Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / 2nd Quarter Review & 3rd Quarter Forecast 2025
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
- 0:04we're speaking the realtors language.
- 0:06And your positioning yourself as more than just a photographer.
- 0:10And I hate to say this, but for photography,
- 0:12if you only talk about photography, it boils down to a commodity.
- 0:16It does.
- 0:17But if you could position yourself as somebody that understands
- 0:20the market as a whole and how your tools, your your commodity
- 0:24can help them grow their business, you've now positioned yourself
- 0:28differently than someone that isn't diving into the numbers.
- 0:45Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast,
- 0:47managing your real estate, photography and videography business.
- 0:51Spiro is a software platform.
- 0:53It's designed and created to help you manage your day to day real estate
- 0:57media business and ultimately really do help you grow and scale.
- 1:01If that's your goal and we hope it is those those of you like me
- 1:05that like to keep things small as well so everybody fits under this hat.
- 1:09Welcome back to the podcast.
- 1:11I'm your host, Craig Magrum.
- 1:12In with us this week.
- 1:14We do have a special guest, although she's more of a regular.
- 1:17Really?
- 1:18But also our owner and founder, Todd Kivimaki
- 1:22Welcome back.
- 1:22Todd.
- 1:23Craig. Great to be in here.
- 1:25Fabulous week here. We've got some exciting stuff.
- 1:27This is one I look forward to.
- 1:29This is our market update.
- 1:30You guys are getting used to it.
- 1:32You're looking forward to it.
- 1:33So one thing I just want to say is just everything.
- 1:37All of the input and all of the just the questions
- 1:41and the things that you send into us is just incredible.
- 1:44I had a tech talk last night.
- 1:45I do tech talks, on Thursday, check the Spiro Super User
- 1:49Facebook page, but I just love being in there with you all.
- 1:53You have just such insightful questions.
- 1:54You're so kind to begin with and we get through some really good stuff.
- 1:58So if you haven't been on a tech talk, go find an old one and watch it,
- 2:02or at least breeze through the comments.
- 2:03There are some really good stuff in there, some stuff that I screwed up
- 2:07for 20 years and then finally figured out the right way to do it.
- 2:10And you all give good input too.
- 2:11So it's just it's super exciting to,
- 2:15have you all and be a part of this community with you.
- 2:18Absolutely.
- 2:20And, the guests we mentioned, Shannon Landers.
- 2:23Welcome, Shannon.
- 2:24Thank you guys.
- 2:25Always a pleasure to be here with you.
- 2:28We're excited to talk about, kind of recaps.
- 2:31Yeah.
- 2:31Numbers, second quarter recap and third quarter forecast.
- 2:35But before we do that, Todd, we always like to give some updates on
- 2:38Spiro, and Shannon has some things to share about Spiro itself as well.
- 2:42So I'll let you two take and run with it.
- 2:45Yeah. Thank you Craig.
- 2:46So I'll give you a quick Spiro update.
- 2:47So the next cycle we're calling this cycle 12 will launch July 8th.
- 2:53So you this might be after July 8th.
- 2:56The time you're listening to us. So this is live in your system.
- 2:59And a couple of things that you will see are admin override ability.
- 3:04So as an admin you can place an order for an agent.
- 3:08And you do that just like an agent does it.
- 3:10And there's a couple of things being override the price and override
- 3:14the date and time that you're like, hey, can we just do it on the order page?
- 3:17And with this update you can do that.
- 3:20There's some other goodies in there like split payments, new property, website
- 3:24A about Me section for your realtors, which is really cool.
- 3:29Put that in your newsletter.
- 3:30We talked about on the Tech Talk,
- 3:32but some really good things for you to reach out to.
- 3:35Reasons to reach out to your agents.
- 3:37Excuse me.
- 3:38The last thing I want to say.
- 3:39And I said from the beginning that
- 3:41and I heard from you all say, hey, I just want you to be more transparent.
- 3:44Tell us what's happening.
- 3:45So what's happening for cycle 13 is we are looking at
- 3:48you're not going to get any one great new feature.
- 3:51We have like ten of them in mind
- 3:53and some game changing features you'll get later in the year.
- 3:56But we know you're busy, and we know that when we push these new features out,
- 4:01when you're busy, it's one more thing for you to figure out.
- 4:06And then you're like, oh, did I set it up?
- 4:08Am I using it right?
- 4:09How do I tell my agents about it?
- 4:11My agents are asking me about it.
- 4:13I don't even know anything about it.
- 4:15So we wanted to take that off of you.
- 4:17We wanted to look at what you are using in the system
- 4:21and how we can compact time for those actions.
- 4:26So just a very simple example is the property website editor.
- 4:31I know many of you are out on the road using that thing while you drive.
- 4:35You should don't use it when you drive.
- 4:37It's not good.
- 4:38All right.
- 4:38So that's the first thing.
- 4:40Like I'm going to be Dad Todd today.
- 4:42Like don't use it when you drive. It's very dangerous.
- 4:45But I know some of you
- 4:46pull the car over or you wait before you go in your next shoot
- 4:51and you are looking through yesterday shoots, trying to rearrange,
- 4:55trying to expedite, trying to make sure everything's done QC’d and then deliver.
- 5:01And we are looking at the way you use that page
- 5:04and we are 100% optimizing it for you.
- 5:07So a mobile optimize, it's great on a desktop,
- 5:10but we've got, you know, six foot wide monitors on a phone.
- 5:14It's different.
- 5:14So those are the type of things that we're going to change for you.
- 5:18I want to give you back more time so that you can work on the bigger
- 5:23things, that are more important, that will make your business a success.
- 5:27So that's coming in 13.
- 5:28That's the end of August.
- 5:33So we get just in it.
- 5:35Yeah. Sorry awkward transition y'all. But I love them.
- 5:37You guys got a little this.
- 5:39So another question we get asked all the time is as you
- 5:43guys come in and and I know some of you out there don't use Spiro
- 5:46And that's okay I'm still happy to have you in here.
- 5:49We've had a lot of you recently like, hey, I just need to get switched.
- 5:51Like I've been I've been wanting to do this. Now's a good time.
- 5:54I want to get switched or new people coming in.
- 5:56Okay. We have solutions for you.
- 5:59So Shannon came up with some beautiful programs.
- 6:01Some are like a no cost to you.
- 6:03Shannon, can you tell about our onboarding options?
- 6:07Yes. We're super excited.
- 6:09And this will be, posted out in our super user group today.
- 6:12So if you're in there, you'll see it.
- 6:15And if not, just shoot me an
- 6:16email at Shannon.spiro.media and I'll send it right over to you.
- 6:20But we have created some great packages to get onboarded in the system.
- 6:26And this all started about a year ago.
- 6:28I've been here a year who is on very fast.
- 6:33And through this time, we've been helping people onboard into the system
- 6:37because we understand and and, you know, Todd, the more customizable
- 6:41we make the system,
- 6:42the it's just a little bit harder to get in there and get going.
- 6:45And we know this system best.
- 6:47So we just decided we really want to help people.
- 6:50So we've been kind of doing this like preview program where you buy
- 6:54some credits and and for that commitment we give you our time.
- 6:58So we hired back in December.
- 7:01Lovie, so many people have heard Lovie's name and we love Lovie.
- 7:06She is awesome.
- 7:09And she has
- 7:10really creating her own onboarding team, and she has hired
- 7:14Maria to assist her, who is actually her sister.
- 7:18So I have two amazing people that can help onboard
- 7:22you and get you all acclimated into the system.
- 7:26But what we know is that not every business is the same size, right?
- 7:31We have new people just starting with the mid side businesses
- 7:35and we have some really large businesses looking at coming over to Spiro,
- 7:39and we're thankful for all of that.
- 7:40So number one, thank you guys for for looking at us.
- 7:45And so for that we have a foundation
- 7:48onboarding program where they can literally just pay $250.
- 7:52They get that in credit.
- 7:53So it's essentially free. Right?
- 7:55Those credits are wait a minute.
- 7:57Say that it's it's free.
- 7:59It's free because when you're 250 it's going to go right on their account
- 8:04and just cover their first 50 listings so they don't have to worry about it.
- 8:09And for that we're going to build their system
- 8:11for them, build their default order page and give them a launch call
- 8:15and go through everything so they know how to use the system.
- 8:19And then, of course, those midsize businesses,
- 8:21we have our accelerated program.
- 8:23So we do more. Right? We did.
- 8:25We give you a little bit more and it's $500
- 8:28and you get half of that half of that back end credit.
- 8:31So it's really only $250
- 8:34to have our full team do multiple launch calls with you,
- 8:38build all your order pages, take care of everything.
- 8:42And then we have one more layer.
- 8:44So for those big companies or for the people that just don't have
- 8:48the time, we have our enterprise level and we will do everything.
- 8:54We will write your descriptions, we will create your thumbnails,
- 8:58we will do multiple launch calls.
- 9:00And the best part you will have a slack channel directly
- 9:05to the onboarding team for the first 90 days.
- 9:08And so lots of power that is in $1,000 program.
- 9:13But again, 500 of that is going to go to credits to your account.
- 9:17So it's really only $500 that you spend
- 9:20to have one on one attention.
- 9:24The first 90 days you're in Spiro.
- 9:27Love that. Love that. It's great.
- 9:29It's the assets and those that are going through the programs.
- 9:32They they love it. It's one less thing.
- 9:34And when we talk about time
- 9:35tracking a lot like this is something that you can have.
- 9:39You can pay nothing or very little to have us do.
- 9:43And then you can focus on bigger items and plus you can have us.
- 9:47We do this all day, every day.
- 9:48We know this system from back will optimize it for you.
- 9:51So, you know, that's just something to think about.
- 9:55And again, I know I'm biased because this is Spiro
- 9:57and it's our product, but something to think about.
- 10:01And we did it because we heard from you guys like, hey, can you do this for me?
- 10:04When you have enough people ask you something and do this in your business.
- 10:07If you have enough Realtors ask you for something
- 10:10you should begin to consider, like, do you do it for them?
- 10:13So that is us listening to you guys and we are gracious
- 10:17for your feedback and excited about these programs. Yes.
- 10:20And if you have any questions, you know, again, feel free to email me.
- 10:23We're going to put some information out there.
- 10:25It'll be on our website very soon.
- 10:28So we're we're just excited to help get you in the system,
- 10:31let you keep focusing on going and getting clients, which is what you want to do,
- 10:36and us teaching you and helping you, move there, Spiro, and get more time back.
- 10:40Right.
- 10:40The whole goal, like, let's get more time back.
- 10:43So very, very excited.
- 10:46So now we going to talk about a bunch of numbers, which is not always exciting.
- 10:51I think it is because I'm a realtor, so I actually and we know me.
- 10:56I just like the numbers anyway.
- 10:57So do you ever want any data analysis?
- 11:00Just throw out my way because I really like to look at it.
- 11:05I like hearing about the
- 11:06numbers, I just don't I don't want to crunch them all.
- 11:10I don't disagree with that.
- 11:11I just I just want them to me.
- 11:13And then I can look and yes, analyze.
- 11:15Right. Yeah, absolutely.
- 11:17Or Shannon did all the hard work. Craig.
- 11:19And the reason why we do this, like Shannon
- 11:21said, is we want you to make metric based decisions.
- 11:24There are so many things in your business that will get you emotional,
- 11:28at least I can be a very emotional person.
- 11:31Shannon or Craig.
- 11:32I try to put those emotions aside.
- 11:34Craig almost just spit out a string.
- 11:36Okay? You're not watching.
- 11:38I try to put those emotions aside and I try to make metric based assistance.
- 11:43I've made enough emotional decisions that I've looked back and was like,
- 11:46wow, I wish I didn't make that decision.
- 11:49So we try to tie everything back, the metrics, we try to look at it.
- 11:52So one simple example
- 11:53that I'll let Shannon give you all of the data,
- 11:55because this is going to be important with what you do.
- 11:58Looking at quarter three and four of 2025 and into 2026,
- 12:03one thing right now that you can expect, we're coming into the July 4th
- 12:06holiday here in the States.
- 12:09One thing
- 12:10you can expect is you are going to be slower.
- 12:13It's going to happen.
- 12:14I used to overthink this holiday times
- 12:17a hundred and I'm like, well, the fourth is on a Tuesday.
- 12:21I bet people will take off until Thursday and will be busy again on Friday,
- 12:25or the fourth is on a Friday.
- 12:27They'll probably going to work Monday, Tuesday? No, it's not going to.
- 12:30Realtors are not going to work any of it.
- 12:32You're going to not going to be as busy.
- 12:34In fact, I've got the data right here.
- 12:35If you're on YouTube and you can see I'll put my finger by the 4th of July,
- 12:40you see that it's a big dip down.
- 12:43Yeah.
- 12:44This is coming in here is build, build, build the busy season.
- 12:47Boom.
- 12:48It drops off. Here's eight years of data.
- 12:49There's like 100,000 jobs on here.
- 12:51It happens every single year.
- 12:53Don't be surprised at it.
- 12:54That's why we want you to make data decisions.
- 12:56Because next week on the fourth we're taking off time.
- 12:59Staff is taking off time.
- 13:01We tell them, hey, this is a great week for you to take off time.
- 13:04Staff's taken off time and we're planning
- 13:07for other things because we know the phone's not going to ring as much.
- 13:10The email is not going to be as busy.
- 13:12There's not going to be as many photographers needing something.
- 13:15This is where
- 13:15I'm going to insert some projects that I wanted to get done for a while.
- 13:19So that's why you make metric based decisions.
- 13:22But there's been plenty years.
- 13:23I've looked at July 4th, and I've sat here in this office
- 13:26and I've gone like, phone, could you please ring?
- 13:30And it's like, no, Todd, just don't be surprised by something that you know.
- 13:34So that's why we like to make metric based decisions.
- 13:37And one thing is that we're seeing a shift.
- 13:39She is going to tell you all about it,
- 13:40but we're seeing a shift in the real estate industry
- 13:43and knowing what that shift is, and knowing
- 13:46what's in the brains of your realtors will help you connect with them.
- 13:49So how's this all shaking down here?
- 13:52Quarter two of 2025 Shannon.
- 13:55You know, the data is actually really, really interesting.
- 13:58And we've been saying this for like about the last 18 months in real estate.
- 14:02Like it's just very strange. Like,
- 14:07and I think, you know, here's the here's the big picture, right.
- 14:10Typically real estate market, they cycle every 7 to 10 years.
- 14:15And what I mean by cycle is they shift from like buyer's market
- 14:19to seller's market.
- 14:21And it's a very normal trend. Right.
- 14:23What goes up must come down.
- 14:24What goes down must go up.
- 14:26This this is the level of the sales.
- 14:29What we've seen obviously.
- 14:31And the last one I didn't place it from.
- 14:34Yeah.
- 14:34Decade, about a decade is that we came out of a very,
- 14:39very large buyer's market right from 2008 nine
- 14:44when everything right
- 14:47and it was not.
- 14:49And there were thousands and thousands of houses on the market, right.
- 14:53And so we shifted by about 2014 to kind of normalizing.
- 14:58And then, honestly, the interest rate
- 15:01dropped and
- 15:05the houses just started selling like hotcakes, right?
- 15:08I mean, let's just face it,
- 15:10there was a year that you just threw a house on the market.
- 15:13You just threw it out there
- 15:14and it had 25 offers because there was no inventory out there.
- 15:18And everybody's trying to chase and get the same, you know, houses.
- 15:22So it is it it's definitely,
- 15:26trending to back to what I would call
- 15:29just a more normal cyclical market.
- 15:32That's that's what we got going on, Craig.
- 15:34And what we see in the numbers is we see sales down a little bit.
- 15:39Right.
- 15:39They are down and region only they're down differently.
- 15:43And we're going to talk about that because again real estate is very local right.
- 15:48We are going to talk today.
- 15:49And the broader picture of the United States and in regions.
- 15:53But it is very important
- 15:55and I'll say it on every single market update that we do that
- 15:59you dial into your local numbers and you see what's going on in your market.
- 16:05Because we have markets, especially here in the US,
- 16:08doing very different things and very different places, right
- 16:12from Austin to Dayton, Ohio to the East Coast to Florida,
- 16:18Alta, LA, it is a very, very different scene.
- 16:21So we're going to kind of get into these numbers. Craig, are you ready?
- 16:25As ready as I can be.
- 16:29I know, so I am actually going to share my screen. So,
- 16:32for those that are driving and listening to me, we'll talk about these numbers.
- 16:36Don't worry, you're on YouTube.
- 16:38Great.
- 16:38You you get to see a lot of these numbers.
- 16:42So let's do that, Craig.
- 16:44Let's get this shared and going.
- 16:46The right window here. There we go.
- 16:49I'm interested to see this.
- 16:51A friend of mine that I grew up with in school,
- 16:53he's a realtor out in, I believe it's Arizona.
- 16:57And he just posted a graphic yesterday.
- 16:59He said it's official. It's now a buyer's market.
- 17:01Market? Yeah, you're hearing that right now.
- 17:05And that's why I love talking about this regionally too.
- 17:09And we're going to I'm going to break out how now are so
- 17:13so number one, I pull most of my stats from Nar okay.
- 17:16The National Association of Realtors, they have a great chief economist.
- 17:21He's awesome.
- 17:22You can go to NAR site NAR.realtors and get all this data yourself guys.
- 17:28So this is all out there for you to see and use.
- 17:33They do little videos too, so you can listen to them
- 17:35while you're driving on what they think is happening in the market.
- 17:39The other place I get a lot of information on, and this is also just out there
- 17:43for anybody, is Keller Williams market update.
- 17:47So if you just Google Keller Williams market update, you'll get this site.
- 17:51They do this every month. They do a market update.
- 17:54And what I really love about what KW does and again I'm not
- 17:58you know I know we have many photographers that are agents too.
- 18:00So I don't I don't care what brokerage you're at.
- 18:02I'm just at KW and the information is easy for me.
- 18:05Sure.
- 18:06But what they do is they talk about strategies within the numbers.
- 18:10So that's what I love about that market update.
- 18:12They're talking to realtors or even to clients,
- 18:16buyers and sellers and saying, here's what the strategy should be,
- 18:20and here's an agent that you should work with with these kind of strategies.
- 18:23So I just really enjoy those two.
- 18:25So two resources for you.
- 18:27But here's what Nar is talking about right now.
- 18:30Now again these numbers are through May of 2025.
- 18:33Craig. Right okay.
- 18:35The numbers lag almost a whole month.
- 18:38Sure.
- 18:38So the next June numbers will come out about July 23rd.
- 18:44So they just lag that much.
- 18:45But we're through five months of data here.
- 18:48That gives us a lot of data to look at.
- 18:50And we can do some of our fun predictions and things.
- 18:54So the first thing they do is we look at these existing home sales market.
- 18:59Right.
- 19:00So what we're going to look at here Craig, is our existing home sales.
- 19:03First okay.
- 19:05So existing home sales what they're saying is they do a seasonal number
- 19:09and try to predict how many home sales we'll have this year.
- 19:13So right now this number is 4.03 million.
- 19:17If you remember when we talked last time
- 19:19we kind of predicted about 4.5 million sales this year.
- 19:24This doesn't mean we might not hit that.
- 19:26This is just how the numbers annualize right now.
- 19:31So if we were to take the numbers annualize them through the year,
- 19:34they're saying 4.03 million
- 19:38houses down, down from 4.5.
- 19:41Yeah. Yeah. So so we'll see. Right.
- 19:43And if we look at year over year we're down 0.7%.
- 19:49So it's it's not a huge number
- 19:51but it's we're trending down now.
- 19:55Month over month was up 0.8 percent.
- 19:57So this is when I talk about the weirdness.
- 20:01The numbers like well year over year we're down.
- 20:03But month over month we're up.
- 20:05Well it's May right.
- 20:08When do we sell houses.
- 20:09May, June, July. Right.
- 20:11So it's we should see those month over month numbers
- 20:15hopefully tick up a little bit.
- 20:17So then the next thing we look at is inventory okay.
- 20:21Inventory always tells the story.
- 20:23And we are up to 4.6
- 20:27months of inventory nationwide.
- 20:31We were at 3.8 months of inventory last May.
- 20:36So that is almost a full month
- 20:39tick up.
- 20:41And what that means, what everybody's always like.
- 20:44What does it mean when you say months of inventory?
- 20:48What that means is if we could sell every house that's on the market,
- 20:52it would take us 4.6 months to sell those houses, essentially.
- 20:57That's the easy answer. Okay.
- 20:59There's absorption rates
- 21:00and all sorts of things that go into this, but we won't dive into that.
- 21:05So inventory is up.
- 21:06Now if we overall look at a buyer's market versus a seller's market,
- 21:12what we typically say is six months and under
- 21:16is a seller's market and six months
- 21:19above is, buyer's market.
- 21:22Okay.
- 21:22So again, but really what the number means is
- 21:25do you have more sellers or do you have more buyers.
- 21:28If you have more buyers, then it is, you know, a seller's market.
- 21:32If you have more sellers than it a buyer's market essentially.
- 21:36Right.
- 21:37So we are definitely trending towards that six month of inventory.
- 21:41So that is why you're hearing people say we're in a buyer's market.
- 21:45And again locally that number could be higher.
- 21:49Sure.
- 21:50It also could differ price range.
- 21:53Right.
- 21:54That's that's what I've been hearing from my clients in my market
- 21:58is the number I've heard, at least locally is like anything.
- 22:02315 above is sitting and price reductions are starting to happen.
- 22:07Anything below 350 is still flying off the market.
- 22:10Yes, yes.
- 22:11And you're going to see that. Right.
- 22:13And especially Craig, our markets are very similar,
- 22:17you know, that you and I are in
- 22:19and I've had a first time home buyer price point of 220.
- 22:24And it's taken us the 14 weeks to get them into a home.
- 22:28So on average it takes 12 to 14 weeks to buy.
- 22:31And that is what it's taken us because we've lost out on seven homes in a row.
- 22:37Man. And it's exhausting for that, right?
- 22:40There are a young couple getting married.
- 22:42I'm so excited for them.
- 22:44It's actually the daughter of the mother who watched my children, right?
- 22:49Oh my gosh. Yes.
- 22:50And I can't even believe she's getting married and buying a house, right?
- 22:53Is it really making me feel whole?
- 22:56But it's been great.
- 22:57We finally,
- 22:57I think, are getting them
- 22:58locked into a house that they're going to love forever. So.
- 23:01But this is the tail of the market now looking at prices too,
- 23:05because that's kind of the third thing that matters.
- 23:09Median sale price is up year over year, 1.3%.
- 23:14But we're seeing the market have price reductions to your point.
- 23:18Yeah. Right.
- 23:19So what is that like if we really think about that, all that means is
- 23:22we know that prices have been a bit elevated for a while
- 23:28now. There's no bubble.
- 23:30I very clearly want to stay there.
- 23:33There's still no bubble that's going to pop.
- 23:36There's no happening.
- 23:38What does this mean is we'll probably have some price corrections that are needed.
- 23:43But but not crazy.
- 23:44We're not talking 20 to 30% price reductions or corrections.
- 23:49We're just going to see probably a 1 to 8% correction
- 23:53depending on what market you're in in prices.
- 23:57So affordability for buyers,
- 24:01what that means is it will bring more buyers back in the market.
- 24:04Right.
- 24:05Affordability will get a little bit better.
- 24:08Interest rates are probably going to stay where they're at.
- 24:10Guys.
- 24:11Hey you know unfortunately
- 24:14policy and the uncertainty in the government
- 24:18can create just not moving
- 24:23in the in those in those numbers.
- 24:25So we just have to kind of, I think,
- 24:27but I think most buyer sentiment is they're just fine.
- 24:30They get it.
- 24:30Three and 4% interest rates are not coming back.
- 24:33And and that's never historically been normal anyway.
- 24:36Ever ever I mean the historical average is 7%.
- 24:40So we're we're good.
- 24:42I'd love to get us I would love to be about five and a half, 6% sure.
- 24:46That would be a great place to be.
- 24:48And I think we'll get there.
- 24:50But, I think the rest of the year we're pretty much going to see six
- 24:53and a half to seven, and that's what we're going to live.
- 24:55But there's a lot of programs, so that's a whole nother conversation out there.
- 24:59So buyers have some options.
- 25:02So looking at
- 25:03pending home sales, what's interesting here
- 25:07is that the pending home sales
- 25:10are kind of our lead into existing home sales.
- 25:14Right.
- 25:14So what pending home sales
- 25:16are is all the houses on the market that are under contract.
- 25:20Okay.
- 25:21So that tells us kind of what the next,
- 25:24you know, 30, 60, 90 days of home sales could look like.
- 25:27And what we see regionally and, and let me say this really quick.
- 25:31So Nar breaks out the country in four different buckets.
- 25:36Okay.
- 25:37So they have the West which covers like California
- 25:43to Arizona, Nebraska,
- 25:45Montana kind of Alaska, that whole region.
- 25:49Right. Hawaii.
- 25:50They consider Hawaii and the West.
- 25:52Hawaii is its own market in itself, right?
- 25:54Oh, joke.
- 25:55Yes. Then we have the South, which is like Texas
- 25:58all the way over to Florida, up to the Carolinas.
- 26:01Right.
- 26:02Kind of right up to the bottom of Colorado and so forth.
- 26:05So that's your south.
- 26:07The northeast is the northeast, what we all consider to be the northeast, right?
- 26:11Pennsylvania up to Maine, over, to Maryland.
- 26:15Those are Rhode Island.
- 26:17And then you have the Midwest, right.
- 26:19Which Ohio, Indiana, that whole area
- 26:22up to, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, that that's our Midwest.
- 26:26Okay.
- 26:27So these four regions and what we're seeing is that
- 26:31it's a month over month, 1.8% increase in pending contracts
- 26:37as, as a whole.
- 26:39And then we could break that down.
- 26:41The Midwest is up 0.3%.
- 26:43The northeast is up 2.1%,
- 26:47the South is up 1%,
- 26:50and the West is up 6%.
- 26:54Whoa. Really? Yes.
- 26:56So I'm very interested to see these numbers,
- 26:59because the West is actually having probably the highest number of,
- 27:04decrease in existing home sales.
- 27:07So this is kind of interesting.
- 27:08Now remember it's summer
- 27:12houses are on the market.
- 27:14People are moving in.
- 27:16So some of these pending home sales is probably seasonal numbers
- 27:22that once we get to this summer we'll kind of see how they shake out.
- 27:25Craig. Right okay.
- 27:27Yeah.
- 27:27So but overall guys again
- 27:31sales are down.
- 27:34And if we look at this regionally,
- 27:38which is my next slide over here,
- 27:42with sales I like to look at this.
- 27:45This is kind of our look at the break
- 27:50out of those four quadrants we just talked about.
- 27:53Right.
- 27:53The Midwest, the West, the South, the northeast.
- 27:57And what we're talking about right now, guys, is existing home
- 28:00sales year over year.
- 28:03And in the Midwest they're down 1.2%.
- 28:06The Midwest market still pretty good, especially in those price points
- 28:11we were talking about earlier.
- 28:12Craig, the northeast is flat.
- 28:16They still have low inventory is what we're seeing there.
- 28:20So they're staying pretty flat.
- 28:22The South.
- 28:23Oh, the South was the biggest drop actually.
- 28:25Yeah.
- 28:25Florida is actually to blame for most of that.
- 28:28So the South is down 4.5% or 4.7%.
- 28:33And most of this actually lives a bit in Texas and Florida.
- 28:38When we actually get up to the Carolinas, they're actually seeing, inventory.
- 28:42We're in Charlotte, right? Craig.
- 28:44They're still seeing some inventory issues in Charlotte.
- 28:47So it just kind of depends on where you're at.
- 28:49We're seeing a lot of price reductions in Florida, like 50% of the listings
- 28:55have price reductions, 50%, 50%.
- 29:01Yes. But all
- 29:02I think that really means is those prices got so elevated.
- 29:06Yeah. They were really
- 29:09they were really just too high.
- 29:11And again
- 29:13buyers are figured it out that they don't have to buy a house in a minute now.
- 29:17Right.
- 29:17We went through that period where they had to like
- 29:20as soon as the house came on the market, they had to go see it.
- 29:22They couldn't do anything else.
- 29:24They had a writing offer right away.
- 29:26And now we're seeing that inventory tick up and buyers are like,
- 29:29wait a minute, I don't I can go, look, I don't have to make these decisions.
- 29:34And so I think that's what you're seeing in that South Gulf state region
- 29:38is that.
- 29:39And then your west is down 2.9%.
- 29:42So but what we see in those pending home sales again is
- 29:46I think we'll see these numbers tick up for June and July.
- 29:50And then we'll kind of see what it shakes out to the fall to look like.
- 29:54So I actually predict that we still might hit that 4.5 million houses sold.
- 29:59I it could happen.
- 30:01And we'll see once we get through summer.
- 30:03And then we analyze those numbers and see what we're looking at.
- 30:07But I don't think we're we will had,
- 30:12had had too much lower.
- 30:14We definitely I don't think we'll go lower for sure.
- 30:16So what that means is listings are still going to happen.
- 30:19Guys, whatever business it's listings.
- 30:23Right.
- 30:25But agents are going to have to start thinking
- 30:29about some of their strategies, because what I want to show next,
- 30:33and this is what I wanted to dig into, is, okay, all these big numbers, you know,
- 30:37what does this mean day to day then for our businesses and how realtors
- 30:42might be starting to panic a little bit because things aren't selling as fast.
- 30:47What great opportunities does that make for us
- 30:50as the media professionals and consultants?
- 30:54100%.
- 30:55So two things I want to look at and I will say, guys, if you're
- 30:58listening to this podcast, when you get a minute,
- 31:01get on the YouTube channel, come back and look at some of these stats, okay?
- 31:05Because visually to just really see it is you can just feel the story.
- 31:12Okay.
- 31:12So what slide I have up right now is total existing home sales
- 31:17percent change year over year from the last year.
- 31:23Okay.
- 31:24And what we're looking at is we had a height of December.
- 31:29Last year was a great month.
- 31:30We were up 9.7% from year over year and sales.
- 31:34December was great, January was great.
- 31:36And then what do you see happening there? Craig?
- 31:40We go down, down, down right.
- 31:44So so far this year we lost 0.9%.
- 31:48In February we lost 2.4% in March.
- 31:52We lost 2% of home sales in April.
- 31:55And then again May 7.7.
- 31:57So April surprises me.
- 32:01We let my market had a record year and a record month in April.
- 32:06Yeah, yeah yeah.
- 32:08And again, this is why we say look at your numbers though, right?
- 32:12Right.
- 32:12Because we're talking over a national market, right?
- 32:15Sure. Great.
- 32:15Every 50 states is what is the data we're pulling together okay.
- 32:20So but this is this you see the trend down right.
- 32:24We're seeing that sales are trending down okay.
- 32:29The other thing that we see is
- 32:33I think it yes median price.
- 32:36So now we're looking at existing home sales.
- 32:39And the median price.
- 32:41And remember the median is that point in kind of in the not your average right.
- 32:46Median is taking the whole quantity of the sales
- 32:49and finding that median number okay.
- 32:53So if we look at this from December of last year
- 32:56guys we've done nothing but trend down in prices.
- 33:00This is what I'm talking about with the price correction.
- 33:03Right.
- 33:03Prices were still up 5.8% in December year over year.
- 33:08And then we see these trend down 3.93.42.6, 1.8, 1.3.
- 33:15Okay.
- 33:16So we're seeing these like I said these overall price correction.
- 33:20And that is going to lead to agents
- 33:24having to have really great strategies to sell listings.
- 33:31Right.
- 33:33Right.
- 33:33You can't just throw it on the market put it at a price.
- 33:36No. You're going to get 4 or 5 multiple offers.
- 33:39You have to create the multiple
- 33:43offers Craig okay.
- 33:46And this is a shift.
- 33:47This is what time is talking about.
- 33:49This is a shift in the mindset agent need buyers buyers market.
- 33:55They want buyers right?
- 33:57You always want listings.
- 33:58Don't get me wrong because listings bring the buyers okay.
- 34:02But they have to really think
- 34:04about how they price these homes
- 34:08and how they market these homes.
- 34:11Right.
- 34:12The marketing becomes so important here.
- 34:17So overall I'm going to stop sharing.
- 34:20So I think that's about the numbers that we have here.
- 34:22Craig. Sure.
- 34:24Overall, what I am thinking and what I have kind of laid out
- 34:28is we are getting to the point where agents can't skip the marketing.
- 34:33They can't if they are out there taking cell phone pictures
- 34:38and putting a $400,000 house on the market,
- 34:42they are not going to get the most attention right now.
- 34:45Listings need to get more attention, not less.
- 34:49Right?
- 34:50Okay, so how do we do that, Craig?
- 34:52How do we help these agent
- 34:55get more attention?
- 34:57Well, I mean video drives everything
- 35:00all the algorithms.
- 35:03What I love about what we do, Shannon and I feel like
- 35:06this is kind of my ultimate answer.
- 35:07Is it really for us?
- 35:11It doesn't matter if it's a seller's market
- 35:12or a buyer's market, but we have to understand the difference
- 35:16because the tools that we bring to them, as they're marketing consultants
- 35:19and team members, we can position the tools that we have either way.
- 35:24And it's a seller's market.
- 35:25These tools help them win more listings.
- 35:28They don't need to.
- 35:29They don't need it to sell the property or property.
- 35:32I've heard that so many times.
- 35:34So I'm like, you're right, you don't in this market.
- 35:37But if you want to win more listings, you better show people what you can do.
- 35:41You can do.
- 35:42And I, I saw the light bulb go on in multiple
- 35:45clients, eyes when I presented it that way.
- 35:50But now we're kind of trending more towards a buyer's market.
- 35:52So our I feel like our message has to change.
- 35:56Our tools haven't changed.
- 35:57What we offer them, but how we position those tools does change.
- 36:01Absolutely, absolutely.
- 36:03And I think it creates moment for you to get in front of agents.
- 36:08Yeah.
- 36:08Absolutely. Right.
- 36:09And how do we do that? We can teach them. Right.
- 36:12We should be teaching them how to use the media
- 36:16if they are already aware, or
- 36:19those are classes that agents like to attend.
- 36:22They like to understand what else is out there.
- 36:24What do you have?
- 36:26They can assist me and make my life easier in marketing these listings, right?
- 36:31I have a title of one.
- 36:33You could teach a class marketing listings with the best media.
- 36:39And you
- 36:39could create a 30 minute class of the top
- 36:42five ways to use this media in social
- 36:46to attract more buyers to your listing.
- 36:50Period.
- 36:51You could do that because they can't skip it.
- 36:54Yeah, I think it's not so much the what of what we offer.
- 36:59You can go in and say, we do this, we do that, we do that.
- 37:02But the value that we can bring them is in the how in the world and the why.
- 37:07Yeah, yeah, I totally agree.
- 37:10Which is why I'm super excited about one thing that's releasing that.
- 37:15Todd talked about on July 8th,
- 37:18and that is a brand new
- 37:21gorgeous property website.
- 37:24Yes, absolutely gorgeous.
- 37:27And why we're here.
- 37:28If you're watching us on YouTube.
- 37:29You just saw Josie leave.
- 37:31Josie is my intern and she's helping me,
- 37:34so she just is popping in and out and working on some things.
- 37:37So, if you see our on the super user group, say hello.
- 37:41Like I said, she's managing
- 37:42a lot of social media for us, so she's also my niece.
- 37:45So be nice. Very cool. Yes, yes.
- 37:50Yeah.
- 37:50We this property website guys, it's
- 37:53going to have an about you section for the agent.
- 37:57The agents are going to have this and be able to add that
- 37:59right to their property website.
- 38:01It is a beautiful design.
- 38:03We've been working on this for a while
- 38:05and this is just the first of many that we will bring.
- 38:08We will bring more templates to you guys.
- 38:10And why is this important on
- 38:12why I'm talking about it is you could literally lead a class on how
- 38:16and why to use this property website, and how you can use it in leads.
- 38:20Facebook leads, Instagram leads.
- 38:23It has lead captioner on it.
- 38:25You have all the tools that you need.
- 38:28No matter what brokerage you're at, you could utilize
- 38:32a company that uses these tools with us to have an amazing property
- 38:37website and showcase how their video and how the things are going
- 38:41to get them attention. Right.
- 38:43But we've got to make sure that we're pricing houses correctly as agents.
- 38:49That's going to be the number one track is because now we can go
- 38:53a little bit higher into the comps and still know where, okay.
- 38:57And honestly, we could still do that.
- 38:59It just might take 120 days for the house to sell him.
- 39:04So up to your seller, what are they really looking for?
- 39:07But if the agent really prices it right, they could still bring multiple offers
- 39:12and the market is always going to bear the price for the home, right?
- 39:16Right.
- 39:16Remember we don't really set the prices agents.
- 39:20We don't.
- 39:21The market tells us because people buy at a certain price.
- 39:25And that is what the home is worth, right? Yes.
- 39:29So it's important to understand these numbers.
- 39:31You know what the market has been doing where we think the market is going and
- 39:35when we is,
- 39:38as the media consultants.
- 39:40I just I like that term for some reason I do too.
- 39:43And teammates with the realtor when we understand the numbers
- 39:46we're speaking the realtors language.
- 39:49And your positioning yourself as more than just a photographer.
- 39:52And I hate to say this, but for photography,
- 39:55if you only talk about photography, it boils down to a commodity.
- 39:59It does.
- 40:00But if you could position yourself as somebody that understands
- 40:02the market as a whole and how your tools, your your commodity
- 40:07can help them grow their business, you've now positioned yourself
- 40:11differently than someone that isn't diving into the numbers.
- 40:15That's why we want to give you these updates.
- 40:17And Shannon, I just I appreciate what you're doing.
- 40:19In digging into that and sharing that with our, our listeners and viewers.
- 40:23Absolutely.
- 40:24It's like I said, I love the numbers.
- 40:26So it's fun for me to dig in.
- 40:29But yeah, you know, what we're going to see in the next couple months
- 40:32is, you know, we'll go through our summer, our summer market.
- 40:35Todd is right. 4th of July is like a break.
- 40:39It's like the middle of the year.
- 40:41Agents need a break.
- 40:42Everybody celebrates the 4th of July.
- 40:44At least to in the US
- 40:47Yes, yes, true.
- 40:49And so we all kind of.
- 40:50And all the other countries have their little holidays too.
- 40:53We, we actually, you guys, let's hear from you.
- 40:55Let's tell us what holidays you guys all celebrate
- 40:58and how your market shift in those holidays.
- 41:00That would be interesting.
- 41:01Yes. Yeah, it really would.
- 41:03So, it we should
- 41:07and I will start to search some other industry
- 41:11is in some other markets and some other countries.
- 41:14You know, we do have some great clients in these other countries.
- 41:16I'll reach out to them, see what kind of market data I can get
- 41:19so that we can definitely look at that.
- 41:23But really lean in, you know, if my final message is anything
- 41:28it is lean into the teaching of these agents on how to use video
- 41:33to get more buyers to attract more attention
- 41:37to their listing, which in the end will still bring them more listings too.
- 41:40Right? It'll do both.
- 41:42And then right now, the other opportunity is probably the branding guys.
- 41:47Agents need the branding more than ever
- 41:50in this social world that we live in and how they market their businesses,
- 41:54and they should lean into some new content with it shifting to a buyer's market.
- 42:00So you should be able to go out there and capture some content appointment,
- 42:04because they haven't had to talk about a buyer's market in a while.
- 42:08They haven't had to talk about super shifting markets.
- 42:11Right.
- 42:11We've kind of been in this just easy kind of spot.
- 42:14But agents have to work, right?
- 42:17This it's no longer like
- 42:18I can just get my license, put my feet on the desk, say I'm an agent
- 42:23and get business.
- 42:24It's not going to happen.
- 42:27It's it's time to get back to work.
- 42:28So that is where we can really come in and help.
- 42:32And I'm excited to bring this content, and we'll continue to bring it.
- 42:36It's good stuff and especially is, is things
- 42:38start to slow down and, you know, in fall, late fall, winter
- 42:42when maybe you have more time to do those brokerage presentations,
- 42:46those one on one coffee meetings, this things like this, you know, the the new
- 42:50property websites, the marketing toolkit that just got revamped in Spiro.
- 42:55It will give you educational opportunities and not just don't look at it
- 42:59as a sales call or a sales appointment or a sales presentation.
- 43:03Look at it as a consulting and education appointment, presentation, whatever,
- 43:08and show them how to use the tools to help increase their business.
- 43:12And you just you're going to.
- 43:15When I first started in this, I started with a sales presentation.
- 43:18Right.
- 43:19Who who my company was, what I could, you know, the tools I had
- 43:24and I didn't really show the how and the why and the, the benefit.
- 43:29I just was talking about the features.
- 43:32But as I've stayed in the market longer, everybody knows most everybody,
- 43:36unless you're a brand new agent, knows who Wow video tours is.
- 43:40Right.
- 43:40So I've realized I can't just keep doing a sales presentation.
- 43:43I've got to show the benefit that we bring to them.
- 43:46And so tools like this, understanding the numbers,
- 43:49take all of that as the owner, as the business
- 43:52development specialist in your company and run with it.
- 43:55Have some fun with it.
- 43:56Show them how you're different and how you can really be a a valuable
- 44:00and profitable team member for them to help them grow their real estate business.
- 44:04I totally agree.
- 44:05You know what we talk about at KW?
- 44:07It's one reason why I do love KW,
- 44:10is we talk about giving.
- 44:13Giving back is a part of who we are
- 44:16and the way you can give to the agents without having to give up anything
- 44:21monetarily is give them information, give them value.
- 44:25Right. We talk about this value.
- 44:28We're not offering value then.
- 44:31Then there's nothing there for us to build a relationship on.
- 44:34And what do we know about relationships?
- 44:36Craig?
- 44:38I know they drive everything.
- 44:40They drive everything, right?
- 44:42So go create those relationships, give the value, learn the struggle of what
- 44:47your agent that you're trying to do business with
- 44:49is going through, so you can understand how to help them.
- 44:53Right.
- 44:54And that conversate that will bring you a client for life.
- 44:58And that will also bring you a raving fan
- 45:01who will then go out and talk about you and refer you.
- 45:05So all of this stuff works together.
- 45:08I'm happy to dive in with anybody.
- 45:10Oh, I totally forgot about this.
- 45:12I should tell everybody. Oh, boy,
- 45:15I am going to
- 45:17start a coaching call
- 45:21once a month for one hour
- 45:25that anybody can come on,
- 45:28anyone.
- 45:29So it's definitely geared for our onboarding clients at a certain level.
- 45:34Okay.
- 45:35But I'm going to let I'm going to open it up and let let anybody come on.
- 45:39So the more information to come about that,
- 45:42but in this one hour,
- 45:43we'll really talk about what anybody wants to,
- 45:46and we can talk about how to grow, how to maybe
- 45:49fire clients, because sometimes you have to do that like it happens.
- 45:53Right. And what kind to go after and how to target.
- 45:55So I'm excited about it.
- 45:57We want to keep giving you guys more and more.
- 45:59Again, that's the value, right?
- 46:01We're going to give the value because we know it's the right thing to do.
- 46:04And that's essentially what everybody else should do.
- 46:07Yeah.
- 46:07I'm glad you said something about firing a client,
- 46:10because once in a while it does need to happen.
- 46:13There was a listener
- 46:14I was talking with a couple months ago, and they were the they shared with me.
- 46:18I love what you're you're sharing about relationships
- 46:21and I'm trying to do all that.
- 46:22But I had this, this client that strung me along and ended up dumping me,
- 46:27even though I put all this work
- 46:28into the relationship and it makes me just want to give up.
- 46:31I just want to encourage you.
- 46:33We all have those type of
- 46:35clients at some point in our career, in our business,
- 46:39you can't let that 1 or 2 or maybe even three drag you down and make
- 46:44you want to throw your hands up in the air and give up on the relationship.
- 46:48Approach, because there will always be people
- 46:51that will shop and not value the relationship the same way that you do.
- 46:56And ultimately, I want to just tell you that's not the type of client you want,
- 47:00and they will drain energy from you, from doing what you could do.
- 47:03For those that do appreciate you, absolutely.
- 47:06Let them go.
- 47:07Let him go, let him go.
- 47:09Agents do the same thing.
- 47:10Yeah, you have to let them go, too.
- 47:13You know, sometimes you just can't please somebody.
- 47:15And you shouldn't take that to heart and feel that.
- 47:18Yeah, and make it take a personal.
- 47:19You can get there, you know.
- 47:22And so there's plenty of agents out there.
- 47:26Plenty.
- 47:27And they're coming in and out of the business all day long.
- 47:30Yeah. Okay.
- 47:31So go find the people that value a relationship and work with them.
- 47:37And definitely, don't be upset if you just have to tell a client, hey
- 47:43we're just not a good fit.
- 47:44And I'm sorry, that word.
- 47:46I'm not going to be able to help you. Yeah.
- 47:49Yeah.
- 47:50Shannon, thank you so much.
- 47:52Appreciate your insight and wisdom.
- 47:54Yeah. Thanks. I always enjoyed being on.
- 47:56So whatever you guys come up with other topics I'm happy to join about those.
- 48:01But this is definitely near and dear to my heart, so I'm happy to deliver.
- 48:05If you've got a story about what's going on in your market, things,
- 48:08strategies you want to share, feel free to leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
- 48:13Or feel free to email us as well.
- 48:14We'd love to hear from you.
- 48:16It's just hello@spiro.media, and if you want to learn more about Spiro
- 48:21itself, check out the website again, just spiro.media.
- 48:25But we really do appreciate you guys taking time,
- 48:27especially during this busy season that you take to either watch the podcast
- 48:31or listen in between appointments or during your your work day.
- 48:35We just want to say thank you.
- 48:36We don't take that for granted.
- 48:38Yeah, absolutely.
- 48:39Craig, it's a pleasure to see you as always.
- 48:41Thank you.
- 48:42Likewise. Yeah.
- 48:43Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your summer, sir.
- 48:46I plan on it. Vacation.
- 48:47Speaking of the fourth
- 48:48and taking vacation, I'm going to be out the next couple of weeks.
- 48:51There you go. Time with my family. So good.
- 48:54Enjoy it. As you, take.
- 48:56We do have to take advantage of these times, right?
- 48:59Yes, I, I took a couple of days off next week as well
- 49:02because it'll we'll, we'll all kind of quiet down and we'll enjoy.
- 49:05Right.
- 49:06So we always end the podcast by, by me reminding you,
- 49:10be thankful for the blessings in your life and make sure you take a breath.
- 49:14And that's what I'm doing trying to practice what we preach.
- 49:17You guys have a great week.
- 49:18Thanks for joining us.
- 49:20Todd will be back with you next week.
- 49:22No, we're going to take a break because the fourth is going to be two weeks.
- 49:26Two weeks. All right.
- 49:28All right. You guys have a great, great week.
- 49:30We'll talk to you later.