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Brand Story. 

What is it, why is it important, and how can your brand story set you apart from your competitors?

This narrative, the brand story, will encompass more than just the history of the brand, but also will share the facts and feelings around the brand to spark feelings and enhance connections. 

Telling your story will not only help you connect with your customers, it will also help them establish trust, build loyalty, and appear authentic.

When creating your brand story, don’t make it unrealistic and don’t exaggerate. Be helpful towards your target audience. Telling your story should do so without a primary focus on selling. Share the real life challenges and victories you’ve overcome and are ready to help others conquer as well, and even allow some of your audience to tell their stories. Be consistent and genuine. 

People gravitate towards brands they can connect with. Sharing your brand story can help accentuate the nostalgia and feelings your audience has, while connecting their similar situations with yours. It will help build trust, brand awareness, and hold the attention of your target audience. 

To tell your brand story, first, highlight a conflict or issue, then create a solution, and lastly, share the success. 

1. What purpose were we created for? What’s the issue the brand was created to solve? What pain points do we want to alleviate?
2. How do we create the solutions for the problems we are solving? In what ways do we help our target audience solve their issues? 
3. Where have we had success in doing this before? Who have we helped? What was the outcome of the problem solving?

This all applies after you’ve already completed some of the other branding prompts, so at this point you should already know your audience, your brand promise, position, and personality. 

If you have all of the above, but nobody to relate to your story, there’s a chance your audience will not resonate with you, your brand, or your products, and you will not see success. Be sure you’ve really tackled all the issues and are confident in the story you’re going to tell. 

Now that you have all the tools, concepts, and directions, let’s create your brand story. As simple as it sounds, write it like a… story! 

1. What purpose were we created for? What’s the issue the brand was created to solve? What pain points do we want to alleviate?
2. How do we create the solutions for the problems we are solving? In what ways do we help our target audience solve their issues? 
3. Where have we had success in doing this before? Who have we helped? What was the outcome of the problem solving?

1. Simplify CE was created to make continuing your education a smooth and simple process. Many providers of continuing education have made the process complex, drawn out, and boring. While trying to add “spice” to their courses, they create more work and tasks which most students are not looking for in searching for completing their education. 
2. By creating simplified continuing education, we are providing what you need without the added stress, time, or confusion. We seek to serve you the necessary education and updates, ensure you learn from the courses you complete, and have the credits and requirements you need to fulfill your state renewal. Nothing less, nothing more. Additionally, we provide the education on a device you have access to - desktop, mobile phone, tablet - so you can complete your education anywhere, without any stress of incompatible devices. 
3. Since our foundation in 2015, Simplify CE has helped over 900 Oregon Real Estate professionals fulfill their continuing education needs. Survey results (and returning students) show our students prefer the simplicity of our offerings over the competition. 

To finish it off, just put it all together! 

 The beauty of this is you can adjust and tweak the story as needed. Whether you don’t love how the story blends, you have more to add, you received more reviews, or whatever needs adapted, adjust it as needed; just make sure you keep the key points succinct and direct. Write, write, and rewrite your story until you have one that really speaks to you, and makes you feel as though it’s unapologetically your brand story. You should be able to really stand behind the words and emotion of your brand story, without hesitation or issue. 

Now that you’ve learned the simple 3 step process and seen a real life example, it’s your turn to take a shot at your brand story. 

Be sure to highlight the aspects you really feel passionate about and can stand behind, and remove the fluff. 

We’d love to see what you’ve come up with, and offer a little help along the way. Feel free to send your brand story to support@simplifyce.com with a subject of: Simplifying My Brand Story and we will provide feedback and suggestions to get you well on your way of stepping in front of your competitors!

Low Real Estate Inventory and How it Effects You

       If you are unfamiliar with the terminology of low inventory in the housing market you may need a quick explanation of what exactly that means. Just like any other economic market, there is a supply and demand for homes. There are many factors that go into an inventory shortage in the housing market, and the simple explanation is: there was a boom in demand, and for various reasons, the supply has not been able to keep up with replenishing the market.

       In the market between the months of April 2020 - April 2021 there was a drop of 53% in the homes on the market for sale. As of February of this year, there was little sign the inventory would be bouncing back. We’re still seeing decreases over the previous year's drops. Realtor.com, who are on the forefront of forecast predictions, does believe that a small increase in supply should be coming, but only by a rate less than 1% per month.

       Looking into the reasons why the inventory has not been able to keep up with demand, many various factors are involved; some obvious and some not so obvious. As we are all aware, back in early 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic threw all our lives into a bit of a frenzy, and this did not leave the housing market unscathed. The uncertainty surrounding the pandemic left many individuals that may have been looking to sell unable to or unwilling to sell during such trying times. In turn, fewer houses were available for purchase.

       Another factor due to the pandemic was the decrease in the availability of building supplies due to the labor shortage. In turn, the decrease in said supplies also increased the price of what was available, and made it somewhat prohibitive to build new homes. This also added another contributor to decreased housing inventory. In 2020 alone, there was a decrease of nearly 25% of new home permits.

       There was one other major issue that has had a large effect on the decline of inventory for the market, and that was the decrease in mortgage rates. The average mortgage rates in 2019 were around 4.75% and within the last 2 years it has gone down to an average of 3.11%. What this means for the inventory market is two fold. First being that many, instead of purchasing new homes, refinanced their homes at a lower rate. The second seems counterintuitive to the first point, but with lower mortgage rates also comes larger numbers of investors to purchase homes that are available at these lower rates.

       Now as a buyer, seller, or real estate agent none of these may seem like it is something you need to know, but it is always important to understand the underlying conditions of the market and why things are the way they are. This inventory shortage affects anyone currently doing business in real estate and we will go over what that means for both buyers and sellers.

       First, let's discuss being a buyer while facing this shortened inventory crisis. This seems to be pretty straightforward but there are other idiosyncrasies involved and when it all comes down to it, their buyers' options are just being limited more and more. This means that not only will it be harder to find your dream home with all the features you would want, it also means that you will have to pay more for these said amenities. It's also imperative to note that when a buyer does find a home that fits their needs, they need to pounce quickly. With so few homes on the market buyers are competing not only on price but on speed as well. The best news to come out of this for buyers is the previously mentioned lower mortgage rates that are running around, but with such inflated prices for homes, it's not really an overall savings

       As much as being a buyer in today’s market can be daunting, being a seller in today's market puts one in a great position. The market over the last few years has increased close to 30% of its value. Not having the inventory on the market is a major driving force in this. Stated in the above paragraph, buyers and investors are quick to gobble up homes off the market; meaning, if you are selling be prepared to move quickly. That, in turn, brings up the one negative aspect of being a seller in the current market: Once you choose to sell, you are more than likely also becoming a buyer and have to jump into the other side of the market that is having struggles.

       Being an investor with limited inventory has also seen some benefits. With such a hot sellers market, many have chosen to sell their homes and start renting or leasing properties, which means more potential clients for landlords. Also, not necessarily derived from the low inventory problem but the aforementioned lower mortgage rates are obviously nice for any investors to grab up more property.

       Although this isn’t the first housing inventory shortage to ever happen it is under unprecedented circumstances due to the pandemic. Usually these things clear themselves up over a half a year to a year's time and everything goes back to a more balanced situation yet we have already reached far beyond that time frame. It's predicted that the housing inventory will get back to normal within the next year's time but it's important to follow the trends no matter what side of the business you fall under and to make your decisions accordingly.

Update (5/29/22): Since we've posted this blog mortgage rates have bounced from their low rate in 2020 back up to the highest they have been in over 10 years recently and are currently floating around the plus 5% mark. With this new development it clearly makes it more difficult as a buyer and investor both but in turn should start to see the inventory to bounce back now as well.