What will your resolutions be?
We are three weeks away from the New Year, and for a lot of people, it’s time to start thinking of those resolutions. We’re not talking diet and exercise (although we could all use that), we’re talking about ways to get your business humming.
What changes could you make? Are you putting your best foot forward? Do you have a system that works for you?
In today’s Foundation Plans, we discuss three approaches to this business that we think are vital to success. If you aren’t doing these things, then we suggest turning them into habits.
If you can make the resolution to do these three things, we can almost guarantee that you’ll see the payoff in 2024.
– James and David
Redfin’s forecast for 2024
Source: Redfin
Redfin has come out with its housing market predictions for 2024. Here’s a breakdown of the major projections:
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Home prices will fall 1% year-over-year in Q2 and Q3 2024
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New listings will tick up
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Home sales will increase and end the year up 5%
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Mortgage rates will steadily decline, but remain above 6%
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Expect big price declines in coastal Florida
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More local governments will adopt a land-value tax to make homes more affordable and promote building
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More homeowners will use their homes as an ATM, pulling out cash to cover credit card debt and home renovations
Our take
Redfin’s mortgage rate projection seems entirely sensible to us, and we definitely hope the company is right about home sales increasing by 5% next year. Although we’re not discounting their projection about price declines in coastal Florida, we’re taking a wait-and-see posture there. If you’re a broker in those markets, we’d love to hear what you think of that prediction, so please e-mail us with your thoughts.
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Mortgage rates falling at fastest pace since 2008
Mortgage rates are falling at the fastest pace since 2008. That’s the conclusion by Business Insider in its analysis of recent mortgage trends. Here are its key findings:
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Mortgage rates are falling quickly as yields on US Treasuries fall.
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The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell 69 basis points or 0.69% since late October, the biggest drop over a five-week period since late 2008.
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In response to falling rates, applications for home refinancing jumped 14% last week and were 10% higher from the same week in 2022.
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Mortgage rate declines haven’t translated to higher home buying demand yet, with applications for a mortgage to purchase a home down 0.3% during the week and down 17% from last year.
Our take
We’ve been hoping to see this news. The Fed genuinely has been making progress in its fight against inflation. Although the Fed hasn’t explicitly said its done hiking rates, the market consensus is that rate hikes are ending and we should see cuts next year. This expectation has lowered bond yields and eased borrowing costs, such as home lending rates. This is why almost all forecasts have mortgage rates falling to around 6% by the end of 2024. All we can say is, “Yes, please!”
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Top 10 metros with the highest down payment percent for home purchases
Source: Unsplash
The number of refinanced loans nationwide increased 5% quarterly, to roughly 516,500, while lending to home buyers went down 7%, to about 752,000. That’s according to ATTOM’s latest Property Origination update. The report also listed the top 10 U.S. metros with the highest median down payment percentage for home purchases.
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San Jose, CA – 26.2%
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San Luis Obispo, CA – 24.9%
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San Francisco, CA – 24.5%
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Boulder, CO – 23.8%
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Naples, FL – 22.7%
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Barnstable Town, MA – 22.4%
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Santa Rosa, CA – 22.3%
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Hilton Head Island, SC – 21.8%
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Oxnard, CA – 21.6%
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Bellingham, WA – 21.5%
Our take
More so than ever, clients are looking to agents for guidance regarding financing. Among other things, they want to know what locales require the most down payment to win the deal, and what to do if they don’t have 20% to put down. With this intel and the help of a mortgage broker you trust, you should help them understand what it takes to compete in their market, and which financial tools and options they can use to achieve their goals
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Schematics
The news that just missed the cut
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More than any other generation, millennials believe “making it” means buying a home
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Jeff Bezos is the 24th-largest landowner in the U.S.
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These are the 5 best months to buy a home
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New legislation proposes banning hedge funds from owning homes
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How to get leads sliding into your DMs
Foundation Plans
Advice from James and David to win the day
As we said up top, the New Year is a great time to make resolutions to change the way you do business. Today, we want to focus on three basics that we think are crucial to success.
Follow up after you submit your offers – Don’t wait for the agent of the counterparty to contact you. Make sure the listing agent received your offer and use the opportunity to understand the needs and wants of the seller. We are stunned by the number of agents who don’t follow this basic practice. And don’t just send an email. Call the listing agent. This will definitely set you apart.
Use the latest tools to get your name out there – There has never been a better time to connect with potential clients than now. You have more tools at your disposal to communicate with people – total strangers, in fact – than ever before. Social media is the new way of prospecting. Don’t get discouraged if your videos, IG reals, podcast episodes, etc. have only a low view count. Imagine if you had called 25 people or spoken to an audience of 50 or more people during an open house, that would be huge. You don’t need massive view counts to have massive success in this business.
Budget, budget, budget – If you are a seasonal worker for, say, Amazon, you get paid every week. That’s not true in our business. The deal cycle is longer and, if you’re a new agent working entirely on commission, you might not see your first paycheck for months. Have at least one year’s worth of expenses covered before you commit to being an agent. And if you’re a seasoned agent, make sure you know every bit of your finances. That will give you peace of mind, and help you plan for years to come.
The 1% Blueprint
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Discover our strategies and techniques to attract a stream of high-quality leads, propelling your real estate business to new heights of success.
For Blueprint subscribers, the course is 30% for a limited time. If you’d like to take our course to learn how to become the top 1% of your market click here!
Just in Case
Keep the latest industry data in your back pocket with today’s mortgage rates:
Mortgage News Daily
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
