Golden Words, Disney and Experiments! 12/8/2024
Hey - it’s Joe.
Many say to rest this time of year and prepare for next. Many also say that this is the time to put it in overdrive (while everyone else is resting). I’m doing a little of both and not sure which I should do more- rest or work. What do you think?
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 18 seconds
?Three news articles ?
Imagine settling into your dream home, only to find a $30,000 IRS bill waiting for you months later That’s exactly what happened to a Florida couple after buying their home from foreign sellers. Thanks to a little known law, buyers can be held responsible for unpaid capital gains taxes if the seller—especially a foreign one—doesn’t pay up. The law may be “little known”, but what’s “big known” is that the government is going to get its money.
When even Fannie Mae adjusts its rules, you know housing prices are high. Starting in 2025, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is raising the conforming loan limit for single family homes to $806,500—up 5.2% from last year. In pricey areas like New York (surprise!) that limit will jump to over $1.2 million. The change is a direct response to rising home prices nationwide, with a 4.3% increase in the past year alone. It’s a clear sign that even the nation’s largest housing agencies are acknowledging just how expensive homeownership has become.
Adams' ambitious "City of Yes" housing initiative aimed to eliminate parking mandates citywide to boost development. However, after negotiations with the City Council, the final plan reinstates parking requirements in many outer borough neighborhoods. This compromise seeks to balance the need for new housing with community concerns about parking availability.
?Two creative marketing examples ?
1] Reverse Prospecting
This is an easy one but, yet, some agents still don’t do it. Why?
Reverse prospecting is a cool feature located in MLS. Instead of waiting for buyers to find a listing, it proactively matches your property with potential buyers already working with agents.
Here's how I do it:
When I list a property, I’m able to tap into the MLS database to identify agents who’ve shown interest in similar listings. I craft a nice little email on my new listing complete with links to the website I’ve created for it, etc… and bam! These agents are then notified that their buyers might be a match for my property. Think of it as matchmaking for real estate- it connects the dots between available homes and active buyers quickly and efficiently.
This strategy ensures your home gets in front of motivated buyers already in the market, dramatically increasing its visibility and the likelihood of a sale.
Here’s my piece of advice to you. On a “marketing effort” scale of 1-10, this is a negative 78. If you’re currently in talks with an agent to list your property…ask them nonchalantly if they will reverse prospect. First, you’ll sound very knowledgeable in the world of Real Estate and put them on notice. Second, if their answer is anything other than an assured “yes, of course”….find another agent. I’m available
2] Golden Words
What is everyones favorite thing to hear? Well, yes, that can be a billion different things….but I think we can all agree that someone loves to hear their own name. Every sales script, every guru, every piece of literature on enhancing the customers experience…..states to say the persons name.
So what did Starbucks do? Just this. Instead of calling out the type of coffee you ordered or a receipt number like everywhere else…they started calling out your name. Customer experience is instantly elevated. Genius!
Normally I ask a little question to get you thinking, so I could simply ask “where can you start implementing your customers names a little bit more?”…. but I want to go a little bit deeper. The basis of this isn’t that they call out someones name. It’s that they took something so mundane…calling you up to get your item you just purchased…and they made it into something somewhat luxurious. No money spent. No big changes to their operations. They legitimately turned nothing into something. So here’s my question:
What can you do to elevate a mundane aspect of your business?”
?One interesting thing ?
领英推荐
Disney
I was at a listing appointment at the beginning of the week (shout out to you Marc!) and we were talking about Disney a little bit as Disney Plus was on the TV. So I asked him if he wanted to see something funny. We typed in “Fairy Tale Weddings”….clicked the Holiday Magic one…and BAM, there I was- right on the TV!
My wife and I were married at Disney World in 2017. 2 months before the wedding, she ended up submitting a story about us to the Disney Fairytale Weddings show which was just coming out at the time.. and they accepted us! It was a whirlwind few months but the rest is history- we were married at Disney World AND it’s on TV for us to rewatch as many times as we’d like. Amazing.
Then, as an even cooler piece- Disney Plus launched the DAY after our 2nd anniversary. We went to check our episode out…and we were the background for it! Really, really cool.
Check it out if you want to see me cry over and over again!
?Action to go take ?
Pick one.
Remember in the beginning of this email (about 4 minutes and 17 seconds ago) I pondered on resting or working as we close the year out?
Let’s do an experiment! Pick one. Comment below with your choice (out of thousands of you I expect at least a handful!) Try to stick with it. Let’s reconvene in February on how we’re doing in the new year.
The experiment is to see whether:
A) Resting up for the month of December will lead to you shooting out of the gate ready to crush everything in the new year while rested and recharged
OR
B) Crushing it now while others are resting will lead to you hitting the stratosphere in January when the rest of the world shakes the glitter off and wakes up.
Then we’ll know whether to slumber next December away and wake up with a murderous revenge in January, or just keep the insanity going through and through.
Honestly? I’m tired. But I’m naturally going for B. It just might be more like a b. Either way- let’s go!
?P.S.
This is not included in my above estimated reading time…but here’s a quick recap on what I have going on!
And that’s that! See you next Sunday - Joe
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