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2025 3rd Quarter Review & 4th Quarter Forecast · The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business

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Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
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Unfortunately, in my market, I'm still seeing many houses
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that are about probably under 280.
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And I'm looking at these because I have a buyer in that price point
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and I'm like, why are these agents not taking
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photos of these houses?
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It is insane to me.
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Hi and welcome to the Spiro Podcast, managing your Real estate media business.
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Spiro is a software platform.
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It's designed to help you grow your business, run it day to day,
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really help you manage the ins and outs of the real estate
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media business, industry that you have.
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I had the privilege of being the first beta tester for this software,
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and I can tell you, even in the earliest days before
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it had the scheduling system, before you had all the bells and whistles
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that it has now, it allowed me to go from shooting in.
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Well, I was doing my own editing, but shooting and editing two,
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shoots a day to doing being able to do 6 to 7 listings a day.
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And that was as a solo, solopreneur, so an incredible
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software platform that can really help you scale up your business.
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And the whole point of the podcast is to help you build a strong business.
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Talk about the business of what we do, not necessarily the creative side.
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There's tons of great resources out there for that,
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but to help you build a strong business
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because we want to see you grow and succeed.
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So welcome to the podcast.
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I'm Craig Magrum, host of the podcast.
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And, each and every week, well, most every week.
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Todd Kivimaki, owner of the, owner of Spiro and the co-hosts
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would be joining us, but he's on one more week of vacation.
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Well-deserved. Spending some great time with his family.
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A familiar face and voice will be joining us.
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We'll introduce her.
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Actually, right now, Shannon Landers, welcome to the podcast.
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Thank you. You know, I always wanted to be here with you guys.
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It's a little odd without Todd, though, right?
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It's like, I feel like we're like the three amigos here.
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Yeah, yeah, that's true, but.
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So we'll have some fun with us.
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You know, when when the cat's away, the mice will play.
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So. Amen.
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I don't know what trouble we can get in, but
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I did talk to the cat yesterday.
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He's having a great time.
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So they're wrapping up some Disney adventures
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and then heading off to do some other things.
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So fun stuff. I'm really happy he's getting that time away.
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Especially like I told him yesterday,
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we're about to spend half the month of November away from our family.
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Yeah that's true.
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So it's really good he's getting that. David.
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Yeah, well, speaking of that, yeah, it's, it's industry convention time.
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As we get ready to roll into November here and, what
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what's coming up on the on the conference scene?
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I mean, where it popped?
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Todd is emcee, REPP the REPP conference?
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I mean, that's that's awesome.
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I'm excited. It's going to be fun.
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And of course, we're going to do an amazing, presentation on broker,
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all things kind of broker related.
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Of course, he's got some great ideas for that.
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So, you know, we're we're excited to get out there.
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See everybody. Right.
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That's a lot of it Craig.
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Just kind of get face to face with a lot of people.
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You know, I'll even say some people that aren't even our clients yet.
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We we great relationships
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with some of these other people and we get great ideas from them.
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So it's just a lot of fun.
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All the Vegas can be tiring,
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and I am
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vitamin up and getting all I can.
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You know, that's smart. I should probably be doing that.
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Yes, getting all the vitamins I can
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and taking my just not this year flying in general.
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I always feel like you just get up on the planes.
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But yeah, you know, this year it's a little hard on us because,
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you know, it's not.
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But not where we could just shift from one to the other.
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So we are going one week,
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and then we come home for a week, and then we go back for a week for PMRE.
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So but we're pumped. We're excited.
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We have some great things that we're going to announce at these conferences.
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So that's that's all I'm going to tease right now
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is that just be on the lookout for some great commercials.
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And so great information of of things to come.
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But we're excited.
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We're going to have some fun gear, to hand out.
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So, you know, maybe some t shirts, maybe, maybe some sunglasses.
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One that might be a little fun.
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So I'll just toss that out there.
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my question for you, Shannon, with the sunglasses.
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Do you wear your sunglasses at night?
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Of course
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Is that Don Henley.
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So who is that?
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Don Henley I'm terrible with with artist names.
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I don't know, I just know the song.
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Well, how about this, Craig?
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I will I will send you your own pair.
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There we go.
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Because they do have a little stain on the side.
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And it might also be music related. Oh, fun.
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Yeah. Okay.
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It's going to be a good time. So.
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Yeah. Well, if you're going, we, we will see you.
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I'll be at rep as well.
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I'm looking forward to it.
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I've been chatting with people on Facebook, that
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that have friended me and that I haven't had the privilege of meeting in person.
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So I'm excited.
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I'm excited to be there, too,
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because Craig, you and I actually haven't hung out together.
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Yeah, and a long time.
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So excited to see you, too.
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And it'll be just the three of us outside. Wow.
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Well, we'll have some awesome wild people with us, too.
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So that'll be fun.
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PMRE is a little bit more different.
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You know, we have a booth there that, you know,
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that's just a little bit more of a different scene, but also fun.
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And, we get to be around great people.
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I'm really looking forward to be with Titus at PMRE.
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So I just wanna be with us there, and that'll be fun.
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But no great, great things to come.
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So everybody on the lookout then?
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I do want to just remind people that we are still selling tickets for January for
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Spiro Sync
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Yeah.
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So, we do have some a few more speakers.
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We're going to get out there and headline for you guys.
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But I do want to remind people this is a different event.
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This isn't like REPP.
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This isn't like PMRE.
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This isn't you sitting and listening.
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This is actually everybody engaging, okay?
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Breakouts with different topics, everybody bringing their ideas together.
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So it really is different.
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And then again, the big thing is if you come to Spiro Sync
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you get a vote on what we do in 2026.
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That's exciting. That's very cool.
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That's really cool.
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So the tickets do you can visit to Spiro.Media
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And we've got a tab there for Spiro Sync.
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if you guys have any questions you know please reach out to me.
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Shannon@spiro.media and we'll love to,
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get you there, especially if you would love to lead a topic.
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We'd love to know if you want to come and lead a topic that you're really good at.
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That's what this is about.
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So just remember, it's a different type event.
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Nothing like,
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you've you've gone to, REPP or PMRE.
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So just just not that those things are not great.
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So, you know, I'm not saying that.
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I'm just saying is different.
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Yeah.
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That's coming up January
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the towards the end of the month, January 22nd and 23rd, 24th.
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If you're VIP.
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Now here's the thing to you guys.
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VIP tickets are sold out.
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But I have opened up the waitlist for them.
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Okay.
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So if you you know, we do have a little bit of wiggle room.
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So I might be able to let a few people in.
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So, you know, either sign up for your ticket,
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shoot me an email and say,
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hey, I would like to be on that VIP waitlist or join the waitlist,
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and I'll reach out to you and chat with you.
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Either way, works.
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But yeah, we're we're planning lots of fun.
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We're very excited.
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Good stuff.
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Dayton, Ohio. Dayton, Ohio
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Let's go in the middle of winter.
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It's going to be awesome. Hey,
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we've got a good chance.
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Okay?
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You got a 50% chance.
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There's going to be a lot of snow.
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You got a 50% chance.
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It's going to be 60 degrees
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because we get one weekend in January that is like 60 somehow.
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I have golfed in January before in northwest Ohio.
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So it's not always I would say February's honestly the worst month, right?
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That's true. That's true.
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Yeah. Yeah. So January.
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Yeah it's good starting your year off right in Dayton, Ohio okay.
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Good stuff.
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We're looking forward to meeting you.
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Well Shannon, let's cut to it.
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Let's dive into this.
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We are in the month of, October here the last week,
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in the last quarter of 2025, it is absolutely flown by.
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And we love to check in with you, throughout the year, just to get kind
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of a previous quarter review and a forecast for the upcoming quarter.
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So let's dive in. What what happened?
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Third quarter 2025.
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You know, we we didn't we're not seeing markets crash everybody.
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So I'm hearing some articles come out that the real estate market's going to crash.
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It is not it is not is not.
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So if you're here if you see those clickbait articles please move on from them.
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And you know also thank you guys.
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I know it stinks that we're it's October 24th and we're well,
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it won't be when you hear this,
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but it's today, it's October 24th and we have to do these stats so late.
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But they literally just came out yesterday.
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Oh really? For September.
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Oh wow.
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So I didn't have the whole quarter to, like take a look.
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You know, until now.
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So that's why unfortunately these lag a bit.
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So just, you know, the data does lag.
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It takes three weeks or so to get this data out.
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So just be mindful of that.
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If you're searching for the data yourself out there,
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which you can no doubt realtors where I grab most of this data.
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So it's not secret resources that I have.
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And I'd like to say that, but it's not.
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It is all public and out there.
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But let's just talk about the three quarters.
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I mean, we have.
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Right? July, August, September.
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So we all know quarter two and quarter three
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house most of the house sales.
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Right? Sure.
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Especially in what I like to call that northern part
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of, of the US, right where we draw a line in the middle
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on that northern part where we're really seasonally cool.
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You see more sales.
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So it's no, no question that July sales were up 2% month over month.
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August sales went down 0.2% month over month.
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I felt that in my market you felt that.
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And and honestly, if you look at year over year, that's a pretty small down.
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Yeah, it all starts, activity changes.
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And then September we did bounce back up 1.5%.
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So we saw and we I think we saw that throughout
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just our client at Spiro. September bounce back up.
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For everybody a little bit in October really kind of tracking the same
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if I just kind of look at October,
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a lot of times you can get some October shoots with just weather
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changing and people want to get exterior shots done before and all of that stuff.
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So unless you're in Florida, that does not matter.
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So we're just and these are nationwide numbers Craig.
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Right.
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Nationwide numbers is what I'm talking about okay.
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Averages right.
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Yes. Yeah.
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So it's taking the whole
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all the regions, the four regions that they talked about all the time. So,
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sales prices though are holding steady.
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You know, we this is when we get in to the median sales price.
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This is what really fluctuates from region to region, state to state,
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local market to local market. Right.
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But on the average, July and August, where it was 422.
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So 422,000 is a median sales price,
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and 415 in September.
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So there's the story. Okay. All right.
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There's a little bit of the story that we're going to talk about today.
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Inventory keeps increasing that this is not news either.
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It shouldn't be news to anybody.
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Inventory is increasing.
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And it has a long way to go.
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So, so but it is increasing, which is what's softening the market a bit.
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And, and depending on where that inventory and where you are and how high
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that inventories getting will depend on how soft the market gets.
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And then days on market are trending up.
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I was going to ask about that.
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It seems like from what I'm hearing
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from Realtors in my market, things are sitting a lot longer.
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I'm hearing more and more about price reductions.
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Yes, yes.
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And what's interesting, we've been talking a lot in my office that,
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you know, in the
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previous quick market, I will say quick, quick market, you would be on seven days
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and if you didn't have an activity, you're dropping your price.
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Okay.
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I listed two homes above $400,000 in Dayton, which is a six.
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Not quite luxury, but we really say anything over
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500 and Dayton is almost luxury market.
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And those homes I did not do a single one.
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I didn't do a price reduction.
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The other one, I did a price reduction after 21 days.
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I'm waiting for 21 days is what we are doing in most of us in our office.
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Unless the activity is like absolutely none.
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Then.
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Then you talk to your sellers.
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Okay, now, the one I did price drop.
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We knew we were going to go a little higher. We kind of felt it.
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So we're like, we'll drop in this time frame if we don't see some activity.
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Okay. Sure.
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So that is that is all normal.
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Now I am in Dayton, Ohio, in the Midwest market
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where things don't move crazy up or down that fast.
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You know what I'm thinking about right now?
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The fact that you said Dayton, Ohio 500 and above luxury.
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I'm just thinking about California right now.
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And they're they're choking on their drink right now.
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500 luxury
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I know.
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Right. That might get yeah.
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Well, maybe a two room house or something in California.
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I mean, the average sale price in the state is eight, like over 800,000.
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Now it's not the median, but that's the average.
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So think of an entire state as big as California.
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California is enormous. It is.
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And that is
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that's it's just absolutely insane
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to think that every area I mean, I've an uncle that lives in San Diego,
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him and I talked about the market all the time.
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He bought his house 20 some years ago for 300,000,
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and he could sell it today for 1.5 million.
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It is absolutely insane.
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And it it is his retirement plan. And that's great.
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It's it's a beautiful thing.
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And he'll probably move to Arizona and that'll be that. And
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but yeah.
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So what are the what what are all these numbers telling us.
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Right.
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We we're just we're trending and we've been talking about a lot in my office too.
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We're trending to what I keep telling you.
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Everybody's a normal market.
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What we have experienced the last, it feels like decade,
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but probably 6 or 7 years
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is a very fast moving market,
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almost unhealthy,
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unhealthy to the sellers, unhealthy to the buyers,
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unhealthy for the agent, unhealthy for agent relationships
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because we're all fighting and we're all trying to get,
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you know, something for our clients, especially if you're in those
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lower priced markets where the majority of the home sales are,
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you know, you're up to probably 250, 300 price point.
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I have a I have a map I'll look at in a minute on that.
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But it really, that's where you're going
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to see some multiple offers, those price range.
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Right.
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You're still going to see that we are still seeing
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on average about 2.3 offers per home.
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Okay. Nationwide that's a nationwide number.
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That is actually down.
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But down from 2.4.
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Okay.
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So not crazy.
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I really think, again, the inventory tells a story
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pending home sales tell a story.
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Prices, to be honest, as we just talked about, we sell a little dip.
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But if you look month over month, median
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sale prices are remaining fairly steady.
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And so there's just a lot of all these numbers to chat through.
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But we're kind we're seeing the majority of the market
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see days on market grow, buyers
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taking longer to make their decisions
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because they don't feel like they have to jump off the fence.
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Right, right, right. Which is good.
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We can help somebody buy a home that's contingent
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on selling their home if if that's a good thing.
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Right. All of these things.
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So I you know, I'm saying 90 days we're not at a 90 day market yet,
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but in certain price ranges we are
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and in certain price ranges, that's absolutely normal.
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We do have the highest month of,
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supply numbers that we've had in years. Yes.
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So we are sitting at 4.6 months supply.
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Okay. Okay.
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So what does that mean.
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All right.
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This goes back to our little
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our little line of zero houses.
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Months of inventory 12 months of inventory.
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When we hit six month inventory they consider
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that a balanced balanced market right okay okay.
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So we see that we're trending there okay.
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Now it's an overall supply okay.
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Many markets still can take plenty of inventory
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before we're going to see it completely swing.
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But you're going to hear the news and people say you know buyer's
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market buyer's market.
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And that's why we are.
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And like I said in certain price points you're going to see higher inventory.
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That's, you know, those larger price points.
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You will see a longer month supply there.
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And that's okay.
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Can I pick your brain on these on a realtors outlook on this,
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especially Realtors that have just say gotten licensed in the last five years
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as the days on market have gone longer?
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Okay.
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In the in the boom when things were flying off the market,
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I heard a lot and I've heard others in our industry
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say for realtors wouldn't
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worry too much about even photos or let alone video because, well,
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why do I need to spend the money the house is going to sell in 2 or 3 days?
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As things have gone longer now and things are sitting longer,
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what kind of attitudes or psychological states
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have you seen in your fellow realtors, especially those that are newer?
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Is there a panic? Is there?
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Are they struggling?
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Are they rethinking how they market?
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What's going on mentally for a realtor
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in these changing, changing conditions?
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So marketing should be should be the number one place that they look.
19:08
Not all smart eye smart agents and agents that do the research,
19:13
agents that pay attention, agents that are really,
19:16
really trying to be heavy lifting agents as much as you should,
19:20
pay attention.
19:21
So as an example for my listings, of course, I used, Wow Video tours.
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Sure.
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And I ran nationwide ads
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on my listings.
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Being all listings or at a certain price point is just my my,
19:38
my, the two that I had paid.
19:40
Well, yes, I did do it.
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I had another local listing that was it was price point at like 160.
19:46
So I knew locally we'd we'd get that gone, sure.
19:49
But with one I had north of town, it is an area
19:52
and this is I do live in a bass town. Right.
19:56
We have right, Pat.
19:57
So we have people coming in, out all the time.
20:00
We also have a lot of aeronautics here and different things like that.
20:02
So I have a lot of people coming in and out for that stuff.
20:05
So I knew, hey, somebody is going to come in and buy a 450,000.
20:08
house in this area
20:11
probably is going to come from out of state.
20:14
Just a good likely.
20:15
Okay, so I ran national and now I have no direct correlation.
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Again, because I didn't retarget those.
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I didn't do any retargeting.
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So I can't drill down to a specific buyer that I received.
20:27
But what I can tell you is the person that's buying that house is from Arizona.
20:31
Okay,
20:32
so weather that I got to him,
20:34
they sell the house, then they went to Zillow
20:36
or they were just doing their app and they sell the house.
20:38
Come on the market or their agent.
20:40
There's many ways for people to see homes.
20:42
Right.
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But to the point that when I was working with the sellers
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and they said, hey, here's what I'm going to do for you,
20:50
here's what I'm going to do.
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I'm going to take this media.
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We're going to go all out.
20:56
They had a great backyard.
20:57
We're going to Twilight that backyard out.
20:58
We're going to make sure it looks like people feel like they can just already
21:02
see themselves in your backyard before they come walk through the home.
21:06
Right.
21:07
I also did as Zillow to or
21:11
as I knew I needed that activity on Zillow,
21:14
and my listing got more activity than any other listing in the area. Wow.
21:19
Yes. So.
21:20
And I was under contract at a full price offer, so.
21:25
And my sellers felt very comfortable about the plan to market their home.
21:30
So that's that's what we talk about.
21:33
That's what I try to tell agents in the office to like, you have to.
21:37
We know price is a lot of this, but you have to market the home
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to get as many eyeballs on the home, to then try to help reach what you need to
21:45
for your seller. Right.
21:46
That's a that's easy.
21:48
That's not a difficult thing.
21:51
Unfortunately, in my market, I'm still seeing many houses
21:54
that are about probably under 280.
21:58
And I'm looking at these because I have a buyer in that price point
22:01
and I'm like, why are these agents not taking
22:04
photos of these houses?
22:07
It is insane to me.
22:12
So I think it's
22:13
those days on market, even for those homes grow.
22:17
To answer your question, yes, these agents are going to go, oh crap, I,
22:20
I can't skip up here.
22:22
I can't now, you know, we talked about this with Titus.
22:26
There's a lot of reasons agents don't do photos.
22:29
They might not have the money,
22:31
but the Titus advantage to
22:33
that is that it can come out at closing, can come out of closing.
22:37
Right.
22:38
This is why, you know, we had, Nick, we're railroading and I'll bring us back,
22:42
but Nick and I hopped on it live the, the other day in our Facebook
22:48
super user group to just talk about some questions we were hearing.
22:51
We were hearing quite a few people say, hey,
22:52
I don't want to offer this to my agents because they don't
22:56
they don't want these things. And I'm like,
23:00
I don't think we
23:01
should make those decisions for you.
23:04
Like, yeah, why?
23:06
And in fact, Nick's stats are only 5 to 20
23:10
5 to 20% will use pay a close.
23:13
Okay. It's it's more of a lead magnet.
23:16
Hey, we offer this so an agent can have a choice
23:21
based off their life and their finances at the time.
23:25
If they want to pay with a credit card or if they want to move that payment out,
23:29
and they might move it out for 0%, so what would they care?
23:31
So what's the opportunity for the real estate photography or videography owner?
23:37
The company owner in this current market, say third quarter going into
23:42
fourth quarter, what's the opportunity for us as real estate media professionals
23:47
in attracting new clients, new realtor clients?
23:51
How can we position ourselves to be an asset to that realtor?
23:56
I think right now, ensuring that you've got a package that speaks
24:00
to helping an agent run an ad or do social media well, right?
24:05
Having a real included in a package have,
24:08
you know, agents will at least understand
24:11
that this is a piece that will come to me, that I can upload and do ads,
24:16
or I can run and it can help get me traction, and it'll help
24:20
my seller feel very good about what I'm doing to help sell their home.
24:23
Right.
24:25
We do know first impressions are everything.
24:30
Yep. And as we shift into this market, because, again, even those agents,
24:35
even the good agents that knew when we were selling houses in one hour
24:39
that they wanted
24:40
the media on their houses because that's what they do for a living.
24:44
Yes, they sell houses.
24:46
That's how they get the next listing. Right?
24:47
We talked about that all the time. How do you get the next listing?
24:50
So when we are seeing monthly supply
24:53
rise days on market rise,
24:56
sales prices kind of hanging hanging steady, you know we're going to end up
25:00
selling a little over
25:01
4 million houses this year, which is pretty much what they predicted.
25:05
You know I don't think we get quite where we want.
25:08
September, we had a little bit of rate down that that's going to help October.
25:12
I mean we're seeing that we won't see those numbers till the end of next month.
25:16
But we're seeing all of those things
25:17
kind of come together to release some of that pent up demand.
25:21
So, so maybe you do get kind of back to a, you know,
25:24
depending on how rates for the rest of the year,
25:27
we could see some of that demand come back in the market.
25:29
So I say definitely, you got to have packages that speak to your agents
25:33
that say, this is going to help you market the house.
25:36
This is going to help you run social media.
25:39
And there's, you know, you don't need to know how to run that.
25:42
Give them the content, give them the piece that they need the 20s, the
25:47
you know, this is I go lean into Wow's product with
25:51
with this with the trendy videos and in the short insta videos
25:55
and they're social6 because that is a
25:58
that is a usable package for me, that I have all those videos ready to go
26:02
that I can schedule and push out and I can market.
26:06
So using things like that, go talk to agents.
26:10
How are you marketing your listings? Right?
26:12
I think the biggest thing in the fourth quarters,
26:14
you've got time to go talk to your people, go talk to them.
26:17
That's that's what I'm planning on.
26:19
I actually look forward to fourth quarter when things can slow down because I'm
26:23
out there shooting, you know, spring, summer, early fall, and I'm slammed.
26:26
I don't have time to talk with the realtors.
26:29
And I feel kind of bad about that because I, I don't want them
26:31
to think that I'm taking them for granted by not talking to them.
26:35
I'm just expecting the business.
26:37
But this is that time of year where things do slow down.
26:40
You can sit down, consult with them, check in.
26:43
How is your year been? How is the
26:46
have you been happy with the media that we've been providing for you?
26:50
Let's brainstorm marketing ideas.
26:52
How can I be of value to you? An asset to you.
26:54
And that's why Shannon, I so value when you come on to talk about the numbers,
26:59
because you're giving us some education that that
27:03
we can actually sound like we know what we're talking about.
27:06
And we're not just talking about photography or video.
27:09
We're talking about the industry
27:10
and understanding what the realtor is dealing with day to day in terms of,
27:14
yes, you know, real life numbers, market conditions.
27:19
And if we can add value to that realtor by having some knowledge of that ourselves,
27:24
being educated in that, how much is that going to impress that realtor?
27:28
And hey, this is a very valuable member of my team.
27:31
They know what they know what I'm dealing with.
27:33
They're trying to find solutions for me.
27:35
That's just going to deepen that that relationship, that working relationship.
27:38
So yeah, I think you could lead with a great question of just,
27:41
you know, reaching out to her.
27:43
I'd love to grab coffee.
27:45
You know, I see days of marketers stretching,
27:48
you know, what's
27:49
your I'm curious about your marketing plan for 2026
27:52
is, you know, agents right now should be planning seeds for the spring market.
27:56
That's what agents should be doing.
27:57
Yeah, and so we can do it the same in the media company
28:01
by getting with these guys and ensuring that you get their spring business,
28:06
and you sure that you help them get that or what content could you do for them now?
28:12
Because right now could just be content that you could do for them, right?
28:16
To help them market themselves over the next three months
28:19
to be ready for the spring market.
28:21
So yeah, you know, I think, everything is great with leading with questions.
28:26
Right? Leave a question.
28:27
Ask them.
28:28
Understand these numbers,
28:29
get these numbers from your local market though right.
28:32
Definitely dial in.
28:33
These are national numbers that we're talking about.
28:35
You know if we really look regionally what we see regionally
28:39
is 46% of the sales this year so far have come from the south,
28:44
southeast market. Wow.
28:47
46% in just the southeast.
28:51
Just the southeast.
28:53
Yeah.
28:54
You photographers down there,
28:56
good on you.
28:58
You're busy.
28:59
So, yeah.
29:00
Now, where are you seeing the majority of price reductions?
29:04
Probably southeast.
29:05
Southeast. Yeah.
29:06
Okay. Yes.
29:08
So, you know, in fact, the northeast market in the Midwest are primarily flat.
29:13
I mean, the northeast, you could say, they they probably still struggle
29:17
with the majority of the inventory issues.
29:20
And so and again, Midwest always lags.
29:23
We lag behind east west coast, which is a good thing.
29:26
It's not a bad thing.
29:27
We we lag behind and we kind of see what's happening.
29:29
But yeah, get these local numbers.
29:31
I mean, again, I can go to my Dayton board right now, do housing stats
29:34
and I can say the housing stat, you know, sales.
29:37
Just to give an idea on my local market, compared to the National,
29:41
we are up 0.46,
29:44
I think, in sales total for the year.
29:47
It's been a pretty flat year for sales, but we're still up almost 6%.
29:51
And prices know our agents making money still.
29:55
Oh yeah. Yes yes.
29:58
Just because the units are down.
30:00
Volume still up a bit.
30:02
Again, price reductions here in Dayton aren't crazy.
30:04
We're talking like 10,000 or, you know, even
30:07
at the higher rate you're not seeing a big gap there.
30:11
So they understand those local numbers.
30:14
And then that's going to help you build some questions
30:18
that you can lead out and lead these phone calls, get these coffees
30:22
and just see because I do think as as we head through
30:25
fourth quarter, we'll continue to see these trends.
30:28
And I think the 2026 spring market, although healthy I think
30:33
will be very healthy.
30:34
I think we'll have a we'll have longer days on market.
30:37
We'll have, you know, agents have to reset expectations.
30:41
So think about that.
30:43
Agents need to reset
30:45
expectations with their sellers.
30:49
So yeah, what does that look like from the media world?
30:53
How can the media world help an agent
30:56
reset expectations with their sellers?
31:00
It's a great question.
31:01
That's a question I wanted to ask educational content.
31:06
Okay.
31:08
Help them with some content because they need to be pumping out.
31:12
Here's what the spring market could look like.
31:14
We need to be prepared earlier.
31:16
If your move target is X,
31:19
it might take 60 days to sell your house.
31:22
We need to be prepared and plan,
31:25
and we need to do great media and make sure your home is ready.
31:28
The houses that are still.
31:30
Here's the here's the houses that are still moving very quickly.
31:33
Guess what? They have?
31:35
Staging, staging, decluttering, decluttering.
31:39
They look beautiful.
31:41
They're they're ready. They're freshly painted.
31:43
And some might not all be perfect.
31:45
They might not have all new mechanics
31:47
or things like that, but they look good and they get attention.
31:51
And so those homes are still still moving pretty quickly.
31:55
One of the most basic things that I talk to my realtors about it,
31:59
it amazes me that some still just don't get
32:03
this is something as simple as providing a getting ready
32:06
guide to your realtor to give to the seller.
32:10
And and I've told sellers, I've complimented
32:12
sellers that have taken the time to actually get their home ready.
32:16
I tell them, look, I can shoot, see
32:18
a $750,000 house that is not ready,
32:22
that the photos don't look as good as a $350,000 house that is ready.
32:28
Yeah.
32:28
And so great job on getting your house ready.
32:31
The photos are going to look amazing because of it.
32:34
Yeah I do a little bit.
32:35
But you did the hard work to see the seller's face just light up.
32:40
Yeah, they put in a ton of hard work. Right.
32:43
So when you do that as a photographer, what you're actually doing
32:47
this is where you can add value to the realtor that hired you.
32:51
You are making that realtor look good because you are complimenting the seller,
32:56
that they are totally stressed out right now, right?
32:58
This getting ready to sell their home is one of the most stressful times of life,
33:02
so anything you can do to bring some peace into their life and make them feel good,
33:08
you are.
33:08
You are making yourself valuable to that realtor
33:12
and helping make this whole transaction a much smoother one.
33:16
It goes beyond just good photos.
33:17
It's how you interact with the sellers as well.
33:20
So if you can be that right, that's
33:23
when I talk about being a part of a Realtors team.
33:26
That's what I'm talking about.
33:27
It's not just about taking the photos and the video.
33:29
Yeah, we're creatives, but we're also marketing consultants
33:33
and salespeople and business development people.
33:37
Make your
33:39
you will make yourself so invaluable to that realtor
33:42
by taking that kind of approach,
33:44
something as simple as complimenting the seller on the work that they did.
33:48
Absolutely.
33:48
Because you can't just be the photo guy, right?
33:51
The girl like, you have to be, oh, my media company
33:54
or my media person or my, my, my guy, my girl.
33:58
Like, that is who you want to be.
34:00
You don't want to be. Oh, I you know, who do you use?
34:04
Sometimes I use this company.
34:05
Sometimes I use that company.
34:08
You know, you're a commodity or commodity at that.
34:10
Yeah.
34:11
And this is a service industry. Yes.
34:14
You're going to deliver digital assets, but
34:18
a photographer is a professional service.
34:23
At the heart of everything.
34:24
Right.
34:25
And agents are going to have to lean in
34:29
to this marketing.
34:32
They really it's worth swinging back.
34:35
Again like I said this is all good things buyers don't have to buy homes
34:38
without home inspections.
34:40
But like that all of these things are actually very healthy.
34:44
Realtor sentiment is confidence is is good.
34:47
They're predicting right now
34:50
14% increase in sales in 2026.
34:53
So really and I think that's kind of being driven by some interest rate,
34:58
interest rates is interesting.
34:59
And I think my next podcast with you guys, I want to actually bring somebody on
35:04
and help us dive into interest rates and just what it means,
35:07
because there's a lot of people that just really don't understand.
35:11
Like if the fed just cuts rates a quarter,
35:14
that doesn't always mean interest rates are going to go down.
35:18
And sometimes the
35:20
fed cuts rates and interest rates go up and people are like,
35:23
well, it's all about the basis points and things don't trickle all the way
35:27
just from the fed cutting the interest rate.
35:30
So there's a lot that goes into that.
35:32
But I think the interest rate will be what kind of leads us into next year.
35:38
And if we can stay where we're at or get a little bit further down at six,
35:42
maybe a little under six, then I think you'll really start
35:46
to see some other movement.
35:48
I mean, you still got a lot of the market that has an interest rate
35:50
between 3 and 6%.
35:53
But you have 30% of the market buying in cash.
35:59
think of that.
36:00
Wow, 30%.
36:01
The market's buying in cash.
36:03
Really?
36:07
This is what of that.
36:09
Was it higher back even say a year ago?
36:13
I have to go.
36:13
Look I didn't look at that year over year on that because I swear
36:17
I heard about a lot of cash offers and that was boggling my mind.
36:20
Yeah. Well and it's because a lot okay.
36:23
So remember we talked about that.
36:24
So what is it like 51% of people have an interest rate under 4% or something.
36:30
Now the 3%.
36:31
There's been quite a few people to move out of those.
36:33
So we've seen some movement
36:35
out of the three like that's under three is finally like not so high.
36:39
Like it's good.
36:41
But there's still a lot between 4 and 6, but with like over 50%.
36:45
The market having an interest rate, around 4% is like that.
36:49
You're not going to get people out.
36:50
But at the same time you had I can't remember what the percentage was.
36:54
I'd have to go look.
36:54
But it was, I think, almost like 45% of
36:57
people had more than 50% equity in their home.
37:02
So that's a lot of equity.
37:03
And so people have bought cash from their homes being paid off.
37:08
And whether they've done a bridge loan or they've just had the assets to buy
37:12
and then sell and then replenish their assets,
37:15
which is what's happened with those cash deals, a lot of them.
37:18
So now and you're still seeing investors buy, especially certain areas.
37:22
That's what I was going to say
37:23
are earn a lot of those cash deals also an investment properties or investors.
37:27
Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
37:28
But be the market becoming more affordable will help curb a little bit of that.
37:33
And that actually isn't a bad thing.
37:35
We know we can't get too many
37:37
neighborhoods bought out by investors and just be rental neighborhoods.
37:40
You've got to have a kind of a combination in there to keep neighborhoods healthy.
37:45
And, you know, unfortunately, it is just a proven fact
37:48
that renters don't take care of the home as much as a homeowner
37:53
because they don't own it.
37:54
So yes, yes.
37:55
But the American dream is alive and well and you've got to do your local research.
38:01
I cannot stress that enough.
38:02
I'm happy to give these numbers.
38:04
I'm happy to give you the resources again to these numbers.
38:06
You can go get them yourself.
38:08
NAR.Realtor
38:10
is where I get a lot of the stats from.
38:13
I also get a lot from Keller Williams.
38:15
Because I have that access.
38:16
You know, I look at my local data numbers all the time, every day, every day
38:21
and every day.
38:21
Inventory is rising just a bit in the Dayton market.
38:24
And that's what we're seeing.
38:26
But sales are holding strong and, and we're not like, I, like I said, we
38:31
we hit the bottom year over year ago and we should trend up a bit,
38:37
and a healthier market for everybody,
38:39
for media companies included.
38:41
There you go.
38:43
So as we kind of wrap things, wrap things up here,
38:47
at the end of the podcast, going into fourth quarter
38:50
and first quarter of 2026, what would be your one piece of advice
38:54
to that real estate media owner right now to get ready?
38:59
Well, I mean, we're already in fourth quarter, but to get ready for the,
39:01
you know, fourth quarter and headed into first quarter 2026.
39:06
Well, we've already we've already said it.
39:08
Craig. Call your people.
39:10
Talk to your people.
39:12
Have these conversations.
39:13
Know what your top VIPs are planning on for spring.
39:18
And ask them how you can help them.
39:21
Simple enough.
39:22
It's simple
39:24
and have the numbers bring them with you, right?
39:26
Yes, and ask them and say, hey, I'd love to dial into any data
39:29
you have about the market and understand it more.
39:33
Right.
39:34
And it might be a, hey, can I meet you at the office
39:36
for 20 minutes and that's easier for the agent.
39:38
That's fine. Meet them where they are. Right.
39:41
You know, if they can't have a conversation on the phone, count
39:44
that as an appointment.
39:45
But right now, I mean, one once a day, you should have the time to make a phone
39:50
call, say hello, stop by an office, see who you can see.
39:55
You know, get into some office meetings, and then go
39:58
make sure you're the one taking the media at their at their holiday events. So
40:04
that's good.
40:04
You know, it's relationship time, right?
40:07
It's relationship time.
40:08
We're we're kind of getting through shooting time now some markets right
40:11
are still pretty busy.
40:12
And they'll stay busy for another probably 30 or 45 days.
40:16
You know October is typically their last listening.
40:19
So you can try to sell for them.
40:20
The year I've been I've been slammed with shoots in October.
40:24
Yeah.
40:24
It's like I'm wanting to shift into that meeting mode.
40:28
I can't I can't yet.
40:29
It's like I don’t have time.
40:32
It's a good problem to have for sure you know.
40:34
Wow seen another record year.
40:36
So and we'll share some of that data when we're at REPP.
40:39
But it, it, it shouldn't be difficult to grow your business
40:43
right now with the agents having days on market getting longer.
40:47
Their mindset should be shifting to
40:50
I really need to do a good job of marketing this house
40:53
and maybe or one of our media companies that has kind of signed up and talking
40:56
about pay at close could just get you together and say, hey,
41:00
I want to help you make your money work for you.
41:02
I want to tell you about something new I'm offering.
41:04
Can we get together and and talk about it?
41:08
What what what a powerful way to like, reach out to somebody right?
41:13
For sure.
41:13
Hey, I have something that might help you like.
41:16
And it's not just a video or
41:19
no different tool.
41:21
Yeah.
41:22
Again, you're you're adding value
41:23
in in new creative ways that helps their business.
41:27
So yeah.
41:28
Good stuff.
41:29
Shannon Landers I can't call you a guest anymore.
41:32
I mean, you're part and you're part of the team.
41:34
You're a regular.
41:36
So thank you.
41:37
We always appreciate the insight you bring to us, on the numbers
41:40
side of things. So,
41:42
appreciate it.
41:43
Thank you.
41:43
I appreciate it.
41:45
And, I appreciate you, Craig, for all that you do for us.
41:49
And thank you for, you know, the podcast and all you do,
41:52
because we help a lot of people, all the time. It's been a privilege.
41:55
And and that is really great.
41:57
So, and I, I'm loving everything you're doing, Craig.
42:00
So keep it up.
42:01
Oh, shucks. Good. Make me blush. No,
42:05
seriously,
42:05
guys, though I do enjoy doing this. My.
42:08
And I've shared this.
42:10
Those are the have the. Listen for a long time.
42:12
You already know this, but my my background was broadcasting.
42:15
I worked in radio for almost 20 years, and when I realized I wasn't going
42:20
to continue in that industry anymore, there was a little bit of a like a grief
42:25
because I there's parts of it I just really enjoy doing.
42:28
So the fact that I get to do this and be with an audience every week and,
42:32
and hopefully provide some content that is going to help them and benefit them.
42:37
I mean, I really do see that as a privilege.
42:39
It, it, you know, kind of breaks up my week.
42:42
You know, it just provides me variety.
42:45
I think I have a little ADD so, you know, changing things up I think really helps.
42:50
It also work right.
42:51
Adult onset ADD.
42:53
it is, it is, it is.
42:55
There's too many things going on.
42:56
I really got diagnosed with it to myself.
42:59
And did you.
43:01
Yeah.
43:01
And it they say it's just there's too many things coming at us.
43:04
There's too many ways to communicate.
43:06
There's. Yeah.
43:07
Yeah.
43:08
So to that point guys get in your, get in your, you know,
43:11
get in your priorities of what you need to do and focus on that.
43:15
Yeah.
43:16
And sometimes you do got to let some things,
43:19
you know, not happen or say, no, this that's been this week for me.
43:22
I've been grinding on some stuff, getting it ready for the conferences and,
43:25
and I've had to tell other clients, I'm sorry, I need to help you next week.
43:29
And sometimes that happens, right?
43:32
But now.
43:32
But thanks again,
43:33
I love it, I love it, I get on every week, if I could with you guys.
43:37
Nobody wants to hear me every week.
43:38
I know that's.
43:41
We'll talk to Todd.
43:42
Maybe. Maybe that can happen.
43:44
Anyway, guys, thank you so much for the time.
43:46
We know, you're still busy, you know, this time of year.
43:49
So we appreciate the time you take to listen, to watch.
43:52
If you found some value to this podcast, we'd love a, like, on YouTube.
43:57
Feel free to share it in the various, real estate media groups
44:01
that are out there on Facebook and whatnot.
44:04
And, just make sure you take some time to breathe,
44:07
be thankful for the blessings in your life and have a great week.
44:10
Take care.