WELCOME

Hello from beautiful San Diego! I swear to y’all my feet have barely touched the ground in Atlanta this month. I’ve gone from Scottsdale to Boston to San Diego, and then I’m en route to LA, then home, then to Chattanooga. I cannot express how grateful I am for the opportunities to meet everyone. I feel like I’m probably coming home with a weird hybrid new accent from speaking to people all over the country. Or maybe I’ll just finally sound like a newscaster, I can’t say for sure.

What I can say is that I’m excited to discuss how important it is at this time of year to assess your business because it’s going to be your roadmap of what to do next. So let’s get into it!

THE REALITY OF REAL ESTATE

I don’t know about everyone else, but I am getting peppered left, right, and center about what is happening with interest rates and what that means for my buyers and sellers.

When I don’t know everything, and when my crystal ball is cloudy, I look to the experts. So here’s what the Wall Street Journal deputy personal financial chief (whew!) Ben Eisen has to say when asked why aren’t interest rates falling now that the Fed’s made another cut.

Here’s his answer:

“The Fed wants to bring down consumer borrowing costs, but it doesn't directly control them. The central bank cut its short-term rates that banks use to lend to each other. But the 30-year fixed mortgage rate tends to track long-term rates. Those long-term rates, like the 10-year Treasury yield, don't always move alongside their short-term counterparts.

Right now, they are actually moving in the opposite direction. The 10-year Treasury yield has been rising because of a robust outlook for economic growth. It has also been rising in anticipation of policies President-elect Trump favors, like tax cuts that could grow the deficit and tariffs that could spur inflation. So mortgage rates are going up even though the Fed rates are going down.”

I promise I could not have said this better myself.

glenndabaker

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STORY TIME WITH GLENNDA

Knowledge Is Always Power

By the time y’all read this, I will have already completed my Business Planning Boot Camp with Ben Belack of The Agency fame and Buying Beverly Hills! (I’m writing this first thing on Monday morning before our session, but I am confident that it went great!)

Today, I’m going to share my very favorite quick and dirty tip from our program. When you’re planning your business, it is imperative that you’re able to identify where you found your past clients. Now, fiduciaries always say, “Past success is no guarantee of future results.” While that may hold true for securities, that is NOT the case in real estate.

Where your past business came from is a huge indicator of where you can find it again. So if you’re not looking backwards, you’re going to have trouble looking forwards. To explain what I mean, let’s examine where my last three listing appointments came from.

The first new listing came from a past client. I promise that nothing feels better than having such a good experience with a client that you remain their top choice. The second new listing came from an agent referral who knows me because I have worked hard to establish a social media presence.

Now, the last listing came from someone I met on Tinder back when I was still on the dating apps. After we determined we weren’t a love connection, he sold his house… and he didn’t use me! This time he did, though. I asked him why he went with the agent he’d chosen the last time and he said she’d sold the house closest to him. That she wasn’t the top name on his list this time is just a reminder that you always want to be the first love, the second wife, and the third real estate agent. (Apparently his house just sat and sat because she’d priced it too high.)

What’s funny is that when I was on Match, I ended up selling 27 houses from the people I’d met. (I swear, if I didn’t find love, I wasn’t leaving empty-handed.) My point is, you have to know where your business is coming from. You have to prospect where you spend your time. When I was dating and it didn’t work out, I’d always tell them, “When you meet your Mrs. Right, I want you to think of me to be your agent.” And they did—27 times!

I know another agent who sells a ton of the big-ass houses in Atlanta. Y’all know me—I’m inquisitive. It’s not enough for me to understand where my business comes from. I have to learn where everyone finds it! So she told me she went to buy a luxury car years ago. The purchase was a stretch, but she was determined to make it happen because she wanted to look like she belonged. (If you’re immediately thinking of Christophe Cho and his Chanel blazer and Jesse Iztler and his salad-and-water lunches at a Beverly Hills hotel, I have already done my job here.)

While she was making that deal, she got to talking to the salesman and he told her about all the athletes and entertainers he’d worked with. Well, a lightbulb went off in her head and she asked him if he had a real estate agent he referred his high-net-worth clients to. He did not. Because she made sure to ask, she became his automatic referral and she almost immediately was able to sell five of these big-ass houses. Now that is how you establish yourself as that luxury agent!

So as you look to your coming year, do yourself a big favor and take a peek backwards because that is your pathway to success.

glenndabaker

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GLENNDAISM

To Ponder

GO HOMES.COM WITH GLENNDA

Charm, Charm, Charm

Oh, my stars and stripes do I love this Kirkwood area home! That porch is to die for! I can just imagine myself out there with some sweet tea and a romance novel, the wind blowing those curtains just so. I love how the house is updated, but still keeps the integrity of the original design. Between the storage, the style, and the location, I can’t imagine this one will last long on the market!

Remember, with Homes.com, it’s always your listing, your lead!