 Are real estate transactions down in your market? If so, you're not the only one. Today, we're going to talk about what I'm doing to adjust my game plan through this shifting market and a few things to help you get better price listings. Back to my channel, I'm Ricky Caruth, the only free real estate coach who still sells real estate. Today, we're going to be talking about this market shift that we're in. And everybody is not experiencing this same market shift. I talk to agents in certain areas where they put a listing on the market, they're getting three or four offers, some properties are selling for more than full price. And that's actually happening in my market, too, with certain price ranges and certain properties, but not all properties. And if you look at the condos in my market, we're down 20% transactions year over year. If you look at houses a little bit north of where I'm at in Foley, Alabama, transactions are about the same. So it depends on where you are and what's going on, but the market is somewhat flattening and losing a little bit of steam. And there's a couple of reasons for it. We've had increases every single year in my market at least for the last six years. Higher transactions, higher prices. So it's been a really incredible run. With interest rates finally creeping up, in my market at least what we've experienced is, is that last year, 2017, was the year that everybody wanted to get in before prices got up and interest rates got up. That was the year of the frenzy. That was the real boom year for us. This year is the hangover year of that year where most everybody has already bought and now the people that are left buying, there just isn't as many buyers in the market for my product, which my specialty is Gulffront condos. So how am I handling this changing market? So January started out really good. You know, didn't really notice any changes there. February, we started to notice that things were a little slower year over year. March, we really experienced a lot of slowdown compared to last year. And that's when I really started to take a close look at the situation and try to dissect what was going on in the market and what I could do to capitalize on the situation. You see the mark of a high producer is an agent who is constantly paying attention to the market, trying to figure out what's going on because the market changes all the time. It can be going up, down, sideways, more transactions, less transactions. You have to pay attention to the overall general picture of the market so that you can adjust your game plan accordingly. This was a big lesson that I learned in 2008 when the market crashed and lost everything. So I'm speaking from experience here. You have to go with the flow of the market. There's always closings. Closings are happening every single day, regardless of what the market's doing. So it's just up to you to adjust your game plan of how you're approaching people, how you're talking people. What exactly are you doing differently to flow with the market instead of doing the same exact things over and over and over again through every market? That's where I feel that you have a lot of agents who don't make it or don't succeed because they try to do this cookie cutter system, regardless of what the market's doing, and it just doesn't work. In every single scenario, in every market, you have to make adjustments and you have to figure out what's working and what's not working. So by mid-April, early May this year, I finally cracked the code and figured out exactly what to do in this changing market to continue the momentum that I need to continue making my million dollars a year as a single agent. And the answer was to price listings right on the money. For the past six years, you could price listings 5% higher than the last sale. 5% higher, 5% higher, 5% higher, and that strategy would work, those listings would sell. This year, if you price it 5% higher, you get zero activity. I'm finding properties where I'm pricing them where I think they need to be priced and I'm getting one or two showings a month. And so that just, the market doesn't lie, the market tells you where you need to be price wise to move properties. And it's up to you to inform the seller, let them know exactly the situation so that they can make a decision that's best for them. Maybe they want to just write it out and leave it where it is and have very little interest. Maybe they really want to sell so they need to lower it down where it needs to be. So here's how I cracked the code. I realized that to sell these listings, I needed to price them right on the money, not 5% higher. They need to be right at or a little under than that last sale. So how am I doing this? How am I convincing the seller that they need to price their property right at or a little lower than the last sale? Especially when all they're hearing about is how well the market's doing and how it's blowing up and it's on fire and everything's higher. Well, is it? The market does not lie to us. So when I'm going on my listing appointments now, what I'm doing is the same thing I'll always do. I bring the comps and I bring all the stuff that I bring to my listing appointments and I'm explaining to the seller, look, this is where you want to price your property at and your neighbor is priced at that same price and they've been on the market for 200 days. Do you want to be on the market for 200 days? And the answer is always no. I do not want to be on the market for 200 days. So that gives me the opportunity to say, okay, this is where you need to be priced if you want to move this property. You see, the market has given us all kinds of evidence and all kinds of indicators that we can show the sellers that this is why we need to price your property or I'm telling you we need to price it. Also, the sellers that are pricing the property where I'm telling them to price it at are selling very quickly. I sold one last week in three days. I sold one the week before in a day. And people that are pricing their property a little bit higher than what I'm saying aren't hardly getting any showing. So there's a lot of evidence out there that is proving my point and helping me educate the sellers on exactly where the market is. And then I just let them decide. It's up to them. How motivated are they? Why do they want to sell? Remember my magic questions in my book, List to Last. It's always about why they want to sell. It doesn't matter where the fact that they want to sell. It's what's the reason? What's going on in their life that is causing this decision for them to sell this property. That's what you need to find out. Why they're wanting to sell. Once you find out exactly why, then you can truly help them by advising them and consulting them through the market. This is why technology hasn't replaced real estate agents. The voice to voice, the consultation, the ever-changing market. So I don't know if your market is like my market where transactions are down. I don't know if it's coming for you but sooner or later there's gonna be a time where in your market transactions flatten out, transactions go down, prices go down, so on and so forth. And I want you to be 100% prepared. I want you to know how to handle all of these different markets. That's my goal. I'm gonna help you guys through all these markets. When the market crashes, I'm gonna be the guy to come to to say, "'Ricky, what do I do here? "'What do I do there?' And I'm gonna consult you and advise you and help you through those markets as real estate agents and we're gonna help reduce the failure rate by not having so many real estate agents get out of the market when we do have that big recession or that big market crash.' So key point number one is, is always watch the market. Pay attention to your transactions, prices, what's going on in the market. As you see things change, key point number two is, is to adapt and adjust your game plan accordingly and figure out what that hack is. You know, crack the code, figure it out and then go all in. Key point number three is, is to always talk to 20 to 30 new property owners every day and be the hardest worker in the room. So I hope this video helps you if transactions are down in your market this year. If not, I hope this video helps you when transactions do decline in your market. Click subscribe and hit the bell. Reach out if there's anything in the world I can do for you. We'll talk to you guys soon.