8.9 Million people in the United States have moved during the pandemic. What's interesting is when you dive deep into those numbers. 85% of those folks have moved outside of Metro markets or moved away from Metro markets. They're moving into suburban and rural markets instead.

According to the United States Postal Service, large cities lost the most people during the first seven months of the pandemic. They're seeing people move out of some of the most populated areas and relocating to the suburbs or rural markets.

Now, what does that mean to us? That means that we have an opportunity. There's a seismic shift happening in the real estate market and the real estate world may never be the same. We should be leveraging this as an opportunity. Maybe one of the biggest opportunities we ever have in our real estate career is happening right now in 2021. The market is shifting.

So how can you leverage this? One way is by focusing yourself around relocation....

Would you buy a house sight unseen? According to a new study done by NAR, 1 in 20 purchases during COVID has been a done by a buyer who did not physically view the home they purchased.

When buyers are looking at homes through the lens of their devices according to the same study the most important digital search preferences are photos, the description, property floor plans, virtual tours, interactive maps, videos, virtual open houses, and virtual listing appointments.

Buyers also looked on average at nine homes over eight weeks. But surprisingly, out of the nine homes they looked at, five were viewed virtually. Yes, today buyers look at a virtual showings as being almost equal to live showings. This shift could fundamentally change how we practice real estate going into the future.

Questions for You:

Can someone virtually tour your listings and would somebody pull the trigger and buy that home based on how good you've done in terms of marketing?

Do you have a virtual home...

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I have a goal for you: Buy a rental property in the next 12 months.

Now, why would you want to buy a rental?

Years ago, one of my mentors said to me, "Jim, do you know the easiest way to make a million dollars in real estate and the hardest way to make a million dollars in real estate?" I said, no, tell me. He said, "Well, the hardest way to make a million dollars in real estate selling it. The easiest way to make a million dollars is owning it."

I never forgot those words.

Now that doesn't mean that I quit my day job and I tried to become a flipper. It also doesn't mean I'm chased some unrealistic get-rich-quick kind of schemes. What it means is that I understand the most powerful investment on earth I can make as a REALTOR is to invest in my retirement and buy rental properties every single year.

That's exactly what I've done throughout my 30 years in this business. My rental properties create stability and financial independence so that my business...

You may have some buyers today that will say: "I should have bought a house last year. I feel like prices have risen so much. Why would I go out there and compete with multiple offers and all these buyers? I think I'm just going to continue renting and see where the market goes."

When we hear this question what should we do as a professional real estate agent and someone whose job it is to help people build wealth?

Remember: The first person you have to sell is yourself. When you can help people become homeowners rather than renters, you're helping them build wealth quickly. The average renter has a net worth of about $5,000. The average homeowner's net wealth is 40 times that number.

https://www.keepingcurrentmatters.com/2020/10/07/a-homeowners-net-worth-is-40x-greater-than-a-renters

We need to demonstrate to renters that it's in their best interest to buy. We can do that by talking about the power of interest rates. You might say, "Hey, totally hear...

Buyers are in a very difficult negotiation environment today as with nearly every offer they write they will be competing with multiple offers.

Recently one of my own agents used a unique strategy to help her clients win in a multiple offer situation. In this case they knew this particular house was probably going to appraise at a certain value but because of competing offers it might go higher than that.

Their unique strategy was to go a little bit above list price in their offer (about the level they thought the house could reasonably appraise). But then they decided to do something else. They wrote in the offer that they would give the seller a closing cost credit.

Yes, they agreed to pay $5,000 of the seller's closing costs. By doing this, the seller would net more dollars, which is no different than if somebody had bid up the price, but now they eliminated the appraisal danger.

The strategy worked! Her clients won the bid because of this unique negotiation tactic!

Are you...

What do you think are the top 10 trends for kitchens coming into the new year?

Top 10 Design Trends for Kitchens

(According to Instagram)

• Granite countertops (46,619 posts)
• Pantry cabinets (29,429)
• Quartz countertops (23,652)
• Kitchen islands (23,436)
• Eco-friendly (5,785)
• Brass faucets (4,608)
• Copper hardware (3,698)
• Mosaic Splashback tiles (3,041)
• Induction countertop (650)
• Farmhouse sinks (141)

How can you use this information? Try creating an engagement post that pits two of these elements against each other... as in "Which do you prefer Granite Countertops or Quartz Countertops?". Of course you should include a photo of both options.

By using an engagement question you will find that your audience will be much more likely to stop scrolling and actually comment or like your content. This is crucial as the more engagement a post receives the more likely it is for the algorithm to place this content in front of even more people. Also when someone...

During this podcast we are interviewing Brian Charlesworth Founder and CEO of Sisu.co an incredible platform for measuring daily performance for Agents, Teams, and Brokerages.

Listen as we discuss the latest trends in the industry, what it really means to have accountability built into your real estate career, and how successful agents are modeling fortune 500 companies by tracking highly specific daily actions.

During this episode we dive deep into these key topics:

• How to be a great leader in real estate
• Why accountability is the key to performance
• Breaking goals down to daily activities
• How to gain freedom by limiting choice

One question sellers often ask is this- "Should I improve my home or sell it?"

That's a interesting question because sometimes sellers will say, "I think I'm going to wait until I put the garage door on, or the garage door opener in, or the new dishwasher in, or I'm going to put a new roof on and repaint the house."

Usually we would say that's great because we want the house to be parade-ready and priced right but this is not a normal market. This is a frenzy market. We are seeing 71% of listings sell in the first 30 days for 99-100% of list price. Which creates a dilemma, sellers who invest dollars back into their home may not necessarily get 100% of that money back.

For example, fixing a garage door is the number one item that you could do to a home to increase its salability. But even today, you're still not going to get 100% of that money back as an investment. Sellers on average are getting about 85% of their investment returned. A deck edition is the second most important...

Do you know anybody who owns a vacation rental or a property in a place where people come to vacation frequently? There's some good news around vacation rentals and second home sales right now. Studies are showing that vacation rentals have seen a 44% gain in sales from last year.

For those of you who live in these areas, whether there are vacation rental possibilities or vacation home ownership possibilities, make a point of reaching out and farming those communities and pointing out the good news.

You could say, "A new study just came out showing that there's been a 44% increase in sales and in the market for vacation homes and 2nd Homes. Crazy question would you consider selling your home for the right price? If so, I'd love to have a conversation with you about how we can get you a premium price in this market. Give me a call, text, or direct message today."

That simple message could be a social media post, an email, a text, or a phone call. Remember, we can access those phone...