Posted by Leonard Steinberg of URBAN COMPASS on August 16th, 2014
In my role as President of URBAN COMPASS, I post some of my thoughts and observations to the company. I thought I would share this one as it highlights the new world we live in: THE 24/7/365 WORLD.
Seasons are a magical way of reminding us how time passes by. In New York we are reminded vividly of the four seasons, Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer, as the temperature fluctuations are extreme. Seasonal change is an outstanding wake-up call to anyone who thinks time is stagnant…..time never stops. Especially in real estate land.
Years ago, real estate markets would wake up around 9am and quiet down by 7pm. Saturdays were generally quiet and Sundays became busy after Noon. These days, this has all blurred and we truly live in a 24/7 world. Winter and Summer markets were always generally slower (in the sales market), with Spring and Fall being super-busy. This has changed. Speak to any real estate broker and they will tell you just how busy they have been throughout the Summer of 2014. Traditionally Summer was super-slow: not so anymore. Now we can officially say we also live in a ’24/7/365 WORLD’. Consumers have begun to ignore nature just the way they are ignoring time. But we shouldn’t.
Seasons can be very helpful to us as brokers: now as there are clear signs of a season change we can benchmark this moment are reminded to take inventory of the calendar…..there are now only just a few months left till the end of the year. With sales deals taking 60 days on average to close, this leaves us a little over 2 months in the year to achieve our sales goals. It also reminds us to think about a Fall wardrobe. Maybe one last Summer weekend? A Fall advertising schedule? Holiday plans for around Christmas/New Year’s? End-of-year gifts for clients? A Holiday Party? Maybe time to update your contact lists? While much of fashion has become season-less to a degree, the joy of celebrating each season should not be lost as each one represents a thematic marketing and branding opportunity.
Life has seasons too: this is nature we cannot fight although 100 years ago the average life expectancy was close to half of what it is today. We do have the ability to fight nature to a degree! So extending a Summer or Spring is not impossible anymore. Just the way the web has allowed us to showcase properties at all times of the day and night: in the ‘old days’ this was not possible…..and that was just a few years ago!
The dawn of each season brings along with it a series of checklist items that can be extremely useful to us as professionals. It also allows us to do a re-fresh, to re-evaluate, to time our planning and goal-making. Seasons afford us different opportunities.
There is only one certainty about seasons: none of them last forever.