Listings. That’s what every agent wants. But, with inventory reaching record lows, how do we get more people to list their homes for sale?
The answer is simple. Engage homeowners; show them all the options available to sell their home, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each solution. You can no longer compete by offering only open market listings; you have to bring all offers to the table. Beyond iBuyers, bridge buyers are another option gaining popularity; they allow people to buy their new home before selling their old one. iBuyers have been the center of attention for the past few years, but the data shows that bridge buyers have been a far better option for consumers recently.
That’s the core of what zavvie does for your brokerage. We are the first end-to-end selling solutions platform for brokerages that allows agents to show bridge, iBuyer and traditional open market listing options, keeping agents at the center of every sales transaction.
When you present a homeowner with the certainty of buying their new home first and then selling their old one—on a more flexible schedule—that’s a gamechanger. How many homeowners do you know who would like to live in their new home while getting their old one ready for sale?
Consumer demand for bridge buyer and iBuyer programs is growing coast to coast, including smaller markets where the national solution providers don’t operate—yet. These new selling options are aligned with what homeowners want and will continue to become more pervasive in the marketplace.
Homeowners want the help of an agent, and they want to see what’s possible. Our mission at zavvie is to connect brokerages, agents and their clients with all the new ways to sell. iBuyers are presenting homeowners with all-cash offers for the safest and fastest closing available. Bridge buyers are giving homeowners a “buy-before-you-sell” option. And unlike iBuyers, bridge buyers are nationwide, available in nearly every major market in the U.S.
As we detailed in our Q2 zavvie Seller Preferences Report, homeowners right now are five times more interested in bridge buyer offers than iBuyer offers. We also found that the average home price in a bridge transaction is 72% higher than an iBuyer purchase. These numbers illustrate the accelerating popularity of the “buy-before-you-sell” option.
Bridge buyers are the future of real estate, and interest will continue to grow. Bridge solves a massive market challenge by letting homeowners become cash buyers with no contingencies—and gives agents a chance to win more listings.
You can’t ignore these new selling options. We’ve said it before, and we’ll repeat it: if you dismiss these new ways to sell, you will fall behind and risk extinction.
Lane Hornung is CEO and co-founder of zavvie, a technology company that is empowering the modern agent by making it easy to provide today’s consumers all the selling options: iBuyers, bridge and open market.
