As Mortgage Rates Rise, Here’s How You Can Use Home Sales Data To Approach “Fence-Sitters”

As mortgage rates rise this year, now is the time when it would be smart for a real estate professional to feature home sales data on their website.

Why? Because the human condition that all brokers and agents disdain is about to change. That condition is known as “fence-sitting” and people are going to see very quickly that not making a home buying decision today could be costly for them later on.

For years, mortgage rates have sat in a virtual basement, as rates were so low that they just became accepted as the norm. But experienced real estate agents and brokers know this was not the norm, They can remember in the not so distant past how rates hovered around the 9% mark. And then there was the terrible 1980s, when mortgage rates were in double digits.

Yes, it can happen again. Rates now are practically a third of what they were four decades ago.

But they are creeping up. If ever there was a catalyst to get prospects to make a move, this is it. Consumers are hearing about these rate increases in the media. Talk to prospects about the potential damage to their bank accounts if they don’t invest in a home now is certainly a persuasive reason to act.

Sure, brokers and agents don’t like higher mortgage rates. They could price some of their prospects out of the market if debt to income ratios change.

But right now, we are in the home loan sweet spot. The transition period from a long lull in interest rates to a rising-rate environment. A transition period. An uncertain period. Who knows how high rates will go with a new president, or with the federal reserve finally raising interest rates, or with new signs the economy could be heating up. All of these factors seem to be pointing up when it comes to rates.

So as an agent or broker, what do you do? Talk is cheap. You could tell some prospects until you are blue in the face about how now is the time for them to move. They still might hesitate.

But nothing is more persuasive than hard numbers. And home sales data can be very persuasive in a volatile market. That’s why it is smart to get those numbers from real home sale data providers such as Home Junction Inc.

This is the era of fast technology and big data. With today’s cable bandwidth, an agent or broker can simply add a few lines of code to their website and display a massive amount of home sales data, market trends, school data, business listings, boundary information, demographic data and much more.

Use that data to move up in the ranks on Google and Bing when people search for local homes sales data in your marketplace.

Post homes sales data and trend charts on your Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter accounts. Get influencers on those social media sites to share this data with their followers.

Send out home sales data in your follow-up emails to prospects. Instead of the standard email showing listings, change the subject line.

“Latest home sales data shows a surge in buying” or “Latest home  sales data reveals increase in home prices.”

That will certainly get the attention of fence sitters.

Same goes for potential sellers. If a home owner in a market has not been excited about flat growth in home values, think how excited they will be with an email from you filled with home sales data showing property prices trending upward.

The old internet adage comes once again into play here  (if you can say the internet is old) .

That adage is “Content is King.”

Of course, the underlying message here is, “Valuable Data On Your Website is King.” Because that’s where you want people to find the latest homes sales data. Not on someone else’s site. Not on Zillow or another lead gen site.

This year is going to be a very interesting year. There’s a buzz in the air. We are going to see change.

Are you prepared to get off the fence yourself and enhance your website with real estate marketing tools such as home sales data? This certainly is the time to just do it.