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.
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