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...

As a REALTOR, you've heard the word farming, right?

Well, I want to give you a different thought process on farming that I think will be really unique:

Instead of doing a shotgun approach where you're sending out a generalized postcard or letter (which can be effective if done right), I want to introduce you to what I call “Vertical Farming.”

So instead of reaching out to 200 people, reach out to 20. And with those 20 people, go deep.

Here’s how: I might send them a CMA or a neighborhood report (both of which you can generate for free at NAR.com if you're a REALTOR). That system allows you to create a beautiful 81-page report on someone’s home anywhere in the country.

You can choose between a seller report or a neighborhood report (which might be shorter, maybe half the size).

Then, add a cover letter that says something like:

“Hi, my name is Jim. I'm with ABC Real Estate. I'm reaching out to a select handful of people in your neighborhood today to give you a quick update on you...

As a brokerage owner or leader of a real estate company, you probably remind your agents every week that the best way to grow their business is by engaging their Sphere of Influence (SOI) and consistently asking for referrals.

But are we holding ourselves to the same standard?

We should be asking our own agents for referrals and recommendations about who we should be talking to in the marketplace.

Questions to ask regularly:

1. “Who are the top agents you’ve worked with in the last six months that would be a good fit here?”
2. “In that last transaction, how did Bob do? Would he be a good fit for our company?”
3. “Is there anyone I shouldn’t talk to—any red flags in the marketplace?”

By engaging agents consistently and requesting their generosity, they start to understand the importance of referrals—just like our clients do when we ask.

Agents aren’t conditioned to send referrals unless we ask. The best time to ask is right after you’ve helped them like after:

• Solving a problem
• H
...

I want to give you a strategy to start using every day in your office.

As you're walking through the halls and having conversations with your agents, follow those conversations up by asking, "How’s your pipeline?"

You’re communicating to your team that you care about their performance and want to help them reach the next level in their business.

By asking those magic words—"How’s your pipeline?"—you’re going to unlock a lot of meaningful conversations.

People will say things like:

• "I wish I was doing better"
• "I feel like I'm underperforming"
• "My last listing just sold"
• Or "I’ve only got one escrow left and I’m worried about paying the bills"

You’re going to hear a lot of that. And that’s exactly what you want.

Don’t avoid those conversations… go straight at them.

Because if you’re not having that talk, someone else is... and that someone is likely trying to recruit your agents by offering them a solution.

You are going to be that solution.

When an agent shares a challe...

When we're talking to our sellers and giving them feedback each week about what's happening in the market, it's really important that we educate them on a few things that often get missed.

One of those is the power of virtual showings.

So what’s a virtual showing? A virtual showing is when someone visits your listing online. They may or may not come see it in person, but that initial view online is still a strong signal. It means your marketing is working—it's attracting people to look at the listing on Zillow, Realtor.com, your own website, or the MLS.

From there, the buyer decides: Is the listing priced right? Does it look like it’s in great condition? Is it staged properly? A number of other factors come into play once they arrive at the listing page—but your job is to get them there.

And when you’re talking to our sellers every week—and this is how you earn price adjustments, by the way—you need to bring up virtual showings.

Right now, price adjustments are on the rise. About ...

Let me tell you the number one mistake rookie recruiters make when they're first released into the field. They've just been given the job of becoming a recruiter, and they think, “Okay, I better get out there and start making things happen.”

So they go to a REALTOR event—could be an MLS meeting, a board meeting, maybe a training or education event—and they jump into full-on “mayor mode.” They’re shaking hands, kissing babies, acting like the VP, president, or CEO. They’re working the room.

And then they make the classic rookie error:

They start trying to recruit in public.

Professional, high-level recruiters never recruit in public. Ever.

We build relationships in public. But we always recruit in private.

Why? Because if you’re seen recruiting openly at a public event, people will run from you. They’ll think, “I need to get away from this person before anyone sees me talking to them.”

Nobody wants to be seen as the agent who’s being recruited, and you don’t want to be the recrui...

This is the season of open houses. We should be doing more open houses than ever. When you’re hosting them, think about incorporating curiosity questions into your conversational strategy. Curiosity questions can unlock the door to continuing a relationship after someone leaves your open house.

Let me give you an example. What if I said, "Hey, feel free to walk around the house. I’ll answer any questions you have and point out some unique features. But one quick question for you— the seller has authorized me to give anyone who’d like a copy of the CMA we used to price the property. The comparative market analysis—it's almost like an appraisal. Would you like a copy of that?"

This is catnip to most buyers. They usually can’t resist wanting it. Often, they’ll say yes. I’ll respond, “Great! I can text it to you or email it to you—what would you prefer?”

Now I’ve gotten permission to continue the relationship.

Of course, before I make this approach, I would’ve cleared it with the selle...

Here’s a question I get almost every day from people who think they need to start recruiting to grow their business.

As a real estate brokerage owner or team leader, the only way to grow profitability is by increasing the number of agents working for you.

You have to switch hats. Many of you are coming from being top-producing agents, where your focus is on personal production. But when you move to the brokerage side, it’s no longer just about your production—it’s about where production comes from.

Production doesn’t come from one, two, or even ten agents. It comes from a team of agents working under you. Your customers are no longer buyers and sellers. As a brokerage owner or team leader, your customers are agents.

If you want to grow, you need more customers—more agents. If you stay stagnant with the same number of agents, you won’t just fail to grow; you’ll become less profitable over time. Inflation is constantly eating away at your profit margins. It’s grow or die. Expanding y...

You might’ve had a call where you had a great conversation with a potential recruit—someone you thought would join your company—and then suddenly they went cold. They didn’t join.

What happened?

Well, it’s not about your offer. It’s not about you, what you said, or didn’t say. It’s about their timing. Timing is unique for every agent. Every agent has a runway—that is, the time it takes for them to join your firm. Some have a short runway, some a long one, and others a really long runway.

It’s not about your timeline; it’s about theirs. And here’s the key: the fortune is in the follow-up. But you don’t want to apply pressure.

Here’s what the worst recruiter does: “Jim, we’ve got to get you over here. Let’s make it happen!”

That approach is all about your needs, not theirs.

People often have legitimate reasons they can’t make a change right now. They may have things going on in their world—deals, listings, personal matters—that make it logistically impossible. If you make it about ...

Have you ever lost an agent? I have.

If you're a broker owner or a team leader, you probably have too. At some point, an agent decides to leave, and it feels terrible—like getting punched in the face. It's emotional, and you might wonder: Why did that happen? Was it my failure, or is it just part of the industry?

Here's the hard truth: it often is a failure on our part.

Specifically, it's a failure to understand where that agent was in their career. And that failure stems from a lack of communication with the agent.

Retention—that's what we're talking about here. Keeping agents starts with building relationships. And relationships come from spending time with your agents.

Time leads to relationships, and relationships lead to retention. So, the first step is spending more time with your agent team.

Now, you might say, “Jim, I’ve got a 200-agent office. There’s no way I can spend more time with all of them.” But it’s not about hours of one-on-one time. Even five or ten minutes can...