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.
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