A weekly new home marketing podcast for home builders and developers. Each week Kevin Oakley, Andrew Peek, Jackie Lipinski, Julie Jarnagin, and other team members from Do You Convert will break down the headlines, share best practices and stories from the front line, and perform a deep dive on a relevant marketing topic. We’re here to help you – not to sell you!
Julie
Yeah. So how was the hurricane Andrew?
Andrew
It was great. You know, it's kind of like you build up all this emotion and anticipate emotion and you don't really want anything to happen like you, don't you? Because that's. That's really terrible, right? But then you're like, Oh, we're not in it. Like, could it be a little bit rougher outside the wind, be a little bit stronger? That's terrible to say.
Andrew
But like, sowe had, like, I don't know, 40 to 60 mile an hour winds, which really isn't that big a deal. It's a big deal because it's, you know, eight, ten, 12 hours. It just keeps going and going and going versus like a storm rolling through our biggest thing that happened. So I'm in Tampa Bay by the beaches.
Andrew
One, I was we have the Alexis the show I the ones with a screen they're terrible. Oh yeah I think the.
Beth
Show.
Andrew
Echo show whatever it is. Yeah. And so it shows like the news and I'm like, all these words they use are just like, oh, my goodness. Like, the rest of the world thinks we're. We're like, We're dead. It's awful. And basically from the truth, basically, basically. So meanwhile.
Beth
People in Florida are actually writing rafts down.
Andrew
Yeah, they're like having fun taking pictures, trying to get there's now like kind of viral spots that will always flood. And side note, they flood like, any time anyways. So, of course, a hurricane comes by and it looks really cool and floods all over the place, but it's in a flood anyways. So fortunately everything was all good. The kids had three days off of school, which is insane.
Andrew
Hurricane days, great. Hopefully they there aren't too many more. I'll have to make them up and we start earlier. We get out sooner, so that's kind of annoying for some are plans where we will plan everything but I mean, I feel like it's the summit is coming up and then that means there's a hurricane. So hopefully this is one that's out of the way.
Andrew
I'm like, oh, it's going to July, It's going to die early because they all usually get it bad up over Louisiana compared to.
Julie
Either hits Andrew or it's me in Louisiana or yeah, somehow it goes to Texas, which has happened a few times too. But so far we've been lucky this year. But you know, knock on wood. So in Oklahoma, when I lived in Oklahoma, it was always when the weather guy pulled out his sparkly tie that were for sure getting hit with the tornado.
Beth
That is part of my.
Julie
Yeah, it was like they were like, so excited and like, well, don't be quite this exciting.
Andrew
These tornadoes are terrifying to me.
Julie
Too excited about them.
Andrew
Yeah. Tornadoes aren't like, oh, we have a couple of days to plan and like, if it gets really bad because at least for us, like if it were to be really, really bad, we could go like 20, 30 miles east and you're fine. Like, it's still going to be really bad weather. But, you know, the hurricane force winds aren't, you know, as big as like the hurricane going through the whole southeast.
Andrew
Like it's like, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 miles from the center. So we could just go towards Orlando where the builder show is and be fine if it's it's hitting really rough for us. But a tornado. Like, here I am.
Julie
Yeah, there's definitely a good warning with the hurricane, but it's hard for me because the hurricanes are like, should we go? Should we go? What's everybody else, do you know? Yeah. Yeah. So that's hard for me because we're, you know, newish down here. Six years, I guess.
Andrew
Yeah. And after I get used to it, I'm sure there's. I think there's a paradox name for that where like, you prepare, you prepare, you prepare. Nothing happens eventually. Like, we're not doing anything. No one put their shutters up on our street, which last storm, everyone's like, Hey, you need help, Hey, you need help. And I was like, Forget that.
Andrew
But what it it made me realize talking to people the next day. So we're in a 2019 KB home, 30 to 85. That'll be our floor plan. That's really great. It sounds like a car. Other than the defective flap on our van and our bathroom that keeps like, rats out, I guess. I don't know that. Like when it when, when there's when it's like, super annoying.
Andrew
Just like tapping on the house. Yeah. Other than that noise, like dead quiet. I mean, you heard the sound like a bin. Wake us up. So I'm like, This would be perfect marketing if someone wanted to even approach hurricane marketing with building. But it's it's a reality down here in Florida. Everyone else I talked to was like, Oh, my gosh, that storm was so loud.
Andrew
The wind was howling. I'm like, Mm. It was really quiet in our house or like, you have new windows and like, yeah, they're like, well, what brands you get, like, I don't know, whatever, like fit the margins for the builder, which I'm sure they're, they're nice, they hit code but they're not going to be super premium windows at all.
Andrew
But even then, like it was quiet, like that's worth it. As far as we had three kids, they didn't even wake up as a thing passed by. So big selling point for us. Florida people for sure is just like little bit, little bit ease and peace and quiet. So yeah let's well let's jump into a into story time actually.
Andrew
Let's get this thing started. So welcome to episode 301 and they are Dr. Andrew Speaker. And with me today is Beth Russell and Julie, Dani and Ariel. I read your 1300.
Julie
We didn't start a new season. We talked about it, but we're at 301.
Andrew
We got to keep going. We got to hit 1000. That's the next worth mentioning number, I think is thousand.
Julie
500, five.
Beth
Hundred, over 500 like it was in 500.
Andrew
500. It's like anniversary dates. Like which ones count? Like we'll be 13 years and February like doesn't count, right. 1315. So that's one.
Julie
Unlucky number 13. It's like the elevator floors. You just don't know. 13.
Andrew
Maybe we skip it. Then I'll tell her that we.
Beth
Don't have to do anything that our building yesterday during our walk was like talking about how he was only married once and will only ever be married once. But it's because he got a divorce. I never wanted to get remarried and I was like, Oh, how many years even were you married? And he goes, 13. Oh no, I'll skip next year.
Andrew
13 Oh, Oh, yeah, yeah.
Beth
Interesting.
Andrew
But we got a 14. It's fine. Yeah, let's just not count anymore. It's all made up anyways, so let's do some stories. I'll do mine because mine's quick and fun and easy. There is a townhome project that is for sale, like maybe a two or three minute walk for me, brand new. And we don't have much new construction, so I've been watching it and we drive by it.
Andrew
It's this shortcut on the way back to our house. So seeing the progress is fun and they look really nice. But here's the thing that is weird, and they have a sign spinner company they contracted to. Yeah, just. Yeah, bang your head on the keyboard. Same. Your instrument.
Julie
Person standing.
Andrew
There. Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Better like a really like, you know, top notch, like in person that you trust with your kids to watch or like no, you wouldn't trust this person to do anything with anything. I'm like, Why would you hire this company? And I pass by them every Saturday and Sunday. The spinner is out there standing there in the heat, 90 something degrees.
Andrew
I'm like, That's torture. This poor person having to sit out there like for 6 hours at a time. They have no teeth. And this is I'm not I sound very negative. I'm coming from the perspective of this is your brand and refreshed reflection of your brand. This is an interaction of your brand says I'll call the name said golf went homes and a sign looks really nice.
Andrew
And next you have this person holding it who maybe hasn't made the best choices. And that's where they're at in life. I don't know where I'm assuming a lot there, but you would not be wise to say, how am I hire that person to represent my brand? That's so weird to me. It's so strange. And the rest of the marketing really isn't that bad.
Andrew
Like the content they produce, like on Instagram and social to to show the homes off of their pictures are actually pretty decent. It's like, why did you make that decision? Yeah.
Beth
It it makes me think of I don't I'm doing a plug real quick. But for Carlos, the IT presentation at the summit, it's about consistency and that is like being inconsistent with your brand. Every everything is reflective of your brand and everything from the people you hire to choosing to do a sign spinner in the first place. All of that is reflective of your brand.
Beth
And so that is that showing that you're lacking consistency can reflect a lot on and raise some red flags for people when they're pursuing working with you as a brand.
Andrew
Yeah, that's the first perception. Is that the first impression? Yeah.
Julie
We don't know the background of the story, but it sounds like it could be that the sales person in that neighborhood was maybe given some leeway to make some decisions or do something that sounds like something an onsite salesperson may want, but maybe not. Maybe you're.
Andrew
Mom. I want to know. I think we are going to tour the model home this weekend just to go.
Julie
Find out more.
Beth
Go undercover.
Julie
Report.
Andrew
It, go undercover. I don't think they know me. Hopefully not through like I listen to the podcast and now on my poopy list because.
Beth
You think.
Andrew
I'm getting a haircut tomorrow. So does that count? I don't know. I'll shave my beard off of like, Oh, look at this little child coming in here. Oh, where's your.
Beth
Mother? See that?
Andrew
Now? I don't even want to see that. I don't know. Do the mustache. Do the mustache one time. Yeah, but I'm like, Oh, the sign spinners. And I feel more that most people are like, This person's in this heat. Oh, my goodness. Like, how why would you do that? Versus like, I think that'll be the first thought versus like, oh, that person looks like maybe not near the most trustworthy.
Andrew
Where'd you find this guy? They'll be like, You really paid this person to stand out there in the heat for that long. Like, where's the cooler? Where's the water? Was there a.
Julie
What? If you're saying that it's like the owner's son or something.
Andrew
I'd feel terrible. And there's, like some challenges there that and this is actually like a good job for the person. I would. I'd feel.
Beth
Pretty good. But that's also horrible if they're not hydrating them like, say, that's like this beautiful store background story of like they help this guy out and he's out there spending this time with all these.
Andrew
Guys, very skilled.
Beth
High grade him.
Andrew
Right.
Beth
Now.
Andrew
It's this one camera. It's not the well some propels whatever may be.
Beth
Getting my case back like.
Andrew
Yeah, hook them up look them up. But yeah it's it is strange but I a while back I'm like why didn't they just pre-sale. Why don't they just presale. But I see like maybe the way they had, you know, hopefully prices are still going up. There's very limited land where we are, so maybe that is maximizing profit revenue or maybe not.
Andrew
I don't know. We'll find out the story at some point, I hope.
Beth
Julie But it's interesting, like from a case study perspective of your local person who has seen these homes go up, you know, it's rare that new homes are going up, albeit single family or townhome. So you're watching it. You're watching, you're waiting and maybe you're in the market. So you try to join a list or you've tried to reach out.
Beth
And then that urgency is kind of killed. When you see something that's great, maybe it's not as nice as I thought it was. So yeah, it's it is an interesting case study.
Andrew
And they had some goofy stuff with Zillow, but that could be another. I'll save that for another story. Just some perception of like, Oh, that price looks so much lower than it actually is because it hits a different number of you. We'll do that one next week, I guess. Julie, What you got?
Julie
Yeah. So we always talk about how we kind of hear the same things over and over this week. For me, it's been builders saying that home buyers are coming in and asking for everything they want, you know, price of a home and they want all the extra added features and they need an extra room and they need, you know, just all the things and so it was interesting to some were builders who were really struggling in the last month or two and some were like still doing okay.
Julie
And still hearing the same thing. So I have no data on this. So this is my theory. So you can you can disagree with me if you don't think so. I think one could be that there's a perception by some people that maybe it's a buyer's market right now, whether in their market, it really is or not. So they feel like, ooh, they're desperate.
Julie
Like I should ask for more. And I don't think we are helping ourselves by like putting all these kind of flash sale things on our websites. You know, I think that makes it look even more like they can ask for those things. My second is, and I think Kevin mentioned this on one of the meetings, that if people are going to my Oklahoma accent almost came out right there to hear it.
Julie
If people I don't.
Andrew
Know.
Julie
If people are paying 7% or over, then they're like, if I'm going to pay this much, I want to get everything I could possibly want. Like I don't want to settle if I'm having to pay a premium right now. But yeah, you know, maxed out my monthly budget, then I want everything I want. And then my third theory is maybe if you just have a lot of nationals in your market and the nationals builders are starting to like throw stuff at people because they're just trying to get it off their books.
Julie
So that's my theory. What, what do you all think is making people all of a sudden come in and start asking for more and more?
Andrew
More?
Beth
Well, I love what you said about like that high level messaging, you know, on the website screaming different sales, because I think it connects to what Andrea was talking about and how the perception that we're showing people. Right. The perception that we're giving off and it's this it reeks desperate in some cases when the high level or the early part of the sales funnel, you're saying, oh, we're going to give you this and we're going to give you that, well, then people are going to naturally push, especially when they're seeing all these things in the market about how terrible and how historic this market is.
Beth
They're going to try to see if they can if they can get more out of it. On average right now, I think the national average is 6% in concessions on spec homes. And there's some people probably more likely the the big box builders or even in like the the markets where people are having a bit of desperation where they're giving 9% or more in concessions to people to get these homes moving.
Beth
So I can't blame the buyer. But at the same time, we have to be aware that on the marketing end, what message are we sending to people and how much are they going to push back and what are they what are they going to take psychologically from this message?
Julie
And I think a lot of the sales people haven't ever had to deal with this, probably if they're have just been in the role in for a few years, I mean, before COVID and all that. So it's also I think, training people on how to deal with that if they come in and just want everything.
Beth
Oh, absolutely. It takes a lot of creativity from the sales side of things of how to I think the skill of negotiation has somewhat been lost through the process of COVID and people are slowly on the sales side from what we hear, trying to get it back. But it's, you know, this isn't something that they've run into before and it's really, truly unlike anything any of us have really run into before.
Beth
So there's a whole different bag of tricks that they have to start developing on the onsite side. And a lot of that is just core creative negotiation.
Andrew
Mm hmm. Yeah, that's right. I think more one. Do we think it's a buyer's market or a seller's market? This is just.
Julie
Well, yeah.
Andrew
I don't know. I don't even know. It's like I think the market.
Julie
Yeah, I, it, it's a market. I think it depends on the market and I think that Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't call it a buyer's market. It's just, it's so dependent right now on where you are and what's happening I think.
Andrew
Yeah.
Beth
It depends on who you talk to. A seller is going to tell you it's a seller's market and a buyer is going to tell you it's a buyer's market and it's just because it's a different perception of reality in either direction. And like you guys just both said, it really depends on where you are trying to.
Julie
And supply is still low, but demand is pretty low too. So it's just a different a different market than we've seen lately.
Andrew
Yeah. You're saying that really maybe thinking that I'm like, what kind of market? It's this thing Like, it's. It's almost white out, you know, It's happening.
Beth
But identity crisis.
Andrew
Identity crisis? Who am I? I don't know. Midlife crisis. But it made me think about, like so when prices were going up, they're going up because it still fit the monthly payment, right? Like, we'll just keep bumping the prices up because rates are 3%, three and half percent, two and a half or whatever percent. You kept going up because it still fit.
Andrew
If you know the amount of people that can afford 2500 per month is ex cool, let's just keep going until those you know it's and it's siphoned off safe an office vast amount of people and we're really in the same spot it's just like well how less people can afford 2500 and then the combined monthly payment with the perceived value and so they're like, well, we're not going to spend 2500 or 28 or 2000, whatever number may be if they feel like they're not getting value out of it.
Andrew
So they're asking for more asking for more. But it's always been about at least my brain. This could be completely incorrect. Whatever they can afford per month is going to be. That's your that is your market. That's how you could sell, too. So if you have people coming in and their cap is 2500 and all your homes based on the average down payment, based on what people can afford, is going to be 2800.
Andrew
While there's very few people that can move from 25 to 28, unless they're talking about negotiation baths, like are they actually being honest with how much they have? Maybe they have another 50 K over here, they probably don't or another ten K every year, or maybe they can move things around and just delay purchasing. They could pay off that credit card or like, Oh, their truck lease has gone in a few months.
Andrew
Maybe they could stage. Things were like, Ah, they don't have a car for a little bit. This is, this sounds like fraud. I'm saying fraud. Like, let's not get a new car for a couple of months. Now you can afford this house. And if you need to get a new car later or just just wait on that a little bit and all these conversations that are outside of my scope of of contacts, but it's all about the monthly payment is what I feel like.
Andrew
So I think the value is where they're looking at. Julie As far as they're asking for more because they feel like I'm not getting that much home at the payment, that it has to be at 6% or 7%. Even so they I rather rent here because I have all these lifestyle resort luxury amenities that are actually better than than buying right now.
Andrew
So I think marketing though, like I'm looking at a I'm a builder here. We're rolling back we're rolling back home prices over 250,000 in savings. Right? That's like kind of terrifying, right? That's like.
Beth
Walmart question.
Andrew
Yeah, rolling back. That's definitely a rollback of prices. I think even the smiley face rolls. I think that's a fair remember, we're rolling back prices, but that's like, oh gosh, like why better negotiate? Like, I better try to push the price down even if they don't offer. I think that's like training people to push the price down, try to get more.
Andrew
Try to get more. Try to get more.
Beth
Yeah. And then from a marketing and a high level like C-suite conversation of are we priced right in the market and are we you know we we've seen builders that out priced themselves purposely and then had to roll back their pricing in order to better fit in the market and adjusting pricing may not be the solution. It depends.
Beth
But going back to what you were saying, Andrew, is data was released recently that said post-tax median income wise, new home buyers are spending like up to 70% of their income on housing right now.
Andrew
I believe.
Beth
And it's like because they have to if they need to move. Right. But that's where I have to.
Andrew
Yeah, exactly. And I still think builders are not really marketing new versus used that way. Yeah. And that's always been a thing like I think we can buy we go back five, 300 episodes ago, 285 episodes go and be like, Oh, we need to sell new versus used new versus used. Like my example with the the windows or your windows are new.
Andrew
The average hurricane decibels in your house will be 70 instead of 90. Well, that's a pretty that's like chainsaw versus a I don't know, microwave being on whatever the noises at the noise level for a hurricane. But I think that's still something that is still missed all over the place like new carpet. But what's his name? Quint Ren Lears what I was talking about that there's no toenails in our carpet.
Andrew
When I go look at those, there's nothing. You're like, Oh gosh, that's disgusting. There's no this, there's no that. But you're like, Oh, now that you say that, like lay on this carpet like it is clean. No one else has been on this carpet for the past.
Beth
This toilet hasn't leaked.
Andrew
This toilet hasn't looked like all those things. I think that is like there's tons of value in that without having to go down in price or add more or give more concessions. Just if we talk about it a bit more.
Beth
Yeah. And in this market, more than ever, existing homes are looking at new homes as their competition because there's so little existing homes on the market everywhere that they have to.
Andrew
What fun, what a great market. It's like everything everybody. What's that on Reddit? Maybe people like it and it rates. It's a conference. The situation's like, well, you're the I don't want to say the word because I need like my own censoring. So it's like, Hey, am I the ahole or not? And so then people rate the situation like this is kind of like where everyone kind of sucks here thing.
Andrew
It's not a buyer's market, it's not a seller's market. Beth, what do you have?
Beth
Well, on a happy note.
Andrew
Yeah, let's do some.
Beth
Happiness regarding buyers. You're just being a buyer. We close on our home next week, so why the time.
Andrew
Is so exciting?
Beth
Yes, it's. It's very exciting. And by the time this episode goes live, we will be closing. Are we living in it yet? But we will be closed on it. And it was funny when we did our walk yesterday, like I said that we had, we were talking to our builder and my husband was referencing like one of the first episodes that I mentioned us going through this process and building our home.
Beth
And Kevin was like, He can get it done. How fast? Like, there's no way. And he did it.
Andrew
So.
Beth
Man Shout out Charles, Charlie at Die on a Tough lot. So I'm super excited.
Andrew
What are you most excited for with your home?
Beth
Honestly, it's like the home itself. There's a lot of things up the porch. If you've seen the porch, say more. If you haven't, you need to go and find a picture of the porch. And that experience. But it's just being settled like we're living in an Airbnb. This isn't our space. This isn't our stuff. You know, I miss our our pillows.
Beth
I miss the rest of my clothes. I've been rotating through the same clothes for like three months now, so I'm just excited to get the rest of our stuff back and feel settled as a family because we're supposed to be here at least three years, which is long term for us. Yeah, so and it could be even longer.
Beth
So we really are just excited to feel settled.
Andrew
Hmm. That sounds like a Hallmark commercial. Julie. You could probably really take that and make it sound really good. Feel So let's write a book. Let's write a book about that, Be at home, feel sad. There's a lot of value in that. Yeah, it's like the journey is done. Like we arrived. Like we're here. You can breathe.
Beth
Yeah. And final content coming. So, like, I'll do a walk through of the house. I'm going to try to get professional photos of the house, which is done because once we move in, because we live in our homes, is going to be too messy.
Andrew
Like there's nothing like a model home. Are the neighbor to us. He's OCD. I mean that with all all endearment, like your mother's yard three times like the same spot. It's amazing. His house is a museum. It's insane. I'm like, I don't know. People live like that. And he has guests all the time. But your house. Our house?
Andrew
No kids, not you.
Julie
That is to make believe.
Andrew
Even like the. Like I feel like it's like, what's that? And Christmas vacation where the neighbor next door, like their house is like, all these things, everything's breakable. You walk in, you're like, Oh, no, this base is six feet tall. I don't want to stand next to it. Yeah. So that'll be that's going to be the pictures ahead of time.
Andrew
Did you do any pictures during the build as far as like to know where any electrical things are or that's just not your, your level of commitment to that type of content.
Beth
Personal. Yes. No no. Part of that is that we weren't local when a lot of that stage of construction was happening. So we have a walkthrough video after electrical. Okay, But it's a little darker. You can't really see much because obviously there's no light and it's a video, so it's not as high quality in this case. And the time of day we have trees blocking the sun too.
Beth
So like I could make it out and I have like a good idea where things are. And I saw a frame and took a bunch of pictures at frame but could have done a better job.
Andrew
But my last overly personal question, this is the first time you lived in the South. You were in Texas before.
Beth
No, we've lived in the South for most of the time. My daughter was born in North Carolina.
Andrew
Okay. Okay. There you go. That's that is south. It cools down there. But to me, you have to have fans in every room. Is. Is that you? Okay?
Beth
No. So here's the thing.
Andrew
She's crazy.
Beth
I know. No, it's actually part of his budget. Part of it is like, I'll try not to put a fan in eventually, but the fans that like the vendor was charging for, like, I'm not going to pay that. Oh, I can. I can put in a fan.
Andrew
Andrew your hubby is pretty cool. Does he even do the latter.
Beth
In this house? He will because they're very nice. Nice. Yeah. We'll put in our own fans in some places, but we have fans all on the porch. We have fans in the main living areas and then I'm the person that like keeps the air on like 68 nice at night.
Andrew
I like it. That was our first when we moved in. That was the first thing we went to Home Depot or Lowe's. What I think pretty sure is Home Depot. I think that's the thing. Growing up, you either go to Lowe's or Home Depot and that's how you stick with your life. I'm a Home Depot person. That's just where I'm loyal to Home Depot.
Andrew
I want the floors that look like that. I want the orange and white signs. I think we bought like 14 fans. And that was the first thing we did before. Yeah. Wow. The fans are coming in. Yeah, we need the fans. So, look.
Beth
I'm just thankful for Labor Day sales because it's helping.
Andrew
Us out. True.
Julie
Right. It is. It's good timing. That's true.
Andrew
It is perfect timing. We'll see if there's any builder of Labor Day sales. That'll be fun to watch. I haven't seen any yet.
Jen
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Andrew
Well, let's get on to the news. We have this first one. This is a this is interesting from NAHB talk. We love them. Zillow Redfin Partnership increases exposure for new construction listings. So this one is interesting. Essentially, all your listings will be pushed over to Redfin and Zillow and Redfin are being friends. It feels kind of shocking, but it's mutually beneficial.
Andrew
What do I think about this?
Beth
Yeah, I think it's exciting.
Julie
I think it's a great thing. I mean, it it sounds good. It's more exposure for the builders. I don't see any cons from our end on it.
Beth
But I think the big win from it is that they're syndicating the builders content, not just the MLS listings, which is huge because that is the thing that was been that was so hurtful to so many builders was like, No, we don't want to use the MLS. We want to have control over all the content and not it not be the MLS content.
Beth
And so the fact that they're going to be putting their community pages on which if you have your feed set up properly, then it's the content that you own from your own website. So that part is the cherry on top.
Andrew
That is, that is really nice. Yeah. More exposure the better. I like it. I think it's a, it's a win for everybody. Zillow, Redfin builders. Yeah. The whole home construction industry like the more I think we forget about that, the more people that see where it says what's out and selling says new construction. It's like blue and white text.
Andrew
You start seeing that more and more and more like that just fuels the demand. Just like if you're car shopping and all sudden or this is opposite here, hurricanes and saltwater and Teslas apparently don't mix. So now there's all these not so great jokes about Tesla. They catch on fire. The saltwater, apparently, and the batteries. I had no idea.
Andrew
There's been four Tesla fires since Tuesday night where I'm at in Pinellas County. I don't know how I'm playing them. I thought Xbox with my hands, which is like a foot wide, but I'm like, Oh, enough. So that Lindsey, my wife, texted me and we are looking to get in Tesla next year. It's like, Are you trying to kill me?
Andrew
All these Teslas are catching on now.
Beth
There's just the nightmares, the awareness.
Andrew
Thank you so well, don't go like in the water, like a submarine. This I think that's the that's the goal there. But it just increases the awareness, increases demand. Just having it out there that much more, which is great for for all builders that's Yeah.
Beth
And I think like it's a good like we're getting recognition that we're important to you know what I mean? Like we want to be seen more in our content matters, our listings matters, Our, our homes matter. Everything that we do matters. Okay? And so, like, put us out there more, man, And it's right on the heels. It feels like we were heard.
Andrew
Right?
Julie
Yeah, it did feel like for a while we were getting buried on some of these sites by all the existing homes and we would be like on another tab if you didn't do that. So. Oh, yes, It does seem like now that new construction is such a big percentage of what's available and out there we're getting a little more love.
Julie
That's nice.
Andrew
That's right. But it's the the slogan for the Builder show. Oh, it's right there. It's on my brain. Oh, my goodness. I don't.
Beth
Know. It's not my.
Andrew
Brain. All home start here. And people are like, Oh, that's cute. And they think about it like, Oh, I want to say a bad word. Can I say bad word? I'm not going to say it backward. Be like, Oh, I be like legit, like every new home. Some people are anti-development, right? They're like, not my backyard or whatever it may be.
Andrew
But you know, okay, so homes are going away. Attrition just naturally, hurricanes, they're going away all home start here. So homebuilding is so important. Like every new home starts with a builder, like the homes that are 50 years old. Good. 20, 73, that home that's 50 years old with all the character at some point had no character, wasn't redone and painted 15, 20 times.
Andrew
So yeah, just the awareness on new homes and just that say respect. That sounds a little weird. And I'm like, like sucking up, but like, it's pretty important. Like new homes. New homes are important. Yeah. Let's go to some. To me, this is maybe I'm spicy today. A little spicy.
Beth
This one's from real spicy.
Andrew
I'm like, double caffeinated may for some real estate news.com. It's titled Maui Broker Hanging up on Vultures Holding on to hope. So I read this, and I'm friends with someone from Hawaii. We train together as as often as we can. And I'm like, Man, this, like, gets me fired up a little bit for some reason. Essentially, we had all day that we I didn't experience this.
Andrew
I can't count that as mine. All the fires in Hawaii and just the developers and brokers and just investors, anyone trying to get that land which is so limited and also so valuable and just kind of like disregarding like there's people still like they can't go to their homes. There's the, what do they call them? I forgot the zones you can't go to because they're sold active, burning all that already jumping in like vultures is.
Andrew
But this article describes trying to pick up the land or houses that burned down. But were y'all's feelings and thoughts on this very complex history? Very complex history. So it's delicate.
Beth
The one one word ick.
Andrew
Yes.
Beth
It's sad. Like we you know, we had had this conversation with the builder the other day and and prep for my summit talk. I had this conversation of like, we forget that this is an extremely personal purchase and journey. Like these people are going through an extremely personal thing and we're just like, people are just going in there and being grubby, you know?
Beth
And it just it's just.
Andrew
It's just epic.
Beth
I understand it. I get it. But it's like.
Andrew
Yeah, I get it. Yeah.
Julie
And then because of that, they put a moratorium on the land transactions, which is bad. Yes, it's good because they did it for a good reason. But then it's also bad for the people who really are trying to do, you know, a land transaction that was already happening or just trying to do business and get back to normal.
Julie
So they're having to do it because of people doing wrong things and then it's slowing everything else down. So it's just frustrating that those people are screwing things up for everybody.
Andrew
Yes, it I didn't intentionally try to set up this way, but 2 minutes ago I was like, we need this, like respect for homebuilding. All homes start here. And then this kind of goes it's like, well, how can say both things? It's like, But if we want that, like less of the attitude of not in my backyard or like, Oh, developers are this or this, it's like, Oh, this type of article, like, doesn't really help even kind of forgetting about the not forgetting about the history of like the United States to the Kingdom of Hawaii and like that history there.
Andrew
A lot of people in Hawaii. Have you know, a lot of mistrust to people on the mainland and all that, rightfully so. So then you have people from the mainland trying to come in and once again, and their their perspective, get this land. This sounds like it's a little political, but I'm not trying to be political at all.
Andrew
It's but it's yeah, it's really interesting reading that. And the broker gives his stories about he's taken all the calls. He's the one wanting to voice his thoughts and concerns and feelings to the people calling, trying to buy the property that's burned down while these he had, I think, had eight, eight or nine agents in his office. Only two of them have somewhere to live.
Andrew
And they're still working, probably because they have no work, limited places where they can go. So working is actually like a nice break from wherever they're having to stay at and they're having people like, Hey, I'm trying to get this house, like just interested in buying it looks like more. And they're like, Are you kidding me? Like, I'm sleeping like and my mother in law's house like, Yeah, get out of here.
Beth
Literally, the dust has settled and cleaned up and it's just, you know, it's sad.
Andrew
It's like the roofing ads and flooding ads. We start to get like, the day of the hurricanes. You're like, Come on. Or especially they start knocking on the doors and they're like, Hey, let me inspect your roof. It might have been damaged. And you're like, Get out. This is insurance fraud. But a little like most of the time, like, where are you from?
Andrew
And we were yeah, they truly try to try to push you on that. Oh, let's see. We got one more from Inman. This one work. For all I know, we had some trouble with with getting that pulled up. Okay. Okay. Here we go. Let me get here. Home buyer mortgage demand picks up for the first time in six weeks.
Andrew
What's exciting.
Julie
Which is good I mean, it's. It's up 2%.
Andrew
Yeah, I feel like a little There are.
Julie
Many things that could, like, affect that, you know? So, I mean, it sounds like it's exciting and maybe it's exciting. But also I look at it and I'm like.
Andrew
Oh, okay.
Beth
That's interesting.
Julie
If we keep setting up.
Beth
Watch all this more engine housing news, like every day, they're like half a percent, you know, like they're celebrating every little like blip or change, which I get. But it's almost like, okay, like just like you said, it's like you don't really have a reaction to it anymore.
Andrew
That you're kind of numb to it or used to it, or you're like, This almost feels like like a parent asking a kid, So how's your homework going? Well, I'm almost done. I did so much better than last week. Just forget about that. I stayed behind a year and I'm repeating same grade because we're actually down. We're down 27%, but we're up 2% this week, which is you always have to go deeper.
Andrew
In articles, which I did a post on on LinkedIn seems like Monday or Tuesdays I get in some mood where it's really easy to write. I'll probably start putting them on the website instead of just posting to LinkedIn so that everyone can see it. But like you really have to deep dive on to like if a metric is being shown, especially a single metric like mortgage demand picks up and that's applications.
Andrew
So applications increased 2%. You need more context to that than just one than just one number was a pretty much hold. And ten of my my blog posts I then I talked about like we only understand what is applications is that unique applications maybe people are actually I don't even know like it's getting nerdy It's it's actually unique applications are up or people now applying to more than one place.
Andrew
And so applications are up because there's more applications being submitted. I don't know. So actually applications down, I don't know.
Beth
But depends on what they of these two.
Andrew
Yeah, total applications could be up, but unique applications or household applications, whatever you want it to be tied to a person could be flat, even up or down. But I mean, this all seems positive in the right direction. Of course, interest rates are, you know, all over the place. Yeah, they're they're fun to watch. I follow Lance Lambert on Twitter for my interest rate news.
Andrew
I think a lot of people do. He's like on it every day, multiple times throughout the day. So.
Beth
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see like when this podcast goes live, what the latest article is or what the percentage, you know what I mean?
Andrew
I hope it keeps going up, but it's a fall. I mean, if you look at just Google Trends or if you're if you have home builder home builder datacom access like the seasonality is obvious. This is the back half of the year. It goes down. That's just what it does. It's just how it is. Yeah. So be interesting.
Andrew
See how that how that goes. But there's also inventory for existing homes is still all time low. So will it kind of counteract that? I don't know. I guess we'll find out. Buckle up. Buckle up. We want to go on to Kurt Favorites or did anything else pop up we should talk about because we do have three news articles.
Andrew
We kicked one out.
Julie
Well, we had the question of the week.
Andrew
Oh, Crime of the week. How can we forget that?
Julie
You see that one?
Andrew
It said, Who wants to read it if you haven't pulled out before me? That's good.
Beth
Oh, I don't trust myself to read it. I'm like, going to fumble like three one.
Andrew
I was written like 400 bucks, so she should probably read it.
Julie
I'll try it. Right? Yes. And we won't say the builder here. Okay. But we'll say, basically, I keep thinking about social media and how feasible would it be for a home builder to try to monetize it. I wonder if you have any experience coaching home builders on this or would be willing to approach the topic on one of your podcast.
Julie
I'm not sure what monetizing could mean for us when our core following on Instagram is real estate agents and our post are more brand and sales oriented, seems like we'd be able to monetize easier for audience was made up of more vendors and subcontractors, and we offer sponsored content to promote materials we use to build our home. So they're asking about monetizing, making money off of their social media accounts and posts.
Julie
So I have lots of thoughts. You'll have thoughts.
Beth
I have so many people, if they're not watching the podcast recording, they should be right now just because of the faces not cooperating with me.
Andrew
I was like.
Beth
I'm thinking.
Andrew
Really positive. Hurry, be honest.
Julie
Thank you for sending a question. That's amazing and we love it. And this is such a fun one that I don't think we've ever I don't think we've ever talked about before. So if you sent this question, this is amazing. Thank you. And yeah, we have.
Andrew
Built some parameters.
Beth
About this before. Like it's a natural thought that people have probably looked into, like people are making money off these platforms. Maybe we can extend our revenue and make some money off of this, too, but let's think through it a little bit.
Andrew
Yeah, maybe we focus on. So let's let's define monetization. The the person asking the question stated that they're looking to sponsor based off of like manufacturer sponsors. So not trying to get like money from Instagram or Facebook or whatever. So like hey will post your I don't know, whatever brand facets, cool color, 300 bucks for and they'll do a post about it or like a series of posts.
Andrew
So that type of monetization versus trying to get 100,000 followers and have you know, million plus views on reels which that seems much more daunting, although they should be doing the same things to get that amount of use. Because if whoever's doing the buy essentially on their account, we're like, great, your reals, get 400 views, here's $6 or something.
Andrew
I don't know.
Julie
So and to be fair, we used to do this back when I started, when like if we wanted to print a new brochure, sometimes there would be vendors come to us and be like, We will help you pay for that. If you put things about our products in the brochure, you know what I mean? So this isn't a new, totally new concept.
Julie
It's just new to this this avenue or this distribution channel. But I would look at what what is your goal of your social media accounts? Is it to make money through avenues like that or is it to connect with your potential and current home buyers? So I think that would be number one if changing the avenue is going to impact that in a negative way.
Julie
If you start talking more to subcontractors and vendors, then you're not talking to your number one customer and audience who are home buyers. Number two, when you think of monetization, you're thinking of giving somebody else those advertising eyes, but you are you're advertising yourself with that. You may not think of that organic as like you're selling yourself, but that's your own space.
Julie
So I think you need to protect space. And then if you do want to do something along those lines, I would think of it more in the terms of a collaboration than a monetization So to collaborate with another social media account or something, I can see possibilities there. But the monetization I can't see how that long term would bring you more success to your home building goals than using that avenue for, you know, for your number one goal, which is, I'm assuming, selling homes.
Beth
Yeah. And I think like, while it's tempting, we have to look at who we are on Instagram. Are we an influencer or are we a brand? And, you know, it's the brand who collaborates with the influencer and pays the influencer for the posts, not the brand, taking money to do posts for other brands. And so just knowing our role on these platforms like, you said, and how how we are perceived to the customer or the people interacting with us on these platforms is vital in that decision making of if we pursue because it is interesting, right?
Beth
It's just like if you have a model home and you can link your model home furniture to a store and get a little bit of a kickback to, you know, sending them to the store to for buying that product because they found it in your model home. Like, it's an interesting concept to look into, but ultimately, you have to know who you are in that scenario and who you are to be your audience before you make that decision.
Julie
And is it a distraction? You know what I mean? Like it's just distracting you from your your main goal.
Beth
Yeah, I like the idea of the collaboration of like, you know, collaborating with the the brand who makes this faucet. And I'm showing this faucet being used in a beautiful trend setting brand new home versus, you know, me selling that faucet.
Andrew
Mm hmm.
Julie
You're still speaking to your home buyers.
Andrew
I don't know if there's anything to add based on what he said, and I have no idea that was perfection. But I think the only thing I could add is we have this very expensive resource, finite of time. And if you were to spend, let's say, 5 hours a week dedicated to this, could that 5 hours which five times 50 to 200 fit, say 200 hours a year, be put toward something else that would have much higher revenue, much higher profit and then for your career growth, because I assume this is the market that ask the question could that then so that 200 hours per year benefit them better for their career and some other
Andrew
way? And I feel like the answer is yes. Like I think learning how to grow the account, that's very valuable, especially if you were to, let's say you're working with a regional builder and then you kind of went to National, you're like, Hey, I took this local builder, regional builder from 2000 followers to 20,000, you know, I work for a big builder like, Oh, well, you know how to do this process That could be valuable.
Andrew
But I think chasing this is I don't mean it offensive, but like chasing kind of like the pennies and dollars when you could you're kind of ignoring the, the checks with the commas in them. I'm trying to get like 200 bucks, 300 bucks when it should be like we're trying to make 20, 30, 40, 50, 100,000 on, on selling other products.
Julie
Yeah. I don't think the math adds up.
Andrew
Yeah. And just like the time, but maybe it could be a fun. We have interns or you're just intern paid interns. I mean, I think all interns should be paid, but we had like, a team of people, like, Hey, we have someone who's at X rate per hour. They're dedicated to this. They manage and run it. Cool. That can make sense.
Andrew
But I would be wary of like some of that we talk to on a daily basis. I'm like marketing coordinator, director whatever their title might be. Like, Hey, I'm a spend a fifth of my week focused on this week. Oh, like you could probably have a lot more revenue driven activities doing something else versus that. I think it's a fun idea.
Andrew
Like it's a good idea.
Julie
Like it's fun topic.
Andrew
Yeah, yeah. Shout out to just putting it out there and asking it. Most people I think, would not ask it. So. Yeah, yeah.
Beth
And I love it. You talking about I think it was a great question.
Andrew
Yeah. Well especially we see in other industries all the time. Yeah. Like all over the place. But I think it is, we are industry so special. There's big revenue attached to it. So then one transaction lot of revenue compared to, let's say, you know, I'm in the fitness space and so if you're selling like a supplement, you're like, cool, it makes six bucks per, per jug of whatever or whatever.
Andrew
So it's a little different thing when it's like, Oh, that one transaction, $6, this one transaction, 60,000. So yeah, one transaction is important. Fun question, Fun question. Move on to current favorites or not. So favorites. Yeah. Favorite. Not favorite.
Beth
Oh, not favorite. I don't have a not favorite this time. Last time I went on like some random like Brant. I don't know. Who knows. But this time I have this link shout out to my cousin who's the reason why I'm addicted to this, but I forget. Okay.
Andrew
Okay. Get ready to be present.
Beth
How do you pronounce it?
Andrew
First, Julie?
Beth
I'm going to pronounce it wrong and everyone's going to make fun of me. But, like, forget it. Oh, like the.
Andrew
Yeah. Shit. Yeah.
Beth
Okay. Push it out. And then goat.
Andrew
Cheese. I like goat.
Julie
Cheese. That was my favorite.
Beth
And then hot peach chutney.
Andrew
Okay, Some spicy, peachy stuff.
Beth
Spicy and sweet. That's the beauty of it. And then you have the salty.
Andrew
And it this you just like random.
Beth
I went on like a like a whole week where it was my lunch every single day. Every day I just made a plate and I would like, text a picture to Karla. I'd be like.
Andrew
I'm doing. Yeah, that sounds good. Does that sound good?
Beth
So try it, everybody. Costco sells goat cheese in, like a two pack. That's much cheaper than the grocery store. You're welcome.
Andrew
Yeah. Forget the grocery store and you go through the goat cheese. Okay. We'll need a new recipe next week. Julie.
Julie
My not favorite is the bad school germs, because I have something that my son had. And then now I have. And my favorite chick, a big shot of DayQuil before this podcast took NyQuil last night and they were laughing. You probably can't see on the camera, but I drink a Coke, which I'd never do, but it looks like red wine.
Julie
But it's bad. It's not.
Andrew
It's not.
Julie
Aware. So that's what got me through this. This podcast is sponsored by.
Andrew
DayQuil and a.
Julie
Little bit of caffeine.
Andrew
Finally. Well, my new favorite is, I think last time I talked about how this oh jeez, I'm getting wrapped up this boom, this make boom stand is terrible. It was on the floor next to me, blue, which is like a legit brand that's like a hundred bucks. Which, I mean.
Beth
I thought it was a woman at first. I was like, What are you doing? Andrew?
Andrew
What happened to your legs? Yeah. So I'm like, Oh, let's go. Premium, right? Buy once, cry once, just get it over with is the best one and it usually works well, but If the humidity changes or stuff, then it starts to just my micro just be like falling down, falling down. So I'm like, I need to get one.
Andrew
These cheap boom stands that you just really you have to lock in place. I haven't touched this really. I don't think since they put it in front of my face for the podcast, this was like a $20 knockoff one from China that someone bought 20,000 of brown container ship to the Amazon for from Amazon. They're making a bunch of money now and now this is great.
Andrew
It's my new favorite. I don't even know what brand it is because there's like 30 of them that are exact same thing on Amazon. You just pick the one that's like then show up the next day. So that is exciting. So that's my favorite. My least favorite was I don't know what it is. We have three Starbucks. Oh jeez, Where I'm at, there's a Starbucks within 5 minutes, like every corner has a Starbucks where I'm at.
Andrew
So from our house, there's three within 5 minutes. East, north, south, right there. Hurricane time comes. I'm like, Well, let's get our last Starbucks before everything shut down tomorrow. Like you just notice me shut down. All three of these places were closed. It was like seven in the morning. Hurricanes gets there, allegedly. That's when picks up at like 10:00 at night.
Andrew
It's since COVID. It's so weird. At least down here. Maybe they're all like this. I have no idea. The ones down here, if they just decide to not be open or maybe like enough people don't make it on the shift or whatever, they just close up. No signs, nothing. They're still open on the app. So Starbucks.
Julie
You're making me frustrated. Before the hurricane was like this one bad enough that some people left town.
Andrew
So we didn't get the vibe. There really wasn't many who did evac our evacuations. If you're familiar. Like it's like mobile homes. Okay, Those are evacuated. Nursing homes are usually evacuated, depending where they are. And then like if you're on the beach because they close, the bridges are back evacuated. But like most people didn't board anything up there wasn't like it really was like, oh, it's here.
Andrew
But like, it was pretty calm, like the vibe. If you go to the store, there's no water. But that's kind of like the usual thing. There's no water and like random stuff that just is gone. But it wasn't the same tense feeling like when we had Irma a while ago where we're like, Oh, this is serious and everyone's kind of sick, really freaking out.
Andrew
So I want to. Duncan was open, Chick-Fil-A was open, McDonald's of every other place was open. But Starbucks, what's wrong with you? Oh, well. Well, that's it for this week. Thank you for listening. And don't forget to become a member for free Converse all Access community app for homebuilders and developers. What's the scenes videos from the podcast? Frequent exclusive postings and analysis from the USC team, access to private hangouts and much, much more.
Andrew
See all next week.
Beth
Now have a good one.
