Dear Friend,

This week we’re going to talk about six smart things to do in a changing market. Now I know that if you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably noticed that there are some changes going on in your market towards the latter half of last year and a lot of those changes are continuing on into this year. You know, it’s very interesting because when you really look at it, this is something that has happened before and it is something that will happen again and how you respond and how you respond and how you behave in the face of a changing market is really going to determine your outcome, whether you are able to survive, not only survive but thrive in this changing market. So let’s start with six smart things that you can do in a changing market.

1. Get crystal clear in what is going on in your local market.

Now if you remember listening in the fall to an interview that I did with Dean Grasoissi author of Be a Real Estate Millionaire. He was sharing how having information and knowing what is going on in your local market is really the key to fighting what is going on in a down market. Now not every market in the country is experiencing this foreclosure boom, not every market in the country is experiencing declining prices and if you know what is going on in your market better than anybody else then you are able to articulate it, you’re able to show it using charts and graphs and data, that’s going to be a big advantage for you, especially when people are frightened about what is going on.

If you’ve got charts that can show either the price declines or the price levelling or prices increasing or volume of sales increasing, volume of sales decreasing, volume of sales laying flat, interest rates, any kind of data that you show trends for and can show almost like a crystal ball for, you’re going to be in favour with people who are uncertain because in uncertain times people always count on more information, people are slower to make decisions. They make decisions based on good information. So if you’ve got good information for people you’re going to be sort out, you are going to be somebody who they turn to in these uncertain times. Now when you start looking at what is going on in your market even in downmarkets there are local pockets that are always active.

Not every part of the market is completely in the downturn and if you know what parts of your market are active, which parts are actually moving and again that comes from having data, you are able to focus your attention on the parts of your market that are actually moving. You know in any area there is activity and what your job is to find out where are <inaudible> actually selling, what are people actually buying. This is not a time in the market where you can be in business to entertain yourself. This is a time where you be in business to sustain yourself and what that means if focusing on where there are, where the activity is so that you can focus and continue to help people in any market conditions. So in your area it may be that homes in the $200-300,000 price range are the ones that are actually selling but you may have a preference for historic homes in the million dollar price range that none of them are selling. It is your job to understand what is going on in that market and focus your attention on that.

2. Focus on people you can help.

This starts with the data, it starts with knowing what is going on, but in any market, even in a downturn market, people are in certain categories able to continue to move. When you look at most areas of the country it is a great time for first time buyers, people who sat out the rising prices and watched prices go up and up and up, watched things maybe get out of their reach and now they are poised and ready to actually buy and if you can help first time buyers that’s a great opportunity because they’re the ones that have all the money and they’re sitting there ready to take advantage of some of the comparatively low prices as to what they were two years ago.

Some other people you might be able to help are move up buyers, who bought more than two years ago. If you are helping people move up to bigger homes the house that they bought two years ago or more went up significantly along with the rising markets but has come back down but still not down far enough to eliminate all the equity that they had when they bought more than two years ago. People who are moving into your area, people who are moving in as a result of a transfer or a retirement or somebody who is moving new from out of town, people who have to buy homes in your area.

There are some great people to help right now. Most areas of the country, people who are buying new homes are finding builders willing to bend over backwards to help them and they’re getting great deals, they’re getting great builder concessions, they’re getting great upgrades, they’re getting buy downs on interest rates, they’re getting lots of things that make it easier than ever to buy a new home and if you’re focused on helping people in those categories, the people you can help you’re going to have so much more energy, you’re going to have so much more enjoyment because you’re focused on a segment of the market that actually is moving.

3. Get crystal clear on who you can’t help.

So no. 2 we talked about who you can help and no. 3 we talk about who you can’t help. Now if you feel like in your area there are certain segments of the market that just can’t be helped. It might be people with bad credit. You know lenders have tightened up their guidelines now for helping, for people buying homes at most areas of the country, you need to have about a 60/60 credit score which still actually means that about 75% of the people in the country have a credit score better than 60/60. If you can’t help people with bad credit that is one thing that you know and you can focus and stay away from. If you can’t help entrepreneurs with stated income, a lot of the stated income programs have disappeared or dried up or become very, very tough to acquire. You probably can’t help sellers who bought their houses two years ago, in the last two years. If you get somebody who bought their house at the peak of the market and it’s come down in value now by 20 even 30% in some areas of the country, it is going to be very difficult for you to help them. If you make a list of all the people that you just can’t help. Make a list, get crystal clear about it and then move on to no. 4.

4. Find someone or become someone who can help the people you can help.

It is interesting I kind of led you down a path there in no. 3 that getting crystal clear on the people you can’t help, but the reality is that people with stated incomes buy homes every day. People who have bad credit can get on the path to getting their credit repaired. There are people all across the country who help people improve their credit scores, repackaging their information to clear up blemishes on their credit score. I have people at every main event come to me and ask specifically: What kind of programs, how can you help me with advertising to find people with bad credit and I always kind of laugh and tell them: well start by running an ad looking for people with good credit and you’ll find plenty of people who have bad credit. You know most of the time people who are running traditional ads are telling me: well everyone who calls doesn’t have good credit.

So find someone who helps people with bad credit or becomes someone who can help people with bad credit to repair it. There are lots of great resources out there right now and they will forever be thankful if you are the one who can either them point them to the person who can help them or help them yourself. Someone else might be able to help is somebody who can help sellers negotiate or go through the process of negotiating a short sale on their homes. It is happening all over the country. People are selling homes that they owe more on than the home is worth every single day. Banks don’t want to foreclose on properties, mortgage companies don’t want to foreclose on properties, they’d much rather negotiate something and get out of that property all together. Do you know someone who can help people with short sales who might be able to, if you find that situation, turn them over to them.

A lot of time you have to make a decision, are you going to become someone who can help these people or are you going to find the people who can help these people. There is so much buzz around the foreclosure market right now. I was just reading in USA Today when I was up in Palm Springs, that the foreclosure rate has doubled over last year and I was very curious to figure out what that meant so that what it turns out is that the foreclosure rate has doubled from three quarters of one percent of the market to 1.5%, it is actually 1.44% of all the mortgages. Now so you look at that and it’s 98.6% of all the mortgages in the country are not in foreclosure. And you know it’s interesting that such a small segment of the market can make such a big media splash. So either become someone who can help people in that situation or know someone who can know who can help someone in that situation.

5. Focus on long term lead conversion.

If you’re generating leads right now, if you’re coming into contact with people, you may find that people are waiting before they make a decision. If they’re waiting for the market to change, they might be waiting for prices to hit bottom, they might be waiting for interest rates to come down, and there is something that they are waiting for and when it happens they will be ready to move, and I think that you know at some point, we don’t know if it will be this year or whether it will be next year but most definitely at some point there will be a turn in the market and if you’ve got the ability to develop, nurture relationships with people who are going to buy a home in the long term, you are going to be poised so that when that market does make it’s turn you’ll be the one that they’ll be thankful to have built a relationship with. So focus on your long term lead generation.

Think about the return on investment of your lead conversion process. If you look at it, if you are willing to spend 20 or 25 dollars per person to really have a good follow up program with somebody for a year, for 12 months, or for 18 months or for however long this takes to come out of, it’s very, very difficult to outspend your ability to get a huge return on your investment by following up and building relationship with people who are five star prospects, who are going to buy at some point.

6. Get closer to your clients and your sphere of influence.

Your clients and your sphere, the people who know you, like you and trust you the most, are seeing what is happening. They are seeing all of this negative media, they’re seeing all the conversations that are going on around the authors about the people who are wondering what is going on, people who are waiting, people are in a situation where they bought their house and now they can’t get out of it and people who just can’t sell their house, people who are wondering should I buy now, you know, those kinds of conversations are going on all the time and your clients are party to those. If you really ramp up your communication that you have with you clients, kind of being their man on the inside or their woman on the inside to know that they can turn to you if they have questions, or their friends have questions and even more importantly that you are proactively keeping them on top of the market so that they look like they have the answers.

That’s going to be a very important thing and if you’re orchestrating a process where they can refer people to you, that’s going to be a huge advantage to you. If you want to learn how to orchestrate referrals I would refer you to, go back to listening Marketing Monday no. 42, Marketing Monday no. 45, and why don’t you join us at a main event.

We do 12 main events somewhere in the country all over the course of the year in the next few months we’re going to be in Las Vegas in February, we’re going to be in San Francisco in March, we’re going to be in Dallas in April, we’re going to be in Chicago in May, we’re going to be in Connecticut in June. So this first half of the year is going through, make your plans now to come to the main event. It would be a fantastic opportunity for you to really learn how to get close to your clients, how to get close to your sphere of influence and really how to orchestrate those referrals. I would love to send you more information about the main event, drop me an email at marketingmonday@gmail.com. and I’ll make sure you get all the information you need about the upcoming main events and some special offers. How you can join us even if you are coming from other areas of the country.

So that’s it for this week. It’s another marketing Monday, happy new year, Glad to be back at it and we will join you next Monday for another edition when we’ll talk about even more ways to get listed, find buyers and convert leads.

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