Your 2027 buyers are paying rent right now
A lot of the buyers who’ll walk into your open houses next spring are writing rent checks this month. First-time buyers made up 31% of September sales per NAR, up from 30% in August, and almost none of them decided overnight. That decision usually starts long before anyone calls an agent. If you’re the agent a renter has already talked to by January, you’re the one they call in March.
THIS WEEK'S PRO TIP:
START YOUR RENTER PIPELINE BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS
Ask every renter in your database one question: when does your lease end? Pull past rental clients, open house sign-ins who said they rent, and anyone who’s ever said “someday.” A lease end date turns a vague maybe into a date on your calendar, and it tells you when to make the lender intro and start planning tours.
Follow up on their timeline. A renter whose lease ends in May needs a lender conversation in January and tours by March. Set the reminder now. Check in once a month with something useful, like a neighborhood that fits their budget or a first-time buyer program in your area. When they’re ready, you’ll be the first call.
When you're busy: Renter consults take real time - a coffee, a lender intro, a long talk about budgets. That’s time you can’t spend driving to a lockbox. Post your showings, open houses, and lockbox runs on KeyPleaz® so an agent in your brokerage covers the field work while you build next year’s pipeline.
When you're available: The agents spending their afternoons in buyer consults still need someone at the door. Open KeyPleaz® to claim showings, open houses, and lockbox runs this week. Every open house you staff is also a room full of renters thinking about buying, and you’re the agent they meet.
MARKET NEWS PULSE
First-time buyers took 31% of existing-home sales in September per NAR, even with total sales running at a slow 3.99 million annual pace. Renting isn’t getting much cheaper either. Zillow’s typical rent hit $1,932, up 2.7% from a year ago and the biggest annual gain since April 2025. Buying hasn’t gotten easier: Redfin puts the median monthly payment at $2,777, up 8.8% year over year. For buyers who can make it work, NAR counted 1.60 million homes for sale and a median of 33 days on market, up from 31 in August. Lawrence Yun says that gives buyers “improved negotiating power.” Renters who are ready have more choice and more time than they’ve had in years, and the ones who aren’t ready yet need a plan.
QUICK STAT OF THE WEEK
26.3% vs. 34.3%. That’s the share of a median household’s income it takes to cover the typical rent versus the typical mortgage payment, per Zillow’s September report. The mortgage figure assumes 20% down, so with less down the gap gets wider. That gap is why so many renters stay renters. It’s also the conversation they need an agent to walk them through honestly: the gap, the savings target that closes it, and the date it could happen.
Open the app and cover this week’s showings while you build your spring pipeline.
