How to guide clients through market uncertainty using data with Shareable Market Trends

People who are serious about buying or selling a house in 2023 tend to do a lot of research -- and thanks to the proliferation of real estate portals and other sources of information, it's no surprise that they are often quite educated about what's happening in your market, at least at a surface level. As a real estate agent, one way to showcase your value is to help explain how what they're seeing online relates to wider trends, and what it all means for them vis-a-vis their current goal of buying or selling a home.

Shareable Market Trends is a tool offered as part of Realtors Property Resource® that can help you do just that. It's a set of charts and graphs that provide an in-depth view of what's happening in your market, which you can share with your clients. When you're having conversations with buyers about inventory levels and just how long they might be searching before they find the right home, or with sellers around pricing in a shifting market, Shareable Market Trends can help bring your words to life. 

The real estate industry, with its ever-shifting trends and complex market dynamics, can often leave consumers feeling overwhelmed and confused.

As REALTORS®, one of your key roles is to demystify this complexity and provide clear, data-backed insights to your clients. This is where Realtors Property Resource® comes into play and will help strengthen your position as a local market expert.

Introducing RPR's versatile data tools

Shareable Market Trends is just one example of the powerful tools offered by RPR. This set of charts and graphs provides an in-depth view of the real estate market by presenting comprehensive data that can be tailored to specific local markets and property types. In addition, you can leverage other resources like the RVM® (Realtors Valuation Model®) and our Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to further enhance the data, allowing you to compare properties and refine your analysis.

Yet, these tools are only the tip of the iceberg. RPR offers layers and layers of data points and analysis options, so you can select the most relevant information for any conversation with your client.

Turning data into dialogue

The real power of RPR's Shareable Market Trends lies in its ability to transform data into impactful conversations.

Here's how it works: RPR provides the numbers and charts — whether it's median sales price trends, days on market averages or inventory changes — and you, as the REALTOR®, translate these numbers into digestible insights.

You might explain how a decrease in local inventory over the past six months could impact a buyer's home search or how a steady increase in median sales price could influence a seller's pricing strategy. The key is to frame these data points in a way that is directly relevant to your client's specific situation and needs.

Let's review some real world applications

Here are some situations and scenarios where RPR's Market Trends data can really be useful in guiding and informing your clients:

Scenario 1: Guiding a Seller on Timing and Pricing Strategy

Imagine a seller who's unsure about the right timing to list their home or how to price it competitively. You can leverage inventory trends to illustrate recent local market data that shows a shortage of available homes in their specific area and price range. You can then convey how this inventory shortage could increase demand for their home, suggesting that the timing might be right for a sale.

Furthermore, RPR's Realtor Valuation Model® (RVM®) and Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) can be invaluable tools to accurately price the home. The RVM®, a state-of-the-art automated valuation model, can give you a reliable estimate of the home's value, while the CMA allows you to compare the home with similar properties that have recently sold in the area.

Together, these insights can help you advise the seller on a pricing strategy that is competitive and aligned with current market trends. This data-driven approach not only reassures your client but also helps them make an informed decision, demonstrating your value as their trusted real estate advisor.

Scenario 2: Helping a Buyer Understand Market Conditions

For buyers, understanding the state of the local market can be critical in deciding when and what to buy. For instance, a buyer interested in a specific neighborhood might be concerned about increasing home prices. You could use RPR's Shareable Market Trends to show data on the neighborhood's median home prices over time, discussing whether the market is appreciating, stabilizing or depreciating. Such data-driven insights can provide the buyer with a realistic understanding of what they can afford, potentially saving them time and avoiding disappointment.

Scenario 3: Reluctant Investor

Investors often rely heavily on market trends to make investment decisions. Suppose you have a client interested in investing in residential properties, but they're worried about recent news of an impending recession. With RPR's Shareable Market Trends, you can provide a comprehensive picture of the local market's health, including data on sales volume, median sales price trends and housing inventory. This data-driven approach can help assuage fears and guide the investor towards making a well-informed decision.

Scenario 4: Facilitating Regular Market Updates

Regular updates about the market conditions can be of immense value to all types of clients: sellers, buyers, investors, and even past clients who like to keep tabs and stay informed. RPR's Shareable Market Trends allows you to provide these updates with current, local data, reinforcing your role as a knowledgeable market expert and keeping you top-of-mind for future real estate needs.

Through these scenarios, we see how RPR's Shareable Market Trends can be used to facilitate in-depth, data-informed discussions with clients. It's not just about giving an opinion, but about providing evidence-based recommendations that foster trust and credibility.

Tips for successful data-driven conversations

For effective data-driven conversations, it's important to do your homework and come prepared. Familiarize yourself with the data before meeting with a client, and plan how to present it in a way that addresses their unique concerns.

Practice translating data into straightforward insights, but don't shy away from the details if your client is interested in diving deeper. Remember, data is not a replacement for a conversation, but a tool to enrich it.

In the often confusing world of real estate, data serves as a guiding light. RPR's Shareable Market Trends offer a valuable resource for REALTORS® to turn numbers into narratives and facilitate insightful, productive conversations with clients.

The more we can leverage data to inform these discussions, the better we can guide our clients through their real estate journeys.

To view the original article, visit the RPR blog.