Here are four kinds of buyers who are going to be excited to buy a home in 2023.

Showings are down 20% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022, and new sales are down 16%. We expect that trend to continue, and the experts believe we’ll see 33% less transactions in 2023. So how are we not just going to maintain our sales level but level it up over the next 12 months?

 Let’s jump right in! The first kind is deal seekers. I’m sure that you’ve had people that you wanted to work with over the past 24 months who just didn’t want to participate. They like to negotiate and have deals and terms and prices and all that stuff. They have decided they did not want to participate in this acute seller’s market. Well, they’ll be back and they’ll be in force in 2023. You simply have to reconnect with those people and say “Hey the times have changed, people are willing to negotiate now!” Those guys will come out of the word work when you start sharing that message with them.

The second source are FHA and VA buyers, people who are using government sponsored, guaranteed loans. They could not compete over the last two years with this crazy competition we had for inventory, where buyers were making cash offers or conventional and willing to write over asking price and waive inspections and all these things. FHA and VA buyers just could not compete. Well, their time has come and they want to be homeowners as well. For those FHA and VA buyers that you weren’t working with or that couldn’t succeed in the last year, reconnect with them. They are going to be ready to purchase homes next year.

The third source is going to come from your favorite lender. Not every person who is pre-approved by a lender starts with a realtor. Many people start with a lender and get pre-approved before they shop for homes. Frankly that’s the right way it should be done. Reach out to your favorite lender – that you’ve sent referrals to over the past few years and just say “Hey, who do you have that’s unrepresented, that is pre-approved, that hasn’t purchased a home over the last two years?” I think you’ll be surprised by what you find and you and your lender can reach out to those people to share with them what the opportunity of the market is in 2023. Get that pre-approval updated because interest rates have changed.

Finally, the fourth kind of buyer that’s going to be an opportunity for you in 2023 is actually not categorized by how they like to negotiate or how they’re financing their home. It’s actually resetting the mindset of buyers that you’ve already been working with. A lot of people are stepping to the sidelines now because of their fear around interest rates, and they may have said to you “When interest rates come down I’ll re-enter the market.” Here’s the challenge with that thinking, the country is still under supplied with inventory and Cincinnati is no different. When the FED reigns in inflation and inflation starts to go down, everybody will re-enter the market and that competition will begin again. When that happens your buyers will lose the ability to negotiate terms that look out for them, that protect them. We’ll see prices go up, and we’ll probably see multiple offers again, so there’s an opportunity today for your buyers to write a fair deal when they purchase their home.