What's Your First Down?
You win games by getting First Downs, not by throwing Hail Marys.
For the real estate world, a First Down today is setting a listing appointment daily. An example of a Hail Mary would be doubling down on online leads and praying the market changes and provides more housing supply.
With closed sales down 5% year-over-year, pending sales down 6.2%, and 32% of properties selling for above list price, the importance of real estate agents executing listing agreements with motivated sellers cannot be understated.
Getting a listing practically guarantees the agent getting paid. Meanwhile, taking on another buyer client brings no guarantees.
Despite the supply obstacle, most agents have not adjusted their business plan to reflect the current market realities and are still doing what they did last year (and years before), but are expecting the same result. When the market changes like this, we hear the highest level of complaining. Weak agents who fail to adjust fall out while top agents who reflect, track data, and make changes, to take market share.
Going into 2022's housing market busy season, supply remains low and demand remains steady.
In Northeast Florida, we are seeing a month's supply of housing inventory of about 1.4 months supply, yet other similar markets like Austin, TX and Raleigh, NC are both already experiencing 0.4 months supply. Therefore, it's possible (and in my opinion, very likely) for the local Northeast Florida marketplace to become even more competitive than it is now, despite more properties coming online from builders and higher risks from geopolitics.
Until supply catches up, we will continue to see prices rise in our local area.
If the market becomes more competitive as predicted, the First Down principle toward listings becomes even more-so important for agents.
No other variables matter as much as the First Down.
So, if your year started off slow, it may be time to visit this principle and even check out the 20 Mile March philosophy.
What’s your first down?
