In episode 220 of The Real Word, Byron and Nicole discuss how the fed’s big decision on interest rates will impact the housing market, the huge Costar news affecting Zillow and realtor.com, and a TikTok that every agent can duplicate to get hundreds of thousands of views.
New Listings And Interest Rate Lock In The Challenge For The Season
Byron and Nicole talk about the latest market news and discuss a BAM article from this week. In the piece, Skylar Olsen detailed how the surging mortgage rates since March have caused the feds to stop buying the mortgage-backed securities, which they were previously buying over $100 billion a month of.
Key takeaways from this developing shift in the market
- Interest rates continue to soar to record levels, causing affordability issues.
- The stock market has declined in the last week in anticipation of another significant federal pullback.
- Should this happen, a skyrocket in mortgage interest rates and housing affordability issues that we haven’t seen since 2006 is likely.
With a notable GDP slip in the first quarter of 2022, there would only need to be another quarter of negative growth for a recession. As homeowners continue to hear the word “recession,” they will likely become unnerved due to these rising interest rates and feel pressured to sell.
Byron and Nicole point out Connecticut MLS’s increase in new listings, and how the motivation for homeowners to continue listing their properties will increase. Nicole doesn’t believe that this news is slowing buyers, but notes that sellers may choose to age in place due to affordability issues and rising interest rates.
Costar Is Coming
In a recent earnings call, Andy Florence revealed that Costar is coming for the residential space in a big way. Armed with $220 million and over 1000 developers, Costar has diligently worked on a relaunch of homes.com set for 2023, going after Zillow and realtor.com.
Byron and Nicole questioned if the company’s $65 million marketing budget would be enough to create space in the consumer’s mind when Zillow currently serves as the google of homes. There are certainly enough agents who hate Zillow, and some will start pushing homes.com. The company has made significant investments in technology to acquire information on schools and crime, which consumers are consistently looking for when they begin their online home searches. Will agents start to position themselves come June 2022 to get homes.com leads?
The Effortless TikTok Trend Driving Engagement This Week
The Marketeer of the Week comes from TikTok, specifically a new trend on the app that has the potential to help agents generate millions of views. Social media doesn’t always have to be choreographed or paid for, and Kiana Tanay proved just that in a recent viral TikTok. The video, which generated the most views a Realtor has ever gotten on the app, features three side-by-side homes and the prompt “Which home would you choose? House 1, 2, or 3?”
A seven-second video like that is one of the easiest TikToks to make, especially for agents out on showings. Encouraging viewers to vote and interact with your content in such a simple way will drive your engagement and skyrocket you to the top of the app’s algorithm.
Listen to the full podcast on Spotify or Apple, or watch the full episode here:
