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Real Estate Forecast For 2019 Shows A Dip, But A Nice Rebound On Horizon With Still Low Loan Rates

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real estate forecast

Despite all the uncertainty hovering over the economy, one real estate forecast for 2019 points to a silver lining for home sales this year and especially the following year.

One place where we like to review housing forecasts is the Mortgage Finance Forecast from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

After all, these people need to have their fingers on the pulse of the market as much as Realtors. If there aren’t many mortgages being underwritten, there ain’t going to be many home sales either.

But their outlook is promising.

Real estate forecast 2018 vs. 2019

For example this is how they see existing homes sales (including condos) per quarter for 2019 compared to 2018 (in thousands)

  • Q1 – 5,387 vs. 5,507 last year
  • Q2 – 5,553 vs. 5413
  • Q3 – 5,641 vs. 5,273
  • Q4 – 5,659 vs. 5,275 forecast, official tally not in

There’s an upturn predicted for EVERY quarter except for the first one.

The forecast for 2020 looks very promising, where sales are predicted to take off like one of Elan Musk’s rockets.

(Ironically, the innovator has plans to send his massive Space X rocket to Mars the first years of the next decade. Sure shows an optimistic spirit. That enthusiasm might just catch on, since we know much of the economy is driven psychologically. Just saying).

The 2020 forecast for Total Existing Homes Sales (in thousands) is very bullish.

  • Q1 – 5,701
  • Q2 – 5,732
  • Q3 – 5,707
  • Q4 – 5,722

See the bump. The MBA says home sales will be 5,387,000 these first few months but predicts growth upward to 5,701,000 in the same period in 2020.

That’s cause for optimism.

To sum it up, here’s the total forecast for existing home sales per year in the next few years:

  • 2018 – 5,367,000 
  • 2019 – 5,560,000
  • 2020 – 5,721,000
  • 2021 – 5,848,000

That’s a very nice picture indeed.

2019 mortgage rates will increase slightly, but are still incredibly low

The outlook for mortgage rates which affect home sales is optimistic as well.

In 2018, 30-year fixed mortgage rates ranged around the 4.5% rate and trended upward.

For 2019, here’s the prediction from the MBA:

  • Q1 – 4.8%
  • Q2 – 4.9%
  • Q3 – 5%
  • Q4 – 5%

For 2020, the mortgage economists predict a slight bump averaging 5.1%.

Sure, many people start to panic when they see mortgage rates increase.

However, when you put a 4.8% interest rate in perspective for the rate in the past 40 years, it’s still a blessing with a big “B” for home buyers.

According to Freddie Mac, in January 1982, mortgage rates for 30-year fixed home loans were as high as 17.5%.

Ouch. Talk about burdensome monthly payments.

For decades mortgages rates hovered in the 7% to 9% range.

They finally broke into the 3.8% range in 2012.

Show that chart to any Millennial who might be concerned about mortgage rates going up.

Just point out, folks, “you ain’t seen high mortgage rates” like we used to experience in the old days.

The mortgage and real estate industry probably need to do a concerted effort this year to remind consumers how these mortgage rates are still at bargain basement levels.

A few decades ago, this writer remembers when his father told him about the 4% mortgage rate he paid in the 1960s. Wow, did that sound incredible compared to the 10% rates that were prevalent at that time.

Who would have ever thought incredibly cheap rates would drop to those levels again?

But they have. Millennials weren’t around in the 60s so they don’t realize just how good they got it.

One role of a real estate professional is to remind them.

Learn about lead gen and other upgrades

Sure, the real estate business had a nice boom going for a few years. A slowdown is inevitable. The market ebbs and flows just like the tide.

The tide might go out a little in the next few months. But the loan experts who monitor and forecast the markets closely see improvements coming quickly thereafter.

According to the MBA, keep your eye on the immediate horizon toward mid-summer. The winds are going to be blowing favorably and those home sales are going to be picking up once again.

One more point – when things slow down, business people tend to pull back on their marketing efforts. But McGraw Hill once conducted a study that found those businesses that stepped up their marketing efforts in a downturn actually did better than those who buried their heads in the sand.

And when the economy recovered, those aggressive companies were already up to speed and able to go full throttle

If you want  input on some smart real estate and mortgage lead generation, social media and other marketing strategies for 2019, contact the experts at Home Junction.

We have a giant array of proven marketing tools that consumers want such as:

  • Home Value Widgets (Automated Valuation Models) and plug-ins that are very effective for lead generation)
  • Real Estate Data APIs that can supply a vast amount of hyper-local data from school information, school attendance zones, recent property sales, market trends, neighborhood demographics, local amenities and much more. Great fodder for social media posts.
  • Geo-spatial boundary information and mapping capabilities
  • WordPress real estate themes that are search-engine enhanced to optimize content and Google and Bing rankings
  • WordPress real estate plug-ins to add super features to any real estate website
  • MLS API services and feeds that are fast, accurate and updated regularly to provide the latest listing info
  • SEO services to help improve free organic rankings for targeted keywords

It costs nothing to speak with one of our experts. The phone number is 858-777-9533.

But that call to learn the latest advances in real estate technology could just be the difference that gives your firm a competitive edge in 2019, and puts you in a great position for the rebound predicted to come.

 

 

 

Home Sales Data By Zip Code And Other Relevant Info Helps Google Determine “Intent”

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home sales data by zip codeAdding homes sales data by zip code to your website could be very beneficial when dealing with a concept that Google experts call “intent.”

Now, every real estate broker and agent in America wants to rank high on Google for their company. When you do, in a way, it’s like hitting the lottery.

When your real estate website appears on Page One (which by the way, is one of the benefits of WordPress real estate websites), the phones ring. People visit your website. Fill out contact forms.

All for free.

Great right?

Okay, of course by now, you realize there are people out there who try to manipulate the search engines so their website ranks on Page One. It could be for anything – baby strollers, park benches, purple socks, you name it.

Google knows this. It’s a smart company.

How smart? Well, in May their company was valued at $729 billion with a “B” dollars. The stock price for their holding company, Alphabet, is about $1,000 per share.

Their search engine is their No. 1 product.

So obviously, they are going to devote quite a bit of resources to make sure that product delivers the best results it can.

Because here’s another interesting fact most people might not know about Google. They have more than 70,000 employees.

That’s a lot of brainy people working on the algorithms, quality and the standards for their search engine product.

Home sales data by zip code adds more property-related content

Now back to intent.

Used to be, when Google first started, if a visitor typed in the words “Hoboken Real Estate” in the search bar, the website that had those mentioned more often usually got pretty decent rankings.

Of course, there were many other factors in the Google formula besides just keywords.

But those were the early days, when they had a handful of data engineers on staff.

Now, they have quite a few more, tens of thousands of data engineers in fact, to make sure people searching on their website find what they are looking for.

After all, that other major search engine, Bing from Microsoft, is right on their heels continually fighting for market share.

So experts now say the geniuses at Google have devised formulas to anticipate what they refer to as “intent.” It’s a way to determine the broader goal of a person searching for answers.

How deep is the content on your website?

For example, when a visitor to Google types in the words, “Hoboken Real Estate,” Google’s algorithms search through their massive databases and figure out what could be the objective of someone typing in those words.

That person is probably interested in purchasing a home.

When Google evaluates a website, they also scan a page and check their indexes for websites that have content relevant to purchasing a home.

This is where home sales data by zip code plays a huge factor.

Because by adding homes sale data by zip code and other real estate market data to your website, your website will be filled with information that Google knows is important to a web visitor looking to purchase a home.

They know that visitor will be interested in home sale prices, market trends, sales data by zip code or in certain neighborhoods, historical data, school data, property attributes, and other factors.

As you can imagine, those Google engineers have dug even deeper. They also look at a factor experts refer to as “secondary intent.”

From its massive database on search history, Google apparently knows this type of visitor who searched for “Hoboken Real Estate” will also be interested in school attendance zones, neighborhood demographics, crime statistics and other related content.

Google will reward higher rankings to websites that have a vast array of in-depth content related to homes. On the other hand, Google won’t give much credence to websites that display what is referred to as “thin” content. Websites that do not offer visitors much information and might in fact, just be created to try and game Google.

That’s why in today’s day and age, it is important to use the advantages of data technology to add as much hyper-local content that you can on a real estate website.

You could go out and try to find all that data yourself. You could try to add all that data on your website (although some of it, you probably can’t because it’s proprietary). You could also try to update that data every week or every month. Quite an undertaking.

But why bother? As the saying goes, “Whose got time for that?”

There are aggregators out there now, such as Home Junction Inc., who with their real estate data API can easily embed widgets that will feed home sales data by zip code and other relevant data to your website.

Instead of just home listings, your website could also contain a ton of other relevant information:

  • Recent property sales
  • Trends in sales in a particular zip code, or even a neighborhood or subdivision
  • Property attributes of homes in a neighborhood
  • Square footage
  • Municipal boundaries
  • School data
  • School district boundaries
  • School enrollment numbers
  • Student/teacher ratios

And much more.

Moms searching for school data have a specific intent

Here’s another benefit of adding this type of local, neighborhood information.

Think about how your website addresses this concept of “intent.”

Say a mom goes on Google and starts searching for information about schools.

Why?

One definite “intent” could be that she is thinking of relocating to your town and wants to check out where the schools are located.

She is also going to want to know detailed information about the types of schools her children might attend.

Again, if you add real estate market data to your website, you are going to be meeting the “intent” of that searcher.

Here’s another example.

Say a home owner is getting ready to move and is interested to find out, “What is my home worth?”

A local real estate agent now has the ability to provide their own “Home Value Estimator Tool” (just like the big real estate portal that starts with a “Z”).

Rather than put a few words of text on your site, “Call me for a CMA estimate for what your home is worth” you can have a tool that lets the home owner check out some factors on their own. (Naturally, these are estimates and not formal CMAs.).

But, if you have a Home Value Estimator tool on your website and lots of people are using it, Google sees your website is doing a great job of answering search queries for “What is my home worth?”

Sure, many people using an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) will just be “lookey-lous” curious about the value of their home.

But a good number of those people will be checking out the estimated value of their homes because they are ready to list now, or in the very near future.

Search visibility anymore is a complex beast. As you can see by the number of engineers working at Google, they are checking the value of websites from many different angles.

Fake or phony content won’t cut it.

Adding supplemental and relevant data such as home sales data by zip code to your website will help establish in Google’s mind, that your website has highly relevant information that meets their requirements regarding this concept known as “intent.”

 

 

 

 

Public Real Estate Data A Neccesity To Overcome Seller Concerns About Negative Perceptions

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public real estate dataPublic real estate data can be a major selling point when it comes to talking to listing prospects about perceptions on “good” and “bad” neighborhoods.

Here’s an amusing story that illustrates the point.

One writer talked about how the city he lived in appeared on one of those lists as “Worst Places to Live in the US.” The reseseach said unemployment was high. There were quite a few crimes. Lots of abandoned stores and office buildings.

But then, one day, the writer came across another list of “Best Places to Live in the US.” Guess what? His city appeared at the top of the list. That’s because the methodology used in the study was based on highest median income per household and fastest increase in property values.

Funny story right?

But when an agent approaches a potential seller who lives in an area that might not have the greatest reputation, it’s not very funny.

That home seller is concerned. Worried about losing value on their home. Perhaps they need to relocate quickly because of a new job and might be dreading the idea of their home languishing on the market for months.

This is where public real estate data, on your website, can be a major, selling point and a major way to alleviate that seller’s fears.

With today “big data” capabilities, aggregators of public real estate data such as Home Junction, gather an incredible amount of hyper-local statistics.

Recent property sales, market trends, school data, cost of living indices, crime statistics, and much more.

In fact, Home Junction has more than 1,000 data points that they aggregate.

Public real estate data can change perceptions

Here’s the big advantage for real estate agents.

Using Home Junction’s proprietary “Slipstream” real estate data API (Application Programming Interface), an agent can add a widget on their website to tap into this giant warehouse of data.

Now comes the best part. That agent display that data down to the micro-level – not just the county or city level, but right down to the neighborhood or subdivision level.

When it comes to providing public real estate data, you can’t get any more hyper-local than that.

Here’s a potential strategy.

An agent can approach a homeowner and show them the public real estate data resources they provide on their website.

They can tell the homeowner: “You know Mr. and Mrs. Seller, according to my real estate market data, I can paint a very appealing picture to potential buyers for your property. (Oh, and by the way, I’m the only agent in this area with this wealth of public real estate data).”

For example, according to the data on my site:

  • School data – you live in a very appealing school district. From the school data on my website, I can show how there are top-ranked schools in your neighborhood. That information can include student/teacher ratios, number of students, student demographics and much more.

With my geospatial data, I can also point out the latest school attendance zones to illustrate how this property falls within the boundaries for these particular schools, including top-notch private schools and charter schools.

  • Rising Property Sales – here’s another key point. Sure, there might be some parts of the county that are depressed and not doing so well. But, in researching the public real estate data on my website, I will feature charts next to your listing showing how the number of home sales in your neighborhood is actually increasing.

I can point out to any potential buyers that not only is your home in a desirable neighborhood, but they better act fast if they want to grab a home here.

  • Home Value Estimator Tool – here’s more data the Seller will appreciate. An agent can add a Home Value Estimator Tool (AVM) on their website that will give a reliable estimate of what a particular property is worth. Included with that data, is a chart that compares a property to the market in general. The comparison will be based on Size of the Property, Price, Price per Square Foot and Age.

So, for example, the results might show that this particular home is in the upper percentile for square footage and age of the home, indicating this is a fairly new house and very large house compared to others in the area. That’s certainly a big plus as well.

  • Real estate maps – Mr. and Mrs. Seller not only will I provide a great array of positive data about your property, I can illustrate some of the key neighborhood amenities on a map in relation to the location of your home.

Take that Whole Foods store by the way. According to the map alongside your listing, it’s only 1.5 miles away. So is that great magnet school for the arts. There’s also a famous sushi restaurant over here and a very popular pilates studio right down the street.

And, let’s not forget that huge public park that is just 2 miles away.

How about access to roadways? According to the maps provided, this property is just two blocks away from the interstate. That’s huge when it comes to making a home appealing to commuters.

Paint a picture with real estate market data

Like an artist, with Home Junction’s public real estate data and geospatial technology, an agent can pull up a number of different data points to paint a very pretty picture of a home for sale.

That picture will be a huge relief to a homeowner.

It will also be a convincing argument to choose that agent – the agent who walks the talk and backs up their marketing with solid, reliable information that answers every concern a buyer might have.

After all, geography matters. So does reality.

We can see from the story above how perceptions can be twisted the wrong way.

Don’t let a misleading rap for an entire area cause problems for a specific property.

Provide this resource of accurate public real estate data to show owners how that information will help overcome any negative perceptions about their home and their neighborhood.

Brokers And Agents Can Now Add A Critical Flood Zone Map To Their Websites

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flood zone map

After 2017’s year of record-breaking disasters, real estate brokers and agents can now become an even more valuable asset for local consumers by adding a flood zone map to their website.

The real estate market data company Home Junction has implemented its data aggregating technology to extract these valuable flood zone maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and can now include these boundaries in their data feed for real estate agents. This information can appear as a text notice of a flood zone or geo-spatially as a boundary on a map.

If you recall those images on television of the flooding in Houston alone, brokers or agents can certainly see that consumers are going to be concerned about the location of their property in relation to waterways and floodplains more than ever before.

According to the National Centers for Environmental Protection, Hurricane Harvey caused flood damage to more than 200,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area. The estimated cost of the devastation is a whopping $125 billion.

Last year, massive floods also destroyed properties in Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas and southern Illinois when rivers reached historic levels and levees were breaches. In California, heavy rains there caused the Oroville Dam spillway to overflow and 188,000 people had to be evacuated.

“Today buyers need to know if the property they are considering is at risk,” said Ed Kim, Senior Vice President with Home Junction. “Any real estate company that adds a flood zone map is going to provide an incredible resource for their marketplace.”

Home Junction researchers obtained the floodplain data using its advanced “slipstream data technology” to parse a flood zone map down to the zip code, neighborhood or subdivision level. This enables local agents to provide these boundaries for the neighborhoods they are farming.

The company has gathered this boundary data for 2,300 counties, where flooding may be an issue.

For years, the national approach to flooding was to focus on flood-control projects such as dams, levees, seawalls, etc. However, property damage to homes still occurred and in many instances development still took place in high-risk areas.

To mitigate this problem, Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The concept behind the program was to identify at-risk areas to reduce flood damage with community floodplain management ordinances and to prevent development in high-risk locations. The agency then also provided flood insurance to homes that could possibly be flooded if a catastrophic storm took place, which as we’ve seen does happen, even in areas once considered safe.

A flood zone map adds boundaries for different levels of risk.

For example, in Special Flood Hazard Areas, home buyers need to know flood insurance is required. This may be true for some properties even if they are not located in the 100-year floodplain.

The company also has a flood zone map for homes in the 500-year floodplain, where flood insurance is not generally required. But consumers will know there is some degree of risk in those locations.

Adding a flood zone map is just one more tool that Home Junction can provide to a broker or agent to enable them to truly display in-depth knowledge of an area.

The company already aggregates and distributes data feeds for school data, property sales, market trends, real estate demographics, crime statistics and cost of living indices.

They are also experts in boundary data polygons. The company provides school district boundaries, school attendance zones, municipal boundaries and much more.

This is the 21st Century. We are at the next wave in the Information Age.

We are also experiencing a time when major weather events are taking place. Catastrophic storms are creating situations where hundreds of thousands of people may be stuck with damaged homes. Many in the Houston flood did not have flood insurance.

In this day and age, if a broker or agent really wants to be a neighborhood expert, they will need to back up that strategy. Not just with talk, but with detailed real estate market data and a flood zone map for the areas in their target markets.

 

 

 

School Data API Helps Sellers Justify Higher Prices

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school data apiUsing a School Data API is frankly one of the quickest and easiest ways to defend home prices.

First of all, where kids go to school is a hot button with home buyers. It’s near the top of the list of their concerns. It’s emotional. It’s a major cause of concern and worry.

Secondly, data shows that people are willing to pay more for homes in top school districts.

In fact, according to one study, more than 50% of home buyers said they would be willing to spend over their budget to get in a house with great schools.

Breaking those numbers down even further, 9% said they would they would be willing to go from 11% to 20% over budget and 21% said they would go from 6% to 10% over.

What would those surveyed give up for a great school district?

About 60% would skip a pool and 44% would forego an extra room in the house.

It’s obvious, the quality of schools is a powerful, persuasive asset when it comes to home seekers.

School Data API provides instant school data expertise

So how do you as a real estate professional address this concern?

How do you as an agent in a crowded field of other agents, persuade a seller that you are the best choice for them to emphasize this school district selling point?

There’s a very simple answer.

Add a School Data API to your website.

Data aggregators and software developers such as Home Junction use “big data” technology to create national school databases that have just about everything a home buyer would need to answer their questions about schools in a particular area.

The beauty of a School Data API is that the agent does not have to go out and dig up this local school information on their own.

Who’s got time for that?

Secondly, even if you did find your local school data, how are you going to keep it updated and current?

Third, and this is a critical point, there are websites that already exist that are sources of hyper-local school data. But why would you want to send home buying prospects to other people’s websites? You risk losing them to other agents or national mega-lead generation websites.

Heck no.

Simply add a School Data API to your website by inserting a few lines of code (Home Junction will assist you) and make your website the local resource on school data.

All relevant school data on agent’s website

This is what that School Data API will be able to show:

– location of the school

– location of the school relevant to the location of a property pulled from the local MLS listings

– school district boundaries

– school attendance zones (this is supercritical)

– school attendance zones outlined geo-spatially on a map in relation to property addresses

– school enrollment figures

– school rankings

– student demographics

– student/teacher ratios

– dollars spent per student

– name of the school’s current principal

– private and public schools

– the religious denomination of private schools

– school website address

And more.

Now that’s a local school database.

Imagine approaching a seller and telling them, “Look. I know your home is located in a desirable school district. But I’m not going to just tell home buyers, ‘By the way, schools are great here.'”

At that point, pull up an example of the massive amount of data supplied by the Home Junction API.

“No, Mr. and Mrs. Home Seller, I am going to show that home buyer this huge amount of key school data, to drive the point home about why their children should attend this school. And that’s why they might have to pay slightly more for a home in this district.”

Everybody knows home prices in northern California, particularly the San Francisco area are high, practically insane.

Well, guess what? A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out that many families were willing to pay $200,000 more for homes that were in popular school districts.

That just goes to show the power of schools.

That also illustrates the power your School Data API can have on how you attract home sellers and buyers.

Use School Data API as source for social media posts

Think of the many opportunities you can create to promote the fact that your website offers this hyper-local school data.

Nearly 91% of agents say they post on social media.

With your ability to tap into Home Junction’s national school database, you have something of value to post.

With your School Data API, you have a wealth of critical school data to draw upon for interesting content.

For example, say you are farming a certain neighborhood or subdivision.

Post a notice on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram about this school data you now have available on your website.

Pull out little snippets of school data from time to time.

Say, for example, the school’s ranking changes. Or the student/teacher ratio gets smaller. Maybe there’s a new principal.

Keep pushing this school data out on social media. You will establish in the minds of your audience that you are the go-to source for local school information.

Use this data in your email blasts as well.

Test various phrases for the subject line.

For example, “Click here for latest update on school data for Got To Be There Middle School.”

That will catch the attention of parents. Not only potential home buyers, but also people who are thinking about putting their homes on the market.

You can accomplish this all with an embedded school data widget.

(By the way, Home Junction also offers a wealth of other real estate market data such as Recent Home Sales, Market Trends, Demographics, Boundaries, Cost of Living Data, Crime Data, etc. There’s also a geo-spatial component that puts all this data together on a map. For example, the map can show school district boundaries for homes for sales from a local MLS database. And Home Junction has an IDX to tap into MLS databases as well).

This is the digital age. The age of “big data” technology.

Computers now have the ability to tap into a huge national school database.

All you need to do is add this simple School Data API to provide that school data on your website.

 

 

 

Real Estate Plugins Can Help Home Buyers Who Need Roommates To Pay Their Mortgages

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real estate map tool

Real estate plugins can help young home buyers attract renters to help with their home loan payments.

Let’s face it, living in urban areas is incredibly expensive and the use of real estate plugins is one way to help home buyers get into a property with the idea of renting out part of it.

Yes, home prices and rental rates are going through the roof in some markets. San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles are seeing record highs for prices. Ironically, Millennials want to move to urban areas more than ever. They are in essence, creating their own dilemma.

In addition, Millennials in most markets have held off the purchase of any property. They didn’t want to commit to a mortgage (even though, in another irony, mortgage rates are near record lows. A rate of 4% is still incredibly attractive compared to the 9% rates and higher we’ve seen).

One solution that is growing is a trend called “Co-Living.”

“What is co-living? It’s a concept that multi-family developers are now using to create “common” areas where several people can live together in one unit. Very similar to a dorm.

What does this have to do with a broker or agent?

Many home buyers today are looking at properties with the potential to rent part of the property out to help cover the mortgage.

It’s a smart strategy. The rental market is super-hot right now. If you own a home or condo in a decent location and can offer an attractive rate, you will get inquiries from renters.

This is where a real estate pro can paint a picture of how a property can be a good source of income.

And one of the best ways to paint that picture is with real estate plugins, such as the widgets offered by real estate data providers such as Home Junction.

Choose from a suite of real estate plugins

Sure, you can tell a home buyer this is a great location.

But why not SHOW them how that property is an ideal location on a map embedded on your website? Get the wheels spinning in the buyers head on how they can also use this information to attract renters.

For example, with the real estate map plugin, an agent or broker can point out a prospective property pulled from MLS data.

Then they can start displaying amenities within certain distances of that property.

Maybe it’s a coastal town and the property is located ten miles away from a beach.

Or perhaps it’s a hipster type town and the home is located three miles from downtown.

How about a plugin for local businesses in relation to a property? Alongside the listing, show a widget for businesses nearby. There’s a cool bookstore over here, just a mile away. Love Starbucks? Here’s a Starbucks and here’s a hip local coffee shop within a five-mile radius. A yoga enthusiast? Here’s a place where you can bend and twist within two miles. Sushi restaurants, clubs, book stores – point them all out in relative proximity to the home for sale.

That’s a powerful selling tool to attract renters…

 School data is a must for any real estate website

How about schools? There are quite a few single parents in society. They are all looking for inexpensive places to rent. Great schools would be an enormous draw and in fact, the main draw for them.

Provide a feed on your website with current school data plugin. Show buyers a comprehensive overview of schools in the area with student/teacher ratios, school demographics, etc. (Also provided by Home Junction).

What are trends for home prices in this area, a young home buyer might want to know. With a real estate plugin for Recent Property Sales, an agent can quickly give that consumer a sense of comfort that property prices have been trending upward in this market for the past few quarters.

Conversely, want to attract sellers in a hot market who have the perfect home that would appeal to renters? Offer the Home Junction Home Estimator widget. Sellers will continually use this plugin to check out the value of their property. One day they are going to decide to sell. Make sure they are on your website when they make this decision and have easy access to a lead form or a phone number.

The challenge of convincing consumers today to purchase a home might seem enormous in current conditions. Inventory is low. Prices are high. Millennials are still reluctant to take out a 30-year mortgage.

But real estate pros know challenges come with the territory.

What’s encouraging, is that today, with big data and geo-spatial technology, brokers and agents have an incredible array of inexpensive real estate plugins at their disposal. Tools they can display on their own website (and make sure they keep their clients on their website or generate their own leads).

Some consumers will want to consider adding renters as a home buying strategy. Maybe that’s the only way they can get in a home. That’s fine. You can help. And with key real estate plugins integrated into the local MLS, you will have the best tools to assist them.