OK, made you look. This year has been a little slower than the last few, and there are many reasons for that. However, there are even MORE reasons to give us hope for near-term improvements. There is so much positive news out there about the economy, the slowing of inflation, employment news . . . but, is anyone seeing it? Are you seeing it?

Now, I intentionally misled a little bit with my negative headline. I mean higher interest rates have slowed down our "on fire" Mobile/Baldwin real estate markets, but I'm not going to be negative here, just wondering . . . have you guys heard of "Negativity Bias"?

You see, us humans are hardwired to spend more time and focus on negative images and messages than neutral or positive ones. Weird, huh? It's true. In fact, in 2014 a European newspaper decided to make the change to positive-spin stories only. And in ONE day, they lost about 2/3's of the entire readership! In only one day.

Studies show the average click-through rate of an online "article" increases 63% when the subject line uses negative superlatives like "bad, worst, and never" vs. positive ones like "always and best." Our brains do this unconsciously where we pay attention to negative and adverse news and trends, so we can "avoid potential loss in the future". That's a pretty good reason, right? I mean, if you see the shark attack, you will stay out of the water. But, if you didn't see it, you might be next.

So, negativity bias can be good for us, but it also makes it hard for us to see potential opportunities when it "helps" us make the sometimes-poor decision of doing nothing! Warren Buffet is the most successful investor to ever live for one simple reason: he buys stock at low prices when literally everyone else is selling those stocks because the price is going down. It's not rocket science. He wasn't born any different, he has just developed the ability to block out the noise and see what he needs to see. You can do it too!

A few points this week:

1) Date the Rate, Marry the Price - I am telling you that it is better to buy now and re-finance later (when rates come down) vs waiting on the rates to come down. Why? Because when the rates do come down, buyers will get off the fence and buy. When they do that en masse, the inventory will shrink even more. What happens then? Prices go up! Better to have a rate that you can change than to have a higher price that you cannot.

2) Rates are probably going to go up again this year, just like next month. The number of people who rate locked in June was 31% higher than May. These buyers listened to their Lender, not the noise! And they made a wise decision. All the "waiters" out there are making a mistake.

3) The experts (not journalists and TV hosts) still expect the rates to be back down below 6% by the year's end. They are saying we are almost there; the economy is still running a little too hot but the measures the Fed has taken are getting it done. Keep in mind that we've been dealing with this for less than a year. Raising rates to adjust inflation usually takes multiple years. We are doing great.

4) We must fight the negative news! We can't control anything or anyone else, but what we can do is make sure our people are hearing good news from us. Contact will get you Contracts. And, there's a Fortune in the Follow-up. Stand out by reaching out and keeping in touch forever!

5) Another way Negativity Bias can be good for us- we can use it to our advantage. Consider changing the title of your social media posts, email blasts, etc . . . nothing else. Keep the same positive message. Here's an example I saw recently, an article titled, "17 Things People Absolutely Hate About Your Website" was an article about 17 things you can do to improve your website. If it was titled, "17 Ways to Improve Your Website", no one would have read it.
 
For more info on Negativity Bais, run a search for "Paul Rozin & Edwin Royzman".