Strategic insights for today's real estate climate: A chat with Jenny Barber

No shame in that for people who that is their jam , but I need to be out and about . So that was a good experience and a good starting point . But prior to getting into real estate , I was a senior account manager for UPS for 13 years .

In me being in this business the only business I've been in I love talking to real estate professionals who had a previous career and how all that translates . But I want to go back to you getting started in the business 2006 .

And so you know I'm just going to go on the record that shortly thereafter you began your career , our industry experienced , you know , what we now call the financial crisis of 2008 . So well , you got into it at an interesting time . You wanted to share some thoughts about that back in memory lane .

The real estate market was booming and then shortly thereafter I actually left , took a six-month hiatus from real estate , went back into business to business sales which was horrible in the technology sector and so came back and went into general brokerage in March of 2008 with Alan Tate , and I had people telling me why are you going in real estate ?

People are getting out of the business left and right and I said good , let them go . That just makes it better for me , and I felt like if I could survive and start in one of the worst real estate markets on record , then I was probably going to be OK .

There were a million four realtors NAR back in 05 . By 2010 , that number had reduced itself to 900,000 . 500,000 agents had left the industry . And it's interesting . The financial crisis was an event that impacted the real estate market . Covid-19 was an external scenario that impacted the real estate industry .

If I got into it when you got into it , boy , I was really in the throes of a challenging environment .

If I got into it during COVID-19 , I got into it in this incredibly unique environment low interest rates , high sales , flight from density and I know that we ultimately want to stop referring back to COVID-19 , but I don't think we can , because its impact will always be everlasting , particularly as it relates to our industry .

So let's take a minute and talk about today some of the things that you and I experience every single day . Not a day goes by where everyone we run into wants to know about the real estate industry . So when I'm walking down the street or I run into Jenny at Starbucks and I'm a past client , I say , Jenny , tell me about the real estate market .

What is your response today , in the third quarter of 2023 ?

Not that I'm going to tell them anything different , but it might factor in how I respond , because I want to know what their impression is If they think the market's crashing and foreclosures are getting ready to hit an all time high , or maybe this is . I'm a cash buyer , maybe this is the . I'm thinking about buying something else .

I'm thinking about buying an investment property . I want to know where they're coming from when they're asking that question .

Because to your point , you answer a question with a question , and one of the things that we've talked about the last gosh six or seven episodes of our podcast is the critical importance today of asking great questions and asking many like seek to really understand where that buyer or seller is coming from , where their mindset is .

I love your answer to that question because you may think they're here in their thought process and they may be way over here , so now you can formulate your response to really meet their real question or their real concern or their real opportunity . So I think that that's a great answer , but I'm not going to let you off so easy .

So , if you can throw it back at me , if you want , if you want to role play , but , like your assessment of the industry based on your 17 years experience and you've really seen a lot of different markets , what is your sense of the marketplace today ? Would be my first question .

And the second question and we'll come back to it is we have buyers and sellers and we're going to spend a little time on the unique opportunities available to both today , even though maybe buyers and sellers don't see it . We need to take the opportunity to educate them . So tell us about the market from your vantage point .

You know businesses that are choosing to move here and have either relocate their headquarters here or setting up another headquarters here state government , wonderful university systems , healthcare those drivers really have bolstered the real estate market here and has kept it I don't want to say safe in any downturn .

But there are certain sectors that are going to be somewhat insulated and we're fortunate enough to be diverse in the industries that we have here and people want to live here for all of those reasons . So people are still coming and people still have to have a place to live . I mean , shelter is a basic need .

Our goal of our podcast , jenny , is if everyone can take three things and implement it , either by a word , they use or a phrase that resonates or a strategy . We're going to talk about an open house strategy of yours that I love and I think our goal is to just give them real , meaningful information to take with them .

So I like to wrap a bow around the segment . Number one we are very lucky to be in the Carolinas and I think we have to recognize that and appreciate that and don't take it lightly . Number two is the market is local , even hyper local to some degree .

And I think the other piece of that equation comes into our listeners is never a more important time to know the market . I mean inside out , upside down , days on the market list to sell , month supply of inventory in your market , know the zip code , know the subdivision , know the sub area within the subdivision .

We must be more expert than we have ever been in kind of the empirical data . So I give that . And then I think the other thing that you said is so true is people in businesses are choosing the Carolinas and one of the things that we experience is people are coming here to be with kids and grandkids and quality of life and all of those things .

Now there are many other markets in America that have similar attributes , but we're just particularly fond of the environment around the Carolinas , so I think that was very , very well said . So what we know is we're in a very unique time in our industry .

Next month , I will celebrate 37 years doing this , jenny , so I'm not going to do a lot of math , but between you and I , we've been in here for half a century together .

So there's some experience in this podcast today , and I don't remember another time where interest rates over the course of 36 months went from two and a half to seven and that interest rate rise did not keep people from buying , but it is keeping people from selling . I have not experienced that .

So one of the things that we wanna talk about today certainly we wanna know from your perspective , why is it still , and why does it remain , a great time to sell ?

It's quite possible that they may go and buy something and have cash to be able to pay cash for their forever home or their retirement home , or if they're going to the coast or they're going to the mountains . There's never been a time when homeowners have the equity they have in their houses right now .

So if you believe that , which it is true , that baby boomers , the good news is , jenny , they're living longer and they're healthier , which is great Many of them are working longer , which is great . And what has happened to your point is , you know , over the past 36 to 48 months .

When you think about the equity buildup , I love your analogy where it says let's not worry about an interest rate because I'm going to buy cash and have cash left over . Now the challenge might be and you know exactly where I'm going with this question is so where do I go ? Like ? Where do I go ?

Because the sell side we know supply and demand is in my favor , it becomes less in my favor as a buyer . You've addressed the buyer's possible concern of interest rate because their equity accumulation has enabled them to purchase cash . Therefore , they don't have to worry about it .

If it's sometime in the future rates come down and they want to refinance because it's a personal decision , those alternatives are always there . So help us navigate . I understand why I should sell now . Where on earth can I go ? How do I get that house ?

I don't want anybody to think multiple offers are not existing anymore , because they most certainly do .

But I see I mean there might be three or four offers , not 25 , and maybe you're not having to put up $50,000 of non-refundable money and wave inspections and say I'm going to cover an appraisal gap and I'm going to let you rent back for 90 days and I'm going to give you my firstborn , and maybe you don't have to make a decision in 12 hours .

You might actually have five or six days . So while it can be still be challenging to buy , it has tempered Now . There's always going to be some places that are always going to be extremely competitive and extremely hot . That has not changed .

But your odds are really , I think , a little more in your favor right now than they were when interest rates were crazy low and there was a line around the block just so you could get in for a showing .

It's different today than it was six months ago and different is simply different . I like to use this saying , jenny , you know , difference , not good or bad difference , just different .

And what we have to do is make sure we , you and I as the professional we understand what different is and then we're able to articulate what those differences are to help a buyer buy in , a seller or sell .

One of the interesting aspects of our marketplace today is that while the frenzy of price appreciation double digit 13 , 9 , 15 , 7 is probably less frenzy , ie more competitive , you know homes are still appreciating and I like the analogy of listings are in three buckets .

There's a bucket here , jenny , and if you were watching me you'd see me like , pretend I holding a bucket . There's a bucket of listings we need to have , which means we have a shortage , so this bucket is empty . Like we need listings like that . We know that .

Then we have a bucket price right , right location , great realtor and yes , not 25 offers five , maybe not 40% over asking , maybe 15% over asking . My 50 due diligence goes to a reasonable 7500 or whatever that may be , and now it's still more robust than it was pre-COVID , like we always like to compare now to 2019 and in some aspects we can .

So what we know is this is a fundamental in our industry , regardless of market conditions price right , right , condition sell .

So help us understand as you navigate the pricing strategy what are some of the key things that you look for , what are some of the key things you say to the seller that sellers relying on that property nine months ago that was off the grid in the frenzied environment , and how do we convert to competitive and just walk us through pricing from your perspective ?

For me , if you're looking through buyers' eyes and you had to rate it one , it is a teardown Ten . It is like brand new construction model home . Where would you rate your house ?

And whatever their number they give me because usually it's not usually a ten there's something and I would say what would make your house a ten , so that they start thinking about kind of planning that seed of what they may either need to do or price for and we don't necessarily talk about what I think the house is worth .

I haven't even seen the house at that point . I try to gather as much information as I can so I know where their head is .

It doesn't necessarily change , obviously , how the house should be priced , but I know how to have that conversation based on what they have told me and when then we actually do the formal meet in person , see the house and I can go back through those notes . And part of that , too , is also finding out their motivation for selling . Why are they selling ?

Are they selling because their neighbor got $50,000 over their list price and that's the only reason they're selling ? Or is it ? I've got a job transfer and I've got to be out of state in two months . I've got to start my new job , so I've got to understand where is the motivation to sell ?

And you answer the question with a question , and I want everyone to just listen to this A pre-listing interview , that's what I would call that . Before I see the home , let me understand how the seller sees their home in their eyes . A couple of key words motivation . It all comes down to motivation . At the end of the day .

I shared at a meeting this morning if a buyer wants to buy the house and a seller wants to sell the house , price does not get in the way , it just doesn't . They figure it out because motivations are aligned . Deals go south when motivations are out of alignment .

That would be my explanation of the real estate transaction , and while that's not a perfect description , it's probably pretty accurate . And what we know , Jenny , is through the course of negotiations , people's motivation

can shift . And I think the other thing you said and it relates to one of my favorite books by Stephen Covey , Seven Habits of Highly Effective People seek first to understand , then be understood . And boy , you do that Like ask great questions , Seek to understand . What is the motivation , what is the reason , what is the purpose .

Now you can get a sense for your next visit , which I'm going to assume is the personal visit . And then that's where you will then , in your own mind , say , well gosh , they rated it an eight . And the next I got work to do , they rated it a six . I got it an eight . Boy , I've got an opportunity here . So I love that . So continue on .

First of all , I think the inner I just I wrote down here interview the seller with an open mind . I love it . So your next step you go out there and now you get to see it . And now you got comparable or relevant sales , whatever you want to call it , and you have a sense of where they think the price is , and perhaps that price is different than yours .

What are some of your strategies ?

But I've got to give good , compelling information and explain how the market works . What steps are buyers going through to decide what house they want to purchase and what do they want to offer , and to talk also a little bit about the psychology of purchasing a buying . People are more afraid of losing something than winning .

So you have to have , within reason , the broadest buyer pool you can have Now . If your house is significantly overpriced , well you've just diminished your buyer pool because they don't feel like they're gonna lose it .

Or if your house doesn't look good , you've got 80s wallpaper and bright red walls and all they can think of is all the work they're gonna have to do once they get into it . It's gonna give them pause . So let's remove as many obstacles as we can to make the house as marketable as we can make it , and I've seen time and time again an overpriced house .

You will make less money in the end . If you price it competitively and you have more than one buyer interested in it , your odds of getting the price you really wanted is a little more in your favor and you may not have to wait as long to get it and you may get better terms because you're in driver's seat .

It's if we price it right . That doesn't mean anything other than the market conditions , the market dynamics , the multiple buyers to exposure are gonna take that 549 listing to 589 . Had I listed it at 599 , I might've gotten 569 .

And we know that intellectually , the challenge that our industry has is our industry is emotional , 50 , intellectual right , and not until which time we can transition to an intellectual thought process as a consumer do we get ? We remove the emotion . But I think pricing today is so critical . Let the market drive the sale price .

So I think you hit the nail absolutely on the head and I think the other piece that you talk about is transparency to the consumer about what the market is and what it's not , and don't rely on the article they read in USA Today or Wall Street Journal two weeks ago , or the News Observer or the Charlotte Observer Like .

Don't rely on this third party from three weeks ago , because our data and our market , as you well know , it's kind of shifting , I'm not gonna say by the day , but certainly each week feels a little bit different , right , awesome ? So we're gonna shift gears . Before we talk a little bit about team , we're gonna talk about buyers today .

So what are the opportunities slash challenges that buyers are confronted with today ? I know you shared why it's a good time to buy . You got a little bit more time . The frenzy is competitive . What else can you share as a takeaway for some of our listeners as they navigate their consultations with buyers ?

But I ask a series of questions and to hopefully distill down why they're buying not what they say they want to buy , but why is that important to them . If it is more than one person purchasing a couple , I ask them , I give them a homework assignment .

You independently need to write down your wish list and you need to star your top three , but you have to do this independently .

You send me the list because we see people that are not on the same page with what they want to buy and nobody's clear , and so we've got to get clarity because we will waste a lot of time if we don't and everybody's gonna get frustrated .

Back in the 80s , when I was selling , I did it a little different , but it was a similar thought process . I would say what are the five criteria that this house must have ? Now I didn't go down buyer A and buyer B , which if I were to do over I would do that . I kind of tried to get them to agree in the moment , right .

And then I would say if I find a home today that has all five , are you ready to buy ? That was how I , that was my determination 34 years ago on motivation , but I love your strategy Again . It goes back to this peeling the onion back to determine motivation , albeit buyer or seller . I love going to both parties .

Top three things compare and contrast , gain , alignment , and now your job , not easy , becomes a little easier . Awesome , all right , we're coming to an end to our time . Amazing information that Jenny shared .

So , jenny , 2006 , you get in the real estate business , you come out of new homes 13 years with UPS , great professional career and you translate it into this beautiful business that we've chosen to be in and at some point in time , you made a strategic decision to create a team .

Why don't you walk us through , like how that happened , when it happened , the things that have really made it invaluable ? As you know , we are big , big , big , big fans of you and your team . You represent the market , you represent clients , you represent our brand , you represent each other . You know you just you do everything .

You know what would they say if I do the right thing , the right way , I'm gonna have a lot of success . And certainly your team does that each and every day . And you know we're certainly proud to be your partner . I can assure you of that .

So take us on the evolution of individual agent to team and tell us a little bit about your team today , in 2023 .

So , in terms of taking over her business and but primarily , really operated as a solo agent , amanda Baker joined Alan Tate in 2019 , I think , and , of course , pre COVID . Obviously . Maybe it was eight , actually I think it was 18 . And we became friends . We would sort of help each other out . Cover for her , she'd cover for me .

We wound up sharing an office together and we really determined we viewed the business the same way . She came from a corporate background , so there's a lot of similarities there , and we had the same business philosophy and the more we worked together and the better friends we became . It was just sort of a natural transition .

It wasn't something I was necessarily looking to do , but we really felt like we could have a competitive advantage and grow exponentially together . Then we could individually and that's how it started and it was great .

We probably two about two years , just the two of us and then Kelsey Kearney joined us and we're just kind of the three musketeers we really have we're . Not only are we colleagues , but we are all just genuinely friends and we have a really good time together . We socialize together outside of work and do fun stuff . So that's been very , very rewarding .

And those two ladies are just powerhouse women , amazing women , amazing agents , and they push me hard every day . I am better for working side by side with them .

And I think that what we've learned , our listeners have learned today is you're incredibly thoughtful and you ask great questions , and the more great questions we ask of everybody , the more we learn , and the more we learn , the better off we're gonna be , the better prepared we're gonna be , no matter what our endeavor is .

And so , as you got to meet Amanda and then the irony is , I think a year ago , I think Kelsey had only been in the business 18 months and I asked her to be a guest on the podcast and she hit it out of the park .

As a matter of fact , I just made a note that we're gonna repurpose that , which we have a tent we like to do , because not everybody heard it the first time . I think people will love listening to you and then Kelsey , and then connecting the dots , so we're gonna have to let Amanda I know Amanda's listening .

Therefore , you will be a guest on reality at some point in 2023 . So we will get Tobacco Road in total , but I think that Jenny let it come to her . She chose people of great work , ethic and integrity .

They're all three authentic and genuine , and how they approach the business , they care deeply about their clients , they care deeply about the community , and I think it just speaks to how we can be successful in our business . So , as you're listening , don't wake up . I gotta be a team . I gotta be a team . It's all about the right people .

It's all about trust . It's about confidence . It's making sure that a one plus one equals three , or a one plus one plus one equals seven , which you guys have certainly done that . You've leveraged a great complimentary skill set to each other to create this beautiful team in a great , great marketplace . So my favorite part this is the part we don't prepare for .

I usually send questions early . I never send rapid fire . We're gonna get a minute to know a little bit more about Jenny . These are not particularly difficult , but you gotta be quick .

Okay , favorite movie .

I got Yellowstone 1923 , 1883 . And again , we're not doing advertising for Peacock or Paramount , but it's a great show . Book , favorite book . Book recommendation .

Just if everybody does One More right and a little bit of that's the football coach of me . If everyone just does a little bit , it grows exponentially for everybody , right ? So I love . Clearly , the Power of One More will be downloaded today on my audio book .

Last , and certainly not least , this has been a treat for me and certainly a treat for our audience . Again , we always thank our audience because without listeners , jenny , you and I just be talking to each other . So the good news is , each and every week we get a lot of people tuning in and , I know , get great feedback because the guests are so terrific .

So thank you for being with us . Leave our listeners One remaining key . What's one thing ? One key to success balance of 23 into 24 . Give them one great last takeaway .

So I'm gonna tie a bow around it Be consistent , jenny has . Also be curious and then be collaborative with your buyers and sellers . You know , when you think about the three C's that you take away from Jenny , be consistent in everything I do . Be collaborative with buyers and sellers , because it is a partnership , and be incredibly curious , boy .

That has been the most consistent theme to our podcast , and that is you just ask people great , great questions and I bet that when you think you've asked the last one , you mentally say I gotta ask two more , I gotta just get two more , because that's where you really open up the information floodgate .

So my recommendation to our listeners when you think you've asked enough , ask two more , and then the sky will open up to great information , which will help you be a more successful real estate professional . Jenny , thank you so much . What a treat .