Land is the last thing to heat up in any market. And it's the first thing to cool off.

Why is that?

Because everybody takes the low hanging fruit. If you think of the real estate market like a tree, land is at the top of the tree. Everybody takes the low-hanging fruit before they get to land.

But now that everything is sold out in most markets, people are wondering what they can do. And that's when they decide to build. 

That's why land is starting to heat up. Also, developers are starting to buy land so they can subdivide it and build more homes. Which is another reason why why land is starting to heat up.

As an agent, you can actually go after land as a prospecting method. It's an effective method because very few agents are going after land right now.

But as you drive around in your neighborhoods, you'll see a piece of land in a subdivision that's not developed. Or you'll see a piece of a lot that's an infill lot...

Grow your business by leaning how portfolio lending and SBA loans can help your clients win more deals. Join this amazing conversation with lending expert Mark Ritter as he explains some key advantages to working with a local credit union especially when serving investors and commercial clients.

How are you positioning yourself on social media to have impact?

A lot of us are doing a lot of social media, but is it having impact? Are people remembering you or are they just scrolling past your posts because they're filled with meaningless fluff?

If you want to have impact, here's one technique that'll really help you shine in your marketplace:

Storytelling.

Telling a story about your client's experience and what your clients are going through will help you build a relationship with people that are in your audience. It positions you as the expert, as the authority, as a trusted figure, as an advisor, as a counselor. But it will also help people remember you as a REALTOR.

Why?

Because stories are remembered. Stories create resonance and connections with other people. People love reading about people.

So I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of that:

I've got a couple of my great coaching students that I work with in my company....

In 1918, a guy named Ivy Lee was approached by Charles Schwab. Now, when we hear the name Charles Schwab, we might think of the Charles Schwab we know today who invested and traded stocks. But this isn't the same Charles Schwab.

Charles Schwab at that time was one of the most wealthy people in the world. He owned Bethlehem Steel and steel was, of course, a huge deal. So he was a hugely successful entrepreneur.

And so what happened with Ivy Lee and Charles Schwab was Ivy was a consultant — like how we have consultants and coaches today.

Anyway, Schwab came to him and said, "Hey, I want to increase my managers' efficiency and productivity as well as my proficiency and productivity. I want you to give me your best idea. What's it going to cost me?"

So Ivy being a smart salesperson, did a couple of things.

First, he said I'm not going to charge you anything. I'm just going to just give you the idea and then you can pay me what it's...

Hey guys, quick question:

Are you a global REALTOR or a local REALTOR?

What do I mean by that? I just had a phone call from a guy that I worked with years ago. His name is Dick and he's an amazing guy. He called me and said, Jim, I've got a referral for you. He's living down in San Diego now. But we haven't seen or talked to each other in 15-20 years, but he has a referral for me.

Now, keep in mind: Dick is 83 years old and still out there selling real estate — so congratulations to Dick.

But when he referred that client to me, it just made me remember this concept of being a global realtor versus a local realtor.

Sometimes I have agents come to me that are in coaching and they say: 

"I've got my database, but it includes some people from my hometown or from a town I moved away from years ago, maybe in Texas, Florida, LA, or New York. Should I keep these people that are not local in my database? Why would I spend money...

Should your buyer float their interest rate or lock now?

Interesting question. Some of you really gotta be working with your lender to have that conversation with them. But let me give you a little bit of what's been happening to date in January through roughly March 2021:

Let's look at the numbers and dig into them that I got from one of my lenders — who is an incredible rockstar in the lending world. His name is Brian Case and his team at Guild Mortgage gave me these numbers:

For the entire year of 2021 so far, a floating borrower — or somebody that took the gamble and threw the dice to see if they can get a better rate tomorrow than
they can get today — would've won 41% of the time. And they would have lost 58% of the time.

Because 48% of the time rates went down and 58% of the time they went up. So it's a gamble that may not be paying off.

Overall interest rates have gone up about a half percent since January....

Hey guys, quick question:

Do you have a video bio?

If you don't have a video bio, you could be missing a massive marketing opportunity.

96% of agents are still resisting video. That means that there's a massive opportunity for those agents that are willing to embrace it.

By doing a video bio, imagine that you are a consumer and you're looking at 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 agents on an agent roster. Most of them have the old glamour shot. But you have a video bio. Who's more likely to work with you?

Almost everybody.

Almost everybody's going to click on that video and watch you and give you a shot. They'll give you an "at bat" so you can hit a home run. Instead of just looking at pictures and making a decision, they can actually kind of get to know you a little bit, your personality, your style, and your flair.

And here's what you do in that bio:

You're going to talk about your background, your passion for the market, your passion for real...

I want to turn you on to a book that was recently recommended to me called "Atomic Habits." If you haven't listened to it, it's a fantastic book by James Clear. And it gives powerful insights on how to build habits and actually get rid of habits that are holding you back.

One of the things that he mentioned in the book, which has really resonated with me is this idea of "being in motion" versus "being in action."

Being in motion means that you are planning, strategizing, and preparing to take action, right? There's a lot of agents that are really good at being in motion — but they never actually move up to being in action.

Being in action means you're actually doing the steps necessary to hit your desired outcome.

Now, the difference here between being in motion versus being in action is that when you're in motion, you're not taking a risk. Which is why so many agents get trapped in this space.

You're not risking...

Here's some great language to use with buyers as they're entering the market today. We know it's a high demand, low supply market.

But how do we coach them through this process?

One way is by using the "Auction Analogy." You can do this by talking about a list price as being almost like a reserve price. So the conversation (which you can see below), will give you a good way to help buyers understand what's happening in the market dynamics. You can simply say:

"Hey, now that you're entering the market, I just want to kind of give you a little overview of what's happening in terms of pricing and where sellers are at. We're in a very low supply market and a very high demand market. So, on average, sellers are receiving a least four offers per home. Now some receive less, some receive more. But in general, we're going to be competing for a buyer for a seller's love. We're going to be competing with other buyers. So we want to come in...

There's something happening in the market right now that really will impact your sellers. And that is interest rates are starting to climb a little bit.

When interest rates climb, it affects sellers in two different key ways:

1. It affects what's called buying power of all the buyers in the marketplace.

Here's what that looks like when you're talking about buying power:

If you're a buyer who is going to get a loan of, let's say $300,000, and you had your average down payment that would equal a payment and interest charge of about $1,225 per month. Now that interest rates have come up about a half percent, what does that mean for you?

If you still want to have that same payment, roughly $1225 a month of principal and interest, your buying power actually goes down because interest rates have gone up. You can no longer afford the $300,000 mortgage. Now you can only afford $285,000.

This puts "pricing pressure" on the market.

Now we know...