Last month, 32% of all transactions closed involved a cash buyer. If you stack up a cash buyer against a finance buyer, as a seller, which one would you prefer? Probably a cash buyer.

Financing has hurdles: the buyer has to qualify, the home has to qualify, there's appraisal and underwriting approval. So, if I had the choice, I would probably want to take a cash buyer.

But how do we incentivize this?

Most agents aren't having this conversation with sellers. Would you like to incentivize cash buyers to make offers on your house? Why? Because with a cash buyer, you're not dealing with qualification issues, low appraisals, or underwriting roadblocks. We can remove contingencies faster with a cash offer, which means we can speed up closing generally faster than with a finance buyer.

To incentivize those offers, you might consider giving a cash discount. What would you give? Maybe a 1% or 2% discount off the price. Let's be honest, with a financed offer, the buyer often asks for closing...

Guess what?

Millennials, who were the dominant force in the housing market a year ago, have taken a step back. It's been a significant drop.

Now, why are millennials pulling away from the real estate scene?

The primary reason is interest rates.

The real question is, who has taken their place as the leading group of homebuyers? Who's currently driving the market?

Well, it might surprise you, but it's the baby boomer generation, and they're making a strong comeback in the housing market. In fact, cash buyers account for 27% of the recent transactions, and many of them are likely baby boomers with disposable income, not overly concerned about interest rates.

They see opportunities in the market now that they didn't have a year ago when they were competing with numerous other buyers.

So, as you adapt your marketing strategies to changing market dynamics, consider focusing on baby boomers within your sphere...

We're still in a highly competitive market. There's still lots of multiple offers happening. The market is changing, but there's still high demand out there.

So I want you to think about what can you do to incentivize people to take my offer over maybe a cash offer if my buyer is being financed.

What would be a unique strategy for that?

One unique strategy I found from one of my top producing teams is this:

They use a closing guarantee. Maybe you're already using one, but if you're not check this out, here's what they do:

When they write an offer, they include a closet that says, "Hey, listen, just for accepting our offer and considering us, we're gonna guarantee that we're gonna close it by this specific date. And if we do not close it by that specific date, we're gonna give you a non-refundable earnest money of $10,000, $5,000, $20,000."

By using that closing guarantee, what you're doing is providing clarity to the seller, so they...

Hey guys, here's a question:

How many transactions would you guess in the marketplace are cash transactions?

The answer is 23% of all transactions in the real estate industry today are cash transactions.

Now, why is that important?

It's important because when we're talking to buyers and sellers, we need to be able to talk about the impact cash buyers have in the marketplace.

So for instance, when I'm sitting with a seller, sometimes sellers will say, "Well, Jim, I only want to sell to a cash buyer."

Now I'll say, "Hey, I get it. I would prefer that too when I'm a seller. Cash buyers don't have an appraisal requirement. And a lot of times you can close faster and it's a little easier. I get it. No lender involved. But here's the reality of those numbers: Today the latest studies show that 23% of buyers are cash buyers. So that means 77% are not. Only about one out of four buyers are cash buyers. If we only want to sell to a cash...

We've just had some excellent news about where homeowners' heads are regarding selling their home.

The latest study shows that 67% of homeowners believe today is a good time to sell, which is one of the record highs we've seen with this kind of thought process.

But when we go deeper into those numbers, according to Realtor.com, it shows this:

1 in 10 homeowners plan to sell this year. 1 in 10!

Think about that when you're driving home tonight and you're driving through your neighborhoods. 1 in 10 of these homes that you're driving by is going to be listed in the next year!

But here's something that's even more exciting:

63% of those are going to be listing their home in the next six months.

The only question is... Who are they going to list with? Is it going to be with you or your competitor?

And if it's your competitor, why did they get the listing when you missed out? The reason is they did one thing that you didn't do:...