Joe served as the Director of Global Strategy and Engagement at the National Association of REALTORS®.

With over 15 years of experience in the real estate industry, Joe is a collaborative, strategic, and diplomatic professional who serves as a dedicated leader in policy advocacy for the North Bay Association of REALTORS (NBAOR). In the role of Government Affairs Director, Joe exhibit a keen ability to monitor and analyze legislative and regulatory matters affecting the real estate landscape and the interests of NBAOR members. Previously, Joe held the position of Head of Industry Relations where he provided expert-level counsel to executive leadership on a broad spectrum of issues.

Joe’s qualifications include a CA Real Estate License and two distinguished certifications awarded by the National Association of REALTORS: Certified International Property Specialist and REALTOR Certified Executive.

Change is an inevitability of human life. We go through changes as we age from teens into adulthood by moving out of our parents’ houses and going to college or a trade school. And as we move from early adulthood to our 30s, 40s, 50s, and later years, with starting new jobs, getting married, having kids, and retiring, more change occurs. We have become very adept at handling the various changes thrown at us.

However, I would be remiss to say that we handle it well. Quite frequently, we humans do not handle change well, as it is viewed as an “unknown” that ultimately disrupts us.

So, whether it is personal or a change you face throughout your professional career, would it not benefit you and fully transform your attitude about change if you were able to actually see the changes coming your way?

Controlling Your Perception of Change

There are two ways we perceive changes that happen to us. One view is that change is a positive thing, and another that it is inherently negative. A positive outlook on change is one that we make happen, or that we choose. Thinking change is positive is not something we are born to do — we learn that change can be a good thing, which gives us the opportunity to alter our perspective to be positive. And with that positive outlook, we are better prepared to instead create change with an anticipatory approach change with an anticipatory approach.

Negative changes are viewed as those that happen to us or that catch us off guard, disrupting us as we sit in our comfort zones. This causes us to act as crisis managers in an attempt to get back what was once our “normal.” As a result, business leaders inevitably fall behind on innovation, lose out on profits, lose their standing in the market, and can even become irrelevant to their customers.

The thing about negative changes is that the perception of them is a choice, stemming from a lack of foresight and the decision not to look into the visible future and anticipate what is to come. Change does happen to us; however, with an Anticipatory mindset, you create changes in your industry first!

Change Is Just a Challenge for Innovation

Take a moment to imagine a world without change. While on the surface this may seem comforting, what you are really picturing is your specific world staying the way it is right now. However, much of what you enjoy about your world right now resulted from change and innovations that stemmed from said change.

Change is naturally occurring and naturally disruptive, but it is whether or not we let it disrupt us that separates the image of success from the feeling of failure. Instead of viewing the diversity that change creates in our professional and personal lives as a fire we must put out (because try as you might, you cannot), business leaders and executives need to adjust their mindset and view it as a challenge to be an innovator.

Because human beings are competitive in nature, this is a huge advantage when it comes to the concept of change. When you view changes as a challenge to innovate, you have the motivation to move forward into the future and create the newest revolutionary idea that can put you ahead of the game.

Changes That Do Not Pertain to Technology

Change as a challenge does not always pertain directly to disruptive technology either, as we now witness in the economy today.

For instance, the manufacturing industry isn’t being disrupted by changes that result in a lack of employees — it is being challenged to offer competitive benefits and training programs that give it the best retention.

Manufacturers are not being disrupted by changes in inflation and the rising costs of raw materials — they are being challenged to find new, innovative, and cost-effective ways to produce products for a customer base that values sustainability and convenience.

Shifting to viewing change as a challenge is exactly what organizations like Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Apple are doing. In addition to these select few, many organizations have not only adjusted to viewing any change as a challenge, they have now mastered the ability to anticipate change and create transformations long before they are disrupted from the outside in.

Stay on Top: How to Anticipate the Challenge of Change

Adjusting your mindset to one that sees changes as challenges instead of obstacles or fires — and strategizing with an Anticipatory mindset to sustain the success that comes from this shift — is the imperative that I teach many business leaders.

First, you need to realize that a lot of changes in business are cyclical, i.e., they have directly to do with cycles. You can predict cycles with absolute certainty because they are based in certainty. What we are most familiar with currently is that inflation goes up, but it inevitably will come down. Cyclical changes happen over and over again in a continuous cycle.

Linear change is much different and must also be anticipated to be capitalized on immediately. Linear change is a type that occurs once and never again. When the telecommunications industry introduced smartphones, there was no intent to later go back to old rotary phones exclusively. Businesses now use many different types of communication software, such as Teams and Zoom — which means we will never go back to exclusively using email.

Understanding if the changes you’re predicting are cyclical or linear helps greatly in how you proactively leverage them. Designate a time to look closely at both Hard Trend future certainties and Soft Trend future possibilities, as both directly apply to change that you can take control of. All customers grow older every day, no matter what generation they are part of. That’s a Hard Trend future certainty and a cyclical change, whereas the impact you can leave on each individual generation is a Soft Trend and a linear change that can be made.

Furthermore, this is where you can leverage transformative technology to innovate in the wake of these challenges disguised as change. Change is out in the open for everyone to see, but you must put in the time and effort to anticipate it before it has the opportunity to disrupt you. In this way you can foster a future of innovation and growth in your industry and at your organization.

Nationwide, investor purchases fell 30% year over year to the lowest third-quarter level in seven years, as rising mortgage rates, high home prices and a lackluster rental market made investing less attractive

Investor purchases of U.S. homes dropped 29.7% year over year in the third quarter, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Investors purchased 48,667 homes—the lowest level of any third quarter since 2016. By comparison, overall home purchases fell 22.2% to 305,219—the lowest third-quarter level since 2012.

The seven metros where investor purchases declined fastest are all in the Sun Belt. Atlanta saw the steepest decline (-49.7%), followed by Charlotte, NC (-49.6%), Jacksonville, FL (-48.2%), Phoenix (-47.4%), Las Vegas (-43.3%), Orlando, FL (-42.6%) and Tampa, FL (-41.3%). This is according to a Redfin analysis of county records across 39 of the most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. The national figures in the report represent an aggregation of those metros.

“Investors are very quiet in Phoenix,” said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Heather Mahmood-Corley. “If I get any investor clients these days, it’s usually the mom-and-pop ones. The bigger investors who used to come in and buy five or 10 homes at a time—you just don’t see that anymore. The money they were getting from hedge funds has dried up, rents are down and demand for housing in general has slowed because so many people are staying put.”

Investors piled into the Sun Belt during the pandemic to profit off of surging housing and rental values as scores of remote workers moved in. Because investor purchases in the region jumped so dramatically, they now have relatively more room to fall. Appetite for homes in many Sun Belt metros has also cooled because so many buyers have been priced out.

Investors Bought $36 Billion Worth of U.S. Homes, Down 20% Year Over Year

Investors purchased $36 billion worth of U.S. homes in the third quarter, down 19.5% from a year earlier. The typical home purchased by investors cost $475,115, up slightly from $449,895 a year earlier, as overall home prices have ticked up.

Home purchases by both investors and individual buyers have plunged from pandemic heights because elevated mortgage rates and home prices have cut into buying power, and house hunters don’t have enough homes to choose from. The typical homebuyer’s monthly payment is now more than $2,700, up roughly 11% from a year ago, as mortgage rates remain elevated. While 71% of investor purchases were made in cash in the third quarter, investors are still impacted by high interest rates because they often use other types of loans to cover expenses.

Investors have retreated faster than regular buyers partly because many of them buy homes purely to make money, which has become harder to do. Home prices are growing, but at a far slower pace than they were during the pandemic homebuying boom, and many sellers are being forced to cut their list prices after putting their homes on the market due to sluggish demand. That’s making it less attractive to be in the business of home flipping. Investors who buy homes to generate rental income are backing off, too, because rents have stopped growing and rental vacancies are on the rise.

“We don't expect investors to dive back into the market in a big way anytime soon,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “Borrowing costs are unlikely to fall significantly in the near future, and while home prices may soften a bit, they probably won’t cool enough to bring back a critical mass of investors."

Investors bought 15.9% of U.S. homes that sold in the third quarter, down slightly from 17.6% a year earlier but higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Investors Listed Fewer Homes, But Those Who Did Sell Still Reaped Gains

Investors listed 16.4% fewer homes in September than they did a year earlier. But the typical home sold by an investor went for $179,116 (61.2%) more than they originally bought it for. That’s up from $144,379 (44.6%) a year earlier. September is the most recent month for which this data is available.

Many of the investors who are selling today likely bought before the pandemic home price surge, which is why they’re still able to bring in profits. But it’s important to note that selling a home for more than the purchase price isn’t necessarily the same thing as reaping a large profit. That’s because investors, especially home flippers, spend money remodeling and maintaining homes before selling, which cuts into returns.

Overall, investors owned 8.2% of new listings in September, comparable with 8.8% a year earlier. Just 4.5% of homes sold by investors sold at a loss during the month, down from 13.8% a year earlier.

Mahmood-Corley of Phoenix said she’s seeing more investors sell than buy.

“The investors who bought up all the Airbnbs are selling—some are institutional investors and some are mom-and-pop investors who got in over their heads,” she said. “They’re selling because the Airbnb market isn’t as strong as it was during the pandemic, and in some areas, new rules on short-term rentals have made owning them less attractive. There are also just a lot of unknowns right now, so some people want to get rid of their investment properties so they don’t have to deal with the uncertainty.”

Investors Bought Nearly 1 of Every 4 Low-Priced Homes That Sold

Investors bought 23.5% of low-priced homes that sold in the third quarter, comparable with 23.8% a year earlier. They purchased 13.7% of high-priced homes (little changed from a year earlier) and 11.4% of mid-priced homes (down from 15.6% a year earlier).

Investors are drawn to affordable homes for the same reason as other homebuyers: They cost less, which is especially attractive when home prices and borrowing costs remain elevated. And when housing affordability is this strained, there could be more potential for price increases in the lower price tier.

Low-priced homes made up 45.2% of investor purchases in the third quarter, up from 42.5% a year earlier. High-priced homes accounted for 30.8% (vs 27.6% a year earlier) and mid-priced homes made up 24% (vs 30% a year earlier).

Starter homes, which Redfin defines in this report as homes with 1,400 square feet or less, represented 38.9% of investor purchases in the third quarter, the highest share of any third quarter on record and down just slightly from the all-time high of 40.5% in the first quarter of 2023.

To view the full report, including charts, methodology and metro-level data, please visit:
https://www.redfin.com/news/investor-home-purchases-q3-2023