Hey guys, you're gonna be taking a listing in the next couple weeks. And when you take that listing, what if I give you a tool that can help you market it in a way that will set you apart from all the competition and help you sell for top dollar—despite the interest rate issues that we're having in the marketplace right now?

Here's your golden ticket:

When you're sitting with the seller, I need you to ask them this question:

"Can I ask you, what kind of loan do you have on this home?"

If they answer that they have an FHA or a VA loan or a USDA loan, guess what? Those loans are potentially assumable. And if they have a loan interest rate of less than 5%—even less than 6% today—that could be very valuable to a buyer in the marketplace.

Now, there are some conditions and qualifications. Obviously if they're doing a VA loan, the buyer has to be a veteran themselves. But most of these just require that the buyer be creditworthy.

If they're creditworthy and they can get a...

Hey guys, I've got another tool for you:

When you are going out to take a listing and the seller is asking you about getting top dollar for their home, one question you can ask which relates to them getting top dollar is, can I ask you how much do you owe on your current home?

This is gonna reveal how much equity they have and how much they have left to pay off.

Some—about 30% of the people you're talking to—will own their home outright. And the vast majority will have some kind of loan. But a lot of those people have paid down their loans dramatically and they have a very small balance. What if you said something like this to them?

"I got something to ask you guys based on what you just told me:

We're in a high interest rate environment. So it's making affordability a really big issue. And because of that, when people are paying more in interest, they can't afford to pay at a higher price. But if we were able to offer an owner carry situation where somebody gave you a...

Hey guys, have you ever heard of a blended interest rate?

A blended interest rate is gonna become really important to a lot of us selling real estate in the coming months and years as these high interest rates stick with us.

So here's what a blended interest rate is:

Imagine a buyer has a budget, and they're gonna go out and buy, let's say, a $700,000 house. They have $100,000 down, and now they have $600,000 they're gonna finance. But they can't quite swing the high interest rates that are out there today. It's just gonna put 'em in a place where they can't afford it.

But they're willing to be creative and if you have a seller that's going to be creative, you can still put this deal together.

So here's an example:

Let's say that they were able to go out and get a first mortgage for $400,000 at the current interest rate. Let's call that 7.5%, which is probably where it's headed pretty quick. And the seller was willing to carry a second on the property of $200,000. And...

What is the rule of five? Well, the rule of five was something that author and speaker John Maxwell came up with.

And what John came up with was this idea that if you have a big task at hand, something you really gotta get done and it can seem overwhelming or just completely out of your reach, how do you make that happen? Despite what might seem like overwhelming odds?

Well, he used the rule of five.

And the rule of five is simply this:

Imagine that that goal is a tree in your backyard. And you have one tool that you can use to cut down that tree: an ax. And so you go outside and every morning you take that ax and you swing it as hard as you can, three times into that tree. And then you put the ax down, you go back inside, and you wait for the next day to come. And the next morning you do it again. And again, and again.

Now, we would all agree that eventually that tree's gonna fall down. No matter how big the tree, it's gonna topple over.

So what's the key?

The k...

Is it a good time to buy a house today?

It's an important question for us as REALTORS to be able to answer and really be passionate about it. This isn't just an answer we're giving because we wanna sell a house, but an answer that's actually backed up by real data.

That way, buyers will actually believe what we're saying and be influenced by what we're saying.

So here are 5 key reasons, backed up by data, why people should be excited about entering the market today:

1. Rents are rising quickly.

So if you're not a homeowner, what are you by default? In most cases, you're a renter. So latest reading shows that rents are up 14.8% compared to a year ago. And they're likely to continue to rise at a fast pace going forward.

2. Interest rates.

Interest rates have settled back down a little bit. They're not at the peaks anymore. So interest rates historically, when you look at the last five decades, have averaged 8%. Right now, we're in the high fives, low six range.

Meaning...

A number that we should be concerned with right now in the market is 16.1%.

So what does 16.1% represent?

It represents the number of transactions that were canceled last month. The last time we saw a number that high was at the beginning of COVID when buyers really didn't know what was gonna happen. March, April, when COVID really went into full effect in our country in 2020. That's when you saw this same level of cancellations. And that's what we're seeing again right now.

So how do we tighten down offers so that sellers have some clarity that they know they're gonna get to closing?

I'm gonna give you several things to think about. You might have a few more. But one of the things is getting the disclosure statement signed as quickly as you can.

Most states require a disclosure statement. This is where we're the seller's gonna disclose everything they know about the house to a buyer. But not waiting around, not delaying getting that thing signed, and getting that clea...

Here's something we should all be doing with a seller at the beginning of our relationship:

When we take that listing, we should be resetting expectations on the number of live showings that will occur.

Last year, when we took a listing, we'd have 20, 30, 40, 50 showings in the first week. Today, that number maybe two or three or four or five. It will not be the same as it was last year at the same time.

So how do we reset this expectation?

One thing we need to talk about with the seller is the way the average buyer looks at homes. So last year in 2021, the NAR measured this and they found that buyers, on average, that purchased a home, looked at homes for eight weeks. And during that eight week period of time, they viewed eight homes. But of the eight homes they looked at, they looked at three virtually. And in the buyer's mind, that was a showing.

So we need to educate our sellers about what people consider to be a showing today. And then when we're talking to them...

53% of today's clients that you're dealing with in the real estate industry are actually millennials. They represent the largest group of buyers and sellers in our business today.

And here's what's interesting:

Millennials actually trust referrals from family and friends over all other advertising messages. In fact, they're very distrustful of traditional media marketing.

So what do we do with that information? How do we adjust to that information?

Well, one thing we have to understand is that reviews and recommendations are becoming a really important part of our business. Which means we need to be focused intently on getting reviews and recommendations and endorsements online.

So, I want to ask you: do you have a process? Do you have a plan in place for collecting these reviews and recommendations?

Here's an example:

If we take a brand new agent in this industry, but an agent that's aggressive and doing well, and we line them up with an experienced agent, that's ...

I had one of my best agents come to me a couple years ago and she said, "Jim, I got a listing that's priced right. And we're getting showings. But we're not selling the property."

And I said okay, let's go take a look at it. So I made an appointment with her and we went up and looked at the property. And immediately when I pulled up, I knew what the problem was. The property had a steep driveway. And I told her I bet a lot of people were commenting on the driveway. And she said, "Yes, true. We're getting a lot of negative comments on the driveway. And I think that's really the biggest reason why people aren't, you know, looking at the house. Or looking at the house, but then rejecting it."

So we went in and explained to the sellers that they can have the best price property in the world. And actually, have the best house in the world, but that driveway could be the stumbling block for getting it sold.

So I'm gonna give you a suggestion, which may sound kind of out there...

Here's something that's come off the table over the last few years:

And that is the idea of an owner carrying their contract. We don't hear that term anymore because interest rates became so low, that no one would consider carrying a contract. Well with interest rates rising, this conversation would be something that we should be having with sellers now again.

And that conversation could be as simple as this:

"Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Seller, I just have a quick question. You guys have a pretty good equity position in your house. And just one thought came to mind. As interest rates are rising for typical mortgage rates, have you guys ever considered carrying a contract yourself? In other words, acting as the bank. This is where somebody would offer you a down payment, large enough to pay off your note that you have now and pay all the fees and everything else that's associated with the closing.

"But then after that, you'd have an income stream coming to you every month, just l...