The 2024 Spring Market has Sprung
People are finding ways to get out of the homes that they haven’t wanted to stay in. While 2023 was a Year-in-Limbo, 2024 is already shaping up to be great. How can you capitalize on that?
Today I want to talk about our spring market, because spring has sprung! There is a very busy market out there. If you look at open house attendance, it is up. If you look at pending numbers, pending numbers are up in most areas. People want to buy. They have been waiting too long to buy.
Also, while interest rates are just holding still, people are finding ways to get out of the homes that they haven't wanted to stay in. This past year, 2023, has been a year that I would describe as a Year-in-Limbo. However, this 2024 is already shaping up to be an active year.
What I want you to do is to go into your MLS and find out for yourself what is happening in your area. There are three things that I want you to look for:
1
Sales, Days-on-Market, & List-to-Sale Price Ratio This will show you the pace of the market and the price of the market. If you track these numbers weekly, it is easy to see whether your local or niche market is declining, holding-steady, or accelerating.
2
Historical Sales Compare this year to the last three years. This will give you some perspective on how robust a start your area may be experiencing against previous housing market seasons in your area.
3
Market Sweet Spot Try to figure out where your real estate market's "sweet spot" is. You do this by pulling sales in all price points. Then you look for which price points have sold the quickest and which have sold for the highest list-to-sale price ratio.
If you do these things, you won't just figure out where the market is hot, but what the market is buying too. It's important! This gives you an edge in case you want to bring a home to market or if you want to target advertising at that market for your own business.
Marketing to sweet spot areas can be very lucrative. Let's imagine that I go into my MLS and I do my above research for an area that I work. For whatever reason, this area has condos that are selling fast and selling for top-dollar. That is a great moment for me to then send out a mailer to that area that says to potential sellers:
"There is a great opportunity in your area. As a condo owner, your product right now is in hot demand. Here is the proof for it. If you are thinking about of doing something to take advantage of this moment in the market, then get in touch with me because I am the market expert who has the data and understands what is happening."
That is the kind of thing that we need to be doing in 2024 to keep ourselves in and ahead of the market. It positions you in front of people with something of value to them. You need to be a market researcher and reporter. The more you can do that in your business, the better chance that you have of becoming the agent that you want to be.
So, remember, 2024 is here and it is going to be a great year, but you also have to put the work in. Get into your MLS, it is an incredible tool and you are paying for it! Utilize it as a lead generation tool to help you identify where your spring market is heating-up. Now is the time to take action!
By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M.
The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.