As 2016 is drawing to a close and I reflect on my achievements and mistakes over the last 12 months I am astonished to realise how much can be learned in 1 year! Every day is a day to learn something new, but I feel like 2016 was a special year in the Real Estate Market and each day brought new challenges and lessons to be learned! I have grown in every aspect of my life where real estate is involved, business, personal and investment. This week we will focus on the business lessons we took away from the 2016 year.
Business lessons:
- Listen to market forecasts, but know they are not always right
If you asked me in January this year if I thought Milton housing prices would appreciate 16% over the year, I could not have predicted that! In fact I don't think anyone could! There had been early warnings about market crashes, prices flat lining throughout the year, not many saw the market reaching record levels as it did. I knew the prices would grow by record amounts but no one could have predicted such a record breaking annual increase. Even in the rural areas of Milton such as Campbellville, Brookville, Moffat, and Rockwood we saw record jumps in home values. This major price upswing brought many changes for me on the business front as well as the personal front. It has been a challenging year in many ways, the housing market not only increased exponentially in pricing but our small town has never in my lifetime seen such a demand for housing with so little inventory.
- Stay versatile and welcome change into your life with open arms
Most people would think that us Real Estate Agents are relishing in this market, and yes there is some good money to be made, but that’s not entirely the case. I have had to change my expectations about the business in order to adapt quickly or be left behind in today's dizzying market. What amazes me most are the possibilities that can be reached when goals are set with intention and you allow yourself to welcome change into your life.
- When opportunity doesn’t come to you, you go to it
In past years when I took a listing I would expect to pick up a lead or two from hosting an open house at my listings….this year most listings are not even on the market long enough to hold an open house! So connecting with potential buyers is becoming harder. I’ve adapted to finding leads elsewhere to keep the train in motion.
- Educate and re-educate yourself often
One of the biggest changes 2016 brought is with inventory, in past years my team would carry an inventory of 10-20 listings at any given time throughout the year, it’s just not like that anymore, houses are moving quickly when they are priced right and marketed correctly.. I’ve learned to adjust my techniques and my negotiation skills to handle intense multiple offer situations. Never before in my 16 years of selling homes have I seen so many offers come in on a property without conditions. Getting an offer with no conditions might sound great to a seller, there’s less stress and no waiting around for a deal to firm up, but I’ve been hearing about more deals now than ever before that fall apart on or shortly before closing day due to the buyers inability to obtain financing. It is an important time for homeowners to ensure they have a good, experienced real estate agent on their side to look out for the dangers of this fast pace market.
Another area that has significantly changed for me and my team is that I have significantly upped our marketing gameplan for each of our properties to ensure we are able to continue to provide the high standard of customer service our clients expect. This has meant a lot of training and new ideas have been implemented into my business practice.
