How To Talk To First-Time Homebuyers Right Now • Monday Market Minute • Carrie McCormick

Keeping It Real Podcast • Secrets Of Top 1% REALTORS ® • Interviews With Real Estate Brokers & Agents

In our August episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties focuses on first time homebuyers and why the number saw a significant decrease in the third quarter of the year. Carrie also discusses what she recommends to her own first time homebuyers at the moment. Next, Carrie talks about prices of real estate and how she’s predicting leveling up of the market in 2022. Carrie advises sellers to take the pictures now even if you’re not selling right now as the weather is good and they will look better. Last, DJ shares his marketing idea of the month.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at [e-mail] or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
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All right. Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcasts made for real estate agents and by real estate agents, my name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show today on the show. We have our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Carrie McCormick Real Estate Group with at properties here in Chicago. Carrie is a top 1% producer here with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. In fact, in the past 12 months out of 44,000 real estate agents in the Chicagoland area. Carrie is currently ranked number 11. She is a true superstar and an expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. She also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments, including the one I just moved into, please visit Carrie at our website, which is Carrie McCormick rt.com. But even more importantly, follow her on Instagram. She has one of the very best Instagram accounts that for realtors we’ve ever seen. So everyone grab your phone right now and search for Carrie McCormack or just type in Carrie McCormick with two C’s real estate Carrie McCormick real estate on Instagram and watch her post. They’re exceptional. And they’re a really good template and model for how I believe real estate agents should be talking about real estate on social media. Carrie, welcome to the show again.

Carrie McCormick 2:38
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. As always, this is one of my highlights of the month to do your show. So thank you for always having me.

D.J. Paris 2:46
Thanks for doing it. So what’s going on in the Chicago land market for real estate?

Carrie McCormick 2:53
Well, we’re in August. So it’s been an interesting ride this year. But I wanted just to focus on first time homebuyers because at the beginning of the year, we saw quite a bit of first time homebuyers come out and eager to buy a home. But the percentage of the first time homebuyer fell 31% In June, which is a huge leap forward to fall Yeah, it was the lowest level in more than three decades. And that number just so you know, came from the National Association of Realtors. So one reason or a few reasons actually why it fell so much is because there’s been so much cash injected into the market right now we’ve seen more cash offers than ever before, there’s been a lot of bidding wars. Obviously home pricing has been soaring. So it’s been making it difficult for these first time homebuyers to compete. You know, in this market, as you know, there’s low inventory. And it’s just it’s kind of put them in a place where they can’t win. So it’s a little unfortunate, but some of these first time homebuyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to level out or you know, become a little bit more normal what before they reenter the market. So I still think we’re going to see them, hopefully towards the end of the year, come back after all the bidding wars are done.

D.J. Paris 4:14
So it’s probably a good time to have those conversations with renters, telling them you know, look, it’s still a really low interest rate environment. It’s ultra competitive right now to win contracts. But maybe now’s the time to start looking and but setting the expectation that you know, cash is king and there’s a lot of cash floating around right now. So biddings is more difficult to win, but, you know, maybe it’s just a good idea to get them starting to look or do you recommend pausing until the fall for for new homebuyers?

Carrie McCormick 4:47
Well, it depends on your situation. And you know, as brokers, you know, that’s where we guide our clients. And each like I said, each client’s situation is very different and depending on what type of property they’re looking for or, and then also connecting them with a great mortgage lender, because there are some really unique programs that we can get them into to help them win some of these when some of these bids but you know, if they do want to sit on the sidelines and rent for a little bit, you know, we’re here for them too. So there’s always solutions to it is just finding what works best for the clients.

D.J. Paris 5:22
The other thing too, like I know, this, I was renting until I purchased my most recent property. And even though I own property in the past, I am sort of locked into this, this mindset. And I imagine a lot of renters are locked into the same mindset where it’s, well, I can’t move now, I still have four months left on my lease. Whereas all I had to do was reach out to my landlord. And I told him at the beginning of this was that was my third year with him that I’m going to be buying a place. So I don’t know exactly when. But I was able to negotiate an exit three, or I think it was four months early, which again, psychologically I’d kind of forgotten about was an option. I always like to honor my commitments. And instead, I was able to say, hey, I need to leave, can we work something out? And he was thrilled to work something out, there was no hard feelings. So maybe that’s another conversation to have with renters, who are like, Oh, I can’t do anything right now. I still have, you know, my lease.

Carrie McCormick 6:15
Right? That’s such a great point. And some of the landlords, like you mentioned are open to that, depending on what time of the year that it is. Yeah. So I also wanted to talk about just looking ahead, you know, we’re in August. And I hate to even think that we’re nearing the end of this year. But you know, we’re getting to the second half of this year. But we are still seeing that home value appreciation continues. So we’re seeing it, and I feel like we’re going to see it through the end of the summer, at least, you know, maybe through September, October, we’re going to still see, you know, prices tick up. But I think that if when we look into 2022, it’s hard to even think that that’s coming around the corner, that we are going to see things settle back down to a pre COVID pattern, I think we’re going to see prices start to level back out to normal. And we’re going to start seeing more inventory coming in to the to the market. So you know if for those buyers who are still in the market, and they want to find something, if they’ve got a little bit of time, I would just say Hang in there, we’ll get some more inventory into this market. And hopefully things will start settling down a little bit. However, if you are a seller, we’re nearing you know, the the end of this so I would get your house on the market as soon as possible.

D.J. Paris 7:34
Yeah, and there are financing options with a lot of lenders that I think they can be called Bridge bridge loans, I believe or are ways to, to buy without selling first because we know that things sell very quickly, and maybe take a bit longer to win buying contracts these days. So there are financing options. So if you’re trying to sort of, you know, dance that that tightrope, there are other other options. And that’s where you would talk to your lender and say, Kitt, is there a way we can can make this work. And there if you have good credit, there are thankfully lots of options around that. Yeah, there’s

Carrie McCormick 8:09
definitely a lot of continued confidence and strength in our housing market right now. So again, if you’re a seller, I’d get yourself into this market, especially and I think we talked about this last year is, you know, Chicago is looking pretty good. Right now from a weather standpoint, you know, the trees obviously are in full bloom, the grass is really green, the flowers are in full bloom, is get your pictures done now. So if you have any sellers that are on the fence about selling, you know whether they want to do it later this year, or the spring, get your pictures done now, so you can house those pictures and keep them for when your clients are ready to pull the trigger and get their house on the market.

D.J. Paris 8:52
That’s a really great idea. And from a marketing prospective, awesome way to create stickiness with the client now even if they don’t list until December, January or February, calling them and then saying hey, I know you’re going you’re going to want to list in the next you know, six months. Now’s the time I’m going to send a photographer over you don’t have to deal with it. And my suggestion would be for agents that can afford to do this is pay for this yourself. Just make it so easy. Don’t give them a reason to say no. And just send someone over and then send them the photos a day or so after you receive them and say look at how great your home looks. I can’t wait to get this listed when you’re ready. They’re not going anywhere else after that. I can’t imagine.

Carrie McCormick 9:32
Yeah, no, it’s it’s a great idea. And they’re just taking exterior pictures. So it’s super easy for the sellers.

D.J. Paris 9:39
What a great suggestion. I know you’ve given that Pat and past years but I always forget what a great great idea. And then my marketing idea of the of the week or the month rather, is very simple. It’s back to school time and, you know, now’s the time to go through your database. Categorize who and your contact list and your clients and your prospective clients have children, hopefully, you know, the ages of their children, if you don’t great reason to pick up the phone and call your client and say, Hey, I’m updating my database, have the are the kids back in school yet? Or, you know, when are the kids going to school? Hey, what grade are they in again, you know, you can make it more conversational, as opposed to, you know, specifically saying, what’s their age, what’s their birthday, all of that. But assuming you can find out the general ages of the clients, you can create little gift bag, or, you know, back to school gift, you know, gift bag kind of things. And you know, doesn’t have to be expensive. But anything you can help a mom out with, getting their children ready to go to school, even if it’s $5 worth of school supplies, is five is one less maybe shopping trip that mom has to make, or that dad has to make. And you know, it’s so easy and simple. And boy, I know that getting school supplies is a pain in the butt for parents. So really easy things just call your your contacts with children and say, Hey, I’ve got a little gift bag I want to drop off to help your kids with school. Like, you know, that’s it’s it’s simple, it’s not expensive, and can really go a long way.

Carrie McCormick 11:05
And every client likes a gift no matter what it is. It’s the thought that matters. So it’s great.

D.J. Paris 11:11
Yeah, I love that. And also too, if you know that the mom or the dad is carpooling, if that’s part of the process for getting their kids to school, you know, give them a couple of Starbucks gift cards and say, Hey, I know this might come in handy on those early morning drives, you know, back from the school or to the school, you know, a few Starbucks gift cards will certainly go a long way. But anyway, I think that’s that’s it for this this month. And I want to remind everybody, please, well, first of all, before we get to the very, very end, if there are any listeners out there who are buyers, sellers, renters investors, you’re looking to work with one of the top real estate agents in the entire Chicagoland area not because I’m saying it, but her numbers and all the accolades She’s won over the last 20 plus years will demonstrate that Carrie McCormack would love to work with you. So Carrie, what’s the best way someone should reach out

Carrie McCormick 12:04
to you? I always tell them to call me 312-961-4612 Or you can email me at Carey which is CA RR ie [e-mail]. But before I let everyone go, I announced this last month, it’s gonna be working on a new construction 18 single family homes in the Lakeview neighborhood. We are rounding out finally the floor plans the pricing the finished package, but hopefully we’re going to be announcing it. You know, late August, early September. So if anyone has clients looking for single family home in the Lakeview area, we’d love to hear from you.

D.J. Paris 12:46
And there are not a lot of single family homes in the Lakeview area. So this is a big big announcement. So they can reach out to you and you can put them on a list where you’d be giving them information once it comes available. Absolutely awesome. And the other best thing you can do is follow Carrie on Instagram. So he said this at the beginning, but please please do and I promise. It is one of those Instagram accounts that you will just constantly be getting ideas from for your own business and that follow her on Instagram which is at Carrie McCormick again to seize Carrie McCormick real estate, Carrie McCormack real estate on Instagram. Well, Carrie, thanks so much and appreciate your time. As always, I want to thank everybody for listening and continuing to support our show, please, before you sign off, just think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Carrie and send them a link to our show, you can send them right over to our website, keeping it real pod.com. Every episode can be streamed right from a browser, or if they’re a podcast listener, download what or just search for keeping it real in their podcast app and hit the subscribe button. We’d appreciate it. Well Carrie, thank you so much and we will see you next next month.

Carrie McCormick 13:52
Thank you