According to the National Association of Realtors, over half of all homeowners find their homes online, reflecting the generation shift in home buyers. Ninety six percent of all consumers also say that they are more likely to trust a site if it has an appealing design, rather than quality content. Therefore, as you advance your real estate business, it’s crucial that you focus on building your online brand and being comfortable with the rapidly changing landscape of real estate. Here are a few ways for you to keep up to date with the changes happening in the industry to grow your business.
Invest in Continuing Education
You’ve probably developed a good business sense over the years, but continuing education courses through the National Association of Realtorscan allow you to expand your clientele and expertise. You may know about protecting client privacy with paper files, but are you clear on data privacy and security? Have you learned about expanding your clientele by reaching out to diverse potential home buyers? Are you interested in expanding your practice into commercial real estate? These types of courses are available in-person and online to allow you to add to your arsenal of marketable skills as a realtor.
Use a Good CMA Software
You’re already comfortable drawing up a comparative market analysis to help clients list their properties. Using the right CMA system can make the process more efficient and easy to understand for your clients. Fitsmallbusiness.com found that Cloud CMA was the best all-in-one system that also allows you to build CMA presentations. However, you should do your homework and find the best for your niche market. HouseCanary, for example, has significant historical data and can make comparative market analysis predictions that are almost 100% accurate, but won’t provide the extras that allow you to put together a CMA presentation.
Learn about Changing Market Trends
Nearly 20% of homes were purchased for purely investment purposes in 2016, and 80% of residential growth will occur in suburban areas in the next decade. At the same time, home ownership is the lowest it has been in 50 years. This may or may not come as a surprise to you, so it’s important to watch your CMA comparative market analysis and to find alternative methods to learn about the changing markets. Expanding your business to fit the changing homeowner can allow you to weather these strange times.
Despite some of the contradictory analyses of home ownership in the US, real estate is still good business, with the median value of a home in the United States being over $300 thousand and US housing stock increasing by $2 trillion in 2017. Expanding your education to reach out to the somewhat surprising new home buyer will allow you to ride this wave to success.