Who Moved My Cheese?

Jan 22, 2021

I sent this to our office this morning and thought I would share it here:

I recommended this to an Austin real estate agent yesterday and thought I would share with everyone. It's another one that you don't really need to read the book - the concept is basically a parable and fits nicely into a Wikipedia plot synopsis. Couple of links:

Who Moved My Cheese (Skip to "story")
Amazon - Who Moved My Cheese Audio Book

Who Moved My Real Estate Market?

You guys can probably tell that the 2008 recession impacted me pretty deeply. The recession hurt our industry for a lot of years and I was completely unprepared for it - negative savings, no real plan, etc... Life was pretty good up to 2008 b/c I had figured out SEO and it brought in as many leads as I wanted for what seemed like free (it wasn't - it took a bunch of time.) Pre-2008, you could sell a house to pretty much anyone who called in because there were literally no financing qualification guidelines. (Please watch or rewatch The Big Short - it's not an exaggeration of what was going on.) Then, 2008 hit (or really, late 2007) and all the banks went out of business. All of a sudden, you could sell a house to maybe 10% of the people that called in. It was a shock. Holy sh#t! What am I going to do? This was the first time in my business that the cheese moved. I had to figure out a different strategy.

Finding a New Real Estate Strategy

I figured out that I had to spend a lot more time qualifying folks on the phone and explaining to them that, yes, they did need to talk to a lender. I learned hard qualifying questions to ask in real estate:

Do you have a w2 job or are you self employed?
Do you currently own a house? (It was super hard for people to unload houses then.)
Oh, you just sold a house? It didn't happen to be a short sale, did it? (You can't buy a house with trashed credit anymore.)

I started spending more time up front qualifying and talking to lots more people than I used to (and wakeboarding less - that was the only real downside.) It took some time, but I figured out where the "real estate" cheese had moved. I learned a lot about efficiency and became a much better real estate agent as a result.

Adopting SEO in the Real Estate Market

In SEO, you're basically trying to understand (or trick, depending how you look at it) Google's algorithm. Google updates their algorithm regularly and they used to do it in big waves. The SEO community would name the updates like hurricanes. In 2012, Google rolled out the Penguin update. It completely tanked my website and we lost 95% of our traffic. All of the "free" leads and traffic went away. Holy sh#t! This was the second time in my career that the "real estate" cheese moved. I stared at the wall for a few days refreshing Google Analytics before realizing that the cheese wasn't coming back to the same location. I knew/know internet marketing pretty well, so started exploring other paid sources. I very luckily hit on something within a couple of months. This time, I didn't stop after finding one good real estate marketing source and kept working to find multiple sources. I learned how important diversification in marketing is. This is why we have 10+ profitable marketing sources today.

Moving Forward in the Texas Housing Market

I won't list every time the cheese has moved in my career, but there were certainly others. Every time it happens, you learn something and you become better. I can absolutely see that the cheese moved on us in December/January of this year. Our old strategies aren't effective anymore. You can't meet w/ home buyers and just make offers on houses until they win one. I have a lot of thoughts on what we can do to work more efficiently in the Texas real estate market. I can also tell that you guys are figuring it out on your own (the leaderboard shows me that.) It's tough when there are market shifts. Lots of people fail. Those that don't fail become much stronger and they ultimately become much more successful. No one here is going to fail. Everyone here will be better, stronger, & more successful by the end of this year. I guarantee it. </pep talk>

If you are looking for more information on the Texas real estate market feel free to contact us and speak with one of our professional real estate agents. At Bramlett Residential, our Austin real estate company is always here to chat and lend some insight on the housing market!

Additional Readings:

2020 Texas Real Estate Market Year in Review: What Happened Out There?

Is Austin Real Estate Overpriced?

Categories
Who Moved My Cheese?

About the Author

Last updated: 01/22/2021

2300+ Client reviews!

Christopher Penaloza

JC was very helpful during the process of buying my first home. He directed me to lenders that truly had my best interest at heart. I almost made a few bad decisions that JC was there to wave off for me. I truly appreciate JC's responsiveness to ALL of my many questions and his willingness to be a sounding board for my frustrations in the process. I still hear from JC from time to time ensuring that I am happy with my home and letting me know of up and coming business in my area that might affect my property value. I will absolutely be using JC to purchase my next home.

LanceLunsford

JC does a great job with attention to detail and ensuring he has answers to your questions as you navigate the process of a home purchase. JC understands the process of the transaction in a home purchase and makes sure the details are covered.

Christopher Dunn

Ruth helped us to view many houses and (over months) to make multiple offers in a really, really tough market for buyers. Our low bids were our own fault! Ruth's guesses are always spot on. We finally had a bid accepted last month, and Ruth helped us re-negotiate after significant problems were discovered. Ruth has gone above and beyond for us, giving us far more time during this long search than we could reasonably have expected. She even helped us look for a rental when we'd basically given up. Her advice has always been immensely valuable and brutally honest. She is the most knowledgeable agent I've met on the Central Austin market. She also handled our stress well, and believe me, buying in Austin right now is stressful!

Jerry Nash

Excellent service and follow through. Very professional!

Steve Sanders

I highly recommend Kristen for all real estate needs.

Danielle Hughes

I had a great experience working with Bramlett Residential Real Estate. Jean Holm was my agent and she & her team made the whole process very simple. She explained everything very well, was knowledgeable, had great advice, and got our home sold. Definitely reccomend!

Jeremy K

I worked with Jeremy Vandermause to buy my first home. Jeremy was so patient throughout the process (which I definitely dragged out as I gathered all the facts). He consistently sent me homes I was interested in and was eager to show them off, and on the odd occasions where I found one he hadn't already seen he always made himself available to walk through with me. He was very helpful in those walkthroughs pointing out home features I would have missed, or providing context on neighborhood. As a native Austinite, he definitely knows the history and cultural fabric of the city and each neighborhood. I started with close to zero knowledge of the home-buying process and Jeremy walked me through every step with clarity and patience. So excited about the home I now own! Plus, he's just a legit cool dude. I always really enjoyed our conversations and could tell from the start he was someone worth knowing in Austin

Jian M.

This review is about Joe Gage, their real estate agent. I'm based in Sam Francisco and was looking for investment property in Austin. I tried out three different agents based on recommendations from different sources, including Yelp. Joe clearly stands out. He's very patient and responsive. I'm not familiar with the area at all thus had a lot of questions. His email reply contains detailed information of the neighborhood, including shops nearby, schools and so on. He regularly screen houses and give recommendations once he sees a good fit for investment house offered at reasonable price. He's very knowledgeable about the area. All his recommendations comes with details around why he thinks it's a good investment and sales/rental data in the neighborhood to justify the price he thinks it's worth as well as the expected rental income. I found him to be very methodical and organized. He's not a typical sales person. Maybe this is because he used to be an accountant. Needless to say he earned our trust and we went with him to make the purchase. I was very impressed through the whole process. He's very calm and never pushy. His recommendation on the bid price was right on and he was very good at following up with various parties to push things through. The process went through very smoothly. If anyone is looking for a good real estate agent in Austin, I'd recommend Joe whole-heartedly. His professionalism and calm personality make him a real pleasure to work with.

Click Here to Read All Reviews