Your next buyer might not live here yet.
Nearly 19% of house hunters on Redfin were searching in a metro other than their own this spring. The share hit 18.7% in the second quarter, up from 18.1% a year earlier and the highest second-quarter reading in Redfin’s records, which start in 2021. Those buyers are scrolling listings in your market from somewhere else, and they can’t walk through a home on a Tuesday afternoon. The agent who wins them is the one who makes a long-distance search feel easy, and that mostly comes down to getting eyes on a home when the buyer can’t.
THIS WEEK'S PRO TIP:
BE THE AGENT WHO SEES WHAT THEY MISS
Film what the listing photos skip. When you show a home for a remote buyer, shoot a short walkthrough of the street, the backyard, the view from the kitchen sink and what it sounds like when a car goes by. Your buyer is deciding from a phone screen, so give them what they’d have noticed standing in the driveway, and send it the same day while the home is still available.
Then plan the in-person trip like a closing. Before your buyer books a flight, send a neighborhood brief with commute times, school boundaries and the drive to the airport, and help them narrow it to two or three areas, because nobody tours six neighborhoods in one weekend. When they fly in, book back-to-back showings grouped by area, line up an inspector for the days after, and have the lender ready to update the pre-approval. A buyer who flew in for a weekend wants to fly home with an accepted offer.
When you're busy: Out-of-town buyers need more of your time, not less. More video, more coordination and more showings packed into the one weekend they’re in town, and you can’t be at a lockbox across town while you’re walking your buyer through a house. Post the showings, open houses and lockbox runs you can’t reach on KeyPleaz®, so your remote buyer gets eyes on every home without waiting on your calendar.
When you're available: Every relocating buyer headed into your area needs someone local to get eyes on homes, and the agents representing them can’t be in two places at once. If you have open hours, you’re the local set of eyes. Open KeyPleaz® and claim showings and open house coverage near you this weekend.
MARKET NEWS PULSE
Price cuts are running at a fall high just as more buyers shop from out of town. Realtor.com found 20.8% of listings carried a price cut in September, the highest September share since 2018, and Redfin’s count of 21.1% is the highest for this time of year in its records. The median list price slipped 1.4% from a year ago to $419,250, the 11th straight annual decline, per Realtor.com. Some of the steepest moves are landing right where relocating buyers are headed: Tampa, a top-10 destination in Redfin’s relocation count, posted a 6.0% drop in list price per square foot, one of the largest among the 50 biggest metros per Realtor.com. San Antonio, another top-10 destination, has 26.8% of sellers cutting their price, per Redfin. For a buyer moving in from a higher-priced market, that’s more house for the money, and the local agent who can show it fastest is the one who gets the call.
QUICK STAT OF THE WEEK
Five of the top 10 destinations for relocating house hunters in the second quarter were in Florida: North Port, Orlando, Miami, Cape Coral and Tampa, per Redfin. Las Vegas led the list overall, with a net inflow of 9,581 house hunters. Whether your market is on the receiving end or the one buyers are leaving, there’s a relocating client on one side of every move. Build your remote-buyer routine now, before the next one calls.
Open the app to cover your out-of-town showings.
