Category: Monday Market Minute With Carrie McCormick

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

In this episode Carrie talks about how inventory is slightly down from last year, but homes are selling almost 20 days faster! Carrie also answers the common seller question, “Should I wait until after the holidays to list?” I provide a marketing tip around professional photography – floor plans!

Congratulations to Carrie for winning Best Dressed in the Chicago Agent Magazine 2017 Agents’ Choice Awards.

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

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:13
Hello, and welcome everyone to the second ever Monday market minute. This is for November. I am your co host, DJ Paris and on the podcast as well as co host superstar producer Carrie McCormack. So welcome, Carrie.

Carrie McCormick 0:31
No, Hello, thanks for having well, you’re

D.J. Paris 0:33
very no thank you, because this is your brainchild, you were the one that came up with this idea. So once a month, Carrie comes on and does an episode with me and really runs the show, talking specifically about what she’s seen on what’s happened in the Chicago market over the last month, what she thinks may be happening in the present and also the coming future. And, Carrie, how many years have you been in real estate? Now?

Carrie McCormick 0:58
I have been in real estate for 18, long years, eight years, let’s say that

D.J. Paris 1:04
incredibly successful? Top Producer at at properties. And before we get into your stuff, how can people get in touch with you if they want to work with you.

Carrie McCormick 1:12
So you can always call me at 312-961-4612? Or shoot me a quick email at Carey at@properties.com.

D.J. Paris 1:23
And this is how hard carry works because it is actually Monday night we normally have this going live Monday morning. So I apologize. This now is going to be Tuesday just for this one time we’ll we’ll have that happen going forward. But the reason is Carrie is so incredibly committed to her clients, that this is the earliest we could get this done. So it’s really a testament to how hard she works. And the reason probably why she’s so successful. So thank you. We are honored to have have you on the show. So Tom, tell us what’s going on in the market.

Carrie McCormick 1:52
Sure, I just want to talk real quick about the state of the market here in Chicago. And as I’ve mentioned before, Chicago is made up of several different markets. Every neighborhood reacts differently, like Bucktown versus West Loop versus Lincoln Park nor center etc. You know, each market is a market of its own. But the national sentiment has given rise to the notion that the housing market is stalling. But I’m seeing buyers out in an increasing number. And I’m getting a lot of showings this fall market on my listings. So buyers are out I think what we’re seeing is that there’s not that many listings on the market right now. There’s not a lot of desirable listings. But you know, there’s definitely buyers out there that are looking, mortgage rates are remaining enticingly low. So folks are trying to take advantage of that I think the employment rate is steady. So people are feeling good about their jobs and end of year bonuses coming up. So we definitely have some buyers here in the market. We’re just waiting for some good inventory.

D.J. Paris 3:02
And what about length of time on the market homes listings these

Carrie McCormick 3:07
days? Sure. So right now the city of Chicago, we’re seeing listings average about 65 days on the market until they come up to a contract. And if you compare that to last year, the same time last year in 2016, that actually were in a decrease last year was 73 days on the market. And then this year, it’s 65 days. So it’s a decrease about 11%. And then just on that topic just to talk about pricing, and then the number of homes sold the city of Chicago and this is according to the National Association of Realtors, the city of Chicago, we did see an increase in the price. So we’ve seen about a 6% increase in the overall price from last year to this year. And then the number of homes sold in the city. We’ve seen a decrease in that one at about 3% from last year. So just to recap that real quick, because there’s a lot of numbers, the numbers sold in Chicago, we saw about a 3% decrease from last year. The sales price in Chicago from this year. It went up 6% from last year. And then of course I mentioned earlier that the average number of days is about 65 days on the market, which is a decrease.

D.J. Paris 4:27
I have a question. So I’m sure brokers get asked this all the time around this time of the year with their sellers is should I put my home on the market? And I know there’s no easy answer yes or no but what what do you usually tell broke? Or you would tell clients who are now coming into the holiday season? Do you have general advice for that or what are your thoughts?

Carrie McCormick 4:47
I do and I think it depends on the sellers motivation and what their next plan is, you know for sellers who need to sell. I always encourage them to keep their homes on the market during The holidays. And the reason I do that is because a lot of folks do take their homes off the market. So because we have a low inventory right now, it’s really going to get reduced once we start hitting the holiday months, which is November and December. So the inventory is going to go way down. Now for folks that need to buy real clients, other folks that have sold that need to find something, this is a perfect opportunity for my sellers, to capitalize on those buyers, and be first and foremost in a purchase decision. So I like keeping the homes on the market during the holiday season. Again, it’s what other people are not doing that sometimes makes you successful. On the other hand, if I have a seller that is flexible on the sale of their home, that they’re not in a hurry, you know, they can move next spring or next summer. What I would encourage them to do is take it off for the holiday months. And then let’s realist in the spring, which will be our highest market.

D.J. Paris 6:00
Wow, that was really fantastic answer. And if you’re a broker and listening, you can take a good chunk of that verbatim and start using it with your clients. And by the way, we need to congratulate you as you are officially the best dressed broker of all of Chicago, according to Chicago agent magazine. So congratulations,

Carrie McCormick 6:22
a lot of pressure. And I don’t know if you read the article, I was kind of joking about it. I don’t know how it came across. But I said I wanted to thank everyone for recognition of my hard work of going into my closet every morning and picking out the the right outfit. It was really meant to be more of a joke. So I don’t know how it came across. But fun.

D.J. Paris 6:41
Well, no, it’s but it’s it’s, ya know, I read that. And it was definitely funny. And I got the joke. But it’s also a quite an honor. And I met that mean that very sincerely. It’s very cool. It’s always nice to be recognized. Thank you. Like when I was in high school, I got like, I got best driver. But that was because I was actually the worst driver and I’d like crashed my car the day after I got my license. So it was an it was an ironic thing you actually earned, best dressed so that I think that’s your Well hey, you’re you’re welcome you weren’t at. So I so a couple of things. What we’re going to start, we have these once a month, these episodes. And this is an opportunity for all of our listeners. And by the way, I was just telling Carrie before the show, she asked how’s the podcast doing and in just to give you some some numbers in September, we had 950 listeners. And we’ve only been doing this a few months. Last month we had over 3000. So we’ve grown quite a bit. And I assume the majority of you are brokers. I don’t know who else may be listening. But you have an opportunity to ask Carrie McCormick, not only the best dressed Realtor in Chicago, but also one of the top top top producers for a very long time. And she just knows so much. And so please send us your questions. You can send them via Facebook, you can send them via our website, send your questions, and Carrie will answer them. And we’ll have some for the next episode. And then lastly, I wanted to go through my marketing minute. And then we will we’ll wrap up this this episode. Keep it nice and short. And I want to talk just very briefly about photography for your listings and get Kerry’s opinion as well in her own best practices. But this is not anything you haven’t heard before every broker has heard you should get professional photography for your listings. Of course, we all know that. But I want to give you a few statistics that were shocking to me. And these are recent statistics and I’ll even source where I got them. So the Wall Street Journal reported this year that only 15% of listings. Now this is in the United States, not Chicago, but let’s assume it’s probably can be correlated here as well. Only 15% of listings have high quality photography. And so that’s one statistic. They also reported half of over $1 million listings, use low quality photos. So only 15% of all listings use high quality and overhead and half of million dollar plus don’t use high quality which is which is incredible to be Shocking. Shocking. So also agents now this is from Inman, probably one of the greatest publications for brokers out there. Agents who outsource photography earn twice as much commission to even twice as much commission as those who do not. Only 35% of agents use professional photographers, which again another shocking statistic,

Carrie McCormick 9:37
I would imagine, though in Chicago, that’s got to be higher.

D.J. Paris 9:40
I would hope so. It’s certainly I mean, we have about 600 brokers, your firm has 1000s And I would hope that almost all of our brokers are using professional photography I’m sure most if not all of yours are to buy or spend. This is Wall Street Journal again. Buyers spend 60% of their time looking at a listing as photos and only 20%, actually on the listing description, and Agent description, so 60% of the time they’re looking at photos, so get good photos. And I wanted to also add one actionable item, even if you already using professional photography, which you would have to be, certainly by now. But the idea of adding a floorplan, I did not realize how inexpensive this was, I thought it would be very costly. And I looked at several different big photography Studios here in town. And it’s like $100, to get a floorplan done for it. I mean, it could be a little bit more depending on how big the home is. But like, it’s such a great opportunity, because buyers can then visualize, you know, putting things in those rooms, and it just also separates you from the pack. Do you have any thoughts in general, not just on floor plans, but just photography, you have thoughts about?

Carrie McCormick 10:54
Oh, I do. I think that I know, your statistics said they spent about 60% on the pictures, I would have thought that that would be higher. I’d say 90% Every everyone goes online first right to look at a home if not more worse. So they’re online looking. So your photographs have to pop. I mean, they’ve got to speak to that person and drama. And that’s what’s driving the traffic to this home. So your photos have to be perfect. And you mentioned the floor plans. I do think that that’s an incredible tool. They were more expensive early on. And we’ve come up with all these different ways. And companies have reduced the prices of us getting these floor plans. And you’re right, I mean, they could start at 100. But they definitely go up depending on the square footage. And there’s different tools and techniques that you can do furniture in these floor plans. And you can have 3d and all different types of floorplans made, you know, to make it easier for the consumer for the buyer to understand the layout and again, draw them into the home.

D.J. Paris 11:59
Yeah, I did a webinar with a photography service earlier this year speaking just about drone photography to for the higher priced listings. And it’s not that expensive. It’s maybe three to $500 Depending on who you use, but getting those flyover videos, especially if there’s a sprawling estate, if there’s nice landscaping, but oh my gosh, if you really i It’s so impressive and I very rarely see it. And you know, if you spend that little bit of money, a little bit of extra money to really make it pop in those short videos. I think boy that could really, definitely leave an impression on the buyers. All right, well, I think that wraps it up for this, this episode of Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick. So again, Carrie, thank you so much. Send us your questions everyone and we will see you next month. Thank you everyone.

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Welcome to the first Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie talks about how single-family homes and condo inventory is up over last year, but that buyers are taking MUCH longer to make a purchasing decision. She also gives her forecast for the fall market in Chicago and also the broader U.S. housing industry. I provide a marketing tip that everyone SHOULD be doing to increase their referrals, but few do – handwritten notes!

Vote for Carrie for Best Dressed in the Chicago Agent Magazine 2017 Agents’ Choice Awards by clicking here!

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

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello, and welcome everyone to another episode of Keeping it real. The only podcast made by Chicago real estate agents for Chicago real estate agents. My name is DJ, I am your host today. I’m really very, very excited. We’ve been talking about this for weeks, maybe even a month or so, I have a co host, Carrie McCormack, who is also on the show, I’m gonna introduce her in just a second, she is going to be doing a co hosting an episode once a month, the first Monday of every month with me, and she’s going to be going over her Monday market minute, which is basically information about the Chicago real estate market, she feels you need to know, we’re also going to be answering your questions. And I’m going to be doing a quick marketing tip as well. So Carrie, thank you so much for agreeing to be on the show on a regular basis.

Carrie McCormick 1:00
Absolutely. Thanks for having me excited to be here.

D.J. Paris 1:03
And just in case anyone’s not familiar with Carrie, she was actually a guest, one of the first guests we had on the show she had such a good experience. I guess she reached out to us. And we’re so honored that she wants to be on the show on a regular basis. So we’re so thrilled to have her. Carrie, can you tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Carrie McCormick 1:23
Absolutely. So I’m Carrie McCormick. I am with AP properties. And I’ve been a licensed real estate agents selling real estate and our wonderful city for over 18 years.

D.J. Paris 1:36
That’s great. And so talk a little bit about your segment what we’re what we’re going to do once a month. So we’re going to be you’re going to be reporting on sort of the state of real estate in Chicago. Is that correct?

Carrie McCormick 1:48
Yeah. So I’m going to recap the month prior just with activity that’s going on with our housing market with the single family homes, condos, townhomes and any specific neighborhood information that’s relevant, and of course, just kind of talking about the economy as a whole. Because obviously, what happens in our economy affects our real estate market here as well.

D.J. Paris 2:13
Awesome. And we just took pictures you and I last week, we did a professional photo shoot. Did you like any of the pictures by the

Carrie McCormick 2:21
way? I did. I’ve got my top two choices.

D.J. Paris 2:25
Awesome. I just turning I’m turning all of that over to you because I don’t know that I have as good i We should also mention before we get started that you are up for an award for Chicago agent magazine you are up for you’re probably too humble to to talk about it. But you are up for the best dressed real estate agent and edit. And I think that is super cool, because Thank you. So if you want to, please do vote for Carrie. And you can do that right at Chicago agent magazine.com. Currently, it’s on their homepage. If it falls off the homepage, we’ll have a link to it in the notes of this podcast episode. So please vote for Carrie. And I did not get nominated for best dress. So at least one of at least one of us did. So let’s get started. Let’s start with your very first ever Monday market men and I’ll turn it over to you.

Carrie McCormick 3:18
Thank you DJ. So according to the Chicago Association of Realtors, I’m going off of a week ending September 16. And I put them in two different categories. The first is the single family home market, which we call detached housing. And then also the condo townhome market, which is attached housing. So just going back single family homes, our new listings actually increased a little bit over 10% It actually increased 10.2%. So there’s a lot of new listings that came on. And then our and under contract sales have also increased and that was a big, whopping 50%. And then lastly, our inventory decreased to four I’m sorry, to 8.4% which is down to 4334 units on the market. And then going to the condo townhome inventory, which again is the attached housing, new listings there also increased 15% The under contract sales increased 16%. And then our inventory increase there 1%. So you can see, you know, we’ve got a lot of movement in the market. One thing that I’m seeing in this fall market is that buyers are being extremely picky. And what that means to our sellers, is that the number of showings that we’re getting on the homes on average is up. So for attached homes, which are the condos and townhomes. We’re seeing approximately 10 to 15 showings before those sellers will get an offer and it also increases In the detached homes, the single family homes, sellers need 15 to 20 showings in order to get a contract on their home. So again, buyers are being extremely picky in this market. They’re looking at numerous properties before they’re making a decision. There’s no urgency for them to buy, and therefore, the showings have increased.

D.J. Paris 5:23
Do you also think could it also be a factor of is our brokers pricing the homes higher than they ought to be? Or is it more just there as people are just looking at more stuff before they decide?

Carrie McCormick 5:37
I think it’s a combination of both. Like I said, buyers are being picky. They know what they want. They know that the markets moving a little bit on the slower side right now. So they don’t have a sense of urgency to pull the trigger. You know, on one home, they’re going out looking at the competition and seeing what else is out there before they do that. So if a home is priced correctly in the market, if it’s priced aggressive in this market, that home will sell quick. But we do and I’m starting to see sellers there, they’re not budging on their pricing, you know they are, they’re coming in the market a little bit high. So I think they need to just be a little more realistic of, you know, this fall market, if they want to sell, they’ve got to price their property correctly. They have to have it. And I don’t mean staged professionally, but they’ve got to have it market ready to sell, or else it’s going to sit on the market through the winter months are going to have to hunker down and maybe try again in the spring market.

D.J. Paris 6:37
And if anyone out there is who’s listening, who’s not a real estate agent would be interested in looking at their specific neighborhood reports on what’s going on specific to their neighborhood. You’re you’re you will do that for them correct?

Carrie McCormick 6:50
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So you know, this is the broad Chicago Chicago’s comprise of 77 neighborhoods. So this data, especially with the new listings, and under contract, that is Chicago as a whole. But yes, every market in our neighborhood in this in the city has its own market within a market. So I am happy to pull reports on specific neighborhoods to pull that data for you.

D.J. Paris 7:16
And what’s the best way someone can reach you to get that

Carrie McCormick 7:18
she can remember from the first show, I told you, I always pick up my phone. So you can call me at 312-961-4612. Or you can send me an email to carry ca RR ie at a as an apple T as in Tom properties.com. Carrie at@properties.com

D.J. Paris 7:40
Do you think the state of economy is affecting housing.

Carrie McCormick 7:45
So there’s not been any major changes in the economy that would affect our housing market. So such factors such as wage growth, unemployment, mortgage rates, all of those have been stable. And as you know, Chicago’s made up of 77 neighborhoods, and each of our neighborhood has a market of its own. And every neighborhood has unique supply and demand challenges. So as a whole, though, I think our residential real estate market right now is in good shape.

D.J. Paris 8:14
What what do you predict for the for the Fall housing market.

Carrie McCormick 8:19
So we’re in the fall market now. And I think that competition is expected to remain fierce for the available listings that are on the market. Savvy buyers know that deals can be made well into these fall months. And again, sellers have to be realistic with their listing price if they want to sell this fall. Otherwise, they’re going to have to hunker down for the winter and relist in the spring of 2018. But right now I’m seeing a lot of demand for Logan Square Bucktown Wicker Park West Loop. And I’m also seeing a lot of clients who, you know, are starting their families and they want to stay in the city. And they’re starting their research now of looking at schools in different neighborhoods, for their for next year. So I’ve actually, which is kind of fun and unique. I’ve been working with some clients on educating them on different neighborhoods and school systems. And I partnered with school sparrow.com, and also the founder of Chicago School GPS to help educate these buyers on the school systems and different neighborhoods here in the city.

D.J. Paris 9:26
Awesome. And then lastly, as far as the broader economic viewpoint, do you do you see any trends there?

Carrie McCormick 9:35
So I do and this is gonna get a little technical and a little nerdy, but I love this stuff, because I think that the broader economic state of our market obviously affects my job and your job and what we do here in Chicago. So in August, there’s two consumer indices that both increase and the first one is the consumer confidence index. It increased From 122, or increased to 122, from 120 last month. And this survey also revealed that consumers appraisal of the current market conditions has improved. And they’re saying that business conditions are good. And when consumers feel good they buy and Consumer Assessment of the labor market was also very upbeat. In addition, the survey indicated that consumers have a fair favorable assessment of their own financial situation. There’s low unemployment, there’s low interest rates, as well as renewed gains in the value of their homes and their stock portfolios. So this pushed personal finance evaluations to a near time high. And when people are feeling good about their job, they’re feeling good about their stock portfolio. You know, they end up buying and I think this is a good indicator that we’re going to have a strong 2018.

D.J. Paris 10:56
Awesome. So just to recap, it seems like in the city, at least, listing inventory is up. time it takes to sell takes a little longer because consumers are being picky. But it appears that everything looks good as far as the near futures. Unless I missed something. It sounds No, I

Carrie McCormick 11:17
think I think we are in our we’ve got a healthy market. I think we’re in a good state here. As I mentioned, sellers have to be realistic about their price going into this fall winter market. And they have to price and prep their properties to be ready to sell.

D.J. Paris 11:34
Awesome. Well, thank you. And I want to get your opinion and your feedback on my this marketing tip I have which is we’re going to shift gears into the final segment of our Monday market minute show, which is a marketing a marketing tip. So one of the I’ve been getting a question a lot from our brokers here at our office, which talks a lot about buying leads. And there’s a lot of lead services, Zillow, Trulia, realtor.com, they all sell leads, and we have brokers that purchase leads and have tremendous success with them. Other people don’t seem to have success. I know it’s a very specific type of way to make the trend to convert those those leads into buyers, or sellers. But I wanted to come up with an old fundamental approach that is not purchasing leads, that I almost guarantee would work for anyone. So if you’re a broker out there, this this tip is for you. And this is around writing handwritten notes. So I was doing a little research for the show. And I found this this guy’s name’s Joe Girard, he’s considered the I think he’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most used cars of anyone in a history and which I think is such a funny thing, because you like there’s probably not a more hated individual on the planet than a used car salesman. And this guy is was like beloved, and he sold over 13,000 cars now I’m sorry, the 13,000 cars in like 15 years, he averaged 35 car sales a week. And it’s truly remarkable. And he did it almost exclusively by referral. That’s the really impressive part. And people love this guy. And so he wrote a book and I haven’t read the book, but I was reading other people’s assessment of Joe and read interviews with him. And they said, Well, how did you do this? What why were Why were you not only so successful, but the people loved you. And he’s in he’s contributes 100% of his success. He says, he’s not a good salesperson, he has no sales, salesmanship per se. He just wrote personal notes to every single person that he knew, including his clients, his his contact list, and he wrote a note to every person every single month. So handwritten notes. So this goes back to it like this fundamental, kind of like, if you go and hire a personal trainer, and you pay them $75 for the hour, or however much it is, and they say, Okay, let’s do some push ups. And you’re like, the very disappointing thing to hear. Because, like I already know, I’m supposed to do push ups. So this is kind of like the push up of dealing with or trying to get referrals, which is staying in touch, right? And I’m going to talk about writing handwritten notes. So in 2013, there was a Harvard Business Review looked at how often people receive personal notes. This is, you know, four to five years ago. And on average, the average American fan family only received one personal note every seven weeks, and I’ll bet you that is in I bet you it’s more like one out of every 20 weeks. I mean, I I can’t think of I can’t remember the last time I’ve gotten a personal note. It’s just so long. I mean, aside from birthdays and holidays, I’m talking about just out of the blue never happens. So anyway, this is so I started thinking about how do you do this? And I wanted to look at what the cost would be and then how much time it would take. So what I thought is what if some a broker just took their top 100 contacts could be clients, family, friends, etc. Just pick 100 People We’ll commit to writing every single one of them a note every single month, which sounds like a lot of work, and it is a bit of work. But it’s not that expensive. And it will guarantee, I almost guarantee it’ll create amazing results. So here’s how much time it’s actually going to take. So basically, you have to write five notes a day to get to 100. notes, and then you know, every month, so it’s, I figure, it’s maybe most two to three minutes, and no, let’s say it’s three minutes of notes, it’s 15 minutes a day. And all you really have to write in these notes, try to write just two sentences is probably plenty. What I would also do is drop your business card in there, which would save you the having to write if you know anyone that’s looking to buy or sell a home, I’d be honored to have to work with them, your card in there will do that. But write something personalized if you know they have kids, hope your kids are doing well in school or just thinking about you and wanted to say hello, it doesn’t really matter so much what you’re right. But if you can do something personalized, personal to that person do that. So it’s your right to do that it’s 15 minutes a day, basically five notes three times a day. And here’s the cost associated with it. So 100 notes a month is going to run you about $100 Just buying those those note, you know those cards, then the big expense is actually stamps and that’s 49 cents. And we figured that’s about $49. So 50 bucks a month 50 plus 34, the stationery is $80. So for $80 a month, and 15 minutes a day, you’re gonna you’re gonna end up getting 100 notes out and 1200 notes by the end of the year. And I guarantee you for $80 a month, I can assure you if you look at the studies that have been done on how buyers and sellers and Carrie has been doing this 18 years, and I’m sure what she would corroborate this. But if you look at the studies that how buyers and sellers choose their realtors, almost majority of the time they go Who do we know who’s a realtor? Or they ask their friends who did you use? And a very small percentage of those people don’t choose a realtor that way and they go online and they fill out a lead form. And those companies sell those leads. And so it is a small percentage goes that way. But the vast overwhelming number of buyers and sellers, if they have if they don’t already have a realtor, they’re thinking Who do we know. And so that is my tip of the week. It takes a little bit of work, but it absolutely I’ve never met anyone who’s done it who hasn’t had tremendous success. And if if all it does is generate one more sale a month. There you know, there you go.

Carrie McCormick 17:28
It is it’s such a nice personal touch. And I think that’s a great tip.

D.J. Paris 17:33
Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much we will carry we’ll be back in exactly one month to talk about further on to the fall and the winter market. And we’re so thrilled to have her on the show. So Carrie, thank you so much again, how can people reach you if they are looking for a realtor themselves?

Carrie McCormick 17:50
Sure, they can call me at area code 312-961-4612 or shoot me an email Kerry ca RR ie at 80 properties.com. And for having me.

D.J. Paris 18:05
Oh, you’re welcome. And one last thing it Carrie is also here to answer questions. So if you are a consumer and you have questions about the real estate market, you we can answer those live on the show or if you’re a realtor and you’re interested in how to how to somebody like Carrie, sixth house, she successfully built her business, send us your questions, you can do that through Facebook, Twitter. You can also send it to us via email at our keeping it real pod.com website. So again, thank you so much everyone and we will see Carrie again in a month and I will see you guys next week. So thank you very much. Thanks Carrie. Thank you

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