92% of Gen Z buyers will pay extra for this

Entering the second half

We hope all of you had a wonderful and restful holiday with your family this weekend. It’s a wake-up call for us to come back, check the calendar, and realize that we’re already halfway through the year.

Since we’re all about setting goals, we suggest doing the same on your end. Now is a great time to set your goals for the second half of the year, and envision the way you want it to go. Scroll down below for a few pointers on how to evaluate your progress so far, and where you’re heading.

But before you draw up your blueprint for the year, let’s focus on today’s Blueprint!

- James and David

Homes are selling ABOVE ask

For the first time in nearly a year, the average U.S. home is selling for more than its asking price. That’s according to Redfin’s latest market update. Here’s what else Redfin reports:

• The median home sale price was $383,800, down just $1,000 (-0.3%) YoY

• New listings are down 25% YoY

• New listings fell in all the reported metros, dropping most in Vegas (-47.5%) and Phoenix (-41.1%)

• The total number of homes for sale is down 12%

• Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index is up 4% from a month earlier and near its highest level in over a year

Our take

This is huge news, and we love hearing it. With drops in both new listings and the total number of homes for sale, it’s not surprising that homes are selling above their asking price. But we also know that the inventory crisis is driving this trend, and that’s unhealthy. Unless mortgage rates go down, more homes come on the market, or we build a hell of a lot of new ones, we’re going to be dealing with this unsustainable situation for the foreseeable future.

Buyers will pay a premium for walkable communities

The vast majority of Gen Z and millennial buyers are willing to pay more for a home in a walkable community. That’s the conclusion NAR reached after completing its 2023 National Community Transportation Preferences Survey. Here are more findings:

• 85% of millennials and 92% of Gen Zers says they would pay more to live near parks, shops and restaurants, compared to the national average of 78%

• 33% of both groups said they would pay "a lot" more for those conveniences

• 56% of respondents preferred living in a walkable area over having a bigger yard

• Millennials, more than any other generation, want convenient alternatives to driving

Our take

Who knew that walkability would become such a valuable item?! This is one of the reasons we like real estate so much. It gives you a window into the ways our society is changing. We suggest using reports like this one to cater to your changing clientele. Adjust your marketing and your home evaluations accordingly. As you can see, even small details like the location of the nearest park or restaurant can increase the value of your listing.

Top 10 U.S. Counties With Highest Income Needed to Buy A Home

According to ATTOM’s latest report on home affordability, these are the counties across the U.S. with the highest and lowest incomes needed to buy a home as of Q2 2023.

Our take

Use this report to hone and micro-target your marketing to generate leads and enlarge your clientele base. We recommend studying this report extremely carefully. Don’t just leave it at the county level, go granular. Go zipcode by zipcode, and use the info to micro-target your email and phone marketing. The people who live in the “highest” counties are some of the ones you definitely want in your database.

Schematics

The news that just missed the cut

• Top books real estate agents should read

• Use direct mail to reach clients. It still works.

• Smart strategies real-estate investors used to build wealth from having nothing

• Zillow shut down its closing and title division

• How to use Meta’s new app, Threads, for real estate

• We still can’t believe these rental properties are real

Foundation Plans

Advice from James and David to win the day

As we said in our intro, six months have already passed and we have 180 days left in the year. How are you doing in your business? Here are four things we recommend that you keep in mind as you evaluate where you are.

60% of your year should be booked - What we mean by this is that 60% of pending and sold transactions should be on the books by June 30th. So, whatever your goal was/is for the year, you should have 60% of it locked in by the end of Q2. Most new agents we meet don’t have a clear goal like this.

Make sure you’re tracking what you do - To know whether you’ve hit the 60% mark or not, you need to be tracking what you’re doing as an agent. This includes your number of appointments, offers you’ve written, accepted offers, listings, etc. We recommend starting here.

Don’t give up if you’re behind - If you feel like you’re coming up short, remember you have 180 days left in the year to catch up. You just need an actionable plan. Saying that you want to sell as many homes as possible isn’t enough. You want to have SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based.

Break down your goals – If your goal is to sell 10 homes in the next 6 months, break it down on a monthly basis. How many homes do you want to put under contract in the month of July? August? September? October? November? December? Plan it out like that. Once you have the monthly goal, plan the key income-producing activities you can do on a daily basis to hit those numbers. Keep it simple and be ruthlessly honest with yourself.

We’ve barely scratched the surface on this subject, but we encourage you to take this weekend to evaluate where you are. Start here.

Just in Case

Keep the latest industry data in your back pocket with today’s mortgage rates:

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Blueprint!

Remember: each day is a gift and a new opportunity to lead the life you want and to become the person you want to be. The mistakes and missteps you’ve made in the past don’t define you. Live as intentionally as you can and be ruthlessly focused on the goals you’ve set out to achieve. You can do it!

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday!

- James and David