In our December episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @Properties talks about her predictions for the real estate market in 2021 and why she believes it will be a buyer’s market. Carrie also shares how her business has recently shifted from a buyer’s agent to a seller’s agent and emphasizes how essential it is to understand where the market is going. Carrie discusses the importance of marketing and the impact it will make in your business. Last, Carrie and D.J. talk about client holiday gifts.
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 keeping it real, the largest podcast for real estate agents and buy real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide. And host through the show today on the show is our monthly series called Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from at properties and she’s also from the Carey McCormack Real Estate Group. Now Carrie is a top 1% producer in Chicago with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. In fact, in the past 12 months out of 44,000 real estate agents in the Chicagoland area. Carrie is currently ranked number eight in production. She’s a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works a lot with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments, including the one that I am closing on, hopefully in the next month or two. So I have direct experience working with Carrie, she’s awesome. But please visit Carrie at her website, which is Carrie McCormick r e.com. And also this week, or actually, yeah, this week, she is doing her her favorite things on Instagram. And she’s giving away an item every single day she is going to be talking about her favorite things that she enjoys in her life and then doing a giveaway every single day. So you can find her on Instagram, Carrie McCormack real estate. Carrie once Welcome once again to the show.
Carrie McCormick 2:05
Thank you, thank you so much. And yes, please check out my Instagram and for a chance to win. It’s I’m also supporting some local businesses to my favorite local businesses. So it’s, it’s good for everybody.
D.J. Paris 2:17
Yeah, those local businesses really can use the help right now. So everyone, we should all be thinking about ways to support those local, especially restaurants and some of those at risk industries.
Carrie McCormick 2:28
salutely. So thank you for always having me on the show. And you know, it’s December here in Chicago, and what a heck of a year we’ve all had. And it’s been great though, here in the market. So I wanted just a chat about, you know, a shifting market that I’m predicting is going to happen here in 2021. And of course, nobody really knows what’s going to happen next year or the year after. But I’ve been doing this for a long time. And shifts are very normal for the markets. And, you know, our job is to plan for them. So I wanted to go through a few things to consider. And again, I’m not speculating the housing market. Instead, I’d like to help just kind of thinking ahead of of how to shift when, when it happens, I’m thinking is that 2021 is going to be a buyers market. And again, this is just my opinion. I’ve been licensed since 1999, which is you know, a little over 20 years, and it’s been quite a journey. And most of my business has been focused on sellers. And I didn’t plan to be a listing agent, it just organically happened. And it’s just because I’m a good marketer. And you know, I use my best skill set, and I’m comfortable with marketing and selling. Of course, for those who don’t know a lot about me before I was in real estate, I worked at E trade. So I worked in advertising with E trade. And I work closely with the folks in New York and California and I learned a lot about consumer behavior and what makes people buy. I did not set out to become the listing agent, it just happened very organically. And in the last few years as one of my mentors that I worked with early on her name was or is Barbara Barbara O’Connor with Dream town. A lot of people know her love Barbara, and she had told me early in my career that you should balance your business 5050 You know, buyers and sellers. And I had a hard time doing that and I just really focused on sellers. But my business has shifted quite a bit in the last couple of years to 75% Listing Agent and 25% buyer’s agent and it continues to shift. And you know, you got to look at consumer behavior in the market and what’s driving it. And also, when that does shift, you got to look at how your online marketing and your lead generation and of course your your relationships with clients. So you really need to focus on understanding where the markets going and how to utilize your skill set to best maximize I’m sorry. And if the market shifts, it’s important to balance your business. And I would say just start doing it now, because we’re in December headed into 2021. And I do sense that we’re going to have a little bit of a change in the market,
D.J. Paris 5:14
do you think that has to do with rates being as low as they are, and also, people just being sort of stuck inside over a lot of this last year, where maybe they’re thinking, okay, maybe I’m going to be working from home more often, I now might be thinking about, you know, if I, if I live in a, you know, in an urban area, maybe I moved going to go to something where I get some more space, or, or even vice versa, maybe, maybe it’s time to downsize. But I just, I would just think there’s so many buyers that now can purchase things that they couldn’t afford before, simply based on rates,
Carrie McCormick 5:48
right, 100%. So we’re seeing a shift in all that you said, and everyone’s making moves, regardless of you know, up, down, sideways, you know, everywhere, you know, everyone’s just different. So it’s great to see that. But I’ve also noticed, it’s interesting, you know, being heavy on the listing side that when selling a property is a lot of you know, that I’m very hands on and I’m very demanding about my marketing, I’m very critical of what I put out, and which makes me who I am. But my job is to tell the story about the about the home. And I do that with pictures and videos and the narrative of the property. But it still shocks me of how some brokers put out these terrible pictures and property descriptions. But that, but it sells, you know, but when you’re in a seller’s market, I don’t say it doesn’t matter what you do with marketing, because that’s not true. But when it’s a seller’s market, and it’s very high demand, you know, the marketing doesn’t need to be, I don’t think so. But some marketing isn’t so Chris, but when it’s a buyers market, and it shifts to that, your sellers attitudes are going to change very drastically selling the home in a buyer’s market, you have to be focused on keeping your sellers calm, because the selling process just takes a little bit and sellers are stressed in this type of market. So again, you know, that you just got to control the situation. And it’s, it’s another skill set that you’re going to have to learn of managing your clients. And when sellers are under a lot of pressure, they’re really going to look at your marketing, they’re going to scrutinize everything that you do, even at the beginning, during your listing presentation, they are going to spend a little bit more time picking the broker that they’re going to work with because no one wants to make a mistake, they want to pick the best broker that fits them in a tough market. I do think 2020 one’s going to be a great year in real estate, and here in Chicago. I love Chicago and I think we’re a very, very resilient city. But patterns change and it’s our job to, to adapt to the change of the market. And it’s going to be the difference between the successful brokers and and when if you fail.
D.J. Paris 7:57
Yeah, you said a lot of really great things there. I was thinking a lot about marketing as well, because I’m a marketing guy for our company, although I’m not a practicing realtor like you are. But you’re absolutely right. I think about consumer behavior a lot. And, you know, we look at social media is such a great sort of barometer about what, what the public is doing. And so when we look at particularly Instagram, I think is the biggest sort of obvious example here is every photo on Instagram really looks perfect. Even if it’s a mistake or a look at I screwed something up, it still looks good, even though it’s you know, maybe it’s not meant to look perfect, but it still does. Because we all have filters, we have different apps that we can make things look really a lot nicer with the technology. And so we have to remember that buyers and sellers, the public is scrolling through Perfect pictures all day long. And so when it comes to your marketing material, your photos for the property, if you have listings, of course, and also just the physical marketing material, it does it actually is I think you’re right, I think it’s become more important, because we’re now used to seeing perfect looking things. And it used to be really uncommon to see beautiful, amazing marketing stuff. And now we all have access to those tools, which I guess is good, because we have access but it also means you have to step up your game a little bit
Carrie McCormick 9:19
100% Yeah, it’s it’s the Instagram and I call it the HGTV you know, issue market is that you consumers are used to seeing these beautiful homes and it’s another agent said this I thought it was very well she says it’s a beauty contest out there, you know, your home has to be the most beautiful home on the market, you know, because everyone’s being very critical. So again, it’s our job as brokers and you know, marketers to make sure that the home we tell the right story of the home were advised correctly.
D.J. Paris 9:51
And that’s the thing too that if you’re on the on the buyer side, which you’re saying you’re doing more of because of course there’s a lot of buyers out there. That’s really important but You’re going to see a property to have that conversation with the listing agent and say, Tell me the story of this property, what do I need to convey? If especially if that agent isn’t going to be there for the particular showing? What’s the story here? What how do I sell this property? What what are the highlights? What are the things to really to feature? And you know, some brokers are going to be able to do that, you know, better than others, but certainly worth a phone call in advance to the other agent.
Carrie McCormick 10:23
Yeah, so it’s, it’ll be it’ll be a fun year.
D.J. Paris 10:28
Awesome. Well, that is that’s great. So I was thinking for the marketing minute, which we do after after Carrie segment. And I want to get Kerry’s opinion on this. Because obviously, she’s been a realtor for 20 years. And she’s been, you know, doing all sorts of, of holiday giving to her sphere of influence in our clients over the years. And we were actually talking just before we started about this, and I, here’s an idea, because we were talking about the challenge with giving holiday gifts to clients. And it’s a wonderful thing to do. And in no way would I ever sell somebody not to do it, because of course, anything you want to give to somebody you should do. But that’s the also the time of year where people are getting bombarded with gifts, friends, family, maybe other professional service people, attorneys, accountants, you know, really a lot, a lot of lot of cards, my insurance agent sends me a card. And it’s not to say that any of it gets lost in the shuffle. But it does get mixed up with a lot of other things that I’m experiencing. However, I don’t ever receive anything in January from anybody, I don’t have a birthday that month. But and I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t do a holiday gift this year. But if it’s now you’re getting teared, you know, we’re now the time we’re recording, this is December 7, by the time this goes out, it’ll be a little bit later. Maybe it’s too late at this point. So don’t worry if you don’t have that together today. Because you could even make a different type of impact for New Year, you know, there’s that whole New Year New you thing. And I know we’re probably sick of hearing that phrase, but you can still do something fun. If you want to provide for your clients, like for example, our holiday party. For our company, we’re not even doing it in December, we’re doing it in January, because it’s just too hard to get everybody together in December with the holidays. There’s nothing wrong with holiday parties. But and right now, of course, it’s very difficult to do anything in person. But we’re actually doing it now in January simply because it’s just easier for us. And also people can breathe a little bit more once the new year starts. But I just think, you know, my marketing tip is really just whether it’s your giving in December or in July or in January, you know, think of something that that means a lot to you, and that you think would would be you know, meaningful to your clientele, something that adds value. And it doesn’t have to be expensive. It certainly can be or it could be you know, whatever your budget allows, but anything that just lets the clients or the sphere of influence your contacts know, hey, I was I that my broker thought about me. And my realtor thought about me, that’s that’s the important part.
Carrie McCormick 12:58
Absolutely. So that that counts. Yeah.
D.J. Paris 13:01
And, yeah, it’s one of those things to where, you know, if all you did, and if you have zero budget, and you really are, you know, this is a tough, tough time for you to be able to do those kinds of things. Buy some stationery, and this will take you a while right to handwritten notes a day and just do it for you know, the whole rest of the year, and just it’ll take you five minutes a day, if you just did that with no gift, just hey, I was thinking about you, I really hope you’re doing well, or whatever you want to say. That is a gift that is actually a gift. It’s a very, and in fact, it’s a very meaningful gift. Because you’re taking the time to do to write it out. Of course, it’s very difficult to do that. But if you can do that, if you’re you know,
Carrie McCormick 13:41
to, you know, call someone to so but you’re right. I mean, it’s it’s from a zero budget to a, you know, whatever your budget is, it’s the thought that counts.
D.J. Paris 13:51
And just to put one little, because Carrie just said something that’s really important, you know, calling somebody, a lot of times we might be thinking, Well, why should I you know, what’s going to? Well, I guess I could call to wish everyone a happy holidays. Absolutely. You could totally do that. And by the way, most people aren’t even going to do that. So the other professional people in their lives are probably not receiving those phone calls. But if you’re thinking well now it’s January I didn’t get the calls made in December, okay call hat wish them a happy new year or go on social media see what they’ve been up to takes all of 30 seconds to look up somebody see if they’ve done anything interesting lately and give them a call and say hey, I just noticed on Facebook, you were you know, you were painting you know, and that’s, that’s really cool. Or I saw you on vacation or whatever. Anything like that those those are great reasons to call just look at someone’s social media and you get a sense of what they’re up to. That’s great. Awesome. Well, this is gonna wrap up a 2020 for us, which is like another year with the great carrier McCormick. We are so honored at our podcast to have Carrie she’s our very first guest host since we started she’s been with us since the beginning and she’s awesome. We love her. Everyone who is listening no matter Where you are practicing in the country, if you should absolutely check out because of Kerry’s background in marketing, and she is known in Chicago with amongst 1000s and 1000s of brokers is having some of the best marketing, especially around social media. Really, you should follow her on Instagram. So Carrie McCormack real estate again, she’s doing her favorite things every day this week, so you can have a chance to win something, but also just to see what really good marketing looks like. And also Carrie, if there’s any buyers, sellers, investors, renters that might want to work with you or your team. What’s the best way they should reach out?
Carrie McCormick 15:33
Sure it’s 31296214612. I tell everyone just to call me or text me. But that’s I have my phone with me all the time.
D.J. Paris 15:45
Wonderful. Well, another year done. And we will, we’ll see you in 2021. Want to on behalf of the audience. We want to thank Carrie for her continued involvement with our show. She’s so wonderful. We’re thrilled to have her and then on behalf of Carrie and myself, we want to thank every one of our listeners and viewers for continuing to tune in and support our show. Please, please please make it a New Year’s resolution to tell a friend think of one other agent that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Carrie send them a link to our show. You can find us on our website keeping it real pod.com. And in fact, if you want to listen to all the carry episodes in a row, you can scroll to the bottom look for the Monday market minute episodes and you can we’ve got them all organized there so you can go straight to the carry section. So tell a friend send them over to our website and have a safe happy and healthy holiday. Happy holidays. Happy holidays.
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