerry ca RR ie at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 12:23
Yeah. And you know, if you are somebody who’s looking for representation, I mean, I know if it was me, I would want somebody who’s the top 15 of all the brokers in Chicago, that would be a good thing. So certainly carry reach out to her and then also as brokers, our listeners who are brokers reach out to us with questions for Kerry. And even for me as well send it through our website, which is keeping it real pod.com our Facebook page which is also keeping it real pod and just shoot us anything and we’ll we’ll cover it on the next episode. So thank you, Carrie, we’ll let you get back to your busy day and we’ll talk next month.

Carrie McCormick 12:58
You got it. Have a great week.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the May edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie speaks about how inventory is up in the hottest neighborhoods of Chicago in this spring market over last year and why that is so exciting.  I provide a marketing tip on how brokers can avoid ethics violations on Facebook posts (article referenced in episode here).

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15
Hello, and welcome to another episode of 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 the show. And this is another episode of Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick of app properties. Welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:31
Hello, hello. Thanks for having me. As always,

D.J. Paris 0:34
thank you. And for new listeners who aren’t familiar with Carrie, you should be because she is one of the top top top producers in all of Chicagoland. Carrie and I were just talking, and she goes, Hey, we were joking around about about her production. And I figured out she is not only in the top 1/10 of 1% of all realtors, and there are 42,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area, she is actually higher at the highest producing, or sorry, she is in the top 99.95% of all producers. So we’re so grateful she’s insanely busy, and doesn’t even have time to do this. But she’s willing to do it once a month. And what she does is give her take on the market and then answer questions. And we’re so thrilled to have you. So thank you, Carrie,

Carrie McCormick 1:16
no, thank you. And it’s it’s, you know, interesting hearing the numbers because I mean, of course I keep track of, of my business, but I really, you know, focus on my clients and their experience in in the transaction. And, you know, the numbers are just a result of the hard work. It’s not, you know, my purpose is not to have these numbers. And of course, you know, have the rankings. But you know, my purpose is really just for my clients to have a great transaction and an a great experience. And then when you know the numbers come in, it’s just it’s, it’s great to hear that, that I’m up there.

D.J. Paris 1:50
Well, and Kerri works almost exclusively by referral, which also is demonstrative of how she treats her clients. So we’re so excited. She’s on the show. So let’s get into it, tell us what’s going on in the market.

Carrie McCormick 2:02
So April is, you know, we’re in May now, but I always look back, obviously on the previous month, and April tends to be one of the most exciting months in Chicago real estate market. And I’ve got a really exciting market update for you guys too. And because all the numbers are in, and we definitely did didn’t disappoint the market in April. So last month. For those who listen to the show, we talked about the supply of homes here in Chicago. And we all talk about low inventory, but the market has been rebounding after a few years with this tight inventory. And it continues to be a theme this month as well. So May is starting to see the same inventory issues as we did last month. And it seems like Chicago sellers have gotten a little bit smarter. And they realize that this is going to be the time to sell. Because the inventory is tight. Prices are going up and sellers again, if they were thinking about it are on the fence, they’re definitely starting to put their homes on the market. And last month, we saw about 17% more listings hit the market than the prior April month in 20. I gotta think of the year 28 2017 and 2016. So we definitely we saw more come on the market this April than we did two years ago. And so I looked at which neighborhoods are also starting this trend. And it looks like the near north neighborhoods like River North Streeterville and Gold Coast, followed by Wicker Park and Bucktown are leading the number of listings coming into the market. So anyone that’s listening who is a seller in those neighborhoods, I would encourage you to put your home on the market now because prices are starting to tick up. And first of all, this is just awesome news for Chicago. So we’re all about more choices in Chicago for homebuyers, especially during the spring. So we’d love to see more inventory come on the market in different neighborhoods too. But you know, when there’s too many new homes that hit the market, and there are not enough buyers out there that want to buy, we can negatively impact the strength of the market. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. So we are having a great spring market and again, buyers sellers get out in the market and do your thing. So regarding pricing, we also just kind of as you expect prices are going to continue to go up right, we were starting to see the medium home prices grow at a slower rate for a quick second. But with April’s numbers on the books, it looks like we’re back up to a 3% increase in median home price over the prior year. Now that’s a lot of information that I just just gave to you guys, but it’s really the markets really doing well and we’re starting to see some increases here.

D.J. Paris 4:54
And are we on pace to have a spring market as strong as last year’s?

Carrie McCormick 4:58
Well I’m not ruling it out. just yet, so you know, we’re doing well. So I’d say let’s check back into next month’s podcast and we’ll see if may 2018 can tie or beat last month or last May’s media numbers.

D.J. Paris 5:13
Awesome. Well, thank you, Carrie, we’re gonna keep this one short and sweet here and at the on these episodes, I also give a marketing tip. And in this time, I’m going to give you a really, really important marketing tip that’s a lot different from what I’ve talked about in the past. And because this just came out on Friday, Thursday, or Friday from IAR, the Illinois Association of Realtors, which finally has now starting to tell brokers what they can and cannot do on social media when advertising homes. So about a year, a year ago, I called IAR. Because we have a lot of brokers at our firm and I said, What are the rules? Because online, the way that the act is written, it doesn’t specify what you can and can’t do on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. And they said, Well, it just follow the rules. And I talked to the attorneys. And I said, Well, I don’t Please can you give me specific they go, just follow the rules. It was very frustrating. So they are now finally they wrote an article. So I’m going to read to you something that is very, very important. So out of the, all of the ethics violations, for Illinois, for all the brokers for last year, half of them were social media violations. So I’m gonna give you all the listeners an idea of something that is a violation, and this was written by one of their top attorneys. So this is a Facebook post that is in violation of the advertising act. So persons, the brokers advertising a home, there’s a picture of the home and this is the description, Golf Course View address of the home. Beautiful custom lead design home with wonderful views, blah, blah, blah. At the end of it, it says for sale, 515,000, contact Becky realtor, a call or text and then Becky’s phone number, that is a violation. And the reason for that is Becky in this instance, did not and I’ll put a link to this article, by the way, in the podcast notes, Becky did not mention what firm she works at. So you cannot just say hey, I’ve got a new listing, check it out or call me, you have to say I have a new listing, check it out and call me and I work for x. You have to manage mentioned the firm you work at in every single Facebook post if you’re advertising a listing, and that is new, they have never said that before. And out of all the ethics violations. Half of them were social media violations for last year, and that is only going to increase. And most brokers do not know about this. Our own brokers didn’t know about this until just a couple days ago. So I carry I don’t even know if if Most brokers in the industry know

Carrie McCormick 7:45
about it. I don’t think so. And I didn’t know either. I just you know, always think of best practices. And I do include my brokerage. But I also include the equal housing opportunity logo, as well on all my advertising on social media. And one thing, just to add to that, that I’ve noticed is you know, when you post something, whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, wherever it goes, there’s different sizes and formats of ads. And what’s happened, like if I format an ad for Facebook, and then it converts over to Instagram, the size isn’t the same. So because the size is not the same, sometimes information gets cut off, right, put your brokerage or your phone number or something at the bottom. And then again, when it posts on to Facebook or Instagram, that section gets cut off. So even though it’s on there for you, the general public doesn’t see it because of the size formatting. So that’s one thing I’ve learned is to make sure that all the ads are resized to fit, which media platform it’s going on. So every all the information can be seen.

D.J. Paris 8:51
Awesome tip. So make sure that your photos are resized correctly and nothing is getting cut off. Like those those disclosures. Make sure if you’re writing a post and you’re advertising a home that you have the firm that you work for in that post. Alright, that’ll do it. And by the way, at Carey is here to answer your questions. So send us your questions you can visit us at keeping it real pod.com send us any questions you have for Kerry. Also, you can find us on Facebook keeping it real pod and obviously iTunes, Google Play Anywhere. Podcasts are served. And we will see everybody next month. So oh Carrie, I’m sorry. If any one is out there who is interested in working with Carrie, maybe a buyer or seller and investor or renter? What’s the best way that they should reach out to

Carrie McCormick 9:35
you you could always call me I pick up my phone. I want to say 24/7 But that’s not true. I do sleep a little bit, but I’m always available. You can call me at 312-961-4612 or you can email me Kerry at@properties.com. And again, I always encourage my fellow brokers to call me with any questions. I do a lot of social media I get a lot of questions. pins regarding, you know, just social media questions or tips and tricks because I really love doing that. And I’d love to, you know, help other brokers as well. So feel free to give me a call.

D.J. Paris 10:12
And you should also check out Carrie on Instagram. She has the no question the very best Instagram account that I’ve ever seen for a realtor. What is your Instagram,

Carrie McCormick 10:22
Carrie McCormack real estate?

D.J. Paris 10:25
Awesome. And you were just on television as well, I was or you just filmed

Carrie McCormick 10:29
a new episode of House Hunters. It’s not going to air until this summer. So that’s exciting. Actually, we’re having a party too. So if anyone wants to come to my house hunters party, I should have mentioned this earlier. The producer of House Hunters is flying in. And she’s going to do a q&a just about the show and you get to meet some of my first time homebuyers and it’s going to be a fun little event. It’s invitation only. So if you’d like to meet the producer of the HGTV show House Hunters, please call me 312961461 To love to have you at the event.

D.J. Paris 11:08
All right. Well, we will see everybody next month and thanks Carrie. We appreciate it.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Welcome to the April edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie speaks about how the spring market has been a bit slower than last year and how lower inventory has resulted in increased competition. She also talked about the importance of first exterior impressions with buyers. I provide a marketing tip on why brokers should start a 60 second video series on Facebook and Instagram to hook consumers into their content.

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcasts made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers and my name is DJ Paris. Today is our monthly episode The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick. So welcome Carrie to the show.

Carrie McCormick 0:16
Hello, hello. Thanks for having me as always,

D.J. Paris 0:19
well, we love having Carrie on the show because not only is she a top one percenter, in fact, she’s way more than a top one percenter, I’m gonna brag for her because she would never do this. But she is in there are 42,000 realtors in the Chicagoland area. So I want to start by saying that is a pretty vast pool of Realtors carry so far this year. 2018 is the 20th highest producing broker in Chicago. So congratulations, as always, which by the way is not unusual for Carrie, but I wanted to bring it to listeners attention, because we’re so grateful that she does this show and does this episode once a month. What we do here is Carrie talks about the market and also is always willing to answer your questions too. So Carrie, tell and by the way, Carrie has been a realtor for 20, year, 19 years, almost 20 years, and everybody loves Carrie. So tell us a little bit about what’s going on in the market.

Carrie McCormick 1:15
Sure. So you know, I always look back as Mark marches because it sets the pace for the Chicago real estate market. And last March last month, lived up to the hype. So looking at the numbers. And being out in the field, you know, boots on the ground, I see some signs of the market. entering into a new phase, my feeling is that this year’s spring market is definitely going to be a lot softer than last year’s market. So last year, in 2017, our spring market started off quickly right after the new year, it was like January 3, it was in full force in effect this year. It’s you know, here we are, you know in April already, we are just now starting to see signs of it ticking up. So it’s definitely a little bit slower than last year. Now everyone’s been hearing and talking about the shortage of inventory that we have here. And how it’s made competition pretty fierce for home buyers. And it’s true. Anytime something that comes on the market, we’re starting to see multiple offers on it prices are getting escalated. And in the past few weeks, the number of homes for sale in Chicago has actually been trending slightly in the upward direction.

D.J. Paris 2:32
So what is what does that all mean?

Carrie McCormick 2:34
So it means that more inventory means less competition, and of course less competition ultimately has an effect on home prices. The median sales price still have increasing overall, it’s been increasing overall, but at a lesser rate than last year. Now, the median home sale price has increased 2.4% since March of last year. So not a big increase. But don’t get me wrong, this the market is still really strong in the supply of homes for sale or lack thereof is still playing a big part in the competitiveness this spring market. And one other thing to talk about real quick is that homes that went under contract last month in March, we’re on the market for median time of 14 days, which is only one day longer from last year. So I always like to compare, you know, this spring market versus last spring market and the home times that are on the market are pretty close to last year.

D.J. Paris 3:41
Yeah, it certainly seems that way. And so what are you telling your clients to do to get ready sort of through this season?

Carrie McCormick 3:48
Yeah, so because our spring market has started a little bit later and we let’s all be honest, this weather. This spring has been very disappointing. I mean, we have snow, we have rain, we have 70 degrees, we have 20 degrees, it’s been all over the board and a lot of my sellers have been holding off on doing any exterior work, curb appeal because we just don’t know what the weather’s gonna bring. But you know, I think we’re on the horizon of some sunshine and some warmer weather so I’m telling my sellers to definitely focus on the exterior of their home. Curb appeal is so important. Do any paint that you need to do power washing, paint your front door paint any you know trim that’s coming off, start planting, you know, there’s some shrubs and flowers that can withstand this weather. So get something nice out on the porch, put some colorful pillows out that curb appeal means so much so start getting ahead and getting that done.

D.J. Paris 4:48
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. We just hired at our firm very similar to a Kerry’s mentioning as Hey, that first impression. When somebody steps out of the car or walks up to the property the first thing you They’re gonna it’s going to elicit an emotional reaction. Of course, homebuying is an emotional decision, obviously. And the first impression is pretty important. So we just hired somebody here at our firm, which is the director of first impressions, which a lot of firms are now doing so that when people walk through the door here at our office, they have a good first impression as well. And I also wanted to say that Carrie brings up a really good good point, aside from it being a really smart idea to get the exterior ready, as realtors and the vast majority of people who listen to the show are brokers in Chicago, you need to know this information, you need to be able to tell your your sellers exactly what to do, where to go, who to contact, to make those, you know, maybe minor or major exterior improvements. And if you’re a realtor, and you don’t yet have that information, work on developing that over the next year, so that you can, you know, number one, it helps justify, you know, the expense for the seller when they’re working with you, because you’re actually becoming really valuable. So, you know, I think somebody like obviously, Kerry has that information. And all realtors should aspire to be able to tell their sellers exactly what to do. Agree. Let’s, let’s move on to our mark our marketing minute, which I had a quick, quick one. So a lot of people have been disappointed over their last many, many years. With Facebook. In particular, if you have a page for your business, what you find is even the people that like that page, oftentimes don’t see your post, it’s the Facebook algorithm. And for better or for worse, you know if 30% of the people who like your page actually see your post, that’s actually a pretty strong number. Now, it’s not a very satisfying number. But one of the ways in which you can increase the amount of visibility to the people that actually want to read your stuff is by video. Facebook actually rewards video and Instagram does as well. Of course, they’re owned by the same company. But what I was wrecked would recommend as getting people hooked on your content. By the way, Carrie does this with still images on Instagram better than any other broker I’ve ever seen. That is not an exaggeration. She’s apps by the way, Carrie, can you plug your Instagram page so people can see?

Carrie McCormick 7:16
It’s Carrie McCormack real estate?

D.J. Paris 7:19
Yeah, it’s it’s Carrie McCormack real estate, definitely check it out. And she does it all herself, which is even more impressive. One thing that I would encourage all brokers to do is start creating video content. And now with Instagram, you only get 60 seconds Facebook, you can kind of have an unlimited amount of time. But what I would do is not inside the Instagram app or the Facebook app, I would just take my phone, turn on the camera and record a 62nd piece. And in 60 seconds, you can get out one really good piece of advice. So maybe you create a series for buyers. first time homebuyers maybe or sellers. Or maybe, you know, here’s, you know, here’s what I do, if you’re thinking about getting ready to buy or sell or, you know, I’m renting and what should I consider buy, you can get out one good tidbit in 60 seconds, and then you can post it directly to Instagram. And then you can then again, don’t necessarily share it to Facebook, actually upload it directly to Facebook. And what you’ll find is, if it’s good content, and you only have 60 seconds, so you should be able to give one good piece of advice. You’ll see this engagement improve. And if you do that once a week. And by the way, if you don’t know what tips to tell, start Googling and looking, reading other blogs and take a look at other sources. So you can give tips, but get people hooked on your content. Carrie is amazing at getting people hooked on her content. Number one, she knows a lot. But she’s able to put that out in social media in a way that is very compelling. So I would encourage everyone listening to start a little weekly, one minute video with a little tip for, you know, people who are interested in buying or selling or even renting maybe, or investing. And that

Carrie McCormick 8:57
is that’s great advice. I do agree I do a little bit of video not as much just because of you know, a busy schedule. And I know everyone’s got stuff to do. And that’s why I do a little bit more still. But it is nice to share. You know my experiences where I’m at new properties coming on the market. And no, I think your advice on the video is fantastic.

D.J. Paris 9:20
Well, absolutely. I just like the I always tell people if you get people hooked on your content, that’s a really, really good good thing. And I think oftentimes realtors, sometimes when they use social media, and when you do you do not do this, which I think is great, but some realtors literally just go, Hey, I have a new listing here it is and that’s fine. But that’s all they do. And I think give people more content more information and carries a great example of somebody who does that really well. So anyway, that’s our episode for the week. If Carrie once again, if there’s any buyer’s or seller’s renters out there that want to work with somebody like you and everybody would want to work with someone like you, how would they get? How would they get in touch?

Carrie McCormick 9:59
Sure. So you can Call me anytime at 312-961-4612. Or of course, you can send me an email at Carey, CA RR ie at@properties.com. And I always encourage anyone to give me a call if you have questions, comments if there’s, you know, another realtor and you just want to kind of bounce some ideas off me social media questions, I’m always willing and happy to help in in chat.

D.J. Paris 10:29
And she is and she is as nice as you can imagine, and obviously very successful. She’s a great pic if you need a realtor. So all right, that does it for this episode. We will see Carrie again in one month. Well, she will talk about April and in May so thank you, Carrie, and thank you everyone for listening. And please make sure to share this podcast with a friend visit us on Facebook which is keeping it real pod visit our website keeping it real pod.com Send us your questions. Would you like to ask Carrie a question? I know if I was out there producing as a realtor, I would want to ask a the top the 20 most successful broker for 2018 A few questions. So let’s send us your questions and she will answer them. So thanks Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 11:11
Thank you have a great day.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify