Josh Doyle and The Doyle Team on Selling in a Shifting Market

From time to time we'll ask industry leaders to share their thoughts and tactics on the current market. This installment of the Community was written by Josh Doyle, leader of The Doyle Team. They are a group of top residential advisors in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Since 2015, they have collectively closed over $1.3B in total sales volume and are consistently ranked as one of the top 25 agent teams in New York City by the WSJ/Real Trends.

There are opportunities for buyers to find a great price in a higher interest rate environment.

While there is a consensus forming that Q4 2022 may have been a bottom in the New York City (NYC) market, we are still seeing opportunities in an environment that has been characterized by a sharp decline in transactions over the last 7-8 months. Many sellers who have had their home on the market starting last fall are feeling more pressure to sell and are thus more open to negotiating deeper on price. The dramatic shift from a low interest rate environment to a high one has left some questions about how to price new listings. Overall, we see pricing that is relatively flat to pre-pandemic timing. New York City feels like a bargain today versus other markets in the United States where prices increased dramatically in late 2020 through 2021.

Buyers getting used to the new normal on mortgage interest rates.

There was definitely a huge drop in transactions in NYC last year as we saw the largest increase in rates in the shortest amount of time nearly on record. Still, NYC buyers are not as mortgage rate sensitive as in other markets and jumbo loan pricing is often better than conforming loans. About one half of our buyers are engaged in all cash purchases. Buyers who do need to finance are beginning to recognize that they have the opportunity now to lock in a much better price, and that they can refinance when rates drop in the future.

We are doubling down on our client and referral networks in 2023.

I’ve been in the industry for more than 20 years and the majority of my business comes from word of mouth referral from past clients and referral partners like financial advisors, trust and estate attorneys, heads of family offices, CPAs and brokers in other markets. In 2023, I’ve made a goal for myself to reach out to ten former clients per week and set up calls, coffees or meals with them to reconnect. We are also sending out annual Comparable Market Analyses to our clients. We leverage our professional networks and send out frequent and engaging educational email communication. We are consistently focused on meeting the industry’s best architects, interior designers and contractors with similar clients and referral opportunities.

Open house traffic and mortgage applications are up so far in 2023. Sellers should be listing their apartment and we are trying to get the word out.

January and early February open house traffic is up substantially from the 4th Quarter of 2022. We are seeing more buyers re-enter the marketplace or pick up their search from where they left off last year. We are seeing increased traffic at our listings over the past couple of weeks. We are calling on and encouraging our Seller clients to get into this market as the environment improves.

This installment of the Community was written by Josh Doyle, leader of The Doyle Team. For more information on Josh and his team click here.