Urban Flight and Low Inventory: How to Capitalize on Today’s Market Trends

It’s good to know the latest real estate market trends, but knowing is only half of the battle.

What separates you is your ability to capitalize on the latest news and market trends, to read between the lines and find the opportunities to get more leads.

In this week’s episode of The Walkthrough, we’ll unpack the data from HomeLight’s Q2 Top Agent Insights Survey with managing editor Caroline Feeney, and three top agents around the country will help us uncover the opportunities in that data.

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If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to get future episodes delivered automatically: Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | YouTube

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Links and Show Notes

• HomeLight’s Top Agent Insights Survey Q2 2020
• Caroline Feeney – HomeLight profile
• Pat Tasker – real estate agent profile on HomeLight
• Sara Pipal – real estate agent profile on HomeLight
• Barry Karch – real estate agent profile on HomeLight
• Akvile DeFazio discusses Facebook Ads on The Walkthrough Ep. 24
• Tom Tezak discusses feeder market referrals on The Walkthrough Ep. 9
• Inbox reply: 20 Review Management Platforms for Real Estate
• NEW: Join our Facebook community for The Walkthrough listeners
• HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center
• Subscribe and listen to The Walkthrough: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | YouTube

Full Transcript

(SPEAKER: Matt McGee, Host) If I asked you to make a list of all the things you rely on to get tips and ideas to grow your business, what would you say?

Mastermind groups. Classes and webinars. Big conferences. Facebook groups can be great for that. I hope you’d say “The Walkthrough,” hint, hint. If I am doing my job correctly, this show should be on your list.

But what about getting ideas from the latest news and market trends?

When you see survey results from the National Association of Realtors and other industry organizations — or from HomeLight, in fact — do you ever study those and start brainstorming ways to capitalize on what’s happening around you?

The real estate industry has changed a ton in the past four to five months. Buyer and seller needs and behavior have changed a lot in that time, too. Those changes are reflected in HomeLight’s latest Top Agent Insights survey. And if you read between the lines a bit, there are some opportunities to be discovered. We’re going to unpack the data and those opportunities today.

My guest is the editor at HomeLight who has spearheaded the survey since day one. We’ll also talk to three agents about what they’re seeing on the ground across the country. Four guests in one show, what? Yep.

This is “The Walkthrough.”

(INTRO MUSIC)

Hi everyone. I’m Matt McGee, editor of HomeLight’s Agent Resource Center, and your host every week right here on “The Walkthrough.” On this show, you’ll learn what’s working right now from the best real estate agents and industry experts in the country. At HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. That’s why we created “The Walkthrough.” We’re on a journey to find out how great real estate agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable. You can get involved in the show in a couple of different ways. You can leave a voicemail for me any time. It’s 415-322-3328, or send an email to walkthrough [at] homelight.com.

I don’t need to explain that it’s good to know what’s going on in your market and around the country, especially this year when the industry has changed so much and so fast.

But knowing what’s going on is only half the battle. What’s also important is how you react. Can you capitalize on what you see happening in the industry? I sure think so. And today, we’re going to do both. We’re going to cover the latest industry trends and talk about the opportunities that they present to top agents like you.

My guest today is a coworker of mine. Caroline Feeney is HomeLight’s managing editor. For more than two years, she has overseen our Seller Resource Center, creating content that brings sellers to HomeLight and starts them on the path toward finding great agents like you. Before HomeLight, she spent more than two years at Inman. So she’s been on top of the industry trends for a while now.

Caroline also spearheads our quarterly Top Agent Insights Survey. Now, I call it quarterly, but when the pandemic arrived in March, she started surveying hundreds of top agents every two weeks to track what was happening across the country. The data from that most recent survey is fascinating, so much so that Caroline’s done a bunch of media interviews about it. And I thought … we gotta talk about this on “The Walkthrough.”

As you listen to our conversation today, you’re also going to hear from three agents in different parts of the country. Pat Tasker, Sarah Pipal, and Barry Karch responded to my posts in our listener community on Facebook. They answered questions via voicemail, and we did a spur of the moment group Zoom conversation. You’re going to find their insights really valuable too, I think, especially when we’re talking about bidding wars and managing client expectations.

I will include a link to the Q2 survey in our show notes so that you can grab that and follow along and see the data that we’re talking about.

Ready to get started? We’re talking market data and the opportunities that the data revealed. Caroline and I began by discussing one set of numbers that really, really jumped out at me: why people are moving in the middle of a pandemic.

(BEGIN CONVERSATION)

Caroline: Agents say clients are moving, number one, because they need more space. Number two, because they want to own their own place versus rent. Number three, there’s this big suburban migration happening as people look to get out of the city. So what’s really interesting is that 37% of agents cited moving to the suburbs as a primary moving motivator, but only 3% said the same about clients who want to be closer to the city.

And then at the same time, there’s these certain home amenities or setups or features that are becoming big draws for buyers that weren’t necessarily as attractive before. So like a single-family living arrangement is now, you know, maybe motivating someone to move or, you know, the need for more private outdoor space, for example.

So, you know, I think it’s clear that the events surrounding the virus have really caused our priorities to shift in a fundamental way. And we can all kind of relate to this, right? Like in these unusual circumstances, we’re trying to figure out how do we create a safe and comfortable environment where we can enjoy life as much as possible, given the restrictions of avoiding contact with others. And our homes inevitably play, you know, a really big role in that.

Matt: Yeah. Of all those numbers that you mentioned, the one that really caught my eye was the part about 37% trying to get out of the city to the suburbs or remote area, and then only 3% saying the opposite, going back to the city. It plays into the other results as well, right, about wanting more space, a little more of an oasis, some room to yourself.

Caroline: So all of these, these are some of like the new motivators, I think, that are cropping up and kind of dominating. But then, of course, you also have folks who are moving for all the regular reasons that they were before. You have a new baby in the picture, you got a new job across the country. There’s death, there’s a divorce. You know, these things are still happening so there’s movement in the market. But I think the bottom line is, you know, people are looking around at their current space. They’re looking around at their current location. Maybe they’re no longer tied to a certain city because of a job that’s gone remote. And they’re saying, “Does this, where I am now, still serve me the way it did prior to all this happening?”

Matt: We had a chance to talk to a couple agents about this as well. Why don’t we hear from Pat Tasker, who is in Milwaukee. She talked about some of her recent clients wanting to move, as you said, Caroline, wanting to move to get away from people, you know, crowded elevators, that sort of stuff. And then Sarah Pipal talked about sort of related to that, but people moving to be near family as well. So let’s listen to what they had to say.

Pat: I have had several people who have moved. So I have two examples of a senior who I sold a condo, a high-rise condo downtown, love it down there, but now, they do not want to be on those elevators several times a day or in the small hallways. So they moved out to a suburb, into a small house, where they don’t have the interaction. Same 24-hour period, I got a call from a past client whose mother was living in a senior apartment with very long hallways and elevators. She didn’t want the exposure and she’s looking at a private-entry condo. And then just today, I had a referral from someone in California who is just tired of the politics, tired of the bad schools. She did research on the whole United States and somehow focused on Cedarburg, Wisconsin, as a place she wanted to move. And I talked to her and we’re setting up a plan to get them moved here from California.

Sarah: What I am seeing is older people that had their winter homes here are selling their winter homes to stay, now, closer to family. You know, the ones that…seniors, so that way, you know, one of the main concern was like, you know, if I die, my wife’s going to be here all by herself and our kids are all up in Michigan. So I’m seeing older people move away, but more younger people moving towards the center of the state.

Matt: So that’s Pat Tasker in Milwaukee, talking about how she’s seeing clients wanting to get out of like high-rise condos, you know, crowded elevators, you know, smaller hallways, that sort of stuff. So they want more space. And then Sarah Pipal in Florida talking about some of the same stuff. And she’s also seeing, she said, some of her clients in the area are selling because they want to get closer to family. So I think all that plays right into what we saw in the numbers.

Caroline: Yeah. I think these examples speak to exactly what we’re seeing in the data. Number one, agent said a need for more space is driving people to move at 44%. Other top motivators were a less dense location and to get out of the city. So, you know, the example of someone moving from California to Wisconsin, someone moving from Florida to be closer to their family, these are moves that, you know, have been motivated by this change in circumstances brought about by the pandemic that wouldn’t happen, necessary, otherwise.

Matt: Like for me, one of the big takeaways is that, A, people are really valuing their home now, maybe more than ever. Would you agree with that? And not just valuing the home itself, but realizing, hey, I need to be in the right location at this point.

Caroline: Yeah. I think there has been somewhat of a reckoning for all of us of what’s important right now. And if that means getting back closer to family, and some people have this renewed flexibility to do that, you know, that’s gonna motivate people to move and get where they need to be.

Matt: Exactly. So a couple of takeaways for agents that I would want to mention here before we get back to the survey is be aware, you know, when you see trends like this, like be aware that this is why people are moving. And especially, you know, 37% wanting to get out of the city to the suburbs. So if you are in one of those smaller markets, this is a great time to maybe run some ads in the big market. So here in Tri-Cities, Washington, which is, as I said, a few hours away from the big cities Seattle and Portland, this would be a good time to run ads in Seattle and Portland. You know, “Hey, if you’re thinking about moving, want to get out of the city, give me a call.” And just a couple episodes ago, in Episode 24, Akvile DeFazio talked about how you can do that, use Facebook Ads to reach people in other markets. That’s one great way to do it. And then I’d also say this is a great time for agents to connect with agents in other markets as well. And Tom Tezak talked about that way back in Episode 9, that, you know, reach out to the agents in those other cities where people often move from and say, “Hey, if you have referrals, you know, send them my way and I’ll do vice versa.” You know, be aware of these trends and try to take advantage of that. This is a good time for that.

So Caroline, let’s get back to the survey. I think the other big thing that really stood out for me was this, like this inventory crush that’s going on, right? Like what was it, 81% of agents said inventory is lower than expected. I know like locally here, it’s a huge seller’s market. Inventory is so tight and it sounds like that’s happening around the country.

Caroline: That’s correct, Matt. Our data certainly supports the notion that it’s a seller’s market across most of the country. Using the data to really demonstrate that, for the Q2 survey, as you mentioned, we polled agents on a biweekly cadence. So we were really tracking the environment and how it was changing quickly very closely. So one of the questions we were asking agents every time is, you know, how would you characterize your local market conditions? So starting as early as February, we polled agents, and 77%, at that point, said it was a seller’s market. Agents were really bullish about how the spring was going to be before all of this happened.

That number dropped from 77% to 48% in mid-April. So just really that market temperature dropped very quickly as sellers pulled listings, buyers weren’t sure if they could pursue their plans. But as early as June, reports of a seller’s market skyrocketed back up. They went back to back up to pre-pandemic levels of 79%. So if you can imagine that V-chart that we saw at market temperature, it was also correlating with agent optimism, right? So agent optimism was at 76% prior to the pandemic, dropped down to 56% when things were like, you know, really…lockdown was kind of at its peak. And then by late May, optimism was back to 82%, pre-pandemic levels.

So certainly, what’s happening here … you know, it’s a seller’s market. It’s being driven by scarce inventory, paired with robust demand from buyers who are going after those low rates. You mentioned the percent of agents who think inventory is lower than they expected. Another couple stats, you know, bidding wars, 83% of agents say bidding wars are rising or at their peak. 60% of agents say that the lack of supply is going to be the biggest challenge to the market for the rest of the year, more so than coronavirus uncertainty, which is really telling.

And then in the past couple of months, so the data is as recent as June, right. But I think, you know, what we’ve realized in 2020, it’s giving new meanings to the definition of seller’s market. I mean, if you think about market trends over the past, like five years, it was largely, like, talk about a seller’s market from about 2015 to 2018, you know. And in many pockets throughout 2019, there were some softer areas, of course, there always are. But I’m not even really sure you can compare the seller’s market of, like, 2018 to what’s happening now.

I’m in a couple of real estate Facebook groups. And the first update I saw on my phone this morning was a post from a buyer’s agent who was sharing a screenshot with a text message thread she’d had with a listing agent. And the buyer’s agent had asked the listing agent, “Have you accepted an offer?” So clearly, she was trying to check in on behalf of her buyer who put in an offer. And the listing agent responded, “Still reviewing, received 37 offers.”

Matt: Oh my gosh.

Caroline: I mean, it’s just wild. So what’s driving this, a lot of things. I think, you know, buyers have been faster than sellers to come back to the market. Sellers are still a little bit wary about bringing people into their home in order to show it. And then there’s kind of been a consistent lack of new construction coming into the mix for years. That was exacerbated by the pandemic. I think builder confidence is renewed, but they’re still, like, playing catch up. So there just aren’t very many homes for sale and buyers want them.

Matt: Right. It’s like this perfect storm, right, of already low inventory, then the virus, low interest rates, buyers staying in, sellers being afraid, and it’s just creating this… I mean, did you say 37, the person got 37 offers?

Caroline: Well, she said 37 offers. I’ve never heard anything like that. I can’t imagine!

Matt: I don’t think, in my experience, I’ve ever heard of a listing getting 37 offers like that. That’s crazy. Like I remember wondering, when this was all happening, like everybody did, I’m sure you did, I’m sure all our listeners did as well. Like how are buyers going to respond and how our sellers going to respond? And I think I expected that everybody would take their foot off the gas, but it sounds like buyers were just like, “No, let’s keep going with this.”

Caroline: Yeah. If they did pause, it wasn’t for very long,

Matt: We don’t have a story from our agent contributors about 37 offers. But we do have…Barry Karch joined us and he talked about what he’s seeing in his market, which is El Paso, Texas. We’ll also hear from Sarah Pipal again and Pat Tasker as well. And Barry starts out talking about how…that he got 12 offers in one day, which sort of seems like wow, there was like no interest in that home relative to…

Caroline: Comparatively, yeah.

Matt: Right, comparatively with 37. But let’s hear what Barry, Sarah, and Pat had to say about what’s going on inventory wise and bidding war wise in their markets.

Barry: Same thing. Absolutely, the same thing. There’s not that many homeless for sale. For example, I listed a home a few weeks ago on a Saturday, it was a lower-priced home. On Sunday, a day later, I had 12 offers on it. That’s what it’s like. It’s very, very tough buying a house right now. Great for a seller. It’s gotten to the point where if I don’t have an offer on a couple of days, I’m worried there’s something’s wrong with it. So most homes are selling in just a few days, less than a week. One of the agents that works with me, she said that that she wrote offers on seven different homes for her clients. She went home, over full price on all of them, didn’t get any of them. So yeah, it’s tough.

Sarah: There is a shortage of inventory. So when a house comes on the market, that is either below market value because, you know, sellers sometimes just want to get out, they need to sell their home, or priced accordingly, we’re getting multiple offers. And I noticed I had two listings that have been on the market for most of a year, because, of course, we all get those overpriced listings from time to time. Now I’m getting offers in them, on them. You know? So yeah, there is a lot of… People offering, you know, a couple of thousand over list price and not getting them.

Pat: Our inventory listings is down 10% and sales are down less than 2%, that’s this year in total for our whole metro area. We have huge bidding wars going on. Most every offer I write, we are competing. So I tell buyers, “It’s not about how much do you think the house is worth. It’s about how much are you willing to pay for it. How much do you really love it, you know, to get a win in a bidding war.”

Matt: So what we just heard from Barry, Sarah and Pat, just all, Caroline, echoes what we heard in the survey as well. Like inventory is just super tight. And then if I remember right, when we were chatting with Sarah in Florida, she talked about how much…like how few new listings they’re getting these days, right?

Caroline: Yeah. So she told us that the amount of new listings that they’re getting in one day, a year ago, and now, it takes a full week to get that same volume of listings, which is crazy.

Matt: I’ve made the point, I think a lot of people have made the point that, like, usually, there’s no such thing as a national real estate market. Right? Because every market can be different. Things are different in one part of the country versus another. But it sounds like we might have almost a national real estate market now, where it’s almost universally a seller’s market. Right. Do we have numbers on…

Caroline: It seems that way. It seems that way now because, going back to the local market condition reports from agents in the survey, only 4% were reporting buyer’s market conditions in June, which is very, very small.

Matt: If there’s this many bidding wars, and I know we’re seeing it here in this market, it sounds like the agents we’ve talked to are seeing it all over the place as well, it becomes really important for an agent…this is, I think, the takeaway from this part of the trends report…is you really have to talk to your buyers right now and, like, prep them for what they are about to get into and just make sure they understand the situation. You’ve got to move fast. You’ve got to be ready to write an offer. You gotta be pre-qualified and all that sort of stuff.

So I want to play one more soundbite from Barry Karch talking about how he prepares his buyers for what’s going on in the market. So let’s listen to that.

Barry: I tell them up front, I tell them there’s…a lot of sellers have been hesitant to put their homes on the market because of the virus. They don’t want to let people in their homes. So the inventory is a lot smaller than normal. And there’s a lot of people looking because of the low interest rates. So we have a lot of buyers chasing just a few homes. So I tell them that right up front, to let them know it’s going to be difficult and homes are probably going to go for at least asking price and multiple offers.

Most buyers get it. We’ve had some that they have to learn for themselves. So they’ll lose out a house or two, and then they’ll start to realize what’s going on.

Matt: So that’s Barry Karch talking about what he says to buyers just in terms of getting them ready for the process. Caroline, he also had some interesting stuff. He and Sarah both had some interesting stuff just in terms of how this market is impacting the offers that they write, too.

Caroline: Absolutely. Yeah, so both of them said that it’s really important for buyers to make clean offers right now, and by that, they meant like not requesting upfront for any coverage on closing costs. But one thing they’ve all said as well is that it scares them if buyers want to go so far as to waive fee inspection contingency. It’s pretty much always recommended that you still get the house inspected no matter what kind of market you’re in.

Matt: For me, the cool thing about doing “The Walkthrough” is that, you know, I get to talk to agents all the time about how they adapted their business and how things changed and not just that, Caroline, but really, really quickly, right. They had like almost no time. You had to, like, turn on a dime and start doing things differently. And everything became virtual and everything became electronic. What did we see in terms of the long-term impacts on how agents are going to be doing business?

Caroline: Yeah, so I mean, the adaptability of agents in this environment, it’s just really incredible how they’ve been able to rise to the occasion for clients in really creative ways, and I think really helps to bring the market out of its freeze in many ways that we saw in March and April. So the survey showed that, very quickly, agents were adopting practices like e-signatures and digital closings. 75% of agents believe that those are going to be there to stay after the pandemic ends. New safety protocols around inspections, 53% of agents believe those are going to be long-term changes. I really do think some of these protocols that make the transaction more efficient and save time are going to be long lasting. And, you know, as a positive side effects, you know, I think it’s going to help speed things up for clients way past all of this. If an agent puts a Matterport listing on all of their tours, a buyer is going to be able to more easily identify it as, “Yes, this is a good match,” or “No, you know, I don’t want to waste my time,” and that saves their time and the seller’s time.

Matt: The adaptability thing is pretty remarkable. It just…some of the stories that we’ve talked about, but let’s hear… Let’s go back to a couple of our agents. Let’s hear what Barry and Sarah had to say about the changes that they have made in their business and what they plan to continue going forward

Barry: On my listings, I’m doing the 3D Matterport tours in all the homes now, so people can tour them virtually. So I started doing that in every listing and I’m going to continue doing that, because those are real nice. On the buying end, I’ve done some Zoom conferences now with buyers to get acquainted with them and an orientation meeting to learn more about what they want and so forth. So I’ll probably continue to do that, particularly with out-of-town buyers. I think that’s been nice to do. And I’ve had a few virtual listing appointments, too. I don’t know that that’s going to continue probably later on because it’s always a good idea to see their house in person.

Sarah: I’m also doing the Matterport virtual tours with the floor plans. That’s very helpful. But I’m also doing…there’s an app that you can have on your phone and it’s free, so it doesn’t matter, you know, whether you’re iPhone or Android, but WhatsApp. So I’m doing a lot more virtual tours, where people are buying houses sight unseen. I’m there for the inspection for them. I’m there through the whole process. I would say, in the past month, I’ve done five or six virtual tour showings, first showings and second showings. And I’ve sold three houses that way, where they have not seen the house, they’re buying them sight unseen. So we’re getting a lot more buyers that are buying sight unseen.

Matt: So there’s Barry and Sarah talking. They both mentioned Matterport. They both mentioned virtual meetings and virtual tours. And Sarah mentioned WhatsApp. And if I remember correctly, Caroline, she had kind of an interesting anecdote about using WhatsApp during the inspection, was it?

Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when you’re a buyer purchasing sight unseen, you still want to try to be there for as much as you can, right? And so she was actually going to the inspection on behalf of her client and using WhatsApp to kind of share the experience with them and what was going on. What she said, she joked that the inspector wasn’t thrilled that she was there necessarily, but that she only came for like the last 30 minutes. And so, you know, let him do his job as he needed to. But yeah, the agent can really be the client’s eyes and ears on the ground and in this circumstance, more than ever, that can be incredibly valuable in facilitating deals where the client’s not comfortable, you know, coming into the house or they can’t because they’re coming from far away.

Matt: Yeah. It’s so remarkable to me. And I think to agents’ credit, just how adaptable that they have been over the last five months and how quickly they, like I said earlier, how quickly they had to do it, because it was just, you know, like mid-March, everything started shutting down and rules started changing, but yet there you are, you have buyers that still need to buy, you have sellers that still need to sell, and you got to figure out a way to do it. And they did it, right.

Caroline: They did. Yeah. I mean, you’ve got agents…they’ve really figured it out. And this was kind of the whole country went through this together, right? Like there was a period where we didn’t know what was safe and what proper protocols would allow you to continue life as normally as possible. Like when you go to the grocery store, you wear a mask. Now, when you go to a home showing, masks are provided. You know, hand sanitizer is at the door. You drive to the showing separately. All the lights are turned on already and the doors are open to allow for a contactless viewing. You know, all of these things make it safer to show homes. And so that people who need to move can do so and move on to the next chapter of their life, whatever that may be.

(Speaker: Matt McGee, Host) That’s Caroline Feeney, our managing editor here at HomeLight. Thank you, Caroline. Great to have you on the show finally. We also heard from Pat Tasker, Sarah Pipal, and Barry Karch, three agents across the country. Thank you, three, for helping us unpack the data and also to help us understand the opportunities that the data points to. Great stuff.

I have a listener email coming up that dates back to our episode on online reviews. It was a question about automating online reviews. I will answer that in just a moment, but first, let’s do our takeaways from today’s conversation.

Number one, there’s a lot of migration going on right now because of the COVID pandemic. Pat Tasker mentioned that California person who randomly decided it was time to move to Wisconsin. Sarah Pipal mentioned locals in her area who are moving out so that they can be closer to family. I saw a Redfin statistic, not long ago, that a record number of people are searching for homes outside where they live right now. So when you see trends and data like that, it’s an opportunity. Advertise in your feeder markets. Like, if you’re an agent in Oklahoma City, for example, I would guess that your feeder markets would be places like Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, maybe Kansas City, St. Louis as well. So like advertise there, create content for people who might be moving into your area, or if they’re selling, if they need to move out. Also not just advertise, but connect with agents in those feeder markets and let them know that you’re open to referrals.

Take away number two, we talked about this perfect storm of events that has created this strong seller’s market in most of the country. Caroline mentioned that only 4% of agents in our survey characterize their local market as a buyer’s market. So it’s really tough to be a buyer right now. Make sure you set expectations with them. If you are expecting a bidding war on the house they want, tell them. If they need to write offers above asking price, tell them. Make sure that they understand the landscape in your market.

Number three, as Caroline and I talked about there at the end, you have all done a remarkable job adapting to all the changes this year. We tip our caps to all of you. I guess that’s more of a compliment than a takeaway, but I think it’s worth repeating as well.

And then number four, Pat, Sarah, and Barry were all able to be part of this episode, thanks to their participation in our listener community on Facebook. So the takeaway number four is join the group. It’s a great, great way to connect with other listeners and to connect with the guests that we have on the show as well. I am in the group sharing exclusive content, inviting listeners to help plan future episodes. If you are hearing my voice right now, you should be in this listener community. So just go to Facebook, type “HomeLight Walkthrough” into the search box. You should see it right away. It’s called “HomeLight Agent Community: The Walkthrough.” If you don’t see it at first, click the Groups tab, and it will be at the top of the list. I’ll also have a link to the group in the show notes for today’s episode.

Okay. My inbox this week had an email from Suzanne Damon, an agent in New Hampshire. She had a question about our recent episode, I think it was three or four episodes ago, about online reviews. Do you remember that one? Suzanne says, “Do you know of a way to automate obtaining online reviews? Is there a service company that provides this?”

Suzanne, yes, there are a number of companies that do this. Mike Blumenthal, my guest on that episode, in fact, he co-founded a company called GatherUp. That’s one of the companies that does it. There are many others as well. I did an article earlier this year listing about 20 review management platforms, and I will link to that in today’s show notes so that anybody can find it. But one note though — none of them, as far as I know, are 100% automated. At minimum, you will need to put in, like, the names and contact info of your clients into the platforms. And you’ll probably also want to customize what is in the review request that goes out to clients. But after that, it is pretty much an automated system. So thanks for the great question, Suzanne.

Listeners, if you have questions for me about this episode or any other, again, leave a voicemail anytime. It’s 415-322-3328, or you can send an email, walkthrough [at] homelight.com.

So that’s all for this week. Thanks again to Caroline Feeney for joining me. Thanks to Pat Tasker, Sarah Pipal, and Barry Karch as well. Thank you for listening.

My name is Matt McGee. Remember at HomeLight, we believe in real estate agents. That’s why we created “The Walkthrough.” We’re on a journey to find out how great real estate agents grow their business, stand out from the crowd, and become irreplaceable.

Go out and safely sell some homes. We will talk to you again next week. Bye-bye, everybody.

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