Above, from left, Dr. Lisa Sturtevant, Nykia Wright and Brian Buffini on this year’s RISMedia’s Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year, the fifth-annual virtual event held January 9.
After a year of upheaval and uncertainty in the real estate industry, it was clear last week by the thousands in attendance at RISMedia’s Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year virtual event that industry professionals are ready to turn the page and focus on what needs to be done to succeed in 2025.
The company’s fifth-annual event, “Ready to Thrive in 2025,” included more than 50 leading brokers, top agents, trainers and experts as speakers who offered guidance and strategies in over 15 virtual sessions during the day-long event.
As the industry transitions from the lawsuits engulfing the industry and affordability and inventory challenges of 2024, many of the same headwinds are still facing real estate professionals in the new year. RISMedia Founder and CEO John Featherston began the event with an eye toward the future and the strategies the event speakers would share to help real estate professionals position themselves for success despite these ongoing challenges.
“Our collective goal today is to help the thousands of real estate professionals watching, to start off this year better equipped to tackle the current challenges, from the shifting economy to the ongoing lawsuits,” Featherston said. “We hope to provide you with information, techniques and strategies shared by leading professionals to help you improve your skills. We hope today you’ll start off your year stronger than ever before.”
Nykia Wright promises to ‘rebuild trust’ with members, sets Clear Cooperation timeline
In the keynote address kicking off the event, Featherston sat down with National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) CEO Nykia Wright in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview that made some headlines last week.
First, Wright spoke directly to the association’s urgent need to rebuild its relationship not only with members, but with media, consumers and the entire real estate community.
“It’s super important to understand historically what mistakes NAR has made over time so we can correct those,” Wright told Featherston. “We want to make sure all of our members can see themselves in NAR…it is not lost on us that this is going to take a herculean effort, and we are certainly up for the challenge.”
Wright also didn’t shy away from addressing several hot-button topics, including an ongoing legal spat with a local association, the divisive Clear Cooperation policy and political advocacy.
In response to a direct question from Featherston, Wright finally put a timeline for “what side will be taken” in regard to Clear Cooperation after NAR declined to take any action or substantively address criticisms of the policy in 2024.
“We have to make sure we go through our proper governance procedures, governance policies (and) governance bodies over the next—I want to say, 30 or 60 days,” she said. “Unless something significant happens that puts a monkey wrench in this, we should hopefully have this settled within the next couple of months.”
Read the full coverage of Wright’s interview with Featherston here.
Click here to order replays of this year’s Rocking in the New Year.
Dr. Lisa Sturtevant: ‘Expect the Unexpected’ in the 2025 housing market
Dr. Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist for Bright MLS, then spoke on the shifting economy and the factors that are shaping the real estate landscape in the coming year. While certain changes could alter housing market expectations, the current holding pattern of higher-for-longer mortgage rates and home-price increases could remain at issue for a while, she says.
“Forecasting in the best of times is challenging, and today with all the political and economic uncertainty that’s out there, forecasting beyond the near term really could be considered a fool’s errand,” Sturtevant said. “None of the old rules apply anymore, so while forecasters try and look back and try and predict the future based on what happened in the past, those past relationships don’t always hold true in the current environment. So for me, that means we should expect the unexpected in the 2025 housing market.”
But sharing potential bright spots, Sturtevant suggested the current housing market challenges—mortgage rates, inventory and affordability—could play out differently than “what conventional wisdom might suggest.”
On mortgage rates, Sturtevant posited, “I think in this market we can expect that buyers and sellers have reanchored their expectations and rates may not have to come down as much as we think they do in order to bring buyers and sellers back into the market.”
On inventory challenges, she suggested based on a recent Bright MLS survey that it could be younger homeowners in their 30s and 40 who bought during the pandemic as the group to lead listing activity this year based on changes to their work requirements post-pandemic, rather than the equity-rich baby boomers as some forecasters have suggested.
Ultimately, Bright MLS forecasts the year-over-year median home price to increase by 3.1% in 2025, which falls in line with the 2% – 4% increase that most forecasters are predicting, Sturtevant said. Mortgage rates should come down a bit, she added, but don’t expect any dips below 6% for a while.
“So 2025 is shaping up to be a year of continued uncertainty, as opposed to a return to a more normal market,” she said. “Underlying economic and demographic fundamentals are still going to drive housing market conditions. But now more than ever we need to be paying attention to the lingering effects of the pandemic as well as changes in homebuyer and seller preferences and frankly how all of this uncertainty affects consumer confidence and consumer behavior in the year ahead. So stay tuned for an interesting 2025.”
Click here to order replays of this year’s Rocking in the New Year.
Brian Buffini: It’s time to step up and ‘wow’ your clients
Iconic real estate coach Brian Buffini, founder of Buffini & Company, also provided a dynamic keynote speech, offering insights into market demographic shifts and what skills and preparations agents need now to navigate those, which may have been different from the past.
“I think it’s very important to understand the reality of the market and the opportunities in the market today,” said Buffini, noting, “Last year’s real estate market was older and richer than any year we’ve ever had. Older people were the ones making the moves, the people with larger amounts of equity. And a lot of younger people were locked out of the market.”
He shared tips for how agents can adjust their marketing in the short term and also offered a look at what his company is working on to assist first-time homebuyers, who are experiencing the most difficulty in purchasing a home in today’s market.
All-time highs and other surprising stats this year
- Last year, 49 was the median homebuyer age; this year, it’s 56
- First-time homebuyer age went from 35 to 38
- 73% of buyers did not have a child under 18 in their home
- 26% of all transactions were cash buyers
- 17% of buyers purchased a multi-generational home
- First-time buyers went from 32% to 24% this year
“We’ve got to address that in time (first-time buyers), but in the short term, your marketing, your approach, you need to pivot toward the older people in your database,” Buffini said. “People who might be willing to take equity out of their home to help somebody—a child or a grandchild. We’re going to have to adjust our marketing.”
Some additional topics Buffini addressed:
– Physical reasons still provide pressure for people to move (birth, death, jobs, divorce, etc.)
– “Referrals still rule”—with all the technology and AI, “nothing beats face-to-face relationship-building.”
– 700,000 REALTORS® didn’t do a transaction last year, and 27% aren’t even sure they will be in the business over the next two years—an important reminder on commitment: “You’ve gotta be in, or you’ve gotta be out.”
– A large number of transactions fell out of contract last year, which has to do with a lack of skills and professionalism of agents.
– This lack of professionalism was why Buffini & Company developed the Certified Full Service Professional (CFSP) certification. “It’s time to ‘wow’ our clients,” Buffini said. “There’s a giant lack of professionalism in the marketplace. The rules have changed, but agents’ presentations haven’t changed…(their) marketing resources haven’t changed; (their) social media messaging hasn’t changed. It’s time to be a pro and raise your game. You have to make a commitment to the highest level of professionalism you’ve ever had. That’s what this program is all about.”
To see Brian Buffini’s full presentation, along with all the full keynotes and more than 15 expert-led panels on the industry’s most pressing topics, click here to purchase the replays and learn what your industry’s top leaders are planning to do to see continued success in the year ahead.
Stay tuned to RISMedia for more coverage of this year’s Real Estate’s Rocking in the New Year. Sign up for RISMedia’s Premier today to see the full coverage.
