Bernice Ross goes with a full attack on the media negativity. It is what I would call reframing the news.
"2007 Real Estate Sales: Fourth Best Performance Since 1997." sounds way better than something that the popular media typically spins. "Real Estate Sales Slip 20 Percent From 2006."
Yah, who knew? This is how to create perceptual change in your one on one sales, and in your web postings.
NAR has just recently issued some good news that you can use to stoke the fire of positivity. But first some information on how news is created.
From NAR:
"You stories influence whether people buy or sell homes,"President of NAR Richard Gaylord( Long Beach CA broker) said during a press briefing. "And we need to do a better job of presenting information based on facts."
This he said to the press as to get the good news going out in the media. This is what politicians to big business has done for years to frame the "debate". Some call it spin. Which often carries with it a negative implication. However, it is a powerful way to move markets.
Maybe even more disturbing is the realization that very little news is created journalistically. Gone is the romantic "scoop reporter" looking for the edge on a story. Let's face it our 25 cents a copy does little to finance any real investigating. Thus, your local newspaper more than likely gets its news form national and international syndicates. While most of its "paid" writers spend their time editorializing.
And where prey tell do the syndicates get their news? It is spoon fed to them. There is even an industry that is focused almost primarily on "creating news". The PR industry.
The use of radio and video news releases is a little-known practice which took hold during the 1980s, when PR firms discovered that they could film, edit and produce their own news segments - even entire programs - and that broadcasters would play the segments as "news," often with no editing.
Not that I am advocating that NAR or anyone manufacture the news. However, I am advocating and applauding the framing of the news such as what Bernice Ross is advocating. The glass is either half empty or half full. The whole positivity on real estate campaign is about just that.
Some great news from NAR:
- 93 out of 150 metropolitan statistical areas show increases in median existing single-family home prices from a year earlier
- Six areas with double-digit annual gains
- 21 metros showing increases of 6 % or more
- Regionally, prices rose in both the Northeast and Midwest, as did the national condo price.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the data underscores the fact that all real estate is local.
“Some metro areas are hot while others are experiencing localized problems,” he said. “The report also shows that home prices in the vast midsection of America, from the Appalachians to the Rockies, are affordable and, perhaps, even undervalued.
Playing the Markets
NAR President Richard Gaylord said something profound that many agents will recognize. And in an honest moment, most agents will recognize this tactic. In a hot market the easy sale is to treat the home an equity. "Get it now or pay more later". While, in a receding or flat market that obviously backfires. So one must make a rational reason why a home is a great buy, but the real driver is when you make an emotional call to action.
Emotional Reasons to Buy Now
Which is really why people buy homes like they are equities anyway. The emotion is Greed.
Gaylord says:
"Consumers need to understand what’s going on in their own area. “There is no such thing as a national housing market – it doesn’t perform like the equities markets,” he says. “What’s really important for consumers is to make informed decisions based on individual needs, desires, and timelines in a given area. Most people plan to stay in a home for 10 years, and for buyers with a long-term view, housing is an excellent investment.”
Gaylord makes the logical call to action by illustrating that even though many regions or neighborhoods have seen a recent decline recently, however long term they are increasing in value. Ross uses a wonderful reframe by comparing todays values vs. nine years ago.
Again this is a wonderful point. However, people buy for emotional reasons and justify with logic. To succeed the agent needs to develop an arsenal of important emotional drivers of home ownership.
Your Religion of Hope VS the Religion of Doom
The argument must run towards emotional drivers or it is like singing to the choir. In other words the positive crowd will pick the glass half full whilst the bubblistas cling towards their half empty.
Going emotional will really change or reframe the debate into a more sustainable argument anyway. Otherwise you can get into "dialogs" more akin to religious debates. No one wins.
So facts are terrific and there are some great nuggets for agents to hold onto:
Where are the biggest gains?
Bismarck, N.D. 15.1 percent
Salt Lake City area, 14.1 percent - $246,700,
Yakima, Wash., 13.6 percent - $163,200
Where are the most affordable areas?
Saginaw-Saginaw Township North area of Michigan at $84,900
Decatur, Ill., at $85,900.
But spewing facts will only be about as useful as dialog between the Sunnis and Shiites. As you make valid point after valid point from Reverend Ross and Reverend Yun, The Bubblists will quote Reverend Shiller and his Bible of Irrational Exuberance.Not to mention numbers on the onslaught of foreclosures.
It is only when these facts carry personal value and that strike at the heart of one's emotionality, will this industry be truly persuasive.
