Zillow announced recently that they've stopped buying homes!

In their press release, they said they had supply chain issues and labor shortages, which is interesting because when you look at what they actually did in Q2 and Q3, where we've had kind of the same issues going on, they actually doubled the amount of homes that they purchased during that time compared to last year.

So why would they go from twice the amount they were buying last year to stopping on October 18th?

Some people are saying that one reason might be they're seeing market changes, just like we've been talking about. They're seeing a lot more listings coming to market which creates pricing pressure and competition. So they may not be able to come in and pay these high prices and then resell it at an even higher price. Because Zillow runs a flipping operation, right?

So we're actually seeing that. I've got a lot of students and a lot of parts of the country that send me reports and they show me that Z...

I got a quick note on feedback. This came to me from one of my friends that works with me, Adam McGrew. He started doing this a couple of years ago and I thought it was brilliant.

We're always asked for feedback when we do showings. Number one, give the feedback because the shoe's going to be on the other foot. When you are selling a listing and they show your house and you're going to ask for feedback. And if they don't provide it, it's going to be frustrating. So always give feedback.

But now you want to go further than that. Meaning, when you're giving feedback, it actually can be a pre-negotiation tool.

This is how Adam uses it:

Instead of just saying, "Oh, it's a nice house, but they chose another one" or something super simple that's not meaningful, Adam gives a detailed text.

In the text, he gives an insightful analysis of the home, how it compared to other listings, what the buyer noticed as they're walking through the house — for example, they noticed the deck...

Are you doing a weekly call to all your sellers? If you haven't started doing this, this is something you need to be doing. And as you take new listings, you need to just create this expectation that you're going to call them every week.

My preference is on Monday. I want to get the week started off right. And having my Monday morning power hour, where I call sellers, is super important in my business plan.

So why do we make calls to our sellers every Monday?

Because we need to earn the right to be able to ask for price adjustments, condition improvements, or incentives if they're needed in order to get the property sold.

The market's changing and not every single listing you bring to the market is going to sell instantaneously anymore. Often we're going to have to make some adjustments in the condition, price, or incentives we're offering.

Here's how you handle that conversation with the seller:

I'm going to start by saying, "Hey, just want to give you a quick update...

As we begin to price property, it's important to understand the difference between comp-based pricing and competitive-based pricing.

Comp-based pricing is what REALTORS typically do when they do a CMA, they do a comp based pricing analysis. What they do is they look at properties that have sold three to six months ago, very similar to what an appraiser does. And normally in a typical market, that's very effective. But we're not in a typical market.

When you're doing that today, you could have an inherent flaw in your data. And here's what it is:

Back in April and May, all indications point to the fact that we probably hit our apex point of the market. Meaning that home sales were indicating at 23-26% appreciation rate compared to the year before. So that was the peak acceleration of our markets.

Since then, we've been moderating. And what that means is that people aren't getting 23-26% compared to a year ago. Now it's down to about 16.9%, still high, no doubt, but that ...

When do listings peak? In other words, when does the total number of listings hit its apex every year?

Well, it's an interesting question and it's definitely been affected by COVID.

Let me break it down for you:

In 2017, the peak was August.

In 2018, it was October.

And in 2019, it was September.

What do you think it was though for the COVID year 2020? And we're still in COVID, but at the beginning of the COVID years:

That number was shockingly (or not so shockingly) April — as March was when it was starting to gain some steam and when we had the shutdown. April was the peak of listings last year, and then it fell off from there pretty dramatically.

What do we expect for 2021 though?

We can't look at the seasonality of real estate anymore. The seasonality of real estate, where we used to know that spring and summer was the peak. And then it came over the top and fall and winter was the slow period.

That's not going to be true this year.

This year already, the sta...

We know that Google is the number one search engine. But what's number two?

As you think about that question, let me give you another a stat that's really going to blow you away:

One-third of Americans -- according to a Harris poll survey -- say that they plan to move after COVID ends.

Think about that.

Think about the power of what that could do to the country in terms of real estate relocation.

So circling back to that first question I asked though, what is the number two search engine?

The answer is YouTube.

And here's what you can do, which is really, really interesting.

When you dive into YouTube today, search for your hometown. Be hyperlocal as we call it and do this quick search: "moving to [your hometown]."

Or you do could another search, which is: "relocation [your hometown]" and see what the results are.

You might find, like I've found, in area after area, after area, after area is that there are very, very little results that include a REALTOR or zero r...

Hey guys, a new study from NAR shows that...

75% of homeowners in America believe now is a good time to sell.

By the way, this is way up from where it was last year at the same time when that number was about 45%.

And what's the difference?

Well, one big difference is that we've had a huge run-up in prices. So sellers are starting to say, "Hey, I can see that this could be a good time to sell because prices have gone so high."

We're also seeing the record low 60-year lows on interest rates, which is another reason why home sellers are thinking they should sell and move up to their dream home. So that's a big reason why a lot of homeowners may be considering selling.

But even though they say it's a good time to sell, does that mean they are going to sell?

Yes, they are going to sell!

According to a new study done by Zillow, 1 in 7 homeowners are planning on selling their home in the next three years.

That's a massive number guys!

Imagine driving through your neighbo...

Hey guys, here's a question:

How many transactions would you guess in the marketplace are cash transactions?

The answer is 23% of all transactions in the real estate industry today are cash transactions.

Now, why is that important?

It's important because when we're talking to buyers and sellers, we need to be able to talk about the impact cash buyers have in the marketplace.

So for instance, when I'm sitting with a seller, sometimes sellers will say, "Well, Jim, I only want to sell to a cash buyer."

Now I'll say, "Hey, I get it. I would prefer that too when I'm a seller. Cash buyers don't have an appraisal requirement. And a lot of times you can close faster and it's a little easier. I get it. No lender involved. But here's the reality of those numbers: Today the latest studies show that 23% of buyers are cash buyers. So that means 77% are not. Only about one out of four buyers are cash buyers. If we only want to sell to a cash buyer, we're eliminating three quarters ...

A new study from NAR shows what's going on with home buyers and it's really, really powerful data.

When we look at home buyers, these 2000 groups, we found that 52% of them had been pre-approved. So they've gone through the process and they're pre-approved.

When you look at the reverse of that number, that means 48% have not. About half the buyers you're competing with when you're in a multiple offer situation are just pre-qualified. They're not pre-approved.

Now you need to make sure that number one, you're having a conversation with your buyer about the importance of being pre-approved. And secondly, educating your sellers about the difference between the two.

One thing that I would encourage you to do is have a conversation with your buyers as a starting point. So here's what I would say with my buyers:

I'd say, "You know, we're still in an extremely low inventory market. Things are changing a little bit and a few more listings are coming to market, but it's still ...

We are in what we might describe as a normalizing market. What does that mean?

We've been in an abnormal market for several years. Our market's been almost a vertical. We've had double digit appreciation for several years. And this has been a run that we've never seen before.

We're about 12 years into a 7-year cycle. So there's an expectation that we're starting to see the markets shift.

A lot of us are seeing a slowdown of showings and energy. And there's some data that backs this up. Here's some of that data:

New listings in the largest 50 metro markets across the country rose 5.1% last month.

And 17.3% of all listings in the country had a price reduction in the last 30 days.

That's in line with pre-pandemic levels, what you would expect in coming into fall. So that's like 2016-2019 levels. Last year, we didn't see that because the market was straight up. It was on a tear.

But right now sellers are starting to say, "Hey, wait a second. I'm not getting the energy, th...