Podcasts about houses for sale in salt lake city

You can buck the trend and become an exception to the 5% rule. According to the Social Security Administration, if you take any 100 people at the start of their working careers and follow them until they reach retirement, only one will be financially healthy. Four will be financially secure, five will continue working because they have to, 36 will be dead, and 54 will be broke and dependent on family, friends, and the government to take care of them. Only 5% of us will be successful in creating a life of freedom, while the other 95% will have to continue to struggle all their lives. Are you on track to be in the 5% or the 95%? If you are in the 95%, what is the one thing you can do right now to start the journey of joining the 5% right now? It could be as small as setting a date in your calendar to map out your plan. Now's the time to get after it. Give me a call, text, or email if you'd like to set up a free, no-obligation consultation to help you set up a business plan to get started on your goals. If you have any other questions about the real estate business, don't hesitate to reach out. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The final five uncomfortable realities of working as a Realtor. Today I'm finishing my three-part series on the realities of being a Realtor. Let's pick up where we left off: This is not an easy job. In fact, it will probably be the most challenging job you've ever had. There's a lot of emotional stress because the stakes are so large. In some industries, you can just punch in and punch out. As an agent running your own business, you'll quickly discover there is no off button. Agents who succeed in the long term spend a massive amount of time on the front end, and there is no shortcut.Even once a practice is up and running, a lot of work goes into keeping it working. You'll also need to learn a wide array of skills, such as prospecting, managing client expectations, marketing, crisis management, counseling, and so much more. Successful agents master fundamentals. They rely on and execute scripts flawlessly to succeed. This requires hours of practice, role-play, and dozens of hours on the phone. It's dull, laborious work punctuated only by the occasional insult, rude hang-up, and odd family friend who's working with another agent instead.  “Even once a practice is up and running, a lot of work goes into keeping it working.” You will not be your own boss. Many choose to become Realtors because someone told them they could be their own boss. This is one of the cruelest cons in the business. As an agent, every client is your boss. The more you work with, the more bosses you have. If you're working with a couple, you might have two bosses for a single transaction. Your clients are hiring you to perform a service, so they will have hopes, dreams, and expectations of you. Your schedule will not be as flexible as you think. Many get into real estate because they think it will give them the freedom and flexibility they could never have in a nine-to-five job. Yes, you might be able to attend pre-school graduations and other events in the middle of the day. However, you will also be on call round the clock. You will work weekends, meet clients in the evenings, and have to bolt from your home to deal with emergencies. True flexibility and freedom only come years down the road. Not every brokerage is a good fit for new agents. Some would start best on a large team, like mine, instead of fending for themselves in the office agent pool. Those who want to be solo agents should look for offices that resonate with their values and methods. Virtual brokerages may not be a good match for those who want an active, collaborative environment.  I've been a Realtor for about eight years. I've seen ups, downs, and plenty of bizarre things. I've worked through the foreclosure crisis and the pandemic and, despite it all, I've beaten the odds. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing my recruiter didn't explain the highs and lows of the business because I may never have experienced what has become a truly fantastic career.  Call, text, or email me if you'd like to set up a free, no-obligation consultation to review your goals and set up a one-page business plan. My team and I would love to hear from you. Part 1 | Part 2

Four more uncomfortable realities of the real estate industry. Today I'm back with part two of my three-part series on the realities of being a Realtor. Here are the next four things to keep in mind: You will not automatically get access to free leads. Large real estate teams often have a serious investment in lead generation baked into their organizations. They know their brokerages will never provide the types of leads they need to grow their businesses. Unless your office has a dedicated team for generating leads, you'll have to create your own. You'll never see 100% of any commission check. Even if you work for a company that insists it has a 100% split, you will end up paying some fee designed to make the brokerage money. Even if you're working for yourself, you might have to pay for marketing, lead generation, administrative support, and more. “Other agents will take your clients and think nothing of it.” Not all Realtors make a ton of money. The median income of Realtors in 2020 was $50,000. That increased to $52,000 in 2021. In our region, approximately 86% of agents sell six or fewer homes a year. While many agents look successful from the outside, they're probably mortgaged to the hilt and living paycheck to paycheck. Real estate is a hyper-competitive industry. Other agents will take your clients and think nothing of it. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and just because you have a great set of ethics doesn't mean everyone else does. Call, text, or email me if you'd like to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. We'll review your goals and set up a one-page business plan. Part 1 | Part 3

Who you surround yourself with has a huge impact on your success. As you try to scale up in our businesses, the idea of who you're surrounding yourself with becomes incredibly important. You tend to become the average of the five people you most commonly surround yourself with.  Now that we've reached the new year, ask yourself who you're surrounding yourself with. Are you happy being the average of those people? If not, who do you to replace or add to bolster your personal average? “Readers are leaders.” Also, think about your environment when you're generating leads. Do you have a place to go where you can do your most important work without being disturbed? Having an environment conducive to your work is key. Finally, what are you putting into your brain? In other words, what are you reading or listening to? Readers are leaders, after all, so it's key to feed your brain with good books or podcasts that help accelerate your business. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a 30-minute consultation to discuss this in more detail, don't hesitate to give me a call or send an email. Hope to hear from you soon!  

Don't let yourself get entitled; the world doesn't owe you anything. Today I'm here to tell you that the world don't owe you jack. Regardless of your performance, the world doesn't owe you anything. Your family doesn't owe you; your boss doesn't owe you. No one owes you! When we get into this mindset of entitlement, we're taking a big step back. We're losing ground on everything we've made, which keeps us from reaching our desired outcome. Only when we move forward with purpose and accountability can we accomplish everything we want. When you hit that intersection of victimhood and entitlement, remember what we talked about today. If you have any questions or want some additional coaching, please call, text, or email me. Make it a great day!  

The rhythm method and how it can help you meet your goals this year. Today I want to talk to you about the rhythm method. Let's start by talking about how success is sequential, not simultaneous. It comes from habits that are built up over time until the goal is achieved. Since it's Q1 of the new year, now's the time to focus on your habits and your rhythms. Do you have any? Do you have a one-page personal business plan to guide you through the rest of the year? Have you unpacked this plan into actionable items and set aside time each week to get these items done? Only once you've completed all of these steps can you execute at your highest level. As always, I hope you found value in this post. If you'd like to learn more about creating a one-page business plan, or if you have any questions, please call, text, or email me. We can set up a complimentary 30-minute evaluation. 

We're halfway through the first quarter? How are you doing on your goals? Are you on course with your goals? We're about halfway through the first quarter, so it's time to check how things are going. If the quarter ended today, would you be hitting your target? What changes do you need to make to ensure that you reach your objective? Do you need to revise the plan or simply execute it at a higher level? Remember that changing the goal is not an option. That's the easy way out. It's time to take inventory and make the necessary changes to perform in the second half of the quarter. I hope this has been helpful. If you're looking for additional coaching or accountability, or if you just have some questions, please call, text, or email me. Make it a great day!

You can snowball small habits into big ones to lead to success. James Clear wrote the best-selling book “Atomic Habits,” where he outlines the importance of how habits shape our success. He suggests that even the smallest habits can snowball into bigger ones that will ultimately lead to your goals being achieved. The concept of snowballing habits is similar to how compounding interest works.  For example, if somebody wants to lose weight, they can begin by simply getting to the gym and doing five minutes of weights. Over time, five minutes expands to an hour of working out, which leads to better eating habits, additional physical activity, a different lifestyle, and ultimately achieving that weight-loss goal. Start small and build up. This idea of stacking habits translates into all areas of life. When you think about your businesses, what are some big goals you have that feel unachievable? Think small and start with the smallest habit first. Then, add on additional habits once the first one sticks. Do this over time, and even the biggest goals will be met. If you have any questions or would like to set up a 30-minute business consultation, please call, email, or text me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Today I talk about taking risks and not getting swamped by analysis.   Last week, we talked about the word commitment, what it means, and how it shows up in our daily lives. This got me thinking about the phrase “paralysis by analysis.” We want the most information we can get to make the best decision and reach the best outcome. While it's nice to have all the right information, the consequence is a huge loss of production. I realize now that I faced “paralysis by analysis” because I feared being wrong, making mistakes, and not choosing the best decision. Then I got a piece of advice that changed everything. Even bad action will outperform a lack of action every single time, so don't let it take you 20 years to figure it out like it took me. Go out there and take some risks. Take action because even if you're wrong, you're already further ahead than those who took no action at all. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to connecting with you.

Here are 10 ways you can succeed in real estate without raw talent. If your real estate career isn't going how you planned, it's easy to chalk things up to a lack of talent. However, every great agent knows that the most important ingredient in a successful career is hard work, not raw talent. That's why we want to give you 10 ways to succeed without any talent:  1. Be on time. This requires zero talent; all you have to do is have decent time-management skills. Even if you are bad at keeping track of time, there are plenty of apps to keep you in check.  2. Show up and do the work. Bill Belichick, the head coach of the New England Patriots, is famous for telling his players to just do their job. If you're supposed to be somewhere or do something, just do it. It's truly as simple as that.  3. Do your best. You don't have to be the greatest, most charismatic real estate agent of all time—all you have to do is your best.  “If a problem is getting you down, focus on the solution rather than the problem itself.” 4. Be positively contagious. We all know how great it is to be around positive people, so try to keep things positive no matter where your career takes you.  5. Have an attitude of gratitude. Thanksgiving just passed, but we should keep a grateful attitude year-round.  6. Seek solutions. If a problem is getting you down, focus on the solution rather than the problem itself. This will help you keep a positive attitude.  7. Have passion. If you don't have passion for what you do, don't do it. Not only will it make you miserable, but your lack of enthusiasm will creep into your work.  8. Be coachable. There's a difference between being coachable and being teachable. Being teachable only means you know how to learn while being coachable means you know how to use that knowledge to take action.  9. Doing more than what's required. You may have heard the term “minimum standard” at other brokerages, but we've eliminated all that language from our team. We only have standards, and it's every agent's job to go above and beyond that standard.  10. Believe in yourself. Be confident and know that if you follow these steps, you'll probably have a good outcome.  Hopefully, these tips have put your career in a new light. If you have any questions or you'd like to talk about today's topic, please call or email us. We'd love to speak with you! 

Here are a few things to consider the next time you say you're committed. Today we want to talk about a word that will send shivers down some of your spines: commitment. You've probably heard someone say they're committed to something only to not live up to the expectations. We see this all the time across the real estate world in classrooms and even in relationships.  According to the dictionary, commitment is defined as “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or activity.” That differs from a goal, which is the object of someone's ambition. Commitments are more than a goal; they are non-negotiable and mean you will do everything to achieve that goal.  Where in your life are you falling short on your goals? Where do you lack abundance, and where do you desire more? Commitment is measured by one thing and one thing only: the result. If you're not getting the results you want, ask yourself if you're truly committed or if you're simply interested in the desired outcome.  I hope this made you think a bit. If you have any questions, feel free to call me.

You should always try to be learning-based in everything you do. We're right in the middle of our “Six Personal Perspectives” series. We believe that these six practices are the key to our success. This week we're on No. 4, so without further ado: Be learning-based. A learning-based individual is someone who has decided to constantly try and acquire knowledge so that they can achieve better outcomes. This can be done in business, athletics, in your relationships, and really any other area. Being learning-based means coming from the place where you realize that you don't know everything and that there is still more to learn for you to get to that next level. Think about what you can do this week to level up your knowledge base and learning practices. If you have questions about how to do this or anything else related to real estate, feel free to give us a call. We'd love to hear from you.

Here's how you can improve yourself to having a purposeful mindset. Today in the third installment of our “Six Personal Perspectives” series, we're discussing moving from “E” to “P” — moving from an entrepreneurial to a purposeful perspective. We all have habits and behaviors that come naturally to us, things that we're naturally good at that don't take much effort. Those are things you can pull out when you need them and keep your productivity at a certain level. All of that is entrepreneurial. To get to the next level, you need to have breakthroughs. A breakthrough requires that you're purposeful. As an example, a couple of years ago my business was cruising along levelly, and then I hired a coach. That coach cost me some money and time out of my calendar each month, but I was purposefully doing something different than I'd been before, so it allowed me to have the next breakthrough. Since I was being purposeful, my business saw an upward trajectory. As time went on, that trajectory started to level off too, so I needed to find an additional way to be purposeful and get another breakthrough. “Since I was being purposeful, my business saw an upward trajectory.” We're gifted with entrepreneurial mindsets and do our jobs well, but what can you improve today just by being purposeful and doing things differently? When you change something to increase whatever it is you're trying to improve, you'll know you've had a breakthrough and have moved from E to P. We'll come back next time with our fourth personal perspective. If you have questions about these personal perspectives or anything else, call us. We would love to help you.

I discuss the 80/20 rule and how we can apply it to real estate. For part two of our Six Personal perspectives, we'll talk through the 80/20 rule. Last time, we went through self-mastery. If you missed it, you can access it here. The 80/20 principle was developed by Vilfredo Pareto back in the 1800s. What it states is that 20% of our efforts will lead to 80% of the outcome. Pareto saw this in crop growth, with 20% of growers making up 80% of crop yield in the area. If you look this up, you'll see it happening in lots of different industries.  “Find out what you're currently doing and develop those key items, the 20% that can help you improve.” We can use this by remembering that 20% of what we do, as long as we do the right things, will lead to 80% of the outcome. What actions make up these 20% in real estate? Lead generation, lead follow-up, writing contracts, negotiating contracts, and going on appointments are all probably part of this.  When agents focus on that 20%, over time that leads to 80% of their income. Find out this week what you're currently doing and develop those key items, the 20%, that can help you improve. You could even reverse engineer this and think about what goal you want to reach and what tasks will help you get there.  Next time we'll be back with our third part, going from entrepreneurial to purposeful. If you have any questions about this topic in the meantime, don't hesitate to give us a call. We're always here to help.

To attain self-mastery, use the KASH acronym. Today's video marks the beginning of a six-part series called “Six Personal Perspectives,” a curriculum developed by Gary Keller that was designed around self-development. The first of the six personal perspectives is self-mastery. Let's dive in! Self-mastery starts with a process called KASH, which stands for “knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits.” To be the master of anything, you have to have the right knowledge, attitude, and skills. Once your skills are established, you can develop long-lasting habits that will allow you to accomplish anything that you want. “As you reflect on what you're trying to master, remember KASH.” Take marathon running as an example. If you want to master that, you have to be knowledgeable about running, as well as have an attitude conducive to accomplishing your goal. You also need to have the skills, which means you'd have to know how and where to run. Finally, you have to develop the habits over days, weeks, and months. Without actually committing to it regularly, there's no chance you'll ever master it. With that in mind, I implore you to reflect on what you're trying to master within yourself. Is it a specific hobby? Is it leadership? Parenting? Your job? As you think it over, remember the KASH acronym. If you have any questions about self-mastery, don't hesitate to reach out to me via phone or email. I'd love to have a conversation with you.

An example of how our team leverages showing agents to grow the business. On our team, one of the most foundational ways we encourage our agents to leverage their business is through the utilization of a showing agent. A showing agent is someone who works directly with a buyer agent to help open doors and show clients properties that the buyer agent can write contracts for. This year, our transactions are up 27%, and leveraging showing agents is a big reason why. We've hired four showing agents to give our buyer agents more time to do other things that grow business like additional lead generation, more appointments, or more time writing and negotiating contracts. If you have questions about leveraging showing agents, give me a call. I'd love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.

Skills pay the bills in every industry, and real estate is no different. When I was listening to a podcast this week, a phrase stopped me in my tracks. “Skills pay the bills.” That hit me as a team leader who is coaching many agents on my team and outside of my team. Our coaching always comes back to skills like lead generating, time blocking, the language of sales,  tie-downs, and assumptive closes. Those agents who work hard on their skills have a much higher income in this industry. Here's an example of this in the sports industry: Tom Brady was a late-round draft pick for the Patriots 20 years ago, but he is now considered the greatest quarterback of all time. What he did better than anybody is that he focused on his skills. He has more Super Bowl rings than he can fit on one hand. If you're looking to grow your business and thrive, find a coach and hone your skills. Give me and my team a call. We'd love to talk through these things with you.  

The final three things new agents can do to grow their business. We're back for the final episode of our series on the 10 steps new agents should be doing to grow their business. Today we'll be talking about calling expired listings, for sale by owners (FSBOs), and direct action. We encourage everybody to call the recently expired listings since there aren't many of them. However, you should also call the people that expired their listing two or three years ago. Touch base with them and see if they're still looking to sell. You'll be surprised how many people will want to meet with you because nobody else makes these calls. “Showing your value is your ticket to getting contacts and building your business.” There are a ton of FSBOs out there. A lot of people think it's super easy to sell your home right now, but the fact of the matter is that FSBOs sell for about 12% less than somebody using a trained professional. Showing your value is your ticket to getting a listing signed and building your business. Take direct action and have conversations. Industry averages show that it takes 50 real estate conversations to close on one sale. These conversations should be highly intentional and about real estate. Ask if they know someone who's looking to sell their home. Ask them for permission to stay in contact with them. Keep them updated on the market so that when they do have an opportunity or a question, you're the first person they call. We hope you found these 10 steps helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Here's my latest episode on actions you can take to grow your business. Today I'm bringing you episode four of our series on the 10 actions every new agent should take. As always, these tips are aimed at new agents, but I think even experienced agents could learn a lot from them. In this episode, I'll be going over tips seven and eight.  The seventh action you should take as a new agent is probably my favorite: hosting open houses. This is a great way of finding buyers. My challenge is to look for people holding open houses and offer to host the open house for them. I've been doing this for six years, and this is still a huge part of how I run my business.  “These methods are relatively cheap, and they can bring in a huge return on your investment.” The eighth action you should take as a new agent is to choose a farm. I've recently moved, and this is a great opportunity to build a new database. Even going door to door can be a great way to introduce yourself to a community. The key takeaway is that you want to offer people value upfront. For me, this usually means a complimentary market analysis. By keeping in touch with my database (or ‘farm'), I can have a constant stream of potential clients at the ready.  Hosting open houses and farming for your database are perhaps two of the most important actions you can take as a new agent. They are relatively cheap or even free, and they can bring in a huge return on your investment.  I look forward to seeing you next week when I finish up my series on the top actions every new agent should take. If you have any questions in the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am always willing to help.

Here are the steps that every new real estate agent should take. Welcome to episode three of my series where I go over 10 steps every agent should take to build their business. This series is meant for newer agents, but they're still great tips that every agent should be following.  Today, I'm going to start with step five: Join a networking group. Groups like Business Networking International are a great way to share your knowledge among peers. As you do this, you'll naturally gain contacts where you mutually benefit each other. If you aren't in a networking group, I recommend you join one as soon as possible. They offer too much opportunity to skip out on. “It's important you attend conferences so you can sharpen your skills and network with people from all across the country.” My next step is to attend conferences. As we're getting back into the community after COVID, in-person conferences are starting up again, but zoom conferences get the job done too. Either way, you should attend these so you can sharpen your skills and network with people from all across the country. This helps you build a referral network outside of your specific geographic location. This is a huge advantage for an agent to have.  Next week, I'll get back to you with steps seven and eight. Until then, if you have any questions about today's topics, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I am always here to help.

The steps every new agent should take to help grow their business. Today, we'll be discussing the next steps every new agent should be taking to build their business. 1. Document your journey. In this world of social media, I think just about everybody has Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Whatever social media that you're on, document your journey and let people know what's going on. Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media. This is such an easy and free way of letting people know that you're in real estate. However, you need to offer value every time you're doing a social media post. 2. Have direct asks. Ask your contact list who they know, who's looking to buy or sell, and if they're looking for a complimentary market analysis on their home. Without those direct asks, you're probably leaving business on the table. “Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media.” 3. Market yourself to agents in feeder markets. In Utah, we have a lot of people moving in from California, so we directed our team to connect with agents in the big metro areas of California. Now they have opportunities to procure additional business just through referrals as people move east to Utah. If you reach out to them, make a connection, and offer value, before you know it, you're going to be getting some referral business from them. We'll be back with some more steps that every new agent should take to build their business. Until then, have a great and profitable week, and reach out to us if you have any other questions.

The steps every new agent should take to help grow their business. Today, we'll be discussing the next steps every new agent should be taking to build their business. 1. Document your journey. In this world of social media, I think just about everybody has Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook. Whatever social media that you're on, document your journey and let people know what's going on. Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media. This is such an easy and free way of letting people know that you're in real estate. However, you need to offer value every time you're doing a social media post. 2. Have direct asks. Ask your contact list who they know, who's looking to buy or sell, and if they're looking for a complimentary market analysis on their home. Without those direct asks, you're probably leaving business on the table. “Do not be a silent agent in this world of social media.” 3. Market yourself to agents in feeder markets. In Utah, we have a lot of people moving in from California, so we directed our team to connect with agents in the big metro areas of California. Now they have opportunities to procure additional business just through referrals as people move east to Utah. If you reach out to them, make a connection, and offer value, you'll get some referral business from them before you know it. We'll be back with some more steps that every new agent should take to build their business. Until then, have a great and profitable week, and reach out to us if you have any other questions.

It's time to put you in business as an agent. Whether you're a brand-new agent or thinking about entering the real estate profession, there are 10 steps you need to take to get into production and fulfill the reasons you may have (or had) for becoming an agent in the first place. Here are the first two steps: 1. Build a database. The most popular reason people leave the real estate industry is that they don't have a database of people to market to. This business is all about numbers: The more people you can market to, the better opportunities you'll have to connect with people and gain clients. Think of everybody you've ever done business with, interacted with, or given money to. That could include your hairdresser, dentist, parents of the children your kids play with, etc. Once you add these people to your database, start marketing to them with your value proposition. People with the largest databases tend to have the most robust businesses. “The more people you can market to, the better opportunities you'll have to connect with people and gain clients.” 2. Private message anybody you've ever bought anything from. If you communicate enough with the people you've purchased things from, you'll create an ancillary way of connecting with people. They're getting into your database as well, but this is more of a direct or referral-type business. Either way you slice it, this is a new avenue for new and old agents to develop an income stream. We've all purchased something recently, so direct message whomever you bought something from and watch what happens with the business you start attracting. Stay tuned for more episodes from this series where we'll cover the rest of the steps you need to take. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd love to hear from you.

Today we're giving you our last couple of tips on winning with buyers in this market. If you have an issue or you think the appraisal is going to be an issue, work with your lender to get that appraisal ordered right upfront. The lender that we use and recommend can get those appraisals sent out within the first couple of days of being under contract. That way you could flip your due diligence and your appraisal deadlines to start addressing price with the seller. We have started to see a lot of offers submitted where financing is being waived. If you're working with a lender where your buyer is fully underwritten and you don't see any issues, then this is a contingency you can remove and it will significantly strengthen your offer. What you've now done is taken your offer from middle of the road to the top of the stack. If you have questions at all, don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to help you out. Have a great day.

I’m back with even more tips to help buyers win in today’s market. Last time, I discussed nine tips to help your buyers win in today's crazy market. Today I'm back to continue that discussion with two more tips for success: 1. Increase the earnest money deposit. In this market, I propose that you increase your earnest deposit to be in line with your down payment. To be clear, if they're putting down $20,000, try having them put it all in their earnest money. That money goes toward their down payment anyway, and with any built-in contingencies, that money isn't at risk should your buyer decide to cancel. I've seen contracts recently where the buyer put $100,000 down; that's the sign of a very serious buyer who shouldn't be taken lightly. 2. Lead with your best offer. That might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many offers I see come in that could have been higher and better. When you're representing buyers, be sure to educate them and encourage them to put their best offer out there right from the beginning. You never know what you're competing against in this market. If you have any questions about how to help buyers win in our current market, reach out to me. I'd love to help you. Until then, have a productive week!

Here are two strategies that will help if you need to both buy and sell. In the current real estate market, buyers are having a tough time, especially if they also have a home to sell. Today I'm sharing two strategies that can help if you need to both buy and sell. If you're in a situation where you need to sell one property and buy another, you can remove the selling contingency with the help of a bridge loan. Talk to your lender about them because it provides insurance to the seller that you as a buyer can close on the deal. “Both of these are solid strategies to help you buy and sell.” You can also look into instant offers or buy before you sell strategies you can implement. Here at the Stern Team, for the right property, we'll buy it from the client so they can have cash to purchase their new house. Once their former property is ours, we'll sell it as a Stern Team listing.  Instant offers are getting plenty of attention because they're a new concept, but don't forget about bridge loans. Both of these are solid strategies to help you buy and sell. If you have any questions about these two options or real estate in general, reach out via phone or email. We would love to help you.

A great tip to help your buyers in this market is shortening the contingencies in their offers.  First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent. Find out what's most important to that seller as far as those dates go. They may be looking for a long leaseback, for example. Knowledge is currency in this market.  Let's start with due diligence. Make that deadline as tight as possible. You might even consider waiving this contingency. If you do end up waiving it, make sure your buyer knows what that means and what they're giving up. If not, make it as short as possible. Seven days is a great number; it means you're working with your buyer to get the inspections scheduled immediately. “First and foremost, before you even come up with dates to write in the offer, call the listing agent.” Next, look at the financing and appraisal deadlines. If you remember my last video, we talked about getting a fully digitally underwritten pre-approval. If your lender does this, there's a good chance you can shorten that deadline. Typically it's 21 days, but you can knock it down to 17 or 14 days.  The less space there is in the contract between these contingencies and the actual proposed closing, the better the chances your buyer has of winning the offer. If you have questions about today's topic or there's anything else I can help you with, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you.

These strategies can help your buyers win in our market. In my last video, I talked about a few different ways you can help buyers win in today's market. The key strategies I discussed primarily involved contingencies, but there are a few things I didn't cover that I'd like to add today.  “Sellers love buyers who show initiative.” First, you should order a home inspection before even presenting an offer. You can even include this in your cover letter. Then, in the event that your offer is accepted, you're showing the seller that you mean business because you already have an inspection lined up. Sellers love buyers who show initiative. Additionally, if your offer isn't accepted, you usually have no obligation to the inspection company — it's no big deal if you decide to cancel. Next, you could separate different contingencies. You could get the appraisal contingency out of the way early on, especially if you feel there will be an appraisal issue down the road. We'll sometimes put that contingency first and put the inspection contingency behind it. However, you should work with your lender to ensure they can set this up. By getting creative with your contingencies, you can help your buyer make an even more attractive offer. If you have any questions or would like more information about helping your clients, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Here are two more financing tips to help your buyers win. In previous videos, I’ve shared buyer tips on how to interact with lenders, but today I’ll share two more tidbits specifically about financing with the goal of helping your homebuyers find success in this crazy market. First, if you want to give your buyers the best chance of winning, get a fully digitally underwritten pre-approval letter, not a pre-qualification. In sellers’ eyes, that is as good as cash. Next, if your buyers need to ask for closing costs from the sellers (which might seem unfathomable in this market), talk with their lender to see if they can do premium pricing. That’s where they take the closing costs the buyer would have paid and roll them into the loan. Not asking the seller for additional items makes writing a winning offer much more feasible. If you’d like more tips to help buyers win in today’s market or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Here are a few additional tips to help your homebuyer clients win. The last few weeks, we’ve been talking about how to win for your buyers in this environment by pulling your lenders into the picture. Today we’re going to talk about two important pieces of advice you need to win in this competitive market: 1. Have your buyers write a letter to the seller. A lot of people advocate against this, but as long as you are compliant with fair housing laws, that letter is very good and super effective. “A recent client of ours won without offering the most money.” 2. Have your buyers send a video. You could do this in place of a letter or in addition to it. Have your client explain why they love the home so much and establish an emotional connection. A recent client of ours won a home because of this. They weren’t nearly the highest offer. A bonus tip: You could also have your clients drop by after-hours with some cookies and apologize to the seller for being so over the top.  If you have any questions for me about helping buyers in this competitive market or anything else related to the real estate business, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Here’s a quick tip to help you present offers in a more personal way. I get asked about how to present offers all the time. Since I deal with both buyers and sellers, the most common way I see offers presented is through an email with an attached offer and no narrative. Instead of simply sending over a digital version of the offer, I recommend taking a physical document over to the sellers. Some of you may be thinking I’m crazy, but trust me that it works.  In our world of building relationships, actions like this matter. You’ll stand out to the seller and their agent because not a lot of other agents will take the time to present their client’s offer in person. It could end up being a game-changer for you. If you have any questions for me about winning with your buyers or the real estate business in general, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.  

Today I explain my third tip to win as a buyer in today’s market.   I’m back with another tip to help buyers win. Today we’re going to be talking about the pre-approval letter itself. There are many different types from many different organizations out there but I have to ask, do you have the golden ticket? You’re probably asking, what is the golden ticket?  It is simply a pre-approval that’s fully desktop underwritten. It is, in essence, a cash offer in the seller’s eyes. If you’re getting a pre-qualification or just a generic pre-approval, I’m going to encourage you to work with your lender and make sure they can give you a desktop underwritten pre-approval. Make sure when you communicate with the listing agent that you tell them you have a desktop underwritten pre-approval. Educate them on what that is. Many of them won’t know and you will increase the likelihood of you winning with a buyer by simply having that golden ticket. “It is, in essence, a cash offer in the seller’s eyes.” Make contact with your lender this week. I challenged you last week to do the same thing in regards to having that lender reach out to the listing agent. One call can accomplish a couple of things today. Get that rapport with your lender intact-that way you have a better way of increasing your odds of winning with your buyer. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. Next week will be tip number four. Until then, have a great day.  

Here’s a tip to help you get a win for your buyers: Call the listing agent.   Today is the first segment in my new series about how to win with buyers.  This week I hosted an open house for a listing, and we received 15 to 20 offers. However, out of all those offers, I only heard from two of those agents. If you’re working with buyers, you need to reach out to the listing agent. Find out what the seller’s needs and wants are, then take that information back to your buyer to see if they’re able and willing to write the offer using what you learned. Then you’ll have what you need to write an offer that’s extremely attractive to the seller. “Get a win for your buyers by calling the listing agent.” One of the real estate agents that reached out to me called three days in a row to ask what else their client could do. I asked my seller what exactly they’d like in an offer, then I presented it to that buyer’s agent. Then, wouldn’t you know it, that was the offer that got chosen out of all the others. It wasn’t the highest-priced offer, but all the other terms met what the seller truly wanted. All it took was a few phone calls. So get a win for your buyers by calling the listing agent. If you have questions about how to call a listing agent or any other real estate topic, call or email me. I would love to help you.  

Our housing market is currently healthier than the majority of our nation.   According to the Realtor’s Confidence Index, which gathers monthly information about real estate transactions to provide on-the-ground information, there are several indicators that point to a turnaround of the housing market.   First, the buyer traffic index has improved to 50 after having dipped to a low of 30 in April.  Foot traffic has a strong correlation with future contracts and home sales, so it can be viewed as a peek ahead at sales trends two-three months in the future. Overall home showings in May were down 20% compared to May of 2019. So far for June, we are actually up 6.6% over the same time last year.  And, overall, we are 39% above the pre-pandemic peak. This is a good sign for the future health of Utah’s real estate market.  Interestingly a higher fraction of sales closed just based on virtual tours or virtual showings with 9% of sales closed based on virtually showing homes, this is based on buyer agent feedback.   The COVID-19 has changed the way buyers purchase, it has also changed the way sellers sell.  Having a high-end virtual tour and virtual showings have become very important to the selling and buying process and this may be a trend that doesn’t fade away anytime soon.  Also, based upon data released by the National Association of Realtors, home prices are expected to rise in Utah by 2-3% in 2020.  That’s incredible given the ongoing Pandemic and most certainly is a testament to the health of Utah’s economy.   While we are still uncertain how COVID-19 will continue to change the landscape of housing and the economy beyond a 3-month threshold (previously this is determined by foot traffic), our housing market is currently healthier than the majority of our nation.  Also, Utah ranked #6 in mobility last year with 1 in 6 residents changing their location.  About 400,000 Utahns changed homes within the state and another 100,000 immigrated from other states. As you can imagine, most of our in-migration comes from California.  However, Idaho, Washington State, Texas and Oregon rank up there in terms of out of staters moving to Utah.  Employment is a huge driver for migration, so let’s hope that Utah continues to hold low levels of unemployment through the COVID-19 pandemic.   So in a nutshell, showings are up, the amount of properties a buyer looks at before purchasing a home is down, more buyers are buying their homes based upon virtual showings or virtual tours in general.  Listing volume is down, as uncertainty has led many sellers to wait until “the dust settles”, accompanied by a strong local economy has caused price pressure on homes priced under $350,000 with more than 80% of properly priced homes in that price range receiving multiple offers.  Finally, because of these factors, we’re actually likely to see an increase in average price by 2-3% even during a recession.  We shall see, again, we can only predict out 2-3 months at a time.  I’ll continue to keep you posted on this blog, but please don’t hesitate to call or email me directly with any questions you may have about the market or to discuss your personal real estate goals.

Thinking of selling your home? It can be overwhelming during good times, not to mention the uncertain times we’ve experienced lately. It’s surprising how our housing market has reacted to COVID-19 over the last couple months.  Join us on June 10th at 6:00 pm. This is a “virtual” webinar you can attend from your phone, computer or tablet. We want to share what we’re doing to help sell our homes in these current conditions. We will be awarding one attendee a Detailed Home Cleaning package from our trusted cleaning company (who doesn’t love a clean house?)   Below is a short overview of the material we’ll cover together.  • Current Utah Housing Market Statistics and Data • Is COVID-19 affecting your home’s value? • Are we heading toward a housing crisis like we did during the Great Recession • Can I sell my home virtually or safely with minimal contact and still get top dollar? • What if I can’t pay my mortgage? • Is now a good time to sell? • The right strategy for pricing your home to sell? • How to stage, market, and sell your home, FAST! • There are many new home selling options that are available from cash offers, to instant offers, virtual brokers, limited service and fee for service limited brokers.  Learn more about what option is right for you.  Learn how virtual technology is being deployed to keep sellers safe. Photography, digital signing, virtual grand openings, video consultations are all here to help sellers. Learn about the process of selling, staging tips, market advice, and many other tips and tricks! In this class we will go over everything you will need to know about selling your property! COVID 19 has changed…everything. So we’re going to take the time to educate the public on the do’s and don’ts of selling your home on the teleconference webinar.  Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive the link. 

The National Association of Realtors has released their annual report of Home Buyers and Home Sellers.  There’s some interesting information here that we felt was pertinent and worthy of sharing. We’ll cover this in two parts.  First will be the Home Buyers. • So The first thing I noticed here was that 78% of non-home owners believe that homeownership is a good financial decision.  Not only do I agree, but we can back this up with substantial data.  You can google “Homeowners vs Renters net worth” or you can take my research at face value.  Homeowner’s net worth is 45 times greater than renters.  That’s a big number.  Simply put, homeownership is a form of “forced savings” Every time you pay your mortgage, you’re contributing to your net with.  Every time you pay your rent, you’re contributing to your landlords net worth.  • 33% of home buyers in 2019 were first-time buyers.  Their typical age was 47.  So, seems crazy that back when I started selling real estate 2 decades ago, the average age of a first time home buyer was 27.  It’s moved back 20 years…I think, in part, buyers are susceptible to carrying more debt nowadays.  More debt from credit cards, vehicles, student loans, etc…I’d say we could take some lessons from our predecessors in putting off some of the “I want it now” by asking ourselves, “do I need it now”?  I also think it’s important based upon the first NAR statistic that we focus on getting a home sooner rather than later.  Fix your monthly payment, while rent goes up, mortgages do not.   • 52% of home buyers hired an agent primarily to help them with find the right home. • 89% of buyers who purchased a home used a real estate agent or broker, an estimated 6% bought from a friend or relative.  I’m not surprised, in this challenging market it pays to have a real estate professional guide you through the home buying process.  A full time real estate professional not only helps you find homes that match your specific needs quickly, they are experts in navigating the negotiation process and guiding the transaction from contract to close. They also have access to professional vendors that can assist with things like mortgages, insurance, repairs, flooring, paint, you get the point.  • 90% of buyers would use their agent again or recommend their agent to others.  We thank you for that, as referrals have always been the lifeblood of our business.  • Buyers typically searched for 10 weeks and looked at a median of 9 homes before they purchased a home.  We’ve been pretty fortunate on The Stern Team, as our systems are so specific and since we have buyer’s only agents, our average buyer looked at 5 homes before they found their perfect home. • Finally, 75% of Non-owners believe homeownership is part of their “American Dream.” They’re right. I’ve been saying it for decades.  Every day I wake up excited to be in the American dream business.  Nothing more gratifying than delivering keys to a first time home buyer, attending their house warming parties and watching them turn a house into a home. 

The National Association of Realtors has released their annual report of Home Buyers and Home Sellers.  This is our second segment, if you missed the Home Buyer report, please visit www.SternTeam.org, there’s a lot of valuable insight.  Today we’re going to cover the NAR’s 2019 profile of home sellers. • Remember that the typical home buyer was 47 years old?  2 decades older than when I first started my real estate career.  Well the typical home seller was 57 years old? Now I’m starting to get a clearer picture of why our inventory levels have been so low.  When I first started selling real estate a homeowner would live on average between 3-5 years in their home and then move.  I think the Great Recession of 2008-2011 really changed the dynamics of real estate.  People are living in their homes much longer, about 10 years on average according to the NAR.  Obviously this is a national number, as you’ll find in metropolitan areas along the Wasatch Front they move more often.  But still, this means we’ve had much less inventory over the past decade for buyers to choose from.  That fact coupled with sellers holding off to sell their homes because of COVID 19 has really put a damper on the availability of homes for sale.  It actually means that if you need to sell, do it now.  You’re in the driver’s seat! • Just like buyers, 89% of sellers worked with a real estate agent or broker to sell their home.  About 6% sold to someone they already know.  That’s smart as it may seem easy to sell a home, but in reality there are over 180 tasks to navigate to get a home successfully sold.  To avoid the headache, contact a real estate professional! • For recently sold homes, the final sales price was a median of 99% of the final listing price.  This doesn’t necessarily track price adjustments made on listings that were over priced for the market.  This is just the median list to sale price of the FINAL list price of a home.  • 75% of sellers contacted only one agent for the job of selling their home.  66% found that agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor, coworker or relative.  This is also true for our business.  The majority of our business comes through referrals, which we appreciate.  Referrals are the lifeblood of our business through the past 2 decades.  • 44% of all sellers traded up into a larger home • The median equity cashed out during the sale for future investment into another home was $60,000.  That’s a lot of bucks!  We talked about the networth of a homeowner being 45 times that of a renter, and here is just one example of that fact.  • The distance between a home sold and a new home purchase was 20 miles.  People usually move to improve school districts, house size, garage size and yard.  • The average home owner lived in the home they sold for 10 years.  Well that’s a lot of numbers to digest, and that’s officially a wrap.  In real estate it pays to hire a professional who knows their market.  It’s great to have a look at national numbers, but a true real estate professional is a local economist.  They’ll know the local trends to help you capitalize on the sale price and speed of sale for your home.   

Today we want to introduce to you The Stern Team’s Love it or Leave program, the ultimate buyer protection plan for uncertain times.   Buying a home is a big decision, and one that you literally have to live with.  We strive to find you the perfect home, a home that you will love for years to come.  Our experience and our consumer oriented programs provide you with numerous unique systems that allow us to quickly zero in on exactly what you’re looking for and help you beat out the other buyers to the best new listings.   • What if you get transferred just after you’ve bought the home? • What if you receive a fantastic but unexpected job offer which requires you to move? • What if you decide that the home or neighborhood just isn’t what you wanted? • What if you win the lottery and want a bigger home? We want you to be able to buy a home with confidence, so we’re going to remove the risk.   Simply put, if you don’t absolutely love your home within the first 12 months, we will sell it for free on our side and help you find a new home. When you work with one of our specially trained buyer’s only specialists and the home you buy turns out to be less than perfect during the first year of ownership, or you hit the lottery, we will sell it for free.  We won’t charge you a listing commission while you’re looking for your replacement home with The Stern Team.    Yup, it’s that easy.  So give us a call or shoot us an email and put us to work.  We’ve helped over 2,500 families with the American Dream and I’m confident we can bring the gift of homeownership to you and help you get started down the road to financial independence. 

Today we want to talk about the mortgage market and how COVID is changing the mortgage landscape   Today we want to talk about the mortgage market and how COVID is changing the mortgage landscape. JPMorgan Chase just announced that it has stopped accepted HELOC applications as of April 14th, 2020. Of course, they’re calling this a temporary pause. In addition to that, JPMorgan Chase is requiring 20% down payment and a 700 FICO on most of its loans.   But, not all lenders are doing this.  This is just an example of an institutional reaction to fears that homeowners will stop paying their mortgages.  “This is just an example of an institutional reaction to fears that homeowners will stop paying their mortgages.” This is in large part because the government has created some confusion behind their mortgage-backed securities with Fannie, Freddie, and FHA  requiring a 12-month moratorium on mortgage payments if the borrowers suffer a COVID-19 related hardship.  United Wholesale Mortgage, the second-biggest mortgage lender in the country, recently announced that it will require re-verification of a borrower’s employment on the day their loan is scheduled to close. The purpose is to ensure that borrowers are actually still employed when their mortgage closes. Most lenders have made this move. It’s the fear that a buyer’s job at the beginning of the process of purchasing a home may be in jeopardy and they now require the Verification of Employment (VOE) the day prior to settlement.  Obviously, lenders want to make sure that borrowers have cash flow.  The bottom line of all these changes is lenders are attempting to protect themselves and borrowers from getting into a mortgage that is not in their best interest. While United Wholesale and JPMorgan Chase are some of the biggest names to make these changes as a reaction to the market, they’re likely not the last.   In 2008, I remember how loan programs were disappearing on nearly a daily basis. In large part, that was a good thing. The meltdown was in fact spurred by corporate greed and borrowing money to anyone who could fog a mirror and hiding them in large wholesale bundles sold on secondary markets. I suspect that these changes will last beyond the local and national re-opening of our economy.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, our lender still has access to mortgages with as low as 3% down payment and interest rates at historic lows.  Making this a great time to take advantage of buying opportunities as they relate to the cost of homeownership. Give us a call and we’ll put you directly in touch with our preferred lenders to get the ball rolling.

Since Governor Herbert declared a State of Emergency for Utah in early March: • 4,195 homes became active.  • 5,294have moved into under contract statuses.  • 5,601 have sold.   Active listings are down 22.5% year-over-year.   • 8,370 beginning January 1st, 2019.   • 6,493 beginning January 1st, 2020. Under contract listings are actually up about 12% over this time period last year.  Buyers are more willing to buy now as they are taking advantage of 60-year lows on interest rates. If there were more inventory, we’d have more sales.  For perspective, the average interest rate for the last 44 years is about 8.3%, we’re currently in the low to mid 3% range. Let’s call that a 5% variance from the average. Every percentage point the interest rate goes up on a 30-year mortgage, the cost of owning your home goes up by 10%. So we’re 50% lower on home costs than average.   Why the lack of listings?  Most sellers are waiting for the dust to settle. While this is a prime opportunity for sellers to maximize their sales price, most sellers are unsure of what the market is doing. Based on our conversations with sellers, many assume the market is dropping. In fact, prices have not given up any ground. Others are concerned about the safety of selling their home during COVID times.   The Stern Team has a modified Safe Seller Program that helps to alleviate those concerns.   • We’re doing 24-hour virtual open houses.  • Any in-home visits require gloves, booties, and hand sanitizer for each and every showing.  • Additionally, we have the sellers leave all the lights on and all the doors open to ensure fewer surfaces are touched.  Only one group of buyers in the home at one time.

We hope you and your loved ones continue to stay safe and healthy.  COVID-19 continues to be the topic of conversation and the dominating force in our lives.  With all the volatility in the stock market and uncertainty about the length of time this may last, a lot of folks are rightfully concerned about another market crash like we had in 2008-2011, otherwise known as the Great Recession. Ali Wold, Director of Economic Research for the real estate consulting firm Meyers Research, addressed this point in a recent interview: There are quite a few reasons indicating this real estate market is nothing like 2008.  Here are 5 dramatic differences: 1. In the last 30 days, more homes have offers accepted on them than are coming available for purchase in our UT market and most major metropolitan areas.  2. Mortgage standards are nothing like they were back then.  Have you seen the movie “The Big Short”?  Well, you can’t fog a mirror and get a loan anymore.  Standards for underwriting are tough.  Getting a loan isn’t hard to do, but you actually have to qualify for that loan.  No more stated income loans, or the proverbial 80/20 combo loans.  3. We don’t have a surplus of homes on the market. As mentioned we have a surplus of buyers. We actually have a shortage of homes available. 3983 new homes came on the market 4708 homes went into under contract status 4711 closed 4. Houses became too expensive in the lead up to the Great Recession.  Affordability was a real issue, though didn’t factor into getting a loan.  The affordability index, which is the percentage of an average person’s income it takes to buy an averaged priced home is FAR lower than it was from 2005-2007.  The major player in affordability has been historically low-interest rates. 5. People are equity rich, not tapped out.  From 2005-2008 people were using their homes like piggy banks and banks were more than happy to give out nearly free home equity loans for more than their homes real value.  The result of this was people using equity from their homes to finance their lives wants, weddings, vacations, cards, credit card consolidation, etc…That put their homes are a risk in the event they were unable to afford them as they had no equity to sell.  Well, banking institutions have put a lot of restrictions in place to prevent people from over-encumbering their homes.   We will continue to keep the real estate industry operating during these trying times.  Please don’t hesitate to call us and ask us about our safe seller and virtual buyer programs our clients are utilizing to stay safe during these uncertain times.

Join us on April 29th at 4:00 pm on Zoom where we will share the process and walk you through the virtual steps of buying a home!   We realize that it’s a different sort of time, but the real estate market continues to be going strong! Serious buyers are out there and taking advantage of this opportunity to find their perfect home! We always strive to offer only the best in client experiences so we designed a program that has made this process safe and easy for our buyers. We’ve had a ton of people reaching out and wanting more information so we thought this would be helpful to share! Join us on April 29th at 4:00 pm on Zoom where we will share the process and walk you through the virtual steps of buying a home! Register at the address here - https://bit.ly/VirtualHomeBuyerZoom - Seating is limited so make sure you sign up soon to ensure you have a spot! We also want to take this opportunity to give back to the community which means that one lucky participant will win a $100 gift certificate to a local business of choice! We look forward to seeing you there! Make sure you bring your questions as we’ll have a Q&A session at the end!

Today we’re going to talk about the back doorway we can help our housing market    Today we’re going to talk about the back doorway we can help our housing market.  That’s by helping our local economy which in turn keeps our housing market healthy.   With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Salt Lake County and our neighboring counties Health Departments are prohibiting restaurants, bars, and taverns from serving their patrons in a traditional manner. This is having a major impact on the local economy, job security & livelihoods of the employees and owners of our favorite restaurants and taverns. While you may not use your gift cards today or next week, you can support local businesses by purchasing them now for future use. This puts money in their pocket today to keep their business and therefore our local economy running. We have such a fantastic community along the Wasatch Front. When Palmer Krehel found out that restaurants, taverns, and bars were shuttering, he wanted to find a way to help his local businesses and their workforce as they struggle for customers who are “hunkering down” because of COVID-19.  Many, like RoHa Brewing Project in Salt Lake City, have switched to curbside pick up or take out orders. Though businesses like RoHa Brewing have a White Glove, latex that is, VIP service to give non-traditional options to their customers to pick up goods to go, many are still skittish. So Palmer quickly created a website and took action aggregating links to pages from local businesses where you can buy gift cards.   That website is SLCgiftcards.com.  I encourage all of you to consider visiting the site and finding your favorite local restaurant and pre-purchasing your future visit, today.  If you take advantage of the pick-up services please also consider leaving a tip, as most of the food and beverage service employees have a reduced hourly wage that factors tips into their income. I want to personally thank Palmer and our incredibly charitable Wasatch Front community for helping during this unique time.  It is people like you that help to make our community strong and one of the reasons I love living here.

One of the ways I’m getting through this crazy time is first, keeping a schedule and second making sure that schedule includes an exercise routine.  I’ve been working out with my trainer Steve Pizza the owner of SLC Strength and Conditioning for a number of years. I asked him what he could do to put together some great at-home workouts you wouldn’t need equipment for.  You guys, he crushed it! Here’s what he’s come up with.  All workouts are designed with an overarching program in mind. Meaning, workouts are specifically programmed with intent and are progressive throughout the month (i.e. each workout builds off of the other.  The program, itself, is formatted similarly to what you’d see at the collegiate and professional athletic level (modified for body weight or limited equipment).  All workouts have full-body emphasis to correct any muscular imbalances and prevent any from occurring. Each workout incorporates 12+ different exercises, providing variety and balance, mitigating short term and long term risk for injury. Scientifically backed with the incorporation of several different training systems including Tier, Triphasic, Undulating, and Auto-regulation. Check out the site here. There’s a good intro video to let you know some of the science and how the 60-day program works.  https://slcstrengthandconditioning.com/remote-programming/ I’ve gone through it personally and it is EXCELLENT.  All video details of demonstrations of each exercise as well as modifications of each exercise.   Steve has given our clients a 20% discount to extend to you all to get you going for super cheap.  Regular Cost: $60/Month (includes access to remote program, instructional videos, and guided circuit, and access to coach communications for any questions or specific modifications needed Registration After you’ve registered: Check email for password information (may have gone to junk mail) After you’ve received password:  Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.  Click on Week 1 and enter password Enjoy! 20% Discount Code: SLCTAKE20! I’m confident if you keep a good routine while you’re at home, and include a science-based exercise program, you’ll get through these trying times with less anxiety and be able to be even better as a spouse or parent. 

Shift happens, so how do we win in this shifting market?     Shift Happens! Many of us are pivoting our ways of doing business to appropriately navigate the new market of the moment. Suddenly, inventory levels have swung, and buyer and seller reluctance is higher than in recent years. How do we win in this shifting market? Starting April 13th, we will run through a 6 part series (via Zoom) where we will be reviewing and discussing the twelve tactics that will allow you to win in this new market. Week 1 we will be discussing Mindset and Expense Management tactics of winning. For any other questions you have in the meantime, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be glad to speak with you. 

Have you thought about buying a new construction home? If so, there are five points you need to be aware of:  New construction homes aren’t always listed on the MLS. Quite often, home builders have agents working as on-site salespeople in order to increase their control of the transaction while reducing total costs. New construction homes are often sold before they’re built. Builders will generally line up financing and the construction and sales process before a property is even built. The first buyers within a subdivision may get the greatest discounts. However, As the saying goes, “the early bird gets the worm.” Acting quickly when a new subdivision is being built could lead to financial rewards. These rewards also come with the risk of being committed to a process before much is known about how it will play out. Builders put a lot of emphasis on numbers. Since a builder isn’t a traditional seller, they don’t have an emotional attachment to the home(s) they’re selling, and will therefore be more focused on making sure you’re qualified and ready to purchase than anything else. Discounts may be available in the form of upgrades. If the property is close to the end of the sales cycle, builders may be willing to offer you an upgrade package that would reduce the overall cost of purchasing the home. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.    

Here are the numbers from the Wasatch Front in 2019: - Single-family home sales: 38,024 - Condo and townhome sales: 10,305  - Average home price: $376,000 (a 7% year-over-year increase) - Average days on market: 51 (a 16% year-over-year increase) - Absorption rate: 4 months (a 20% year-over-year increase)   The law of supply and demand, which drives all economies, says that if the supply is down and the demand is up, then prices go up. We’ve had a pretty good ride in terms of home price increases across the Wasatch Front over the last six years. “If political volatility continues throughout the new year, we expect interest rates to remain low.” In real estate, a level market is when you have between four and six months’ worth of available homes at any given time. If the supply drops below that point, it creates a seller’s market with upward pressure on pricing. If supply rises above that point, the market becomes a buyer’s market. Our market has four months of inventory, which is being driven by an increased supply of homes and lowering affordability. While home appreciation is a good thing, over time, it can put limits on what buyers can purchase, especially first-time homebuyers. We ended 2019 with some political volatility, which has continued to impact both the bond and stock markets; the big items impacting the market are our trade agreements with China and our relationship with Iran and the Middle East. If this volatility continues throughout the new year, we expect interest rates to remain low, and if it’s resolved, rates will likely rise as they react to inflation. As always, if you have any questions about real estate or the market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to help you.

Selling a home can be a complicated process. As such, there are a few things that many home sellers simply forget about as they prepare their home for sale. Here are six things to keep in mind when selling your home: Focus on staging. You may already like the way your furniture is arranged, but does it appeal to buyers? Your home should be set up in a way that shows off your living areas and opens up the space. Improve your curb appeal. The outside may just be as important as what’s inside. Your home’s exterior is the first thing buyers see, so make sure it is maintained well and looks inviting. Show off your smart-home tech. If your home has smart locks, thermostats, carbon monoxide detectors, or any other smart-home technologies, make sure buyers are aware of them. Many people consider them necessary home fixtures in today’s digital age. “Your home should be set up in a way that shows off your living areas and opens up the space.” Tackle home odors. Unpleasant smells can be a dealbreaker for buyers. Make sure your home is free of any uninviting aromas. Update lighting hardware and fixtures. Buyers love brightly lit rooms, so make sure your bulbs are all working. If your fixtures are outdated, consider replacing them for a more modern feel. Minimize decor. The goal is to depersonalize your home so buyers can see themselves living in it. Though vibrantly colored walls may be your style, not everyone has the same tastes as you. It’s better to stick with neutral colors such as gray, white, and taupe. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.    

When it comes to decluttering, Marie Kondo is all the rage right now. She’s the Japanese lifestyle celebrity who has the miraculous ability to help people declutter their homes for good. What’s her trick? Only keep the things that spark joy or keep you happy.  Here are three tips based on that principle that you should follow when decluttering: First, collect all of the same things around the house (e.g. all the books), touch each object once, and ask yourself whether it sparks joy. If it doesn’t, it needs to go.  “At the end of the day, you’ll find that you only keep things that make you happy.” Next, remember to follow the right order when tidying up. Start with clothing, move on to books, papers, and other miscellaneous items, and then focus on mementos. By the time you get to mementos, you’ll understand the method. Don’t keep things because you think they might come in handy. The likelihood that they will come in handy is low, and you can always buy a newer version of an item that does spark joy in the off-chance that you’ll need it.  Lastly, get rid of the clutter before buying storage containers or other oversized products to organize your space. Take it slow and don’t stress over the process too much. You want to make sure you do it right and on your own time. At the end of the day, you’ll find that you only keep things that make you happy. As always, if you have any questions about this or any other real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.      

If you’re hoping to buy a home, it’s smart to ponder the question, “How long does a pre-approval last?” Even after you’ve received a lender’s stamp of approval for your financing, weeks or even months could pass before you actually buy a house. Will that pre-approval you receive still be valid by then? Since lenders realize that buying a house does take time, pre-approval dates have a shelf life, but not a definite one. While the length of time varies, in general, a pre-approval is good for about three months. Here’s what homebuyers need to know to make the most out of this time frame, and what to do if your pre-approval is at risk of running out before you buy a home.  The first step to buying a home should be to prove that you have the financial means to do so through a pre-approval. This is a process through which a mortgage professional examines a loan application to determine whether a potential buyer will qualify for a mortgage.  “A pre-approval is usually good for anywhere from 90 to 180 days.” To obtain a pre-approval, buyers need to provide a mortgage lender with information like their employment history, credit score, income, and debts. During this process, the lender will want to see bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns. It can feel invasive, but lenders are looking to protect their interests by not loaning money to someone who could be considered “high-risk.” These are people who have high, outstanding debts, inconsistent income, or a history of late payments. Once a lender reviews your finances, they will give you a pre-approval letter, detailing a good-faith willingness to extend mortgage financing based on its preliminary examinations of your assets, income stream, and creditworthiness. This letter will also detail the actual loan amount that you qualify for.  How long does a pre-approval last? Although there is no definite duration, the custom within our industry is that a pre-approval is good from anywhere for 90 to 180 days, but many may consider it “too old” after three months. The reason? In three months, your financial life can change drastically. You can buy appliances, a car, or do plenty of other things to affect your home buying prospects. Since pre-approvals do have a shelf life, it’s best to not get one until you’re seriously looking for a home. I hope this information has been useful to you. If you have any other real estate questions or needs, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call or send us an email today. We look forward to hearing from you.