Unlocking Real Estate Success With Data-driven Insights To Propel You Past Your 2024 Targets
In a volatile market, data-driven strategies are essential for surpassing sales targets. Leveraging predictive analytics empowers real estate professionals to identify motivated sellers early, optimise targeting efforts, and tailor sales strategies, ultimately enhancing performance and achieving success even in uncertain times.
Bullishness and determination count for a great deal in sales, and nowhere more so than in property sales. They cannot, however, do much to counter the uncertainty the market that will carry over from 2023. Sellers will enter 2024 continuing to weigh lower valuations than they’d like against the prospect of increasingly lower purchase prices and mortgage rates that may begin to edge down again soon – unless they don’t!
In a market with this level of instability, beating sales goals calls for a far more dependable, which means data driven, strategy.
"In the dynamic landscape of real estate”, argues Giles Mackay, founder of real estate data analytics leaders, Outra, “harnessing the power of data is not just a strategy; it's a necessity. Early identification of motivated sellers is a prime example of how data can be the catalyst for exceeding sales targets."
How can data help real estate professionals meet and exceed sales targets?
Mr Mackay’s assertion is not unjustified. Data can empower anyone involved in residential sales, by providing actionable insights that help optimise effort, streamline processes and which will, ultimately, lead to beating of sales targets.
With effective predictive analytics, anyone in residential sales has comprehensive insights into market trends, buyer behaviour, and seller patterns at their disposal. By understanding these trends, they can anticipate market movements, adjust strategies accordingly, and target their efforts more effectively.
Leveraging data then allows for precise targeting of potential clients. By analysing demographics, preferences, and past behaviours, it becomes possible to identify and focus on the most promising leads, optimising use of both time and effort. By using predictive analytics to forecast when properties are likely to be listed for sale, sales teams can engage proactively with sellers, gaining competitive edge and increasing the likelihood of closing listings.
Data-driven insights also offer a solid foundation for making informed decisions around sales strategy. Whether on pricing or geographic targeting, for example, comprehensive data combined with robust analytics enables calls to be made with vastly improved confidence. In addition, at individual listing level, data can help build stronger client relationships by providing insights into client needs and preferences. This allows agency sales teams to deliver more personalised advice, guidance and service, fostering trust and increasing loyalty.
“The real Focus for everybody in the real estate space, “ says Fred Jones , COO of ‘quick sale’ cash buyer, Upstix, “is to get sellers before anybody else gets there. If we can do that then we've revolutionized the way anybody runs the real estate space.”
How identifying motivated sellers before they list improved performance.
Being able to identify motivated sellers before they list their properties delivers substantial advantages in achieving sales targets. Connecting with sellers identified as highly likely to list before their property hits the market lets you establish rapport and build relationships. This increases the likelihood of securing the listing, giving a head start in the sales process. It also, of course, reduces competition from other agents. By being the first point of contact, you have a better chance to negotiate terms, potentially agreeing more favourable conditions for both you and the seller.
Data analytics also offers the potential to offer upcoming sellers the option of an off-market deal. This means you may be able to offer a solution to specific needs or wishes, such as privacy concerns or the desire for a quick completion, and potentially expedite their sale.
With the insights provided by high grade analytics making it possible to understand a seller's motivation early on, sales teams also have an improved basis on which to tailor sales strategies. Whether this is by highlighting certain property features, offering more flexible terms, or addressing a specific concern a seller may have, the data insights make it possible to craft personalised approaches which maximise the chances of landing the instruction and achieving a successful sale.
Building a relationship with a seller before they list their property may also lead to a higher closing rate, through being able to better understand seller expectations, manage negotiations, and guide the sales process more effectively.
With HMRC National Statistics recording a provisional, non-seasonally adjusted, estimate of the number of UK residential transactions in September 2023 down 19% on September 2022 (and down 2% on August 2023), advantages of the kind gained through identifying motivated sellers before they list could step any sales team closer to not only achieving, but impressively outperforming, their 2024 targets.
The best data and analytics tools to help you pass 2024 targets.
Proptech as a sector is booming, but while platforms aimed directly at buyers and sellers proliferate, the market for serious data and analytics designed specifically to help agents identify sellers ahead of listing is dominated by Outra’s ground-breaking product, Pre-Mover.
“In all my years involved in residential development and estate agency”, says Dominic Grace, former Head of London residential Development at Savills, “I've never seen anything as phenomenal, in terms of its power, as the Outra platform. It gives you lots of information at a really granular level… so it means you can run your whole business much more efficiently and effectively.”
Pre-Mover tracks more than 2,300 attributes each on 30.8m UK households, amounting to 75 billion data points at property level. According to Outra’s Chief Data and Technology Officer, Peter Jackson, “We make 900,000 predictions every month; they've not even listed their house yet and we're predicting when they're going to list. That's quite remarkable performance.”
Upstix’s Fred Jones agrees. “The UK housing market is hugely volatile and has changed massively over the last 12 months alone. The Outra data helps us be agile and adapt our marketing strategies to respond to that. It's allowed us to be on the front foot and capture new leads rather than being reactive.”
No longer ‘Nice to have’. ‘Must have’ in 2024.
It would be foolish to imagine 2024 won’t harbour significant challenges for the residential sector, compounded by those lingering market uncertainties. Against this unpredictability, however, data stands out as the key driver for success. Leveraging data-driven insights has become not only ‘advantageous’, but essential for exceeding sales targets.
By understanding market trends and buyer behaviours, and anticipating seller patterns, directors, area leaders and managers in firms of any size can gain a comprehensive understanding of the landscape and use this to recalibrate strategies, precisely target potential clients, and engage proactively with prospective sellers before their properties hit the market.
It is this last benefit, the ability to identify motivated sellers before their official listing, that is the real game-changer. Establishing early relationships opens doors for negotiations, reduces competition, and allows for tailored sales approaches that really impress and win over sellers.
As 2024 approaches, the use of data-driven insights can no longer be viewed as a ‘nice to have’ competitive advantage. It’s now the linchpin for success; the single most decisive factor in empowering you to not just meet, but to significantly exceed, 2024 targets.