Become Integral To Consumers’ New Year’s Resolutions

The dawning of a new year brings with it the inspiration and motivation to make often large and sweeping lifestyle changes. Many of these changes center around selling and buying homes, and the related goals of starting a family, pursuing a dream career, or tackling one’s finances.

Via Encinitas Coast Life: New Year inspires people to buy and sell.

Holiday hype

The holidays can be a great time for both buyers and sellers. However, as focus on end-of-year real estate comes to a close, it is time for clients and agents to begin thinking about how they will tackle their business, financial, and real estate goals in the coming year.

Many current and prospective homeowners have been caught up in the buzz of the end-of-year market, spurred on by the sentiments that holiday homebuyers save the most money. Yet not all of them are able to manage their time and compile their resources in time to take advantage of this market.

Their enthusiasm does not have to go to waste, however. Instead, it can be augmented by the energy of the new year. They can make buying or selling a home more of a long-term project, even provisionally adding it to their New Year’s Resolution list.

Resolve

There are many smaller resolutions on which you as an agent can advise buyers. All of these steps will move them toward a more advantageous position in the market, whether as a buyer or a seller.

You can advise them first to be responsible for their finances, keeping their credit scores high, becoming pre-approved for mortgages, and most simple and important of all, saving money.

For sellers, encourage them to invest in increasing the value of their home in anticipation of a sale later in the year. Give them suggestions on how to do this, or refer them to other experts in the field, thus grooming future sellers and expanding your referral network.

Consider advertising real estate counseling for the new year, capitalizing on the heightened interest most people have in changing or bettering their lives. Reach out to current and former clients with all the research you have on housing trends for the coming year.

There will also be sellers who tried to sell in the end of 2018 and didn’t quite close in. Instead of letting them wallow in disappointment, encourage them to attack the 2019 market with renewed vigor, and show them the steps they need to take to do so.

This is your year (and your clients’)!

The end of the year is the perfect time to get a head start for coming challenges. Advise clients not to wait until the beginning of the year has come and gone, and instead to get out ahead of their goals so that they have a better chance of making them a reality.

The most important part of reaching any goal is being concrete. Educate buyers on what they can do to make home-buying possible in 2019. Ask clients what they want their lives to look like at the end of the coming year, and connect buying or selling a home to their visions for their futures.

Most importantly, be in the same boat as your clients, for both your benefit and theirs. Make resolutions of your own. Resolve to be a resource to clients, to anticipate their needs, hopes, and fears. Resolve to be the best agent you can be in the coming year. Both you and your clients will profit from it.