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.
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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