Interesting new data shows that 63% of home buyers who purchased a home after the pandemic believe their home will be impacted by climate change at some level. Realtor.com found that statistically, 44.8% of homes actually will be affected.

Regardless of the numbers, it's clear that climate change is on the minds of our clients.

What matters is that your clients believe it, and insurance companies believe it too. Insurance rates have skyrocketed over the last few years due to environmental impacts like floods, hurricanes, and fires. These natural disasters cause insurers to take losses, leading them to ramp up their rates in anticipation of more such events.

As REALTORS, you can serve your clients by addressing this issue. Say to them:

“You probably have seen your insurance rates going up. Part of the reason for that is environmental impacts across the country. I've got a great insurance agent who can shop your rate and find the best deal for you. Also, if you want, I can give...

It's hard to believe, but sellers are greedy. We all are, right? When we sell our homes, we want the maximum amount we can get.

The problem is that many agents will "buy" a listing, especially in this desperate market. We're finding listings, but many agents are hanging on by their fingernails, willing to do anything to get a listing. That's not how we do business. We need a script that addresses the greedy seller.

Here's a script I'll call the "100% Script." If I'm sitting across the table, I can say…

“You know what? Many people don't realize this, but statistically, in our market, only about 60% of the time do listing agents sell the listing the first time. They list it, put it on the market, do the marketing, but then the home doesn't get an offer or the right offer, and you have to list it with another REALTOR. I don't want to do that with you. I don't want to waste your time or effort. I want to give you a different experience because my goal is to sell 100% of the...

Hey guys, price drops have hit an 18-month high. Here are three stats you need to know:

1. In May, 6.4% of home sellers dropped their home prices. In the last week of May, home prices actually came down by $3,000.
2. This is the first time home prices have declined in the last six months.
3. Homes are also staying on the market longer, now averaging 46 days. We are seeing more stagnation with listings.

When analyzing the market, we consider supply versus demand. We still have very low supply, but demand is decreasing due to high interest rates and record-high home prices. This combination makes affordability tough for many home buyers.

When discussing this with sellers, it's important to explain that a market can have pricing power or pricing pressure. For years, sellers had pricing power due to low supply and high demand. Now, with demand dropping, pricing pressure is entering the market.

The best time for a price adjustment might be surprising—it's at the listing appointment. At...

What is a success portfolio for a real estate professional?

Well, if you've ever gone to a photographer, architect, or even a wedding planner, you'll often see a book of their work—a portfolio. This showcases what they've done for other clients in the past.

Think about yourself. We often have listing presentations and now even buyer presentations, but do we have a portfolio of past performance?

This portfolio can be the pre-listing kit you've always dreamed of or the pre-buy meeting kit that will really motivate and inspire people to want to work with you.

So what would you put into this success portfolio? Of course, you'll include the properties you've sold and testimonials from other clients. You can also add marketing examples to show what you've done to market properties on social media, with flyers, with postcards, and even in a digital presentation, including video.There's a lot you could include in this presentation to make it really come alive and pop.

Now, imagine you...

Join this conversation with team leader Stephanie Peck as she outlines how she grew from being a solo agent working primarily by referral to a team leader running a seven-figure business. From her first hire to her current business model, Stephanie breaks down the steps she has taken to ensure she maintains a healthy work life balance while providing raving fan level service to her clients. Learn her unique prospectives on marketing, client acquisition, and how she uses social media to stay highly visible with her sphere of influence.

Quick question:

What is in your buyer presentation right now?

With the NAR settlement just around the corner, you need to address what you’re doing about it. One thing you need to do is have your buyer presentation dialed in.

Here are 11 things to include in your buyer presentation post NAR settlement:

1. The Search Process: This can't just be you searching the MLS. Buyers can do that on Zillow or realtor.com. Go further by curating listings, hand-selecting the best fits, and commenting on each one. Be involved in the search process daily.

2. No Stone Unturned: The best listings sometimes don't hit MLS. Look at for-sale-by-owners, expired listings, and network with other REALTORS on coming-soon listings. Canvas neighborhoods to find potential sellers.

3. Research Process: Dive deep into any specific home you're interested in. Check permits, architectural plans, disclosure statements, plat maps, aerial maps, assessed values, and neighborhood trend lines. Interview...

Whether you’re in real estate, lending, insurance, wealth management, banking, tax, or other industries that interact with property owners, Big Tech is driving up your cost of client acquisition. So what’s the solution? Listen as Justin Stoddart CEO of Pro Insight lays out an incredible strategy for going upstream in your business model to tap industry professionals who can provide you with a steady stream of high-quality referrals. This low cost high value strategy can be implemented by all agents regardless of how long you have been in the business. This win/win business model can be a complete game changer for agents looking for a unique way to begin working with more buyers and sellers.

Do you ever judge somebody when you meet them for the first time?

The answer is, we all do. We can't help it. It's human nature. In fact, there's a scientist, Daniel Kahneman, who recently passed away. He was an expert in this field. He pioneered the idea of heuristics, or the ability to quickly make decisions by rapidly processing millions of pieces of data.

Some of us benefit from the "halo effect," which means people make a positive judgment about us based on how we present ourselves. Others don’t benefit from this phenomenon.

So, how do you present yourself?

There's something I like to refer to as the "million dollar—or maybe in today's world, $5 million—standard."

This means if you got a call today from someone asking you to list their $5 million house, would you be ready within 10 minutes to walk out the door and do it? Or would you be struggling, thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm not ready for this. I have to get a million things put together."

This standard of...

Here's an interesting question to put out on social media to your audiences:

Would you move from your current market because of climate change?

I've been in the business for 35 years, and we never really talked about climate change as a motivator for people to move. But it's becoming more and more of a reason for people to relocate. In fact, 30% of Americans today, especially young people, say they would move because of climate change or make a decision about where to live based on it.

That’s why this is an interesting question to ask on social media.

Climate change can take many different forms. In my market area, for example, it's fires.

We had a fire come through our neighborhoods that burned down 2,700 homes. It was one of the biggest fires in the nation for destroying homes. Absolutely devastating for our community. We went through several summers of fire, and a lot of people moved because they couldn't deal with the smoke and terrible air quality.

On the flip side, you...

Let's pretend a seller says, "Nope, I'm not paying the buyer agent commission."

This can happen, albeit rarely. When it does, it’s your job to educate them on what comes next. Just because they say they don't want to pay it doesn't mean they won't receive offers requesting them to do so.

It's likely most offers will include language requesting the seller pay the buyer agent commission of X dollars. Then, the seller will have to decide to either reject the offer or counter it. We need to educate the seller about this.

You could do this by saying, "Hey, I totally get it. But just so you know, most offers we receive will still ask you to pay the buyer agent commission. At that time, we can look at the overall offer and decide if you want to do that or reject all offers that include that verbiage."

"I wouldn't reject everything out of hand. I'd suggest looking at the whole spectrum—what they're offering versus what your net will be. We can judge it on an offer-by-offer...