Summary

Three reasons why a market downturn is great news for real estate agents ready to explode & grow their business.

1. Motivation to sell jumps dramatically. People who have been putting off selling their homes suddenly get the urge to sell because as the market shifts, home prices start to drop.
2. Scared people will listen. Whenever people start seeing the market turning, they start getting scared. And when you have market knowledge, understanding, and expertise, all of a sudden, they’re going to start listening to you, trusting you, and they’re going to hire you.
3. Most of your competition will disappear. A lot of real estate agents (mostly those who are not doing the work) will panic & flunk out of the business because deals aren’t coming to them anymore. Even top producers will consider retiring now. 

Be willing to do the work and master the skills, strategies, and systems to succeed…and the opportunities for you are going to be massive.

If you need help on this, don’t miss our special offer on our Master Path online training program. You’ll get training on how to win even in a market crash. Get more details here.

Full Transcript

Yes, my friends, the market downturn is here.

Hi there. It’s Kevin Ward, the founder of YESMasters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. And yes, the housing market is beginning to turn, and it’s different and a little different in little markets, but I believe that a major market turn is coming. 

And so I want to talk in this video about three reasons why a market downturn is great news for real estate agents who are hungry and who are ready to explode and grow their business.

How do we know the market is turning?

Now let me just talk, first of all, is the market turning, and how do we know the market is turning? Well, I just did a webinar this last week where I talked about a lot of reasons. I’m just going to kind of run over some of the things that we talked about in that webinar just to give you a quick summary.

One is inventory is up dramatically in many major markets across the country, and it’s coming to other markets. Okay? In 12 states, in 12 states, or it’s over 12 states in the last year, inventory has more than doubled compared to August 2021, comparing it to August 2022. So inventory is continuing to go up, not just a little bit, but is doubled and tripled in a lot of markets. 

And in those markets, price reductions are up three times, five times, sometimes over 10 times as many price reductions we are seeing now as we were seeing in Q1 of 2022. So what does that mean? Well, it means when inventory goes up, that is an increase in supply. It also reflects a decrease in demand. So when supply goes up and demand goes down, what happens to prices? Prices begin to fall.

So there’s a lot of things happening outside of just the real estate market. You’ve also got interest rates that have practically doubled this year. You’ve got inflation pushing double digits, and it doesn’t look like that’s going anywhere. It’s going to stay here. Consumer confidence is in the toilet. In fact, Fannie Mae put out a report just recently that housing sentiment fell to the lowest level since 2011, where only 17% of consumers believe now is a good time to buy. So all of that is happening. 

There are massive layoffs that are happening across the country. Now, people aren’t talking about this. You’re not hearing about it in the news. Nobody wants to talk about this, but when layoffs start happening, it is an indication not only of what’s currently happening, but that has an effect and an impact as it trickles down through the rest of the economy and to the housing market.

So these are just layoffs that have happened just in the last quarter. Walmart, Oracle, Tesla, Chase, Chase Bank, over a thousand layoffs, Compass Real Estate, 450 layoffs, Redfin, 470, Peloton, the exercise bike company, over 4,000 layoffs, RE/MAX, 17% of its workforce laid off, Netflix, 150 layoffs, Shopify, over a thousand, Snap, over 20% of their work workforce, Wayfair, 10% reduction in employees, Robinhood, over a thousand layoffs, 7-Eleven, 880 corporate jobs, Vimeo cut 6% of its workforce. Rivian, which is another electric car maker company, 800 jobs laid off. Coinbase, over a thousand jobs. Carvana, over 2,500 jobs. Better.com, which is a mortgage startup, has cut 4,000 jobs. And the list goes on and on and on.

The NASDAQ is down 27% this year. S&P is down 18%. The Dow is down 13%, which is trillions of dollars in retirement funds for people that are living on their 401(k)s. Now understand, who is that? That’s people who are in their late fifties, sixties, and seventies, retirement-aged people, who represent over 50%, well over 50% of all the homeowners in America. So when their stock portfolio drops, their income, their retirement income drops dramatically. What does that mean? That means people are going to have to sell their houses.

So there are just so many things that are happening. In the first half of 2022, over three and a half trillion dollars in net worth was lost through the stock market. Over a trillion dollars in Bitcoin wealth was lost. And again, this is people’s retirement funds and money. Foreclosure filings are up nearly three times compared to what they were in 2021. So all of this is happening, plus global economic issues, global tensions, war. 

There’s so many things that are happening with all the, on top of that, government stimulus, Feds saying interest rates are going to keep going up. There’s a whole lot of reasons to believe that the market is about to turn.

Now, what do we do when the market turns? 

The housing market shifts, real estate agents go into panic. Why? Gets harder to do deals. We’re already seeing over 15% of real estate transactions now are falling out of escrow. They’re not closing. They’re getting into contract, and then they’re not closing. And what happens? Some of you watching this have probably already started to see that happening. So what that simply means is it is time to prepare for a market downturn.

Now, I’m going to let you know that I’ve been training on this. I’ve been talking about this for months. If you are needing help on this, I’m going to invite you to click on the link below where we’re offering a special on our Master Path online training program for real estate agents who want to get prepared now for the eventuality of a market turning dramatically and potentially even a market crash.

Now, again, I don’t know what’s going to happen, okay? Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen, how fast all this is going to happen, but here’s the thing about it. When you are prepared for it, you win. When you’re prepared for it and the market downturn happens, you win. When you’re prepared for it and if the market doesn’t turn down, you still win. Those who get killed are the ones who are unprepared. And just like all, if you go back to all the economic booms, recessions or busts, recessions and all of that, and go back a hundred years, it took so many people by surprise and it still will take people by surprise today.

3 Reasons Why NOW is a Great Time to Be in Real Estate

So why is it a good time for you to be in real estate? If you are new and you are hungry, or if you are just getting going and you’re hungry and want to build your business, I’m going to give you three reasons why right now is a great time to begin real estate and over the next 12, 24 months, an awesome opportunity for you to massively expand your business.

1. Number one, because when the economy turns, motivation to sell goes through the roof. You’re going to have people who have not been thinking about selling, who’ve been holding onto their houses, who’ve been staying put, who all of a sudden, they’re going to be in a position where they’re like, “Okay, it’s time to sell.” As the market starts turning down, they’ve ridden up the value of their house and appreciation. And again, many of these people are baby boomers. 

They’re downsizers. They’re in their late fifties, sixties and seventies, and they’re going to, “We’ve been in our house for 10 years, 20 years. Market has gone up. We’re going to make a lot of money on our house when we sell it,” but all of a sudden they’re seeing the prices start to drop. Also, you see people whose financial situation starts to change. So what happens? All of a sudden, people who had no plans to move all of a sudden are going like, “Oh no, we have to sell.”

Okay? So motivation to sell jumps dramatically. If you’ve been out there prospecting and talking to people and finding out nobody wants to move, shortage of inventory and all of that kind of stuff, all of that shifts in a shifting market. So there’s just a lot more opportunity if you know how to tap into it and you know how to find it and you know how to convert it.

2. Number two, scared people will listen. Now, I know I talk to agents all the time about what talking… They’re out there. They’re talking to For Sale By Owners. They’re talking to people who’ve been thinking about selling, but they’re like, “Yeah, our house is going to be worth more than we… We’re going to wait,” and all this. And when people are confident, when sellers are confident, I was talking to one of my coaching members just this week who was talking about a For Sale By Owner, was like, “Yeah, I want to get X amount from my house, and if I can’t get it now, I’m just going to wait.”

And what happens is they’re still confident. Sellers especially are still confident that their house is worth a lot of money. And so they’re still thinking pie in the sky, I can get this for the house. They’re not scared. But whenever people start seeing the market turning and prices start dropping, they start getting scared. Scared people will listen to you. 

So all of a sudden, a lot of the people you’ve been having conversations with, they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, whatever. We’re not going to move. We’re not going to sell right now,” all of a sudden, those scared people, when people get scared, they start looking, and they start asking questions. And all of a sudden, they’ll start listening to you as a real estate agent.

Right now, it’s kind of hard for them to believe. “Ah, I don’t know if the market’s going to turn.” Some of you right now are listening and you’re like, “Ah, I don’t know if the market’s going to turn.” But those of you that are already seeing it and it’s already starting to impact you, you’ve had some deals fall out that you’re like, “How is this happening? I’ve never had a deal fall out in the last three years of real estate.” Yep. And all of a sudden you’ve had two fall out in the last quarter. It is a sign things are changing, and scared people listen.

You know this. If you’re a parent, I know this about my kids: when they’re all confident and they know what’s going on, they don’t want to listen. They’re like, “Yeah, whatever, mom and dad.” But when kids are a little scared, they’ll listen to everything you say, and the same with buyers and sellers is when they get a little scared, they start listening. And when you know what to say and you have knowledge and understanding and expertise, all of a sudden, they’re going to start listening to you, trusting you, and they’re going to hire you.

3. And number three, and this is something that is going to be like, nobody’s going to see this coming. From 2009 to 2011 when the housing collapsed last time, over 400,000 realtors quit. They got washed out. Now, here’s the good news for you that so much of your competition is going to disappear. 

Now, when we think of that, we think, okay, everybody’s going to get out. A lot of real estate agents, they’re going to flunk out of the business. They’re going to go broke, and they’re going to have to get out of real estate. There’s going to be a whole lot of that, a lot of new agents who are not doing the work. A lot of people get scared. They panic. Deals aren’t coming to them easy anymore. They’re just going to fall out of the business. So you’re going to have less competition that way.

But here’s what nobody thinks about, and that is that whenever a market downturn comes, and I remember this happening in 2008, 2009, 2010, there is a massive number of top-producing agents, agents who dominate markets who are looking at it and going like, “You know what? I’ve been thinking about retiring for a while. I think it’s time for me to exit.” 

And you’re going to have people have mega teams. You’re going to have agents that have been top producers, and they’ve been in real estate for 20 years, 30 years. They have market share. They’re going to quit. Things are going to get tough, and they’re going to go like, “I’ve been through this before. I don’t want to go through this again.” Or they’re just not going to be paying attention, and the market shifts, and they’re not ready to adapt for it, and they’re going to get into financial trouble. And when that happens, agents start falling away.

Even top producers, you’re going to see a lot of them are going to retire. They’re going to get out of real estate. They’re going to back off. They’re going to go part-time. They’re going to stop hustling because they don’t want to hustle again. And it’s a perfect opportunity for a hungry agent who says, “Okay, now I’m going to put my nose to the grindstone. I’m going to master the processes. I’m going to master lead generation. I’m going to master objection handling. I’m going to master listing presentations. I’m going to master pricing. I’m going to master communication.” 

And when you’re willing to do the work to work on yourself first and master the skills and master the strategies and master the systems to make all of this work, when the market shifts, the opportunities for you are going to be huge.

Keep Your Head Right

Probably the most important thing that you’ve got to do right now as you start seeing the market shift is you got to keep your head right, because if you start getting scared, if you start panicking and you start saying, “Oh no, the sky is falling,” all of a sudden, you get out of a position of strength where you can actually go get more business. 

So right now is a time if you are not getting trained, if you’re not investing in yourself to be coached, now is a time to start looking at, I need to learn. I need to master conversations. I need to master scripts. I need to master the industry. I need to master how to lead people to a decision to get them to hire me. 

How do I do that? You’ve got to be focused on that because if you’re hungry and you’re ready over the next 12, 24, 36 months, there are going to be tremendous opportunities for you to 5X and 10X your business like you will never see again in your lifetime.

So again, if you are looking right now for help and you’ve been watching my YouTube videos and you’re like, “You know what? Maybe it’s time to up my game and get into some stuff,” I want to invite you to go to yesmasters.com, to my website, check out our different training opportunities, or you can click on the link that we’ll have here in the YouTube video in the description that will take you directly to a special offer that we’ve got for agents right now that is just lasting for the next few days that I want to invite you to jump onto. 

If you have questions or comments, please post them in the link below. If this video is helpful for you, make sure you give it a thumbs up. Again, thanks for watching and always expect yes.