What's the top reason someone might sell their house in the next 12 months?

A recent study just unveiled the number one motivator for people moving in 2024…

…and it's all about craving more space—not just square footage but room to breathe.

A whopping 38% of respondents cited this as their primary driver for considering a change.

Another big one is being closer to family and friends, a universal priority. Job changes and the overall cost of living in one community versus another are also high on the list. Then there's the desire to snag a better housing deal or explore different neighborhoods for financial reasons.

Surprisingly, there are a couple of unique motivations emerging: Some folks want to live in areas that align better with their social views, which is a new trend.

So how can you approach this topic sensitively?

Here's one approach: Share a social post stating, "One of the top reasons people are...

Did you know that around 40% of business in most markets involves relocation?

This means people are moving within or out of your area due to various factors like jobs, financial changes, or retirement. In today's market, most relocations are motivated by necessity rather than choice.

To tap into this market, let's focus on strategic steps:

First, ask yourself if the term "relocation" appears anywhere in your marketing. If not, add it today: business cards, website, personal flyers—everywhere. Make it an SEO-friendly part of your business model.

Next, think about what your web pages convey about relocation.

Do you offer a downloadable relocation kit or area videos? Here's a top tip: Create a YouTube channel specific to your market. Share videos about the top 10 TripAdvisor-recommended things to do in your area. Link it to your website for engaging content.

Consider where relocators frequent—hotels, RV parks,...

Hey guys, some new interesting information from NAR regarding how far people move when they buy a new home.

For decades, the number was about 10 to 15 miles from where they were moving to where they were going to.

Now that shot up dramatically last year to 50 miles—an unheard of number. And where are people heading?

1. Small towns: up 9% from last year.

2. Rural areas: up 7% from last year.

So people are wanting to exit urban areas, kind of that urban exodus we've talked about for a long time. And why are they doing it? Well, they have remote working, they have a remote school, and they want to get out of the urban jungle. And affordability is a big issue. They can buy a much bigger house, much nicer house by going out to these rural and small town areas.

So what about your market? Are you starting to see this in your market?

Maybe you're on the flip side where you live in a rural market like I do and you're benefiting from people coming to you. And on the other side, maybe...

A stat from a Zillow study that came out shows that 30% of Americans have cited climate change as a reason to move in 2022.

Now, I think about that and I reflect on my own market where I live here in Southern Oregon. And I think, well, a lot of people wouldn't consider this being a climate change issue here, but it is.

You see, we've had, and we've been surrounded by fires for the last four or five years in our community. And those fires create smoke. And it creates a situation where people don't love going outside during the summer, one of the best times to be outside. Coupled with the fact that last year we had a fire rage through the entire city and burned down 2,700 homes. I had three duplexes burned down myself.

So when people have that experience, it's very detrimental. They are in fear of it. Of course they might think about moving. And a lot of people did move away because of that.

Or think about your...

Hey guys, I'm seeing something in the market that I've never seen before, which is really interesting.

We're seeing a mass migration of people moving from one state to the next because of political reasons.

Now, we haven't seen that. In my 33 years in the industry, I've never seen a mass migration because of political reasons. People are moving because they don't agree with the local politics or the state politics. And they're going to where they agree more with the politics of that other state.

So you might say, well, that's interesting, Jim, but how in the world do I capitalize on? How do I use that in my real estate business?

It's interesting because we all know some folks around us—family and friends—that have actually made the move. So isn't like way out there. This is like close to almost all of us.

So I'm gonna give you a simple technique today that you can implement right now.

...

Hey guys, some really interesting information regarding remote working and what's happening in the country.

A lot of employers today are saying, "Hey, we started with remote working because we had to. COVID made us do it. But now we're starting to see, this is a really good kind of situation. We spend less on housing our employees in a building somewhere and we can work from home. And great news as a lot of 'em are more productive at home than they were at the office."

So, interesting, interesting study that was just done about this.

And it's related to housing in that 19% of people that are looking to buy a house are doing so because they now have a remote working situation.

See, during the middle of COVID employers were like, "Well, we're gonna let you do this, but then you're gonna have to come back home to the office."

Now they're saying, "Hey, no, you know what? Just keep working from home. We don't care."

Now this gives the freedom...

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...

An interesting new study came out from Zillow recently that talked about what people's attitudes are related to working from home versus working in an office after COVID ends.

What's interesting is that 95% of the American population would prefer to work partly at home and partly at the office after COVID ends.

So big, big differences in how people want to work going forward. But even deeper than that — 36% of the population now prefers to work at home. So basically one third of Americans say they don't want to go back to an office after COVID ends. They just stay working remotely.

What does that mean for housing and real estate? Well, a couple of things:

It means that our trend, which has been trending towards smaller houses for a long time pre-COVID has reversed. Now we're trending towards larger homes where people can work from home, go to school from home, and really have multi-generational families in some cases where...

8.9 Million people in the United States have moved during the pandemic. What's interesting is when you dive deep into those numbers. 85% of those folks have moved outside of Metro markets or moved away from Metro markets. They're moving into suburban and rural markets instead.

According to the United States Postal Service, large cities lost the most people during the first seven months of the pandemic. They're seeing people move out of some of the most populated areas and relocating to the suburbs or rural markets.

Now, what does that mean to us? That means that we have an opportunity. There's a seismic shift happening in the real estate market and the real estate world may never be the same. We should be leveraging this as an opportunity. Maybe one of the biggest opportunities we ever have in our real estate career is happening right now in 2021. The market is shifting.

So how can you leverage this? One way is by focusing yourself around relocation....

Who is the urban flight buyer?

This is a growing group of people that live in major cities but are looking to exit densely populated, metro areas. In many cases they want to escape to a suburb or a more rural market because they don't like being trapped in their house because of Covid-19.

Why do people want to move?

Two key reasons why people are leaving metro markets - they want more space inside their home and then they want more space outside of their home. Behind this is a new ability to actually make the move a reality. Here are four reasons why this dream is coming true for so many people. First jobs are becoming more remote, especially for people that are working in an upper-tier employment role. In addition many school systems around the country have now gone to a virtual classroom. Third we are also seeing record low interest rates. Finally there is the quarantine lifestyle effect. Because of Covid-19 people are much more focused on their homes today because of 'shelter...