Whispers of a potential market shift have taken the spotlight in recent months, but that’s not stopping our agents from staying optimistic. For New York-based real estate agent Monica Soyemi, she’s not letting a potential market shift get in her way of obtaining new leads. Through the optimization of video content, she plans to keep operating business as usual. She sat down with Real’s CEO Tamir Poleg to talk about how her social media presence is helping her reach a wider audience.
Tamir Poleg: You are in New York, which is the mecca of real estate in the world. This is where everything happens and everybody's talking about a shift in the market and whether the market is cooling down or not. Are you seeing any change here in New York?
Monica Soyemi: I do not... I see a slight shift, but we are still with record low inventory. At the end of the day, even though interest rates are starting to creep up and buyers are getting a little concerned about that. The truth is, you're still seeing homes going 50K almost a 100K over asking.
I just listed a home for a seller at $625,000. We had people coming in at $650, $660. We accepted an offer at $665, which was almost $40K over asking, and it just goes to show that the demand is still there. New York will always be a place that people want to be. Over the years, I know that we've had a lot of people move out of New York, but New York is just one of those places that you can't duplicate. There's nowhere else like it and real estate here will always be super valuable.
Tamir Poleg: Are you doing anything proactive right now to prepare for a shift in the market? And if so, what are you doing?
Monica Soyemi: I've been getting into Instagram reels and TikToks, actually. I'm finding social media has been super helpful for me. I'll share funny real estate content or something educational – and then I'll get direct messages saying, ‘Hey, I saw your video. Is this house for sale?’ Or, ‘Hey, I'm a first-time home buyer.’ Social media is really helping me to broaden my reach.
Tamir Poleg: You're just starting your career. You don't know a lot of people, you don't have all of those connections. How do you manage to stand out?
Monica Soyemi: I think I really lead with providing value. At the end of the day, clients are looking to be given value. Before I was a real estate agent, I was actually an opera singer. I traveled the world performing. I'm very good with being on stage, being charismatic, the charisma alone and engaging with clients has helped me stand out.
Tamir Poleg: You have an impressive subscriber base on YouTube. And I believe that video is the future. How do you feel that YouTube is contributing to your business? Are you measuring whether all of the work that you're doing, putting into YouTube is actually translating into dollars? Is there a way to even measure that?
Monica Soyemi: Yeah, absolutely. During the height of the pandemic, there was not a day that went by that I would not upload a video. I found that putting out daily content to provide value has been most impactful – and I do see metrics. It'll show you who's clicking what and where they're located. It’s right there for people to search for, so even when you're sleeping you can still generate leads.
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