It’s fair to say that almost everyone living in a home today has worked with a real estate professional to buy or mortgage their home. Historically, however, professionals let their clients go after a transaction is completed, rather than building a moat around the client that assures future transactions. The latest prop tech applications are home management tools to ease the client relationship.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!According to the latest data from Altos Research, the real estate market is experiencing unusual patterns in pricing, inventory and demand. The data shows that home prices have remained stable even in an environment with high mortgage rates, in large part because inventory has remained near record low levels. This has created a competitive market where buyers are struggling to find suitable properties, leading to increased competition and few deals.
In such a market, homeowners are more likely to stay in their homes for a longer period of time, unless forced to relocate for vital reasons. This trend has important implications for real estate and mortgage professionals, who need to adapt their customer experience strategies accordingly. It is important to focus on capturing the business that exists in this market in the near term, while also planting the seeds with customers that will deliver long-term rewards. Homeowners are helped to monitor their home’s value, access maintenance and remodel services, monitor mortgage rates, and other tools to help deepen the relationship between the homeowner and real estate professional.
Milestones CEO Dustin Gray stresses the importance of investing in relationships and playing the long game in this market. Whether you’re on the brokerage or lending side, offering clients something that aligns with today’s narrative is important. This includes helping homeowners maximize the value of their existing homes, while having money readily available to borrow or relocate when needed.
strategies for success
In the current market it is important for real estate professionals to embrace the home ownership opportunity. Over the past decade, the industry has primarily focused on optimizing and monetizing transactions. While this approach has undoubtedly generated considerable revenue, it often leads to a lack of repeat business, with the typical Realtor earning only 16% of their income from repeat clients.
Dustin Gray believes that the future of real estate and mortgages lies with the homeowner and the home itself. Research indicates that 90% of homeowners underestimate the cost of homeownership. In a transaction-focused industry, this data may seem insignificant, but in a homeowner-focused industry, it represents a substantial opportunity.
To stay ahead of the competition and capitalize on the home ownership opportunity, real estate professionals can adopt the following strategies:
- Meet customers where they are: living in their house, Focus on providing value to homeowners by helping them make ROI-positive remodeling choices to increase equity, help younger family members build credit and save for future homeowners, or connect them to trusted home service providers add. Building trust between transactions and solving problems demonstrates a commitment to the long game, and shows that you are not just a transaction agent.
- Offer options for bundled services, National portals and direct-to-consumer lenders are increasingly bundling services to create a seamless digital experience for customers. While many real estate businesses already offer ancillary services (such as mortgages, titles, insurance, warranties), they are typically siled and rely heavily on agents to promote them. Milestones brings all of these services under one roof and puts them front and center for consumers and homeowners alike. By doing so, companies can increase their capture rate and prevent customers from being poached by competitors.
- Give customers one place to manage their home. Milestones are an experience that homeowners look forward to continuously because it provides value and educates them. By providing homeowners with a centralized platform to manage their home and home-related funds, real estate professionals can create a valuable contact point for regular interactions and foster customer loyalty.
- Redefine your value proposition as a trusted advisor. Rather than focusing solely on transactions, real estate professionals must position themselves as trusted advisors who help homeowners make informed decisions and create wealth from their homes. This long-term approach goes beyond the closing table and establishes a strong database of homeowners for repeat business and referrals.
- Develop technology stack. The traditional real estate technology stack has primarily focused on transaction outcomes. However, with homeowner management technology, businesses can focus their house owner result, By leveraging data and AI, real estate professionals can gain insight into the true value of their past client portfolios, forecast future buyers and sellers, and generate revenue opportunities for core services between transactions.
The current housing market presents a unique opportunity for real estate and mortgage professionals to invest in relationships, play the long game, and provide homeowners with an exceptional experience. Milestones provides a solution that enables companies to build trust, solve problems, bundle services and enhance their ability to deliver value to homeowners beyond the transaction. This lowers customer acquisition costs and the need for sustained top-of-funnel marketing strategies, while capturing more near-term revenue and planting the seeds for growth. Capturing the customers you already have is your strongest opportunity for growth in today’s competitive market.
