16: Navigating the Weird Real Estate Market

In this episode, Rebecca Green and Kim Borcherding discuss the current state of the real estate market, characterized as 'weird' due to fluctuating prices, high interest rates, and affordability challenges. They explore the implications for buyers, sellers, and agents, emphasizing the need for strategic thinking and adaptability in a changing landscape. The conversation highlights opportunities for both buyers and sellers, despite the market's challenges, and offers practical advice for real estate agents to thrive in this environment.

Takeaways:

• The current real estate market is described as 'weird' due to various factors.
• Home ownership costs have escalated, making it less affordable for many.
• Interest rates have risen significantly, impacting buyer affordability.
• The 'lock-in effect' keeps many homeowners from selling their low-rate mortgages.
• There are still opportunities for buyers and sellers in specific markets.
• Real estate agents need to adapt their strategies to survive and thrive.
• Personal development and energy management are crucial for agents in a tough market.
• Evaluating expenses and cutting unnecessary costs is essential for agents.
• Building a business requires proactive lead generation and client engagement.
• Understanding market dynamics is key for making informed decisions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating the Weird Real Estate Market
• 5:00 Understanding Market Dynamics and Affordability
• 9:55 Opportunities for Buyers and Sellers
• 14:53 Strategies for Real Estate Agents
• 20:03 Personal Development and Market Adaptation

Transcript

Rebecca Green (00:02)
Rebecca Green. Welcome to How to Real Estate Today. I'm here with my co-host Kim Borgerding and today we're going to talk about this very weird market that we're in and what it means for buyers, sellers and agents. So Kim, I'll let you start.

Kim Borcherding (00:18)
Yeah, Rebecca. Well, you know, for those of us who are in the real estate world, guys, it's a really weird market. when people and that's a very common question when you're a real estate agent, like everyone from kids, know, parents at the softball practice in the grocery store to friends like, how's the market like a very common question. And I feel like I wish I had a better statement, but I just keep saying it's really weird.

Rebecca Green (00:26)
I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (00:48)
And but let me elaborate what I mean by weird because that's not really a technical term. And I feel like I've been saying weird for a while. And sometimes I don't really know how to answer it. But but in general, there are some very common themes we're seeing in this weird market. Essentially, prices were kind of in this like locked up market. So

Rebecca Green (00:53)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (01:10)
Prices have been continuing to escalate in most areas. Now, some areas are starting to come down, but generally in most real estate markets, prices have gone up significantly in the last five years. In addition, in the last five years, interest rates have gone up. now, mean, and again, so again, 2020, they're in the threes. And now they've just been at about the seven range. They're now maybe six and a half, but still, again, they...

For the last 10 years, this is the highest they've been. peak pricing, peak interest rates in the last 10 years. And then you also have some other factors impacting affordability for people. like insurance has gone up a ton depending on the state. mean, some places even difficult to get insurance, but insurance and just cost of home ownership, maintenance costs like ...

Rebecca Green (01:44)
and do it.

you

Kim Borcherding (02:08)
labor, the cost of home ownership has gotten really expensive. So as a result, there are less people that are able to afford it because wages have not kept up with the cost of housing. love how this is a common kind of topic when you say, rates are 7%. And that's high. when I bought a house, like my mom bought a house, she paid, I think 15%. People will make that statement except when you bought a house,

Rebecca Green (02:12)
Yeah.

I feel it.

Kim Borcherding (02:37)
with a 15 % interest rate, that house was probably $60,000 and at the time you made $25,000 a year in salary. So that's three years of salary to purchase a home. Well now in this case, in most markets, it's not three years of salary to purchase a house. mean, again, you're buying a house at whatever, I mean, again, depends on the market, it really varies. But essentially the cost of housing is so much more expensive compared to what people earn. So the point is,

Home ownership is really expensive. And for a lot of people that is unattainable because of the cost. So then the other thing you have the just kind of tied up inventory. a significant, the majority of the population who own a home have an interest rate under 4%. So for that homeowner to trade that low interest rate, which now in comparison, affordable payment,

they really have to want to sell the house or make a move to like let go of that. mean, people feel like they have the golden handcuffs. They have their great interest rate. And even though they might want to move or upgrade houses or really whatever the reason is, they're really not giving up that interest rate too easily. So you have a lack of inventory and then you have a high cost of home ownership. that really

Rebecca Green (03:56)
Mm-hmm.

must have come on to that.

Kim Borcherding (04:04)
is just and as a result, there's just a lot less transactions. So last year was historical low transactions in the real estate world. so less deals for agents, less opportunities for buyers to buy homes, again, from either an affordability perspective and or finding a home that you want. And so it's just this really weird market. Now some

Rebecca Green (04:09)
Thank

Kim Borcherding (04:31)
And again, real estate's always kind of these micro markets depending like in Portland. I would say it's to be honest, it's by the product, it's by the neighborhood. When you're talking about a condo in the Pearl District that's very different than a bungalow, a two-one bungalow in a good neighborhood on the inner East side versus a ranch. And so like, you you have these little micro pockets. So, and then even zooming out a little bit more, of course, state of Oregon, all these different markets.

Rebecca Green (04:49)
Yeah.

My question.

Kim Borcherding (05:00)
You know, what might be going on in, you know, Salem or Grants Pass is very different than Portland. And then as well, and zooming out even more, what's going on in Austin, Texas, which has been probably one of the biggest boom cities in the last 10 years in the country, highest, you know, escalation in prices. They've had prices coming, they've had prices coming down, as well as Florida. Florida is another place, Texas too.

Rebecca Green (05:07)
Yeah.

down.

Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (05:28)
where they just built a ton, they had a ton of migration and they built a ton, but prices are starting to come down because they have more inventory than they have demand still. anyway, you just have a lot of weird factors and it's really hard to know, in my opinion, how things are gonna shake out and it's just weird.

Rebecca Green (05:39)
Yeah.

A lot of, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and it is weird and I would agree and a lot of what you were saying, the data points, none of the data points are moving in unison in positive directions for people, right? So the data points, for example, you mentioned interest rates. Yes, you're right, 60 % of homeowners are sub 4 % from an interest rate standpoint. So the move up buyer,

is gone in a lot of ways. A large percentage of them are gone because for a homeowner to go from a 3 % interest rate into a 6 % or 7 % interest rate and the home that they're moving up to, it used to be pretty common to go from 7 to 9 or from 7 to a million, somewhere along that line. When you take into consideration the jump in interest rate, that

person's really going from like 700 to the equivalent of 1.5, right? If you were to compare the 3 % interest rate with a 3 % interest rate. So it's not the move up buyer is a large percentage of those buyers are gone. So that's one problem on the, you know, that's one problem on the sales front, the real estate agents. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Kim Borcherding (06:52)
I'm told.

Let me just add this. So my husband's a mortgage broker. He

was sharing a scenario where somebody owned a home and their mortgage payment was about $1,800 a month and they were looking at a move up home for them. That new payment for that new move up home was going to be for about $4,800 a month for whatever that move up home was for them. I mean,

Rebecca Green (07:27)
and not that big of a price jump.

Kim Borcherding (07:30)
Yeah, so from $1,800

Rebecca Green (07:32)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (07:32)
to $4,800 for people like this is ton, you know, if you're not having tremendous wage growth.

Rebecca Green (07:37)
Totally.

And that's the problem with inventory. That's one of the reasons we're facing an inventory crunch right now. it's been referred to, and I always refer to it as the lock-in effect. People are locked into $1,800 a month payments. Why would you exchange that for the $4,800 a month payment unless it changed your lifestyle, unless income has gone up? And income levels are not rising at the same rate as appreciation on homes.

So yeah, that is definitely a problem. But I always look, we talk a lot about finding the opportunity. Where is the opportunity for a buyer right now? Where's the opportunity for a seller? And maybe let's talk about where the opportunity for real estate agents are, because you mentioned a historic low number of real estate transactions last year. The industry did lose a lot of real estate agents. However, it was the lowest in, was it 30 years?

the lowest in 20, yeah, about 30 years. 30 years ago, there was a significantly lower number of real estate agents. And so also when those levels of sales were lower, there were lower people in the business. And so there were more deals for each agent to have, right? You know, right now, that's not the case. So, you know, on the real estate front, I think agents are panicking a bit. And I understand that.

Kim Borcherding (08:37)
They're about 30 years. Yep.

Rebecca Green (09:04)
You know, one of the ills of the real estate industry is that there can be long stretches without any income. So the agents that are succeeding, in my opinion, are the ones that did the work 18 months ago, two years ago, three years ago. They have structure in place. They have systems in place for continually being in front of their clients. The work they put in then is benefiting them now. That's one thing from a real estate perspective. From a seller perspective,

We are still in this weird market seeing multiple offer situations on homes that are in the right neighborhood, in the right condition and priced correctly. So it's such, it's not even an anomaly, it's not an anomaly even. It makes the market even weirder, right? Like appreciation and affordability is...

Kim Borcherding (09:50)
you

Rebecca Green (09:55)
you know, has escalated to a point where it has become a barrier to entry for a lot of people. But yet we have homes that are hitting the market and selling in multiple offer situations. for sellers that, you know, another stat that I read recently, 40 % of sellers are in no mortgage situation. Excuse me. 40 % of homeowners have no mortgage. So for those folks who have no mortgage and you're in an area where the inventory is really low,

There's opportunity for the multiple offers if your home is priced right and in the right pocket. You mentioned all these micro pockets. So for sellers, think sellers have, I'm talking to a lot of sellers that are saying, you I think I want to sell, but I don't think it's the right time because the market is bad. The market's not bad. It's just different. It is weird, but I don't think it's a bad market. And again, sellers have opportunity in the right area.

And then let's talk a little bit about buyer opportunity. Buyer opportunity to me might not be in your local market, but as you mentioned, there are markets where there was a boom in building. And so they have had a downswing. Like they have started seeing property values stay steady or start to decline because they have an abundance of inventory. So those are places like Florida, you mentioned Texas.

Kim Borcherding (11:19)
Thank

Rebecca Green (11:19)
parts of Arizona,

Las Vegas. If you are a buyer or you are somebody who is interested in utilizing real estate as part of your investment portfolio, which we still firmly believe as weird as the market is, we still believe it's a good opportunity. are opportunities and it is a good investment strategy. And Kim, I think early in our conversation, you said something so smart.

when prices are down or when things are on sale, that's when you buy. And so for somebody looking to either downsize or make a good real estate purchase, it might not be in your local market. It might be outside of your local market where you can take advantage of those home values coming down just a bit.

Kim Borcherding (12:00)
you

Yeah, but I would also say there are more, there's always opportunity in your market too. I would say I talked to agents last week who got amazing deals for their clients under contract because those houses were sitting. This is a very common theme we're seeing now guys too, sellers, you know, it's a weird market, plenty of sellers, you know, are expecting some premium price on their home. There is low inventory.

Rebecca Green (12:16)
Yeah, good point.

Kim Borcherding (12:34)
But also buyers are picky too. Again, if they're paying a premium in their mind for the home, and if it's not in premium condition in a premium neighborhood, they're not gonna pay a premium price for a house that's not premium condition and premium location. They're just not. So houses that are priced.

Rebecca Green (12:47)
They're not paying yet. They're not paying yet. Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (12:58)
May price a little too high, then sitting, because I always say that the house at the right price guys will sell in any market. So it's just about pricing the house right for the condition. Again, you want to modify the condition, great. Can't really modify the location. So houses that are sitting because they're not priced right, then that's an opportunity for buyers. So even in your market. I was at a conversation with a past client last week where

Rebecca Green (13:00)
Mm-hmm.

huh.

Kim Borcherding (13:28)
Again, looking out, it probably is not gonna make sense for them to upgrade houses, but their mortgage payment was at affordable rate. And I was like, okay, but they really want to relocate to a different state. And I was like, keep your house as rental and go rent and go rent and go rent where you want to be. Gosh. And then I helped pull up rental comps for them. Can we rent? And it turns out the rent for that single family,

small little bungalow on the east side of Portland would rent for what their mortgage payment was. And again, this is, you I mean, it's a very common saying if you worked with him, I was always like, never sell, never. Like, could you keep that as a rental? People call me that I almost sell my house. Do you really? Can you keep that house? And I would always kind of challenge them. Can you keep this as a rental? Because for me, I'm a big believer in keep building rentals. And the best way to get a rental property, guys, is to live in it, you know?

Rebecca Green (14:09)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (14:27)
You can

get into a with a low down payment, live in it for at least one year as an owner occupied house. Then you move out and then you keep that as a rental. That's how we built many of our rentals is those were homes that we lived in. And then we went and got a new desk, know, scraped together, did not pull out the did not pull that equity out, left it in there, scrape together another little dope down payment to buy the next house. But so I advise these clients as like

Rebecca Green (14:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

or something else.

Kim Borcherding (14:53)
If I were you, I wouldn't sell that house. Keep it, keep it as rental. I'll refer you to great property management. Go move to another state, live your best life. Rent there for now. I mean, I'm a big believer when you're relocating, renting, unless you really know the market, really know that, again, it is a weird time. Do you want to be, they were moving to the Phoenix area. Do you want to be buying? I can't say, just get there. Gosh, here's what I know about the Phoenix area. It's huge. There are so many different areas about the Phoenix. I mean, it's like,

Rebecca Green (15:18)
lots of different pockets.

Kim Borcherding (15:22)
I think it's like an hour and a half or two hour commute across the whole metro area. So what goes on the East side versus the West side. So I was like, just get there, rent for a year, get the lay of land, understand where you want to be, keep your rental in Portland. And then again, I'm gonna tell you to keep it forever, you know, and then figure out where you want to come up with another down payment, or perhaps you sell that place in Portland. that is...

Rebecca Green (15:38)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (15:49)
That is a strategy as well if you wanna keep your low interest rate is, you do you wanna move? Yeah, right. I tell people, go rent where you wanna live. And that is such, I know, a mind adjustment for so many people because when it's your homeowner, and I understand this, like, I'm fine being a renter. I am fine. I can make the argument there's a lot of flexibility and benefits of being a renter. Like, I like just calling the landlord, something's wrong.

Rebecca Green (15:54)
Completely, yeah, completely.

Kim Borcherding (16:16)
I like just having a lease. I don't want to be here anymore. I want to transition where some people feel like they want to own the home, but there's a lot of benefits of being a renter in terms of flexibility. And if you have your money working for a new real estate elsewhere, great.

Rebecca Green (16:28)
Yeah.

here's another scenario that has played out for clients of mine where I've advised them not to sell. You know, working with a great lender, working with a great loan officer, a lot of folks are in payments that are very low, $1,800 a month. They are in high paying jobs. They just happen to have equity out of the house that they sold when they bought when interest rates were low.

Kim Borcherding (16:41)
Thank

Rebecca Green (16:56)
So they have opportunity to pull some money out of that home, even to buy another home, right? And leverage the low payment and take money out or they don't need to because they can actually qualify for another home in another location based on the fact that the payment's so low in the existing home. So I've seen that play out a couple of times for folks as well. The downside to that scenario is that it's part of the reason why we have an inventory problem.

Right? Because it just doesn't make sense for a lot of people to sell. And that's part of where price valuations are increasing. That's where appreciation continues to take up. It's the supply and demand, of course. It's the supply and demand theory. And so that is a good investment strategy for some folks, but also affecting the market in other areas, which again is part of the weirdness.

Let's talk a little bit about agents because this is affecting agents. This is affecting their businesses. The number of units that they're doing every month is considerably lower than what they've been used to. I'm personally seeing a lot of agents in panic mode. You know, and I'll share a quick scenario. I do a lot of digital advertising and I always run different tests, right? I coach an operations course, a marketing course and a team building course.

So I'm in the lead up to a new ops course right now. And I ran two ads simultaneously to test them. One was, haven't sold a home in the last three months, here's how to fix it. And the other was, add $100,000 to your income in 2025. With not even close the 100,

thousand dollar addition to your income in 2025 did not perform in any way, shape or form. So for every thousand clicks we had on the haven't sold a home for months, here's how to fix it. We had eight on the add a hundred thousand dollars to your income. So what does that say about real estate agents in general? In my opinion, it says that

They're not looking to make the $100,000. They're looking to survive this particular market. And so let's talk a little bit about that advice for those agents. There are some agents right now, to be honest with you, that should probably consider retiring. You know, the market is moving fast. think technology and the agent who is nimble and systematic and can market themselves in a way.

I don't think the market is, I think it's only going to get tighter and tighter for agents. So I think there is a component of maybe it's time to retire. Maybe it's time to look for something else. And if you're not going to do that and you're ready to dig in, you really need to have a plan in place. You have to have a plan in place and you have to execute the hell out of it in order to survive this market, but thrive in the market is my opinion.

Kim Borcherding (20:03)
Absolutely.

Absolutely. So is that your vice either?

Rebecca Green (20:09)
Get busy or get out. I mean, it really is. That's my advice. You gotta get busy

or you gotta get out. It's just, you know, I talk to a lot of agents, right, based on coaching. Like you talk to a lot of agents. It's just where we are in our businesses right now. I talk to a lot of agents and there is this, there's an overwhelming, I don't know what to do, right? And I get it. I get it. It's a crazy market. It's a weird market.

You know, incomes are down, incomes are more super elevated when the market was hot. But you have to have some sort of reality about what our industry is from a financial standpoint. There's no guarantee of a paycheck, right? That's one thing. You have to have that reality. And also, you have to have the willingness to continue to innovate. And you have to have the willingness to keep up with the market.

Right? I think the market is from a real estate landscape standpoint. It is not going to get any less competitive than it is right now. It's going to continue to get more competitive.

And the agents that are going to see their way through it are the ones that understand that the best. And I don't mean to be negative, but you know, that is, it's just kind of what I'm hearing. It's, you know, really where I'm seeing agents fall. The ones, again, the ones that are surviving and thriving, let's say thriving, not surviving, are the ones that really put the work in 18 months ago.

Kim Borcherding (21:49)
for.

Rebecca Green (21:49)
Whereas there

was a whole wave of agents when the market was so crazy busy. And I say you needed a license and a pulse to sell a house back then because everyone was buying, right? I never thought that that was sustainable. So it's really the basis of my whole business building is you have to have the solid foundation and you have to be willing to do the work every single day. And it's hard. Totally. And I don't think it's getting easier.

Kim Borcherding (22:08)
Thank

Totally.

No. And I think people just need to be honest. Like, do you have the juice? Do you have the juice? And again, all answers are okay. Maybe I don't, heck no, heck yeah. mean, and again, the agents that I know that are thriving, when I said 18 months ago, this is the market, figure it out, here's what I would be doing, I'd be leveling up this, this, this, they went, they're doing it.

Rebecca Green (22:21)
That's exactly right.

Totally.

They

did it. Yeah, totally.

Kim Borcherding (22:42)
They're kicking butt, man. They're taking market share

because now when people, again, who are doing real estate transactions have a choice, they're gonna go with the one that looks like they're doing great. They're in transactions, they're turning burden. All their marketing pieces, all their collateral, clearly I'm not gonna just, if I have to make a choice now, and again, with the restructuring of the commission too, and you're sitting down with a buyer, a console, and you're like, hey, this is what,

Rebecca Green (22:53)
Thank

Kim Borcherding (23:11)
My fee is, and this is like, let me tell you, when you are buttoned up and people see that and they're like, yes, absolutely. I can see the value in what you do versus somebody who didn't do the work and they don't have that all organized that way.

Rebecca Green (23:22)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

And the other thing I would just chime in because I did say very quickly, like, get out or level up, get out or get busy, right? The other thing is, you know, scale your expenses back, evaluate the heck out of your expenses. I think that's another thing that smart agents did 18 months ago. They really evaluated where they were spending money and they dumped whatever was not necessary for their business 18 months ago.

Kim Borcherding (23:42)
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Green (23:50)
So they save that money to ride out this weird market. And I think if you haven't done that yet, you should be doing that. If you're not getting an ROI on heavy cost advertising, marketing, whatever it might be, don't do it. And if there is no measurable ROI, stop doing it. I talked to an agent a couple of weeks ago that's spending $2,500 a month on a social media manager and did three transactions last year.

Kim Borcherding (24:18)
I'm

Rebecca Green (24:20)
This is not a good spend. This is not a good place to spend money, right? There's a way to do social media free, and that's one of the beauties of it. So evaluating your expenses and cutting the things that aren't actually necessary and or yielding results. Yeah, that's another measure that I would say is a must for agents.

Kim Borcherding (24:38)
Thor.

I mean, this is my shameless, not shameless plug for Clever Collective. You need to be doing everything we're doing in Clever Collective. Like for the last year, every class that I have offered in Clever Collective in the last year, you need to be executing on those skills. our tax advisor strategy, yes, you need to be listening to that. our profitability class, you need to be executing on that.

Rebecca Green (24:47)
Yes.

Kim Borcherding (25:07)
our marketing class or, you know, authentically market like all this stuff. You just need to do this.

Rebecca Green (25:13)
Absolutely. That's the same thing.

Yeah. mean, and there's the shameless plug for the courses that I'm teaching agents as well. Like level up your operations, right? Level up your operations. Make good choices from a marketing standpoint. Understand your return on your investment. And so, yeah, for agents in this weird market, you've got to take action and you have to, you know, recognize, I guess, I guess I go back to...

Kim Borcherding (25:19)
I'm you.

Rebecca Green (25:40)
There's the difference between doing the job and running the business. And for any agent who is just simply doing the job when leads are not abundant and they're not coming to you, you end up in a very stagnant place. If you're running a business, you're constantly seeking out ways to fill your pipeline. And I liken it to, I talk about it, you know, the side, the sidewalk, the lanes, right? You have some.

Your lead generation should be filling your pipeline and you should have people at all different stages. You have people on the sidewalk, you have people in the slow lane, and then you have people in the fast lane, right? And so when you're building a business, you're constantly focused on how to make sure you have enough people in all of those different lanes for the longevity of your business. When you're doing the job, you're taking whatever's coming to you. You're managing whatever's coming to you.

starting the sales cycle with that person, finishing the sales cycle with that person, and then your business is empty again.

Kim Borcherding (26:40)
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Green (26:41)
Right? So that's the difference between doing the job and building a business. And I think that's differentiator and something that agents need to decide. And that's part of the, I continue doing this or is there something else I should be doing?

Kim Borcherding (26:53)
Hello.

Yep, absolutely. Well, I will. That's great advice, I think, for somebody who's in scarcity mode. And again, and I'm going to add a couple more details in my opinion. So if I were an agent in scarcity at the moment, what I would do is really take a bit of time to work on my energy and getting clear with myself.

and getting myself in a better place because when you are in a state of scarcity, that just attracts negative things to you. you're, I I make the argument, you're not going to be successful. mean, I've said this to many agents, like your, your energy is so bad, you're not going to be successful. And so doing the internal energy work, and again, I'm a little woo-woo guys, for those of you don't know, but, but doing, but

Rebecca Green (27:49)
You're so right though. You're so right. No one wants to hang

out with somebody who's in the dump. Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (27:52)
No, no, if you have a bad

vibe, guys, you need to fix your vibe first. So before you even decide whether you're going to quit or not, is do a little vibe work. And here are some real like practical ways to do that. So again, I have been in in funks plenty of times in my life. And I actually have things that I know I can do to help elevate my energy, elevate my vibration, put me in a better state. So

Rebecca Green (27:58)
It comes off. Good point.

Mm-hmm.

Kim Borcherding (28:21)
Again, people can have different things, but for me, that's number one is just taking some space, going out for the day, for the night. Like I always love just going out to the gorge, getting in nature, like just getting away from everything. The noise, the noise, the city, the stuff, the interruptions, everything else, clouding, you know, your energy field. So just get out in nature, go on a hike, get outside, go to the beach, go to the coast, like, and just have space.

Rebecca Green (28:26)
Yep.

huh. Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (28:51)
Like don't even like listen to a podcast. Don't even talk on the phone. Drive to the coast quietly in your car. Have some head space again in this job. It is so busy and there's so much noise all the time. The nature of the business that having quiet time is really rare. So get in your car. Drive to the beach. Take some time. Take long walks. Do some journaling. Do some reading. For me. I love to add breath work in. That's where I really help again.

Rebecca Green (29:15)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (29:20)
quiet my mind and really recalibrate my nervous system. And then, then once I'm kind of to like a stable ground, then I'm going to introduce positive things. like, so for me, that's going to be like listening to great music. I love going to see some live music, having a really nourishing conversation, you know, like this is big thing. Who do you hang out with? Who do you interact with? You know what?

You need a pump up call. You call me, man. I'm going to be your hype girl. Like we're going to have a really good, energetic heart to heart, great conversation. That's going to make you feel good. That's going to put you in an elevated state. again, doing things that again, there's a few people I love to listen on podcasts that elevate my state. One of those is Gary Vee. So I love to listen to Gary Vee's podcast because it's like gets me pumped up. So doing the things that kind of get you pumped up and energized.

Really, I lost Rebecca here. So doing the things that get you pumped up and energized, put you in a better state and then, you know, follow up other things like getting your house in order, organizing your office, organizing your space, evaluating the. I'm going to pause here because I don't know where Rebecca is.

Okay, we lost Rebecca hopefully she's coming back on

Okay, I don't know, I'm just gonna finish this podcast. So last thing is then looking about how you are actually showing up physically. So I'm talking about how you are dressing. Is your hair done? How you look? Are you exercising? Are you working out? That's a great thing. Exercising, guys, a lot of data out there that says the positive impact on exercise and moving your body daily. So just...

looking good and feeling good and putting yourself in a positive state to attract more positive things in your business. So that is a very first place I would start when I'm in a, you know, in a scarcity mindset and kind of not things aren't flowing for me is just do some of the energy work to put myself in a better position. So, uh, let me.

Rebecca Green (31:47)
Well good, I lost you there for a hot second. Sorry about that.

Kim Borcherding (31:50)
Okay, that's okay. I just kept talking and kind of finished it. I just finished my section, but I can go back.

Rebecca Green (31:59)
Listen I they'll edit it out for us. So hey guys, please edit this section out. Okay, that was great I definitely got the gist of what you were saying and that is so so valuable. So I'm just gonna pick it right up Yeah Evaluating where you are personally definitely makes sense before you make any decisions and again I'm gonna go back to sounding super harsh and by saying, you know level up or leave

Kim Borcherding (32:03)
Yeah.

Rebecca Green (32:28)
And I don't mean that again from a negative standpoint, it's just being realistic and honest with yourself. And Kim, that's what you were saying, like reflect inward and figure out what you have to fix in order to make those decisions. I'm not just standing up and telling agents, get out of the business. But what I am saying to agents is the market is different and you have to understand that, right? Like our market, I've been in the business for 33 years. I've seen every kind of market.

every kind of market imaginable, know, the big crash, all of those things, you know, every market requires a different evaluation of yourself. Every market requires a different action plan. There are some core components that you need to run a business. And I believe that's great systems and great operations and great people. But every market for buyers, for sellers and for agents requires, I think, a little bit different strategy.

And that all boils down to being honest with market conditions. Sellers sometimes aren't honest with market conditions. Buyers can be unrealistic about market conditions. Agents can be unprepared for market conditions. It is a fluid investment. It's a fluid business. so, yeah, the being honest with yourself and evaluating where you are and what you want to do is super important.

Kim Borcherding (33:38)
I'm

Yes, completely. It did, no, I added some more and I'd say the other thing is then I'd be like, then I also added again, kind of just gets quiet, get energy. And then I said, and then also looking at your physical self, are you dressing up? Are you like dressing the way that tracks business? Is your space clean? Is your office clean? Like, you know, making sure you're feel elevated. You feel, are you exercising? Are you moving your body? Are you doing the things?

Rebecca Green (33:56)
Yes, completely. Did that pick up where I lost you? I didn't.

important.

Kim Borcherding (34:24)
Put yourself in a, yeah, in a more, yeah, in a better, more attractive state to attract good things in your life.

Rebecca Green (34:33)
Okay, hopefully I didn't lose the whole recording. That's one thing. And hopefully they can edit this out. We lost internet. I lost internet completely. Like totally dropped out, dropped out of the meeting, had to log back in. Sent my met husband a message. like, what do I do? Okay, good. So let me turn the record off. I'm sure the editors are gonna have fun with this one. I apologize guys.

Kim Borcherding (34:58)
Yeah, that's okay.