Did you know that half the listings in America aren’t selling? Yes—half.

That takes us back to the old-school days. When I first started in real estate with Century 21, I proudly wore the gold coat. I had to buy it myself, so it was a big accomplishment. Back then, I attended a class called the Two-to-One Class. The theory was simple: for every two listings you took, only one would sell. A 50% sales rate.

Now, imagine meeting with a seller and saying:

“Good news—I’ll do my best to get your home sold. Bad news—I’m only successful about half the time.”

How do you think they’d respond? Probably not too excited. I realized quickly I didn’t want a 50% failure rate—I wanted 100% success. That meant changing the conversation.

Here’s the script I used:

“Mr. Seller, you may not realize this, but in today’s market only about 50% of listings are selling. That’s unacceptable to me. I want to sell 100% of the listings I take. But that requires us to have a different kind of conversation. I ca...

I just interviewed my good friend Garrett Maroon, who’s going to be on my podcast soon. Garrett shared a powerful concept called, “The Recipe Approach.”

Here’s how it works:

We all probably have a mom, grandma, aunt, or someone in the family who’s a great cook. They make delicious meals because they have a recipe that works. For example, when baking a cake, they use the right mix of eggs, chocolate, flour, salt, and so on. They follow the recipe, put it in the oven, and after a set time, they get a delicious result.

Top real estate agents operate the same way.

They’ve each figured out a recipe for success. For some, it may be like baking a cake. For others, it’s more like muffins, pies, or cookies. The point is: they’ve found a formula that works for them.

Once they have it dialed in, they keep baking the same cake over and over. Why change something that works?

Of course, when people start out, they don’t have their own recipe. They experiment, make mistakes, or follow someone e...

Virtual showings. Let’s talk about them:

First, what is a virtual showing? When the National Association of REALTORS surveys buyers, they ask: “How many homes did you look at before purchasing? How many weeks did it take?”

For years, the average has been about 8 to 10 properties over 8 to 10 weeks.

What’s interesting is that of those 8 to 10 properties, about half are now virtual showings. Buyers perceive they’ve “seen” the home just by taking a virtual tour online. That’s a big generational shift. Roughly half of showings today are in-person, and half are virtual.

We need to explain this to sellers—and we need to offer it as a service to buyers.

Here’s what I recommend. When you meet with buyers, include this in your presentation:

“I offer virtual showings. That can mean one of two things. First, many listings already have a virtual tour option—like Matterport—where you can walk through the house online. Second, if you’re really interested in a home but can’t make the schedule w...

Hey guys, is there one giant national real estate market? The answer is no. Real estate, like politics, is all local. One market is going to be different from the next, and what drives conditions in every market across the country is supply and demand.

Supply and demand determine what sellers can ask for a home and what buyers can ask from sellers. This is true in every market in America.

If we broke the national market down, we could look at it in four distinct regions, as often done by NAR: the South, the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast. These markets are wildly different.

I live in the West, where there are currently more sellers than buyers. Sellers here are feeling the pressure—reducing prices, offering concessions, and being more aggressive to attract buyers.

In the Midwest and Northeast, it’s the opposite. There are more buyers than sellers, giving sellers pricing power. Agents in those regions might say, “What are you talking about? It’s completely different here.”

He...

Brokerage owners and team leaders, how do you establish trust with agents in your market area?

The number one way to build trust today is through social media. Specifically by recording video daily. The most effective way to build trust is by letting people get to know who you are.

Thanks to video, people can now get a real sense of your personality, your energy, and your overall vibe.

Think about an agent who’s never seen you on video and hasn’t met you in person because everyone’s so busy. All they know is that you're the owner or leader of XYZ Company. You’d be surprised how many agents feel intimidated. Not because you’re intimidating, but because of your title, experience, and success. They might think that they could never talk to you, let alone calling or texting you.

They don’t know you because you haven’t made the effort to show up.

And the way to break down those walls is to consistently show up on social media and post videos daily. Post them to your personal page. Frie...

Okay, guys, do you ask the seller what they want to list the property for?

When you walk into that listing appointment, do you say, “Hey, do you have a price in mind?”

If those words are coming out of your mouth, it’s a mistake, and I’m going to tell you why.

Because when the seller voices that number, I believe they start to solidify around it. They begin to take a position. And if they feel like they’re being backed off of it, they may feel like they’re losing face. So they start defending it even more—especially in front of a significant other, a spouse, husband, wife, whoever.

They feel the need to defend that number.

So what’s the alternative?

Don’t encourage them to state a price.

Sometimes they'll volunteer it anyway, but don’t prompt them.

Instead, try saying this:

“Hey guys, I brought in a lot of data for you. I’m a data person, and I believe that to make a really good decision, you just need really good data. So I bring in all kinds of information that helps with pri...

You are at war with a real estate company or agent in your marketplace. I want you to think—who is that person right now? Who is that company?

If I asked you, “Who’s your number one competitor in your market today?”

Now… what if I told you you’re wrong?

Here’s why: The number one competitor in every market in America isn’t who you think. It’s Zillow.

Why Zillow?

Because Zillow is winning the war, not of market share, but of “mindshare.” And many would argue they’ve already won.

They don’t sell homes. But when people hear the word "real estate," they think of Zillow. That’s mindshare. It’s the first thing that comes to mind.

They’ve spent billions of dollars in ads. They’re everywhere online. So when someone wants to sell a house, they check their Zestimate. When they want to buy, they go to Zillow.

Here’s what happens: someone says, “I want to buy or sell a house,” they end up on Zillow, start browsing, and get prompted: “Want to talk to an agent?”

Then they fill out a form. A...

Hey guys, lots of news around home prices happening right now. New reports are showing a massive imbalance between home buyers and home sellers:

There are roughly 500,000 more home sellers than buyers in the marketplace today.

What that means is there's a lot of pressure for sellers to get their prices right, attract buyers, and offer incentives.

Zillow is predicting prices will decline this year by 1.9%. Redfin is also forecasting a 1% decline. So, we’re starting to see price adjustments already—especially in the major metro markets. 11 of the 50 metros across the country are already seeing price declines.

This is not going to be an easy year for sellers, but you can still sell your home—as long as you're doing the right things and guiding your clients properly.

One thing I like to discuss with my sellers is “search engine pricing.”

What is search engine pricing? It means understanding how buyers search for homes online.

Here's what they don’t do: They don’t sit down and say, “...

If you're a broker, owner, or manager running weekly team or office meetings, here’s one key component you might be missing: the “Genesis Conversation.”

The Genesis Conversation happens when someone talks about a new listing, a new escrow, a pending deal, or a closed sale. When they share that win, ask them:

• "Where did that lead come from?"
• "What was the genesis of that client?"
• "How did you find the buyer or seller?"

When you get everyone in the room sensitized on what’s actually working and creating results, something powerful happens:

Your whole team focuses on what creates results.

Most of the time, you’ll find that 70-80% of the business comes from repeat and referral clients. But you’ll also uncover seasonal patterns or specific lead sources that are currently hot—like open houses, sign calls, online marketing, farming, or targeting absentee owners.

It’s a simple but effective way to direct your team's attention to activities that produce results.

And it's a key trai...

Hey guys, have you ever heard the phrase “a high tide floats all boats?” You probably have.

This concept applies to pricing. In a strong market—like we saw during the COVID years—if you priced a home slightly wrong, it didn’t really matter. The market was so hot that it would cover your mistakes. Even if you were off by 4% or 5%, prices were rising 10%, 15%, even 20% annually.

But that’s not the case today.

Today, we’re in a completely different market. There’s an imbalance: about 500,000 more home sellers than buyers. Prices are flat or even declining in many areas. Zillow and Redfin are both predicting price drops this year—the first in several years.

What’s driving this shift? Interest rates. Once rates come back down and buyers re-enter the market, things will likely shift again. But for now, we're stagnant—or even declining—on price.

So, when you're sitting down with sellers, the pricing conversation becomes crucial. We're no longer in a "high tide" market. In fact, the tide ...