How to Real Estate Today

4: How Was Your Q1 and What Are You Doing About It?

• Rebecca Green + Kim Borcherding • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Q1 was slower than previous years, but picked up in March and April. Market conditions have changed with higher interest rates, leading to slower discretionary buying and selling. Agents should take advantage of the slowdown to skill up and focus on areas of their business that need improvement. Open houses and prospecting, especially with expired listings, are effective strategies for generating business. Agents should also leverage social media to attract relocating buyers. Evaluating expenses and adjusting marketing strategies are important in a slower market. Education and communication with buyers are crucial due to higher rates and prices.

Takeaways

  • Q1 was slower than previous years, but the market picked up in March and April.
  • Higher interest rates have led to slower discretionary buying and selling.
  • Agents should take advantage of the slowdown to skill up and focus on areas of their business that need improvement.
  • Open houses and prospecting, especially with expired listings, are effective strategies for generating business.
  • Agents should leverage social media to attract relocating buyers.
  • Evaluating expenses and adjusting marketing strategies are important in a slower market.
  • Education and communication with buyers are crucial due to higher rates and prices.

Rebecca Green (00:00.078)
Hi, I'm Kim Borcharding and welcome to another episode of How to Real Estate Today. And I'm here with my friend, Rebecca Green, and we are going to talk about how was Q1. So how was Q1? Yeah. And also, what are you doing about it? Yeah. If it wasn't great. Okay, so we are recording this episode. It's April 17th. We just wrapped up Q1.

And a conversation I've been having with a lot of brokers this week is how was Q1? How'd it go? And just having that conversation. So let me start with you, Rebecca. Yeah, Q1 was interesting this year. I came off of the end of 2023, definitely recognizing that the market had shifted and the shift was here to stay. So Q1 was a little bit slower than previous Q1s, but it really started to pick up in March. I had a great March and April has been phenomenal. I'm seeing multiple offer situations again with several of my buyers. Listing activity has been stronger than what I would have expected it to be, regardless of price point. So that's really been encouraging. In our market, there are, you know, I still think we have a good pool of buyers despite the shift, but without a doubt, the market conditions are different. Interest rates are higher. That's going to continue to affect all of us. Discretionary buying and selling, I think, is going to continue to be slower than we've seen in years, in previous years because of interest rates. And a lot of people have a hard time imagining getting rid of those 3 % loans, those 3 % interest rates on their current loans. So yeah, the market has been different. 

But I like slow, I like the little bit of a slow down. I think it's healthy for market conditions, but I think it's also a great time to, well, I say it a lot, you know, skill up. It's a great time to hone in on areas of your business that you need to work on. Yep, totally. Where would you say for your Q1, where did you fall short? Yeah, great question.

Rebecca Green (02:11.949)
Honestly, I took a bit of a break. So I think my Q1, beginning of Q1, I spent less time in direct conversation with my sphere and less time in the prospecting mode because I needed the break. I mean, it was a wild couple of years and I just feel like it's okay to take a break. Right? We need that sometimes.

So for me, yeah, it's definitely about connecting with people. And I talk to agents all the time in the course that I teach, the business planning part is really about talking to people about buying and selling real estate. That's really what it boils down to. I mean, if you do nothing, but you have a daily number that you are working to hit, and you're talking to people about buying and selling real estate, you will sell real estate. And I just...kind of wasn't talking to enough people about buying and selling real estate. And as soon as I turned it on, amazing things happened. And you know, it proved my point, right? It proved my point. But for me, yeah, personally, I needed a little bit of downtime. Okay. I was gonna say with that, is there anything you would have done differently now reflecting on your Q1? No, because I, you know, I still continued to tweak systems and make improvements on marketing, things like that. I've really been in this season of my career of reflection and also where do I want to go with my business for the next 10 years? I don't want to be a real estate agent selling houses when I'm 78. That's not in my, plan, you know. Nothing against it. No, not against you. But it's just not part of my plan. So I've, I've, you know, I'm in this season of reflection and really, defining what I want and clarity. Clarity has been a big word for me this year. Finding clarity and where I want to be spending my time. Yeah. Okay. So what are agents saying to you? What are you hearing on the street? What's word on the street? Word on the street is that it was not as successful for agents as they would have liked. So I know a lot of agents. This was a debate I had a lot last year that rates were going down to the fives and the market was going to be screaming.

Rebecca Green (04:27.053)
I didn't buy it, but whatever. So rates have stayed high, and that has impacted. So we are down on transactions. Most agents I have talked to have had a slower Q1 then they would have liked, is a common conversation I'm having. So I - Have you heard any agents say, you know, one thing, when the market slows, it can be really hard for agents to re -motivate themselves, right? Because they are, you know, they have -

kind of fallen into a lull, right? And that's something I'm hearing. Have you heard people say that too? I have not. I'd say right now I'm in community with a lot of motivated agents. Yes, love it. And so they are motivated. I mean, for me, my two big real estate groups that I'm connected with is my Clever Collective community that I run here, which is kind of growth -minded agents right now. And then at EXP, super growth -minded. So no, I am not.

Definitely last year, the market really shifted the fall of 2022. Fall of 2022. And people thought that was going to be temporary. Agents were very surprised by 2023 and the lack of transactions. People took it in the chin. That was unexpected. And I think the agents have kind of shifted their mindset, recognized they need to do things a little bit differently. Market conditions have changed. Again, I can debate that there's....lots of opportunities in that. And if you're a great agent, there's opportunity for you to get more market share because you're a great agent. So again, most of the agents I'm around are scaling up and they're motivated. But there are also a lot of agents that are not where they like to be. Though with that, the spring has been strong, at least here in the local market. Talk about multiple offers.

I'm kind of in this weird transition where I'm stepping out of production and moving into this kind of different version of my career. Like you, I have been reflecting on what my next kind of career in real estate looks like. But I had a client that I've been working with for a couple of years in a very specific neighborhood that's really hard to find. And we wrote an offer this weekend and we wrote a hundred plus over. So it was listed at 736 and we wrote at 860 and and didn't get it.

Rebecca Green (06:46.797)
Isn't that crazy? We got back up, but we did not get it. And all great terms, we did like a 22-day close as is. I mean, we did all the things and we didn't get it. So the market is, and again, it depends on the price of my area, but it's unpredictable, but it is competitive. It is competitive. We are seeing multiple offers on a lot of great houses right now. Which is weird.

Which is weird because we're hearing, you know, market's not great. People have a down Q1, but yet there are multiple offers. There's a lack of inventory, but yet we have more inventory now than we've had for the last several years. I mean, inventory levels are higher now than they were, you know, for many years. So unpredictable, I think, is a great way to actually frame it. So, you know, I think everyone's in agreement that it's a different time, right? I haven't had anyone come to me and said, I've had the best Q1 I've ever had. So that's the commonality there. 

So what are you talking to brokers about doing differently? Or what are some of the things you've heard brokers saying, okay, I recognize I need to make the shift and this is what I'm doing? Great, because that's the conversation... what are we doing about it? Q1 is behind us, right? What are we doing moving forward? So here's my kind of predictions for the remaining year.

I think Q3, kind of Q4 might be weird, you know, typically around election time, that's kind of a wonky market. So totally unpredictable there. So I'm like, right now, Q2, you really need to be very focused and doing a lot of great work because I think it'll be completely unpredictable in the second half of the year. So I'm really encouraging agents, the conversation I'm having is action oriented every single day.

Very clear what actions to move the needle in your business. So what are you doing right now? Like you are very intentional with your time. You're prospecting what that looks like. I mean, where your business comes from and doubling down. So if you're a referral agent who has a database, like are you touching your database? What does that look like? Are you doing client events right now? Like spring is a great time for client events.

Rebecca Green (09:00.461)
That was a big way how I built my business was through my sphere at my client events. So doing things for client events. The other thing I'm telling agents as well is open houses. Like gosh, I mean guys, if you needed to get a transaction potentially in the next 30 days, a great way is to do open houses. Every day of the week if you can.

Absolutely, there's a good - Because what are you doing when somebody comes in the door? You're actually talking to people about buying and selling real estate, and it's really what it boils down to. Absolutely. I mean, so like what else is easier than being an open house where people come in who are clearly interested in real estate. Right. You know, again, I love social media for many ways, but there's people who look at your social media who aren't necessarily buying or selling real estate right now.

Or ever. Or ever, that's true. But if they're coming to your open house, there's a really good chance they're interested in buying or selling sometime in the near future. So being at open houses. And then, to your point, doing it every day. There's a guy in our market who moved here without knowing anybody, and he did open houses, I think, like five days a week for a long time. And that's how he built his business.  You can do it Wednesday night, open house, twilight. And then this is a conversation I'm having with agents. So for me, when I've mentored agents, I really...push them at doing open houses and getting exceptionally good, being like undeniable that you are the best open house person there is. So now if you don't have listings of your own, which you know, you may or may not, find an agent who has listings, convince them that you are the best darn open house person ever and that they should give their listings, open houses to you, cause you're gonna like...do this incredible spread, this, you know, you're gonna be there early, you're gonna have music, you're gonna market it, you're gonna have signs out on every corner, you're gonna have, because again, you're gonna help them market this house, you're gonna have your balloons, everyone who walks by is gonna have a nice experience. Yeah, you're really just gonna like knock it out of the park for that listing agent. And then after the open house, you're going to communicate with that listing agent in the way they'd like to be communicated. Is that a phone call? Is that a text message? Is that an email?

Rebecca Green (11:11.854)
A very thorough follow -up, what that looks like, so they can easily forward it to the seller and it makes them look good. And then you are going to win them over that anytime that they have a listing that they're gonna call you first. So that's where I'm a big like, just kill it. Just do the work. And be the open house person. Do the work and execute. And then when clients come through, again, have that be such an elevated experience. I always say this, in my mindset, when I, was really building my business, open houses. So I was like, okay, I'm interviewing today and somebody who's coming in town from San Francisco is going to go to open houses. And I want to be their broker. And I want to be the most exceptional, exceptional real estate agent this Saturday afternoon that that person encounters. So I work with them and that's an interview. And so I'm like, okay.

The other agents holding opens are my competitors. And what you're really tapping into is action, you know, taking action and making sure you are continually following up and doing something on the repetition of it, right?

That's where you see the results. The random open house here or there just doesn't really reap. You don't get as good at it. And that's with anything in the business. It's really with anything, whether you're a football player or a tennis player or real estate agent, practicing your skill makes you better. The repetition makes you stronger. And so, yeah, you're talking about taking action. And when the market's down, it's a great way to generate business.

And I'm like, open house every single weekend until you have a closing. Like non -negotiable. And it's interesting, you're talking about open houses. I have never ever loved open houses. But I also look at this market and recognize where we are in the market. And it is an opportunity to talk to people about buying and selling real estate. And if you shift your mindset as well, for example, I don't love, I never loved open houses. I don't know why.

Rebecca Green (13:20.557)
I have coached agents and worked with agents who have been exceptional at it. Understanding you built a huge business doing it and we're so successful with it. If there is something out there in activity like expired listings maybe or the word prospecting that you can't quite get your head around, if you just shift your mindset ever so slightly, for example, for me, instead of thinking about it as an open house.

I go right to, it's an opportunity to talk to people about buying and selling real estate, right? I've shifted my mindset so that it's not something that I'm like, I don't want to do that. Right? So, you know, prospecting, you mentioned prospecting, expired listings, I think are an opportunity in this market, but you have to do it regularly. You have to have a plan in place, and you have to do it, you know, with conviction, and you have to be consistent. Absolutely. I mean, that's it.

The discipline to do it inconsistently. So if you had someone come to me like, hey, Rebecca, my pipeline looks terrible. What could I do right now? Yeah. I always tell people to go back to their database. If you have a database, I think the answer would be different for all people. If you have a good database and you've been selling for quite some time, well, actually, let me just rephrase that.

If you've been selling for a lot of years and you don't have a database, I'm gonna say start there. Get all your people together in one place. Find a system, spend some time getting your database in good order, right? But then go to that database and reach out. Just having conversations, something that I do as I'm driving around neighborhoods, when I'm in a client's neighborhood or in a neighborhood where I've sold the home, I'll send a random text message and say, hey, I was in the neighborhood, the cherry tree looks great or I saw the new landscaping, or you painted your front door, or text them to say, my gosh, I'm in the neighborhood, I just showed a house, can you believe the price? Just those small conversations, if you're doing it on a regular basis, you'd be amazed at what it could turn into. So that's one thing, go to your database, really circle back with past clients, your sphere.

Rebecca Green (15:30.125)
I also like your idea about client events. It's a great time to reconnect with past clients. Again, conversation leads to the craziest things. It's just actually having the conversation. So another thing, again, just tapping into expired listings, I think there have been more expired listings now than what we've seen in years because everything was selling.

So expired listings, I think are an opportunity for somebody as well. Have you ever called expired? All the time. Really? Yeah, like, so that's a funny thing, right? I never liked doing open houses, but I would cold call expireds. My gosh. I built my business doing it. No way. I have never done that. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, I loved it. It was a great, you know, it was, and that's the great thing about this business, right? There are a million different ways to succeed.

Whether you're calling expires, whether you're doing open houses, again, it's activity and action and follow -up that makes all the difference. If Q1 wasn't great for you, you know, activity, open houses, expired listings, tapping into your sphere. But let's talk about maybe some other creative ways and or holes in people's businesses where they can use a little bit of a softer market to get better. So what are some of the things that you tell agents that are in your sphere? Yeah, I've been telling like, really using this time to level up and scale up. Like this is an opportunity, you know, it's really easy to kind of kick back for a while, but doing things like marketing, social media, that's a conversation I'm having all the time. And I get a lot of resistance to doing it for a million different reasons. You don't know what to do. You don't know where to start. You're uncomfortable with it. I mean, it's a million things to do. But I also know and see many examples if you do it and you learn and also like give yourself grace. You like when you're a beginner, you're terrible at anything. What do you do when you start, you're a beginner? You're nothing. So just start there. So social media. So in my opinion, so what I'm going to actually take a step back and be like, okay, where do I think there is opportunity?

Rebecca Green (17:45.453)
For transactions. Okay, so potentially less move -up buyers, but first-time home buyers is one. Relocating buyers. So again, if you are trying to capture relocating buyers, let me tell you, those people are on social media. They're gonna put a hashtag, Phoenix Realtor. Hashtag, Portland, moving to Portland. They are looking online. And for me, even as a referring agent, I had an outbound referral to Vancouver, BC. I looked at social media profiles and I chose an agent that way. And then I interviewed them. But I think social media is a great way to capture inbound people who they're going to want a local expert, a good agent who also is going to guide them to the right part of town, the right name, like just give them the locals knowledge. Right there on your social media. Tell them, like I love Portland, like anytime people relocated to Portland, I was like, okay, there's a lot to talk about. Is it Eastside? Is it Westside? Pros and cons? What are the differences? Do you want walkable? Do you not want, do you want big mature trees? Do you want larger lots? I mean, I'm all about discovery with a client, and then I'll be like, okay, well, gosh, you want privacy. You're probably more West Side or your commute is you're working at Nike. Okay, you probably may not want to live on these or consider this commute. 

So what you're talking about is actually making sure your social media presence explains this and is in alignment with that. So you're like the neighborhood expert. Like, hey, if you are looking to move to Portland and you want to make sure you're working with a local who knows all the neighborhoods and the nuances of the neighborhood, social media is a great way to do that.

That is like a big thing, but it's also good to take a step back looking at where the business opportunity is. And I think relocation inbound people who have no realtor relationship here already. And they're going to look for somebody who really can guide them when landing in the new town. Yeah. So I love that. What do you love? Yeah. I mean, and I love all of those things we've covered, we, we have to find the holes in our business and we also have to find the opportunity in the market. I'm spending a lot of time.

Rebecca Green (19:52.525)
You know, I do, part of my training course is business planning. I am a big proponent, business planning is not a set it and forget it, you know, exercise. So, end of Q1 is really an opportunity to look at your business plan. Evaluate where you're spending money, making cuts where necessary. That was one thing I did this year, for sure. As I was doing taxes, working with our accountant, and going through taxes, I was really evaluating the spending. As the market shifts, your expenses should shift, right? I'm not saying that you change your....you know, the amount of marketing that you're doing, but maybe you get rid of something that's not benefiting you. Just reevaluating all your expenses. So that's definitely been high on my list for the agents that I'm talking to and for my own business. You know, evaluating expenses and then looking at return on investment. Where we're getting the biggest return because that changes as the market changes, right? You know, when the market was hot, I mean, let's face it, we were putting houses on the market and they were getting multiple offers. Presentation was always something that I was keen on doing and never stopped, regardless of market conditions. But when the market is a little bit slower, it could use new platforms or different marketing for your listings, right, to get them to sell. So every market has its own nuances. And I think you have to be aware of that, right? It's kind of like I've been selling real estate for 32 years, but I have certainly not been doing it the same way for 32 years. Right? And so those agents that are always like, I've been doing this forever, but have you been doing it the right way forever? Have you been doing it with, you know, what's on trend? So I'm telling people to really look at what they see the next five years looking like in the real estate market and making changes that are appropriate for the longterm. Yeah. Right.

Rebecca Green (21:52.877)
I heard today that they are, you know, economists are saying that the market may not get back to the same level of sales volume until 2027, 2028. So talking about how we lean into that and make good choices now until we get back to that level, I think is another important part of what people should be doing. Yes. Can you tell me?

Can you give me an example of an adjustment that you made in your business with market conditions? Yeah, I love that. That's a great question. So listings are taking a little bit longer to sell in some situations. So I've been staggering marketing, right? So, you know, staggering the rollout on marketing, right? So the coming soon. So it's not all like week one. Exactly. So it's not all pushing out in week one.

It's working really well. So, you know, some listings, I'm doing marketing before they hit the market. And then once they hit the market, I'm doing a different marketing push, right? And so I'm seeing, you know, 10, 12 showings right away. And then I'm doing another marketing rollout, whether that be email marketing pieces to local brokers, whether that be digital targeted ads to a feeder market, because I've analyzed where traffic is coming from. For example, we get a lot of California buyers in certain price points in Oregon and certain neighborhoods. If I see that there's a lot of activity from California, I'll do a targeted digital ad campaign to attract more California buyers. Yep, that's really smart. Do you know how few agents do that?

And I'm not doing it all up front, right? Because I want to continue the activity and continue to see the results. So is that working? Absolutely. You know, taking a listing to market and 10, 15 showings in the first 10 days, there seems to be a bit of a lull after that. And so I ramp up that digital targeted ad marketing and I'm getting phone calls from buyers from out of town and doing virtual tours.

Rebecca Green (24:09.229)
So that's definitely an adjustment I've made.  When the market was hot, it was just get it out there, make sure it's presented so perfectly and be available because you know you're going to get an onslaught of buyers and probably offers. So yeah, dripping marketing and keeping it rolling. I think a mistake that agents make when the market is more of a 30 day cycle for listing to sell or 45, I'm not sure where we are right now an average day on the market and of course it's different neighborhood to neighborhood, I think they make the mistake of ramping it all up at the beginning and rolling it out and it's so exciting and what do I do on week two, three, four and five, right?

Then your sellers are looking at you like, now what? Now what? Yeah, so that's one adjustment. The other adjustment, you know, when I go in for a listing appointment and I'm talking to sellers, I'm really big on the follow -up communication as far as here's our system for rolling a listing out. So I go through all of that. Another adjustment that I have made is letting the sellers know at the two -week mark, if we're not under contract, at the two -week mark, we're gonna do another market analysis and we're gonna have a review and then we're also gonna do that again at the four week mark. So, you know, we didn't have to do that when houses were selling so quickly. And I think even good agents who have been in the market for a really long time, who've done that in the past have kind of forgotten that that's something we need to circle back to. So that's another adjustment. Yeah, actually, I mean, again, it depends on how it depends on property, but on some listings, I've always, if we don't have an offer by week two and we're looking at a price reduction by week three. And that's just a conversation in advance. And again, depends on the house, the scenario, the situation, but like, I mean, again, yeah. So it all depends. Everything's a conversation. And then buyers. I mean, what changes with buyers? There's a lot going on with commission conversations and the National Association of Realtors settlement.

Rebecca Green (26:16.557)
We have to recognize that buyers might be feeling a little trepidation about jumping into the market. So I'm a big proponent on education and I don't necessarily think that's a change in my business because I've always been really keen on educating buyers and sellers. But I think there's opportunity for educating buyers maybe in a different way. 

Yeah, just amplifying the education. And I think also, again, from a buyer's perspective, because of rates, I mean, they've gone up actually, you know, big jump up this last week even. Yeah. And prices continue to go up here in this market, at least, you know, so rates are up, prices are up, you know, affordability is tough on people. Totally. So just cautious about making these decisions. And so I think education is really important. Yeah. Very important. Agreed.

So great. So I mean, cheers to a better Q2. I actually think the spring market is going to be surprising. I do think that we're going to see an uptick, but definitely not like what we were looking at when, you know, during the pandemic or at the height of the market. So yeah, cheers to, you know, a stronger Q2. I think to your point, Q3 is probably also going to be a little bit slower.

I'm not a fearful person, so I think you hone into what you're good at, you evaluate what you're not good at, you spend some time getting better, and the good agents are gonna survive this. The amount of time I've been in the business, I mean the ups and the downs, right? And I'm still here. But mostly what it comes down to is just do the work. Do the work. I mean, that's the thing. And be consistent. When I'm asking people, you didn't perform like you wanted to, did you do the work?

Or did you really even have the goals set in order to know where you wanted to be? No, if I'm honest, which is fine, you gotta be honest. That's important, like being honest. Yeah. And being clear on what that success looks like and you're doing the action, but being disciplined and actually doing the work. Because if you're doing the work every day, the business comes. Yeah, without a doubt. Without a doubt, I agree. Thanks so much for joining us. We're looking forward to seeing you next time.