New study out from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that ARM demand has reached a 14-year high.

And now what's an ARM?

An ARM is an adjustable rate mortgage.

A lot of you that have entered the business over the last 10 years may have never used an ARM.

They became almost invisible for many, many years. Why? Because we've had the lowest interest rates in history. No one would bother doing an ARM. But over the last quarter, just to here in 2022 ARMs have gone up to a 14-year high.

So an ARM is an adjustable rate mortgage. Generally, it's set interest rate for the first 3, 5, 7 years. And then it resets based on the current rates of that time. There's a cap on it. Every loan's a little bit different, but here's some examples of what that looks like:

Right now, as I'm talking to you today...

The current interest rates are about 5.5% while the ARM rate is about 4.5%. So people are getting about a 1% discount for going into an ARM...

A stat from a Zillow study that came out shows that 30% of Americans have cited climate change as a reason to move in 2022.

Now, I think about that and I reflect on my own market where I live here in Southern Oregon. And I think, well, a lot of people wouldn't consider this being a climate change issue here, but it is.

You see, we've had, and we've been surrounded by fires for the last four or five years in our community. And those fires create smoke. And it creates a situation where people don't love going outside during the summer, one of the best times to be outside. Coupled with the fact that last year we had a fire rage through the entire city and burned down 2,700 homes. I had three duplexes burned down myself.

So when people have that experience, it's very detrimental. They are in fear of it. Of course they might think about moving. And a lot of people did move away because of that.

Or think about your...

Hey guys, can you think of an investment that is safe, stable, and secure in today's environment?

We know the stock market's crashing.

We know the crypto market crashed.

And we know other market assets are crashing right now.

So is there an investment out there that people can really trust?

The answer is yes.

And Americans already know this:

The most recent study shows that for the last eight years straight Americans trust real estate more than any other asset class.

Here's the question mark I have for you:

Are you out there beating this drum? Are you the evangelist about real estate to your own clients and talking to them about the fact fact that they need to diversify their portfolios, you know, rebalance their assets, and get some of that money over into residential real estate?

One of the safest, most stable, secure investments they could possibly make.

Now, how do we know that?

Well, all markets are based on supply and...

Hey guys, I'm seeing something in the market that I've never seen before, which is really interesting.

We're seeing a mass migration of people moving from one state to the next because of political reasons.

Now, we haven't seen that. In my 33 years in the industry, I've never seen a mass migration because of political reasons. People are moving because they don't agree with the local politics or the state politics. And they're going to where they agree more with the politics of that other state.

So you might say, well, that's interesting, Jim, but how in the world do I capitalize on? How do I use that in my real estate business?

It's interesting because we all know some folks around us—family and friends—that have actually made the move. So isn't like way out there. This is like close to almost all of us.

So I'm gonna give you a simple technique today that you can implement right now.

...

One conversation that can come up as you're out there taking listings is, of course, centered on commissions.

And here's a great script to help your sellers look at the commission, not just cost, but as a marketing incentive to encourage showings and to encourage more offers.

So the script kind of goes like this:

"Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Seller, one thing I wanna talk to you about is the commissions that we charge. Now, I charge a listing marketing fee of X [fill in the blank, whatever you're charging]. And all we have to decide now is what we're gonna pay the buyer's agent. Now there's a little secret sauce here that a lot of people don't understand. Which is, that marketing fee that we're paying to the buyer's agent to bring that buyer in can actually incentivize them to show your home.

"Let me show you an example:

"I did a commission survey in your market area where your home is. I went out about a mile two miles, and I looked at every listing that...

Hey guys, we are still in a low supply market. It's the lowest supply real estate market we've ever seen.

Despite the marketing changes and interest rates rising and the market dynamics kind of influx, still low supply and high demand.

So based on that, how can we go out there and still crush it in the market? How can we thrive despite the market conditions starting to shift under our feet?

One strategy is use the "Pocket Listing Strategy."

It's one of my favorite strategies and it's totally underused. Very few people do it.

Here's the concept:

One in seven homeowners today has raised their hand and said they're interested in selling the next three years. That's 15% of the population.

Drive through any neighborhood, and one of every seven homes you drive by is thinking about selling in the next three years.

There's a massive pent up seller demand, but how do you turn the key to unlock it?

Well, a large group of those people may not be...

We're coming into spring. And what do you see during spring? You see a lot of garage sales and estate sales as you're driving around through neighborhoods.

When you see that this should be a red flag opportunity for you. Because what you could do is circle back, just write down the address and write a little note. Or if you have the REDX, a system like that, you could find their phone number or their email address, and you could just send a message over. That's something like this:

"Hey, as a local REALTOR, I noticed you had a recent garage sale or estate sale. I hope it was super successful. Quick question: Are you considering a housing change? Many people who conduct a sale are preparing to relocate or sell the home, which is the reason for my question. Also my office as several buyers interested in the neighborhood. So if you'd consider an offer in your home, I'd love to have a chance to chat at your earliest convenience."

What an...

Some pretty amazing news from CoreLogic this week shows that the average American in the country had an equity gain of drum roll

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$55,300.

That's more than a lot of people making a year with their normal wage.

So that's a huge increase. That's why real estate's one of the number one wealth pullers in America is this equity buildup.

Now, if you happen to be on the west coast where I live, it's even greater. And in a lot of areas of the country, it's even greater. For instance, in Washington state, that number was $95,000. Where I live here in Oregon, it was $59,000. And if you happen to live in California, one of the highest equity gains in the country, $117,000 in equity gain. Now, what do we do with this information?

Well, one thing we can do is do a social media post or an email out to our entire database.

And here's what we might say:

"Hey, your home is better than average, right? The average...

How are you incubating leads once you've captured them? One of the best strategies you can have is having an email marketing campaign.

What a lot of the top producers in the country do is they use Constant Contact or Mailchimp.com and these are systems that are super easy, point and click, that you can build an email newsletter and send out. Some people use BombBomb if they wanna do a video version of it.

But all of these are email related. Now, why wouldn't they just do social media where it seems like all the action is well?

Remember when you do a social media post, that's only gonna be in front of maybe 2 to 4% of your audience.

You're not gonna have a hundred percent of your audience receiving the message. But with the email marketing, literally a hundred percent of your audience receives your message.

So that's a huge advantage, right? And that's something that we can use.

Now not of 'em are gonna open it, but certainly they're gonna...

I'm gonna give you two techniques today that can really transform what you're doing on social media.

Why?

Because a lot of agents on social media are doing the same old, boring posts. They're not getting a lot of engagement. Nobody really cares. Nobody's really watching. And so they wonder why they're struggling and other agents are doing so well.

There's a few reasons.

Now one is that people are seeing repetitive posts. They're seeing the same posts from the same REALTORS over and over and over again. And they get boring. They just become noise. So how can you break through?

I'm gonna give you two strategies right now:

1. Educational marketing

Educational marketing means you're teaching somebody. So you're the teacher, they're the student. We're experts in this industry. And we could come up with a list of a hundred things we could talk about about the real estate market easily that other people outside the industry don't know.

We could...