On this week’s episode of The Walk Thru, Danny Deals and Charles Weinraub, aka “The Handsome Homebuyer,” join Byron Lazine and The Broke Agent to discuss 3D home printing, the steep drop in lumber prices, and the fall in mortgage demand.
They also outline a no-fail list-building strategy for agents wondering about their future in an uncertain real estate market.
3D Home Printing
Byron led with the CNN article, “A 3D printed house is for sale in New York. Builders say it will cut housing construction costs.” That led to a series of questions about 3D-printed houses.
Charles, who’s a board member of SQ4D – which has the leading technology in the industry – had plenty of good things to say about them.
Here are just a few things to love about this new technology:
- 3D-printed parts are about 40% cheaper – and faster – than with traditional construction
- SQ4D offers 50-year warranties on anything 3D-printed (the industry standard is 1 year)
- 3D printed houses are fire-proof, flood-proof, and insect-proof
- The machines never stop, regardless of the weather
- Innovative water systems collect rainwater and use it to irrigate your lawn
The coolest part? – If you want to custom-build your home, you can design the whole house using virtual reality!
No wonder SQ4D is blowing up on TikTok. Let’s not forget, either, that Danny Deals himself is listing and selling the first 3D-printed home in the U.S.
Lumber Prices Plunge
Next up is the Inman headline, “Lumber prices sawed in half in 2nd pandemic-era plunge.”
From a high point in March, lumber prices are now down 47% according to Nasdaq.com, and the number of new home projects declined by 0.2% in April.
Traditional construction is still going on, and it’s likely to continue for a while, since 3D home-printing technology is leading edge and developing in real time.
Right now, we don’t have enough machines to print homes on a large scale, so the cost of building with lumber is still very much an issue – especially for giant builders like Lennar. And these wild swings in pricing are making it harder to meet consumer demand for inventory.
Mortgage Demand Falls
Next on the agenda is the CNBC article, “Mortgage demand falls to the lowest level since the end of 2018, even as interest rates ease a bit.” Mortgage applications fell 1% last week compared with the previous week, and volume was 14% lower than the same week in 2021.
Looking at the KCM chart on tightening standards for lending, it’s clear that FICO scores under 620 are making it much harder, if not impossible, to get a loan.
In light of that, agents – including Danny Deals– are having to turn down listings with sellers who want more for their homes than is realistic in today’s market.
Byron shared the results of a poll on Instagram where he posed the question, “Buyer demand: Has it slowed down just a bit, has it actually gone up, or is buyer demand unchanged?”
- 70% – “slowed”
- 9% – “gone up”
- 22% – “unchanged”
Byron believes that in the next 12-24 months, homeowners are going to be very diligent in selecting the best agent – someone who’s a knowledge broker and can help them understand exactly what they need to do to get a high price in a more uncertain market.
The Broke Agent is seeing a huge content shift – and a lot of agents talking about it – which will mean a shift in The Broke Agent’s own content. He’s ready for it.
The Key to Surviving Real Estate
The changing market does bring up an important question, though: when you don’t have a flood of listings, what can you do as a real estate agent to build your brand and create opportunities in your market?
More to the point, how do you build an email list, and why is that so important?
The Broke Agent, Eric Simon, just released a new ebook, Your Weekly Instagram Prescription,
He recommends writing a short ebook on something that would interest your target audience, connecting it to a site like LeadPages.com, and using it as an email capture.
It’s a free ebook you’re giving out with important and useful information. And it gives your readers a feeling of exclusivity they don’t get from reading your blog. Also, unlike social media channels, which users don’t own, your email list is yours. That’s your direct audience.
“We threw this link up yesterday, and around 5 o’clock, so far, we have 1500 people who have opted in to this lead magnet – in 18 hours, basically.”
Watch the full episode for more:
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