Something super exciting happened in the last month that we haven't seen in the last 15 years:

Home prices on existing homes exceeded home prices for new homes.

Think about what I just said:

Existing home prices exceeded new home construction. So it was actually cheaper to go buy a brand new house nobody had ever lived in than buying an existing home. Absolutely amazing.

Lots of reasons behind that. But one of the reasons is normally when you're buying new construction, you're locking in a price six months earlier. And then they complete the new construction and you move in.

Well, the market has super accelerated in those last 6 months. And guess what's also happened:

Now, if you were to try to pull that off, what's happened with all kinds of lumber, supplies, and even appliances?

Prices have gone up.

So this will probably not be repeated anytime soon because now prices on new construction are beginning to rise again.

But what...

What's one thing we all need to be concerned about?

Inflation.

We're starting to see inflation rise across many spectrums of the economy. And it is a little bit unnerving when we look at it. Inflation has actually crossed the 2% threshold it's actually past 4% right now.

It's different every month, but it's rising fast across all kinds of asset classes and employment. We're starting to see that real, serious pressure on wages. And a lot of wages have driven up.

We now have more job openings in our country than we've ever had recorded before. Think about what I just said: Job openings are wide open.

This idea that we have an unemployment rate is almost ridiculous because every American -- based on the amount of openings right now -- could be employed. They're choosing not to be employed in some areas or they're choosing not to go to work because of wages or whatever. But in a lot of areas, there's not just enough jobs, there's too...

If you want a quick way to generate conversation through text with your Sphere of Influence, here's a great message that's resonating with a lot of my coaching students.

Look at your Sphere of Influence. Pull 5 or 10 people you're going to text today. And here's what you're going to say:

"Hey, have you ever looked at what your home is worth on Zillow? I'm curious as an agent, do you think it's sort of close, wrong, or right on the money?"

Watch what happens when you put this out to your Sphere of Influence.

Now, you can do it through a text or you could post it on social media. It's a great social media post and I guarantee you're going to get into a lot of conversations with people.

The end result of these conversations should be that Zillow is wrong 95% of the time.

In other words, 95% of the time, they don't get within 5% of their eventual sales price of the property. That Zillow's own data.

By the way, if you haven't looked at it,...

There's a question that we've had for a while now, which is: When are listing is going to come back in full force?

When can we have that expectation that we're going to start to see listings en masse start to come back to the marketplace?

We know there's been hesitancy because of COVID, but now that people are getting vaccines and the economy is strong. So when are we going to start to see people coming back and saying, Hey, I'm ready to make a sale. I'm ready to make a change.

There's an answer for us.

Zillow just did an extensive study talking to industry experts across the country. And the consensus is that it's going to be in the second half of 2021.

So we're coming right up onto that pretty soon here. And we're going to be right in the middle of 2021, which means we're going to start to see an acceleration of listings.

The question is: Are you ready for it? Are you out there lead generating to start stacking up that business now?

So here...

Hey guys, quick question:

Are you a global REALTOR or a local REALTOR?

What do I mean by that? I just had a phone call from a guy that I worked with years ago. His name is Dick and he's an amazing guy. He called me and said, Jim, I've got a referral for you. He's living down in San Diego now. But we haven't seen or talked to each other in 15-20 years, but he has a referral for me.

Now, keep in mind: Dick is 83 years old and still out there selling real estate — so congratulations to Dick.

But when he referred that client to me, it just made me remember this concept of being a global realtor versus a local realtor.

Sometimes I have agents come to me that are in coaching and they say: 

"I've got my database, but it includes some people from my hometown or from a town I moved away from years ago, maybe in Texas, Florida, LA, or New York. Should I keep these people that are not local in my database? Why would I spend money...

What can you learn from Guns n Roses about real estate?

My wife and I took a road trip recently and I took the time to download a book for us to listen to. I don't think she was too impressed in the beginning, but she learned to love it. It was a great book by Duff McKagan talking about his experience as the bassist for Guns n Roses.

We learned his crazy biography of how he got started with the band and what he went through in his life. One thing that he talked about, which really fascinated me, was when Guns n Roses was beginning as a young LA band. They would have to go out and meet with club owners and lounge owners to try to talk them into using them as a band.

In other words, they had to sell themselves. And something the lounge owners and business owners did was instead of just paying these kids to come in and play -- and if they were terrible, make their guests run out -- they would make the bands pay them to play in the lounge or...

Have you ever heard of the aggregation of marginal gains? I hadn't either until I read a story about the British cycling teams winning the Tour de France. They never won the Tour de France before 2010. But their new coach, David Brailsford, challenged them to look at everything they're doing — even the smallest things — to see if there was a way to improve it.

They started with the typical things you'd look at like their diets and exercise programs. But then he went a step further — and started looking at the pillows cyclists were using, the exact time they fell asleep and woke up, their daily routines and more to give them insight into their overall training system.

They figured out that even a 1% increase in any area of efficiency would aggregate marginal gains and finally create wins.

You can do the same thing in your real estate career. You have so many different avenues you're managing, but just getting 1% better in each of these areas can create big wins for...

When's the last time you updated your bio and refreshed your overall brand?

Remember the brand that you are selling is YOU. And you need to refresh your brand at least once a year. You might hate getting your picture taken, but you need a new one every year. And I'm not just talking about a new headshot. You also need to hire a professional photographer to do an entire photo spread for you.

On top of that, you need to update your bio. The best bios that will drive sales your way include the following four things:

1. They're timely
2. They're relevant
3. They include the latest and greatest things happening in your life that help you connect with people in a real way
4. And they include any awards you've received or accomplishments you've achieved

Your #1 goal with your bio is to create an emotional connection with people. So that when they read about you, they can easily decide that they want to work with you.

Once you've updated your bio, you have to make sure...

One question we always receive as REALTORS is - What's going to happen next? What's the crystal ball for where prices are going over the next 12 months? 

According to the NAR, Zelman, Realtor.com, Freddie Mac, CoreLogic, Fannie Mae and the Mortgage Bankers Association, the average of all those top industry insiders and economists within those groups, their prediction for the next 12 months is that we're going to see appreciation at 3.9%. You might think that sounds low. After all we just went through a year where we had double digit appreciation and in many markets we saw appreciation as high as 15-16% . Why would this group of economists predict such a low number when most of us would reasonably expect it to be double digits or high single digits (at the very least).  

The reason is I think those economists know something - When you have a low supply and high demand, what happens? Prices go up. When supply increases, it puts pressure on...

What do you do with a disloyal client?

Barbara Brown an amazing principal broker told me a story that can help all of us. It's a story of forgiveness. She had a client that she had worked with for years, be disloyal and list their house with another agent. It hurts but we have all had it happen.

When the holiday season came around, she said to herself - Should I delete these people off my database list and not send them a holiday card or should I keep them on my list?

She struggled with the decision and thought about it for a long time. Finally she decided to take the high road keep and them in her database. She sent them her traditional Holiday Card.

Guess what happened?

Those disloyal clients circled all the way back. Their listing didn't sell and they called Barbara to come list the property. Of course Barbara had to ask the question - Why didn't you call me the first time?

Turns out in their previous transaction with Barbara there had been some little rub around closing...