[Watch] The Inventory Shortage w/ York Baur and Matthew Ferrara

It’s been a topic in the news for months, but, is there really an inventory shortage?

And, if so, what can brokers and their agents do to right the ship?

Well, we are thrilled to have a special edition conversation from our resident armchair experts York Baur, MoxiWorks CEO and Matthew Ferrara, Philosopher for their take on this whole inventory shortage.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 2:30 – A lot of things have been building to create a shortage of housing. Now, whether that’s an inventory shortage or not, is a different thing…There’s sort of an economic side to this story, a shortage of housing. But at the same time, you know, we sold more homes last year than any time in a decade in America. And so inventory and housing are kind of similar, but they’re not always the same concept.

• 3:02– You have to focus on what you can control… So what can we control? Well, my opinion, the thing we can most control is what are we as agents and the brokers behind them doing to articulate and keep current that consumer that is either ideally in a house, which is where the listing will come from, or perhaps, you know, on the buy side, but particularly on the listing side, what are you doing to ensure that, that consumer knows what their house is worth, what it would take to transact it? What it’s like to buy another home?

• 4:02 – You know, it’s so funny to me that this industry is so stuck on lead gen when every agent knows people, just go talk to the people you know, do a thoughtful home valuation for them, ideally quarterly, but certainly annually. I mean, it’s the most valuable asset for most consumers. Why are we not helping them understand that? If we did that, by the way, we would have more inventory and more transactions.

• 4:41 – If we say we have a listing shortage. Well, we [the industry] control listing. Listing comes from having conversations with people who could come into the market. See, we’re not market services, we’re market makers in this business. Right. So it just, as you said, why not reach out to your sphere of influence that has the housing, right? It’s not the housing isn’t there, but it has to be moved into the market. That’s our job. So have conversations with people who have the inventory.

• 7:13 – The thing that I think we so make a mistake of in selling is selling is a noble thing. All we’re trying to do is help educate a consumer so that they can make a decision. They probably would have made on their own sooner and better. And that’s all we’re talking about here.

• 7:57 – Somebody found the inventory to sell last year. Right? That’s the key. Somebody sold five and a half, five and three quarter million homes to sell last year. And so now the question for everybody, I think within the sound of our voices, essentially, could it be you, should it be you? Decide to make it you, but then decide where are you going to find that [inventory].

• 8:31 – An algorithm isn’t going to solve this problem. Right? The most powerful thing that moves homes into the market is a conversation. And we’re in control of the conversations.

• 11:06 – The cool thing is we’re good at this. This is what we do for a living. The definition of real estate is helping people move from uncertainty to calculated risk. Should I sell now? That’s uncertainty. Should I buy now? That’s uncertainty. It’s what we do. The thing is we just have to turn up the volume this year. Turn up the volume on the number of people that you help move from uncertainty to calculated risk. And I think you just do that, one conversation at a time.

All this and more. Please enjoy The Inventory Shortage with York and Matthew.