Stats, Stats ... We All Love Stats

What's the thing about statistics? In particular, what is it about historical data that makes real estate market analysts excited? It's not hard to answer when we're so fixated on CMA reports. We can't properly serve our sellers or our buyers unless we are competent at analyzing market statistics to determine the proper current pricing for homes.

As we begin 2014, what can we do to inform our prospects and cement our position as a local real estate market expert? We can give them a whole lot of numbers on which to focus, and these stats also have value because they tell us about the market and the sold prices of homes over the previous year. Everybody values market statistics:

• Sellers – People considering listing their homes for sale and those who are listed are interested in the market and price trends. This is particularly true in their neighborhoods, and you'll attract listing clients if you regularly publish market sold property statistics by area. Email them out to your seller prospects in your CRM system, especially at the beginning of the year for previous year sales.
• Buyers – Buyers have the greatest interest in what's going on, as they're trying to find the right home in their price range. Using the statistics report you email out and publish on your site, buyers can target areas based on real sold prices. They can see where the action is, which usually means they're popular neighborhoods with the amenities they want.

• Investors – Investors are real numbers nuts, and they'll love you for providing them with reliable sold property information. They're always searching for bargains and the information in sold property reports helps them to locate hot neighborhoods and to value homes to seek out bargains they can flip or turn into rental units.
• Others – One real estate broker we've talked to is regularly approached by the local newspaper, homes magazine, and appraisers because they're aware of his statistical bent and want to use some of the information in their publications or business.

Just about every MLS now has plenty of capability to produce these reports for you. A simple search for all sold properties for 2013 should yield various formats, including one with the sales grouped by area. You simply use a PDF generator program to print the report off in PDF format and you can offer it as an attachment to emails. For lead generation, you can offer it via email if the visitor will give you their contact information.

This is a great strategy at the beginning of the year, but it's also a great way to take the boredom out of drip email campaigns. One broker does a set of quarterly sold property statistics and emails out the link to his subscriber list. It always has a high "open rate" and even generates responses from previous buyer clients who appreciate the ability to track how their area is doing. Sometimes these emailed reports generate questions and start a dialogue with prospects who want some interpretation of the data.

You're not a stand-out local real estate expert because you can send your list emails like those of the competition. You're going to be perceived as an expert because you are sharing these statistics which show you're on top of your market and trends. You may just find that you begin to get more serious leads with shorter timelines because those are the people who value statistics the most.

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