Side CEO Guy Gal: Indie brokers can thrive in a contracting market

Hello. It’s Tuesday July 26, and we are one week away from Inman’s biggest week of the year. We’ll be hosting Luxury Connect Aug. 2-3, followed by Inman Connect Las Vegas Aug. 3-5, at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and look forward to welcoming thousands of you there. As an appetizer of sorts, check out our interview with Side CEO Guy Gal, one of many industry leaders who will be taking the stage in Vegas. And make plans to join us, in person or virtually.?

Side CEO Guy Gal: Indie brokers can thrive in a contracting market

THE NEWS: Inman: Are we starting to see a market shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market? Is that necessarily a bad thing for real estate brokers and agents?

Guy Gal: I would start by saying, there’s no such thing as a good shift or bad shift with real estate. It’s just the normal market, and it’s a cyclical one. It will have its peaks, it’ll have its flows. Sometimes there’ll be an advantage for the sellers, sometimes the market will give an advantage to the buyer. But by and large, good agents make sense of all that for the people who are looking to sell, buy, rent. It makes them valuable for everyone, and fair for everyone…

And in a market that maybe is contracting or shifting — we’ll know in a few months here — that’s their opportunity to serve even more people to grow their business. Because about half of the deals that are facilitated in any given county, in any given market, are done by part-time agents. These types of market dynamics tend to affect them much more so than the full-timers. That is, the dynamics favor the full-timers because the full-timers stay in business.

And maybe the market goes down 20 percent, but it sheds more than that in terms of agents, agents who are part-time agents. So big picture, it’s a big opportunity for full-time communities and teams to do even more of what they’re currently doing.

BEHIND THE NEWS: Despite recent layoffs, the real estate tech startup announced earlier this month its expansion into six new states bringing the total number of states where it provides services to 16. Co-founder and CEO of Side Guy Gal will discuss “Critical Factors That Are Reshaping the Real Estate Landscape,” Aug. 3 onstage at Inman Connect Las Vegas. Read the full story here.

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The typical home is lingering on the market a little longer than last year

THE NEWS: Homes are spending more time on the market — as much as a day, on average — than a year ago, allowing homebuyers a little wiggle room to weigh their options, according to a new report released last week by Redfin. The typical home spent 19 days on the market during the four weeks ending July 17, a full day longer than the same period a year ago, according to the report. The data point marks the first time in two years that the median time on market has posted a year-over-year gain, according to Redfin.

The decrease in competition brought on by increased prices and mortgage rates allow the buyers who are able to stay in the game a new opportunity to take more time and negotiate with sellers — but they still have to contend with a market that has far less inventory than it needs to keep up with demand.

BEHIND THE NEWS: The report found leading indicators of homebuyer activity dropping off, with google searches of “homes for sale” down 23 percent from a year earlier, touring activity down 2 percent from a year earlier, mortgage purchase applications down 19 percent from last year, and the Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index — a measure of requests and home buying services from Redfin — down 17 percent year over year.

Meanwhile, the price of the typical house continued to climb, reaching $389,000 according to Redfin’s data while data from the National Association of Realtors pegs it at $416,000. Pending home sales fell five percent between May and June, and 14.2 percent year over year as buyers pull back from high prices and mortgage rates, creating more opportunities for those who remain. Read the full story here.