The fear of missing out – we’ve all had it.
In its truest form, the fear of missing out, colloquially referred to as FOMO, is a social anxiety that refers to the perception or feeling that others are having more fun, living better lives or experiencing greater things than you are.
In a practical application, you might see it materialise in something as simple as a child not wanting to go to sleep just in case they miss something exciting on the TV or you need to race out to buy the latest iPhone.
The social phenomenon of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is real, and it infiltrates many areas of our lives.
It’s also something you can leverage with your buyers to not only create competition for your vendors’ homes, but to secure them the best price.
The property market is still hot, with a shortage of stock and multiple buyers competing for each home.
There can only be one buyer, so that means there are many disappointed buyers you can tap into to generate the best results for your clients.
What’s more, leveraging the fear of missing out can also be used to progress new buyers who’ve just entered the market, making their real estate journey faster.
Here are three ways you can make others’ FOMO work for you.
1. Educate your buyers
Properties are selling fast at the moment, and I mean fast. Days on market are down and off-market sales are being snapped up as well.
One of the best things you can do to leverage the fear of missing out is to accurately educate your buyers about how fast homes are selling and how many buyers are missing out.
Explain to buyers how the market is working right now and give them solid examples as proof.
You might say, “Mr and Mrs Buyer, 50 per cent of my properties are being sold before they go on the open market, so you really need to be on my database as well as databases such as Listing Loop, so that you can get first access to my pre-market and off-market properties.
“Otherwise, you may be missing out for the next six to 12 months.”
Interest rates being particularly low right now is another button you can push to leverage FOMO.
Explain that rates are at their lowest ever right now and that one day, in the not too distant future, they will have to rise again.
Couple this with the fact that prices are rising because with low rates people can afford to pay more, and you’ve made a solid case for why now is a good time to buy.
2. Get your buyers organised
Do your buyers have their deposits saved?
Has their finance been approved?
These are vital things buyers need to have in order if they’re going to compete on the homes they like.
Time is of the essence in the current market, so make sure your buyers have their conveyancer and other suppliers ready.
Highlighting just how important these steps are to securing a home leverages the fear of missing out and creates a sense of urgency in the buyer’s mind.
3. Set a deadline
If your buyers don’t appear to have a sense of urgency, you can create one by setting an offer deadline on your off-market properties.
Many of our clients, particularly those down on the Mornington Peninsula, are explaining to their buyers to put in their highest and best offer by a set date.
It creates a mini closed auction situation, and our clients are seeing offers of as much as $200,000 above the asking price in an off-market and pre-market situation.
If you’ve already educated your buyers about how fast properties are selling, that prices are rising, and now there’s a deadline to secure the home, you’ll find most buyers are prepared to pay more, especially if they know that in a year’s time the property will likely be worth more again.
One of the features our clients tell us they love about Listing Loop is the real-time notifications buyers receive every time a property matches their criteria.
While other platforms might send alerts on the hour or once a day, our buyers receive an alert within about 30 seconds of a property coming online and hearing that ‘ding’ helps leverage the fear of missing out too.
