When the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates in the summer of 2022, Angie Mykel, the operating principal broker and CEO of Keller Williams Greater Seattle, said what really struck her was how quickly the market moved and how slow many other brokers were to change their expenses.
“You couldn’t cut things fast enough to keep up with the market,” Mykel said. “I was surrounded by other offices that were really struggling because they couldn’t cut things fast enough to keep their head above water.”
In witnessing these struggles, Mykel knew she never wanted her firm to be caught in a situation like this in the future.
“Starting in 2022, I knew I had to figure out how to look at more forward-looking data,” Mykel said. “In real estate we have always relied on lag data. It’s something our industry has used for so long. It’s like we’re driving our car looking in the rearview mirror and then we don’t understand why we keep running into things.”
A more intelligent approach
For Mykel, this is why discoveringHousingWire Intelligence and incorporating it into her business has been a game changer.
“HousingWire Intelligence data has given me a menu of leading indicators to examine, whereas most MLSdata is going to be performance after the fact,” Mykel said.
This, she says, enables her to make decisions based on the current financial performance of the market instead of trying to guess what may happen based on historical data and trends.
“Right now, as I see the market start to soften seasonally, HousingWire Intelligence helps me determine if the downturn is greater than what we normally see or if it’s inline with our normal seasonal decline,” she said. “That is huge for me. I can layer years and years of pending sales data and then look at mortgage applications and that gives me leading indicators of where things are going.”
MLS vs. HWi
Mykel said she doesn’t view HousingWire Intelligence as competing with the data she gets from her local MLS, but views it as a great complement to that information, noting that unlike her local MLS, HousingWire Intelligence provides her with both hyper local and national data, enabling her to gain insights into nearly all individual ZIP codes across the country.
“I can get real-time data from my MLS, but the data set is much more cumbersome and with HousingWire Intelligence, at the click of a button, I can get information that is timely and easy for my brokers to digest,” she said.
Rachel Bader, HousingWire’s vice president of audience and growth, added that HousingWire Intelligence data goes beyond what agents and brokers are able to get out of traditional MLS data.
“It allows you to understand what market forces are influencing your clients’ buying and selling decisions,” Bader said.
Data combos offer a window to the future
Mykel said one of her favorite combinations of data to examine on her HousingWire Intelligence dashboard is inventory, weekly pending sales and new listings.
“The relationship of those three data points shows supply coming onto market and buyer activity, so I use that to coach agents on pricing strategy and to help them manage seller expectations,” she said. “If Seattle is averaging 150 new listings, but only 95 are going pending, total inventory is growing, and I can see that as an early signal that supply is outpacing demand. And that we need to start pivoting to conversations around pricing.
“I don’t want to look at inventory in isolation. The fact that [HousingWire] Intelligence lets me lay out a dashboard where I can see all of those data points layered right over the top is so great.”
Mykel said she also likes to look at the combination of share of re-listed homes, price reductionsand median days on market.
“That formula tells me the friction in the listing market, and it tells me when sellers are going to have a harder time finding their place in the market,” she said.
Bader added that by exploring combinations of data like the ones Mykel listed, agents and brokers are able to recognize changing market conditions earlier.
“When you can anticipate either the opportunities or challenges that are coming, depending on which way the market is going, you’ll then be able to translate those insights into better advice for your clients,” Bader said.
Out in the marketplace, Mykel agrees.
“HousingWire Intelligence allows me to look at a dashboard that has warning lights, and it gives me the ability to read the warning signals and prepare because agents can have their best months in a weak market,” Mykel said. “I can read market signals well in advance, like I am looking into a crystal ball, so I can make my adjustments before my back is to the wall.”
Practical data uses
Mykel said her agents use the data in newsletters, marketing and in listing presentations and other conversations with consumers.
“We are entering an era where the quality of an agent’s advice matters more than ever. Our buyers and sellers don’t need us to tell them what happened last month, they need us to help them make a good decision today. In order for us, as an industry, to provide the customer that information, it needs to be current, there needs to be a thoughtful interpretation behind it and a willingness on the part of the agent to tell clients what they need to hear and not necessarily what they want to hear,” Mykel said. “The HousingWire Intelligence information and data helps the consumer discover what the truth about their market is and that is huge.”
Bader added that HousingWire Intelligence allows agents and brokers to go into client meetings with the ability to compare their local market to national trends, enabling them to explain the national headlines in a local context.
“You can read the analyst’s insights and see where those trends are headed, and you can also find other areas that have gone through the same thing that your market is experiencing right now, so you have these additional insights,” Bader said. “If you can arm yourself with general housing industry knowledge that is backed by data, you can really speak in a way that is going to instill a lot of confidence in people that are looking for an agent.”
