It is important that you become known locally as an expert. Local attorneys, accountants, lenders, real estate agents, should know that when it comes to real estate values, you are the expert; you are the one they should be contacting. This is especially true during the tenure of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is our time. This is our time to demonstrate clearly that lenders, attorneys, etc. should turn to us because we are reliable, credible, and accurate. These are three qualifications that, for example, Zillow cannot claim.
Now, what do you say to your market during a pandemic to show them that, indeed, you are an expert? Have you considered preparing, from MLS data, a statistical analysis of your county or your city measuring changes in the market from before April 1st 2020 to after April 1st 2020? Clearly, this is from the market before the pandemic as compared with the market during the pandemic. You could study changes in days on market, changes in listing prices versus selling prices, changes in numbers of listings, changes in the numbers of sales, etc. Then, you'd send these data out to local attorneys, accountants, real estate brokers, lenders, and so forth. This is how you become known as the real estate appraisal expert in your area.
Then it is important you provide these data to them on a regular basis. A monthly basis is likely too slow. A daily basis is likely too cumbersome and time-consuming. Therefore it makes sense to provide these data on a schedule. This means you are communicating to the movers and shakers in your area regularly . Therefore, they come to depend on you.
So, what do you say to your market during a pandemic? You say that you provide that market with reliable, accurate, credible, and well-interpreted data on a regular basis. You tell them this in newsletters, email blasts, on podcasts, on Facebook and on Linked-in. You say it in Rotary Club meetings and at the lunch-and learn meetings you sponsor (via video-conference of course). That communicates to your market that you care what's happening in it. That says you are the expert to whom they should turn when they have real estate value questions. This is what you say to your market during a pandemic.
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
What Do You Say To Your Market During A Pandemic
