In our May episode of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick of @Properties, Carrie talks about the importance of a property’s outdoor space, and why it’s more important now than ever before. She also discusses changes the pandemic has brought to our lives and how it’s affected how clients view physical space. Last, she talks about the growth in the Chicago real estate market and how clients are starting to evaluate a flight from city to suburbs. D.J. provides a social media marketing tip about LinkedIn.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.
Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show and today is our monthly episode with Carrie McCormick called the Monday market minute now for those of you new to the show, I haven’t yet listened to a Monday market minute Carrie is one of the very top producing realtors in all of Chicagoland. She’s been doing this over 20 years and when I say top producing, there’s about 44,000 Real estate agents in Chicagoland Carrie is like literally in the top 15 pretty much at all times. So in the top 1% of 1% If you want to see an amazing Instagram account for that a real estate agent has Kerris is incredible. Please follow her, which is at Carey McCormick real estate and also visit her website, which is Carrie. Sorry Carrie McCormack r e.com. She is with at properties here in Chicago. Carrie, welcome once again to the show.
Carrie McCormick 1:49
Thank you and I’m smiling today because the sun is shining here in Chicago. And I’m in my office. So you everyone gets kind of a sneak peek of a little bit of what you can see in my office.
D.J. Paris 2:00
You’re no longer at home, you’re at the office.
Carrie McCormick 2:04
I’m at the office and I could not be happier. I love it here.
D.J. Paris 2:07
Yeah, I am at home today. So this is very unusual for me. I’ve been able to go to the office every day, which is just nice for me to get out of the house. So I know you are you are super busy. In fact, Kerry’s like squeezing this in between showings. That’s how does he tell us what’s going on in the market here.
Carrie McCormick 2:24
That’s another reason I’m smiling is I love to be busy. I love what I do. And I love putting deals together. Today I written four offers. And I’ve gotten multiple offers on my listing. So I’m juggling a lot. But you know, this show is important to me. And you know, talking to the audience is important. So of course, I’m happy to be here to discuss the market. So right now it’s busy, right. And the one thing I wanted to talk about which has been very common, and that I feel that’s created this busy market is outdoor space. Right, everyone’s been cooped up in their homes since March in everyone now understands the importance of your space that you’re in and your outdoor space. Chicago balconies have become terraces, your patios, your yards have become so important now, and people are going out and seeking that. So that spring, this this great market movement right now. And I wanted to share a little bit of history of Chicago and balconies, because it’s home of some of the most amazing architects and buildings here. And the one thing that I did not know is everyone knows that there was the Great Chicago Fire, right, and that was an eight. And since that fire, Chicago changed their fire codes that required all condos or apartment buildings to have two exits. So that’s kind of what spurred that code, because now we go into some homes today, and a lot of buyers will say, you know, what’s this door to and it’s like a second egress or a second stairway. And why. And this, this is kind of part of history of this was because of the great fire that they changed their fire codes. And way back then again, that was you know, 1871 but, you know, back then people would use those fire escapes or those those rear exits for hanging their laundry out to go out there and talk to their neighbor to go socialize. They really used that outdoor space to be part of their lives. And then came the invention of air conditioning, the invention of TVs, and people decided, hey, I’m not going to go outside to my outdoor space. I’m going to go sit in front of the TV. So they you know being inside then more often they turned from wanting to be outside to wanting to be inside to take advantage of the the TVs. Right Sure. Oh Then in the mid 2000s, there was a big push a lot of the that are now architects, you know, said okay, Mies van der Rohe, you did well back then and with your, you know,
D.J. Paris 5:12
yeah, simple blocky design. Yeah.
Carrie McCormick 5:15
No, it’s It’s 860 and eight at Lakeshore drive, you know, people, you know, buildings and lakepoint towers, but that now the architects are like, No, we’re going to take advantage, we’re going to put balconies on buildings, we’re going to build terraces. And during that time, we saw homes that had terraces or balconies, had a 5% premium on their prices. So architects and builders were like, Okay, now we can get a premium for outdoor space, let’s start a trend. So, you know, I just kind of find that interesting in history, how we went from, you know, not caring about outdoor space to now, you know, having that outdoor space, and this pandemic, as awful as it is right to the world, there’s a few things that have changed. And I think people are, you know, the social socialization that we want to be next to, you know, our friends and our family and be close to people, meaning, you know, our relationships with them. But again, more importantly, is the space of where we live. So it’s been Chicago market has has been like this in the last week. My perspective, people value their homes more than ever right now.
D.J. Paris 6:35
Yeah, I think that’s right. There’s I know, my girlfriend and I were talking about if we were to move in together, and we were talking about the importance of an outdoor space, and we both had on our must lists, we both had it, we both have been, but in other places that haven’t had it. And for us, it’s it’s definitely you know, something that we we put on the must side, because we’re not especially now it you know, I’ve always I’ve always had a balcony here at the micro place. But I didn’t use it as much as I do. Now, now that I’m sort of limited in where I can go. So you’re right, it’s becoming a lot more important than properties who have that probably are selling at a premium. I’m guessing right.
Carrie McCormick 7:13
Now. Another question that I’ve gotten a lot is, and there’s a lot of articles that have been written about it is this big move from the city to the suburbs, right, are seeing a big push to the suburbs. And I think, again, this is my opinion, I think there’s a bunch of people who want to move to the suburbs, but just hadn’t made that move, yet. They’re just not right, and of the city. But because of this, it spurred that it’s accelerated their decision to move to the suburbs. So, you know, it’s not like they said, Oh, I can’t be in the city anymore, I need to be in the suburbs, it’s, you know, they were planning on going anyways, this was just kind of a push, you know, to the suburbs. And I’ll tell you, the suburban market has been struggling for the last couple of years, this is a well deserved moment for them, you know, to get some of their inventory starting to starting to move to
D.J. Paris 8:08
it. And for those agents listening who might be here in Chicago, who focus mostly on the city, and maybe don’t have a great knowledge of the suburbs not and maybe you have a client that is making that transition from the city to to a more rural environment, then if you feel like you don’t want to take care of that lead, this is a great time to build a relationship with a realtor in that area who specializes. And you can hand it off, and the you know, likely to even maybe do a better job than you could if you focus mostly in that in a different area.
Carrie McCormick 8:38
And that’s actually a good point is I have I grew up in the north, north shore. So I know that area very well. It’s very easy for me to take my buyers up there. And I’ve been focusing a lot on the western suburbs too. But there are some areas. Naperville. I don’t know Naperville very well. Right. Right. Naperville. I’m sure it’s a lovely city. But it’s just it’s out of my wheelhouse. And I think you’re right it’s it’s forming those relationships with other brokers and you know, you learn a little bit about those communities and have those relationships. So very important.
D.J. Paris 9:14
Well, I’m going to share my marketing minute of the week, which is a very simple one. It’s a really going back to basics. And since we’ve all been in this confined environment, which is thankfully starting to relax a bit and hopefully will continue to relax until we’re able to go sort of go out and live our lives as we used to. Now’s a great opportunity to get your database in order. And so a lot of times, agents will ask, they’ll write to our show and they’ll say, hey, that’s great. I know I’m supposed to stay in touch with my sphere of influence, but I’m not always sure what to talk about. And and I believe that maybe you don’t always have to talk about real estate, but what you can always find to talk about is if you are following your clients your sphere of influence your contact list on social media, you can find Look what they’re doing and comment on the things they’re doing. So to me, that’s a great opportunity to go now online and try to friend everybody on LinkedIn that is in your sphere of influence is off, and also Facebook, and Instagram, right? Go ahead and make those connections. And then everyday scan the feeds, see what your your clients what your friends, you know, and your sphere of influence is up to. And you can make comments on those posts, right? Even if you’re not necessarily reaching out by telephone or texting what you can do as well. But the other cool thing is LinkedIn, you can see when people’s work Anniversaries are, you can see when they start a new job, when their birthdays are, it’s all right there in the feed. And if you just scan that every day, you’ll have a lot of great information about your contact list to be able to reach out, say, Hey, I saw you just celebrated five years at XYZ company, that’s awesome. Keep up the great work or you started a new job or whatever. These are all opportunities to reach out and connect. And now since obviously, carry your I know you’re super busy, but for anyone who isn’t as busy, great opportunity to get those social media connections going so that you can constantly be reaching out and commenting and reacting to what your clients are up to.
Carrie McCormick 11:08
It is a great tip. And I do that with LinkedIn. And just for everyone to know, there’s on the top bar, I’m doing this off of memory, but it says notifications. I think it looks like a little bell. Every day it does. It’ll say yep, well, they have birthdays, here’s the 20 people that have started a new job. And it really does make it simple. I think all of these platforms have easy ways to do this. It’s you know, finding a system that works good for you and being diligent about it.
D.J. Paris 11:36
Awesome. Well, that’s my tip. Carrie, thank you once again, for being on the show. Carrie has been with us since the very beginning, when we had virtually no listeners so we appreciate every month she comes on and talks about what’s going on here locally in Chicago, and also grids, great tips for our listeners. But for anyone who’s listening who might be a buyer, a seller, a renter an investor who might want to work with you, Carrie directly. What’s the best way they should reach out to you
Carrie McCormick 12:03
always call me 312-961-4612 text call or email Carrie at@properties.com
D.J. Paris 12:13
Yeah, and that’s Carrie at at properties@properties.com. Also, please follow her on Instagram. That’s Carrie McCormack real estate. And also please view her website. This is a great example of a realtor website done right. In my opinion. It’s a fantastic site. It’s a great inspiration for people who are looking to see how should I showcase my talents as as an agent. I think this website does it just beautifully. Carrie McCormack R e.com Carry on behalf of the listeners I know you have to run to another showing which is so incredibly great. So I’m gonna let you go but we say thank you and we will see you once again next month.
Carrie McCormick 12:49
Thank you. Thank you. Bye
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