investing – Fridays With Laura

Fair Housing Conference | Tacoma, WA | April 16

*Up to 6 clock hours available.

Fair housing is a foundation of strong, thriving communities and is a tool that housing providers and REALTORS® can use to connect people with housing.

Join us for the 2025 Fair Housing Conference on April 16 at the Tacoma Downtown Marriott, where professionals, stakeholders, and community members will come together to:

Learn the basics of Fair Housing and how those rules affect your business and clients.

Understand the newest resources available to get people into homeownership.

Learn how equitable housing practices can be used as a tool for creating housing and homeownership opportunities for all members of the community.

Engage with moderator-facilitated expert panel discussions.

Collaborate with key resources available to grow homeownership opportunities for all.

Speakers confirmed for this year’s conference include:

Bill Dedman, Investigative Journalist and “Long Island Divided” co-author

Alexia Smokler, NAR Director of Fair Housing Policy & Programs

Jeannie Simpson, NWMLS General Counsel

Panel Discussions featuring:

Attorneys
Homeownership advocacy organizations
Washington State Housing Finance Commission, Habitat for Humanity & Homesight
More to be announced!

*Up-to 6 clock-hours available – including the DOL required Fair Housing course – for attendees with tracks focused on real estate agent and property management professionals. ⤵️

And, as pulled from the Seattle Times and data provided by the NWMLS – wrapping up this week with a few numbers…

That’s a wrap for this week, we’ll do it again next… – Laura

As Fridays with Laura (FWL) makes a long-overdue comeback in focused content, I begin with three things to wrap this week!

Topic #1: Buyer Focus is a Crowded Market

80% of brokers are buyer-centric (through mindset and actions). Look at your last 12-24 months. Consider right-sizing your business, as the “buyer focus” is a “crowded market.” You can swim in abundance while 80% of the broker market remains buyer-centric. Let’s get your business right-sized in a less crowded space.

How to build a more Seller driven pipeline?

Formula for a $20M Pipeline:
Working 48 weeks a year, creating 2 listing appointments per week, factoring in a 3:1 batting average in conversion:

32 listings
90% sales rate = 28 sold
50% of sellers also become buyers = +14 buyers
42 units x average price point ($500K—yes, ridiculously low, but it’s an example for easy math) = $20M pipeline

Now, imagine using the formula above to generate 2 listing appointments per month with similar conversion rates at our much higher & relevent market prices. As sellers wax and wane in returning to the market, here’s a sample perspective (thank you Dina for your cliff notes!) to get the wheels turning in focus…

And, ps: if you are working with buyer(s) a reminder to turn in your BBSAs to your office within two days of signiture with client. The DOL thanks you and thus, so do I!

Topic #2: Double Down on Pricing Process

Recently I recorded Ep. 29 and the below feedback was hard to ignore! With such feedback I felt necessary to amplify this episode…

“This was one of the best and concise conversations about price and pricing strategies I have ever heard…and I have been around long enough (50 years in real estate) to have heard and done a lot of them.” – Windermere Broker, Karen Lavallee

Full episode here: Laura Smith | Windermere Real Estate Co. · Ep.29 – Double Down On Pricing Process

Topic #3: “What is wildly important this week?”

Do you have a scheduled time to plan your week ahead? For me, it’s on Sunday. Every Sunday, I ask myself, “What is wildly important this week?” This prompt has helped me over the years to get clear and organize what really matters. Maybe this prompt will help you anticipate and plan for the week ahead, too.

Happy planning, and we’ll do this again next Friday!

Next week, FWL will focus on sources of potential listings, standards of practice, all mixed in with a fourth-quarter emphasis on shelling out high fives! Thank you for being the audience I write for.

Until then, be well!

And, I’m hoping to get back on the lake for another sunrise paddle this weekend to reset. How will you reset? – Laura